What is a G.O.A.T?

       In the context of Hip-Hop, there is a popular term that is thrown around anytime some new budding MC gains notoriety in the culture. There are references to various artists being the G.O.A.T, or Greatest Of All Time. But what really makes an artist great? What characteristics constitute an artist's legacy to be considered at the premium level over a span of time? This is a topic I will cover more in depth over the span of this semester, however, I would briefly like to explore this concept right now.

      If you are not completely familiar with the competitive nature of Hip-Hop, it essentially developed as a form of poetic dueling when you think about it. As it grew over time, instead of "battling" in person, the contest became more ambiguous and personal. If you were to listen to this genre, following the timeline, you would notice the trend of rappers claiming to be the best, greatest, richest, and so forth.

      My concern is over the potential logistics about this never ending competition. Is it possible to create a rubric for the purpose of critiquing a potential G.O.A.T candidate. I assert that it is indeed possible. If we can contend athletes as the G.O.A.T in their sport based on arbitrary statistics. why can't we create arbitrary statistics to keep track of the poets of rap?

    Here are a few categories I propose as areas to judge a G.O.A.T candidate:
1. Lyrical Capability- Does the artist display complex, meaningful, or otherwise provoking lyrical capability?
2. Influence- Does the artist have an inarguable influence on the development and maintenance of Hip-Hop culture?
3. Mass Appeal- Does the artist make music that appeals to masses rather than niche fan bases?
4. Album Sales- The hard facts. How many albums actually sold in stores?
5. Innovation- Does the artist display the ability to be original, innovative, or otherwise progressive in the culture of Hip-Hop?
6. Musical Talent- Does the artist play instruments or compose music at an above average level?
7. Work Ethic- Does the artist work exceptionally high in their art, business, or other forms of advancement of Hip-Hop culture?

   Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Who do you think is the G.O.A.T? Is it possible to define? Is there a category missing from my list?

How Islam Uses Technology to Make Political Statements

       A wonderful advantage of our access to social media platforms is that we can voice our opinions much easier and find comfort knowing they will most likely be heard. This can be seen in many social movements such as the #BlackLivesMatter movement and support for the LGBTQ community. When a negative event happens in connection with these movements, there will most likely be an influx of posts on social media concerning details of the events, advice in hindsight or just moral support for their community.

      Unfortunately we have seen a horrible tragedy take place last Friday. A tragedy that lead to the influx of posts mentioned earlier. Of course I am referring to the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris. A horrific tragedy of this magnitude comes with a lot of emotion and, in effect, plenty of confusion.

     Many people are making political statements about this event but some are ill-informed. Placing the blame of these terrorist acts on the religion of Islam is not rare, and is generally due to ignorance, xenophobia or Islamophobia. Fortunately, many members of the Muslim community are willing and able to utilize their social media platforms to clear any air.

     We can see a variety of tweets and facebook posts from Muslims all over the world, discussing how being Muslim does not indicate being a terrorist. The picture below is an appropriate answer to those who tend to confuse Muslims with terrorists.

This shows the ability of the Muslim community to participate on the Internet and use it to make a political stance. In a way, this relates to Elizabeth Elcessor's article discussing the ability for disabled citizens to utilize the internet for their own benefits. We can be thankful that there are not as many obstacles for Muslims to get past when displaying their messages on the internet. If there were some type of restriction that didn't allow Muslims to use the internet effectively, it could be a lot worse in terms of their representation. Some disabled people cannot participate on the internet at all due to physical or mental limitations, thus silencing their voice from the web. If this happened to be the case for the Muslim community, there would be a lot less people defending them. With less people defending the image of Islam, the more common these dangerous misconceptions become.

Hip Hop Is Not Dead

                               

          Recently there has been some distress about the idea of today’s rap music being a simple watered down version of 90’s rap. We’ve heard the argument before, mostly from backpack-sporting, headphone-wearing, self-proclaimed fans of “real hip-hop.” Basically, any rap music released nowadays is garbage when compared to the legendary standard set by rappers from the 90’s. I have been listening to Hip-Hop my entire life, and even I have subscribed to this belief at some point. I used to think all new rap was trash and underground rap was the standard, and then I grew up.

          Again, I found Hip-Hop a lot sooner in my life than in high school or whenever 50 Cent put out “I Get Money” and I continuously find something new to love about it. Something that has always been expressed in rap music is a braggadocios theme concerning one’s personal achievements and how they make another person inferior. To some, this theme seems childish and pointless, but maybe those critics aren’t familiar with the low self-esteem that comes with surviving in a low-income neighborhood. This is a theme that enters every aspect of Hip-Hop. Biggie, Tupac, Big L, Nas and Wu-Tang all did it, and they certainly weren’t the only ones.

          What confuses me is when these fans of “real hip-hop” say today’s music is just about drugs, violence, money and promiscuous women, when it is blatantly obvious that their favorite artists did the exact same thing. Let me get this straight, since Big L was an intricate lyricist it’s okay for him to talk about murder and drugs? It is inconsistent to apply your beliefs to Waka Flocka Flame’s music, then turn around and say Nas is justified in doing the same thing.  In Big L’s 98’ freestyle, he makes several claims about his stature as a drug dealer, a thug and a player. My favorite line that contradicts the “holier than thou” idea “real hip-hop” fans have about Big L is “I’ve got more riches than you, I got more b*tches than you, only thing I don’t got is more stitches than you.” Aside from the contradiction that this presents, this hardly cuts deep in the emotion of whoever he is attacking.

