God-Hop

stetsasonic
Originally uploaded by ALifeAllah.

Peace,
Now many are only aware of the Gods in Hip Hop via the ‘prominent’ Gods of the ‘Golden Age’ era. This awareness is usually due to the overt usage of the language of the Gods and Earths in song. From this presence ‘scholars’ have determined who is in Hip Hop. Unfortunately many ‘scholars’ have had faulty research methods and neglect going to the source many times in order to make sure that their findings are right and exact. For instance, if you talk to many of the ‘scholars’ nowadays they will tell you that the Gods and Earths aren’t forces in Hip Hop today. While it is true that many aren’t in the MC field as in the ‘Golden Age’ era (though one could argue that there are just as many, just spread out; N’jeri Earth, J-Live, C-Rayz Walz, RZA, Born Allah, Tru N’ Livin’, Harlem 6, etc) there are many who are involved in Hip Hop media/magazines, there are MANY managers whom are part of the Nation, there are many producers, etc..

There is always a lot of talk of the presence of the Nation in Hip yet what is never usually approached is WHY. I could (probably will in the future) write a whole segment on the why. What it boils down to is that the streets were SATURATED with the Gods and Earths during that era. ‘Scholars’ usually focus on either the years that Allah the Father was with us (from 1964-1969) or the ‘Golden Age’ of Hip Hop (circa mid 80’s to early 90’s). One of the most important eras though is the 70’s to the early 80’s as this is when the Nation solidified and spread throughout the youth of NYC. THAT is an unwritten story. Even within the Hip-Hop discourse only the Zulu Nation or Dancing Crews (all of the forms B-Boys, Rockers, etc..) are given credit for the reduction of ‘gang violence’ in NYC. From the inception of the Nation a lot of those who came into the Nation were FORMER gang members (we are not a gang by the way). So when Hip Hop came on the scene it is no mystery that many Gods and Earths came into Hip Hop as they were the YOUTH.

One Hip Hop crew that is not ‘usually’ classified as being of the Nation is Stetsasonic, the original Hip Hop band. They weren’t a ‘God’ crew yet 2 of the 4 members are part of the Nation; Wise Born and Frukuan. Daddy-O is a Sunni Muslim. Yet one would never even notice any of the above because they didn’t really utilize Hip-Hop as a platform for their ways of life or religion (this is not to say that they didn’t ever approach topics from their set of values though). In fact, they are one of the earliest groups on record to have Gods in their crew (first record…..). The Gods knew that Frukuan was of the Nation because Frukuan is a common God name. It didn’t become detectable to the naked eye amongst the general public until Frukuan became part of the Gravediggers crew where Frukuan started to use overt God language.

The reason I bring Stetsasonic is because this is just one of the many cases where the presence of the Nation gets hidden in a fine mist. Little did people know that the Gods and Earths were in the midst.


Peace