Even still, hardheaded backpackers will argue that Big L was just expressing himself through his art form in a way that is familiar to him. Well what makes it okay for an “intelligent” rapper to talk about his life growing up in the hood, but not okay once an average rapper talks about his experiences? To stay with Big L as an example, he only has a few songs dedicated to raising awareness of mistakes to be made in the hood, but the rest of his catalogue is about violence, drugs, sex and money. Biggie Smalls was not known for his peace promoting songs, nor was Wu-Tang, N.W.A. and Big Pun. These rappers are still regarded as great by the same fans who criticize Schoolboy Q and others for rapping about the same subjects.

            Another argument that is presented is that rap songs released today are far simpler than they once were which is obviously absurd. Sure there were plenty of well-spoken rappers back in the “golden age,” but there were also a lot of simple artists. Beastie Boys, Eazy-E, Vanilla Ice, Kriss Kross and others were definitely not the most complex lyricists, but of course this gets overlooked when “real hip-hop” fans decide to cherry pick which artists represent a generation. When speaking about legendary rappers, we forget that people like Rico Suave and MC Hammer existed and also made it embarrassing to say you were a fan of rap. The difference between Rico Suave and Jedi Mind Tricks is that Rico Suave actually got radio play.

            If you wanted to listen to the new Jedi Mind Tricks album in 1998 you had to really want to find it. The same can be said for good music today. Instead of listening to the radio station, waiting for an artist you like, go find the music you want to listen to. Along with the idea of listening to music you want, keep listening to the radio if that is what you enjoy. Tyler, the Creator, an artist described as someone who “consistently nails the craft,” says the same thing in his title track for his Goblin album. “These n*ggas ain’t f*ckin with me, cuz I don’t listen to the Immortal of Tech-the-nique, and all this underground bullsh*t that’s never gon’ peak, on the Billboard Top 20 and Jam of the Week, I’d rather listen to Badu and Pusha the T, and that Waka Flocka Flame instead of that real hip-hop.” This is certainly a powerful statement about the expectations that backpackers have about taste in rap music. It also shows that just because you enjoy Chief Keef or Future doesn’t mean you can’t live your own intelligent and enlightened way of life. I am a heavy supporter of conscious rap but it’s not something I want to listen to in every situation. A party is not the right setting to play Immortal Technique or Jedi Mind Tricks, at least not if you care about everyone else at the party and not just yourself. “Back That Azz Up” by Juvenile is a much more effective way to start a party than “Dance with the Devil.”

    Overall, I think this claim that rap music used to be great and now it sucks, is just plain lazy. First, there is never a time frame for when rap was absolutely perfect. The argument always comes with arbitrary terms like “new school” and “old school.” As years progress, everything becomes “old school.” Hip-hop shouldn’t be about music then versus music now, it has always provided a commentary to extremely recent and relevant events and pop culture topics. The problem is hip-hop heads think everyone has to make an insightful commentary about serious topics that are happening. Some rappers do talk about important issues but then there are others who would rather talk about strippers and prescription pills, and they both have a right to express themselves. Think about all the entertaining movies out there. They would all be replaced with documentaries if we apply the same mind frame to cinema. The same way you don’t see a documentary at a movie theatre, you’re probably not going to hear a socially conscious rap song on the radio. Similar to a documentary, you have to go find the quality of music you yearn for, it is not going to just pop into your lap. Now I realize it may be difficult for some people to find more than five above average rappers nowadays so I took it upon myself to compile a brief list. Ab-Soul, Action Bronson, Big KRIT, Bishop Nehru, Casey Veggies, Capital STEEZ, Chance the Rapper, Dizzy Wright, Denzel Curry, Earl Sweatshirt, Flatbush Zombies, Isaiah Rashad, J. Cole, Joey BadA$$, Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Logic, Mac Miller, Run the Jewels, Robb Banks, Schoolboy Q, Tyler the Creator, Vic Mensa, Vince Staples, Wale. Now, when you listen to these musicians you may notice they talk about money, drugs, women and violence, but remember that your favorite rappers were probably violent, misogynistic, rich and addicts themselves. I can listen to Young Thug and you can listen to Common, but at the end of the day, we both just go home and live our regular lives. I hope this discussion continues because as the great Xzibit puts it, “Your little lungs is too small to hotbox with God.”

Hypermedia in Islam

            During our research of Muslim interaction on the internet, it is obvious that Muslim culture is well capable of utilizing new forms of communication (i.e. social media) rather than sticking to old forms of media such as “word-of-mouth.” This suggests that the Muslim religion has grown to interact across the internet in a state of hypermediacy. Using sound and video, among other forms of information, to share experiences with each other is what constitutes hypermedia and that is exactly what a large part of the Muslim community is engaging in right now.

       

        There are plenty of vines, tweets, snapchats, or instagram pictures, sharing a little experience of the Muslim faith. This could range from a picture of a woman wearing a hijab to a short Instagram video of a religious ceremony. Both of those forms of communication give you a little dose of what the cultural fashion is like or the feelings from a religious moment. For a more specific example, take the Facebook page Islamic Thinking. The page has lots of photos, posts, and discussions about various topics relating to Islam. An outsider such as me may not be familiar with all of the topics discussed, but it is very apparent that this page is popular among the Muslim community. With over 2 million likes, it would be hard to argue against that. With that, we are certain that Muslims interact on the internet in various ways and utilize those opportunities to the best of their abilities in order to communicate experiences with one another.

Social Technologies Used to Communicate Within the Muslim Culture

This week we will be discussing what types of technologies are present in the Muslim culture. This can range from a participatory culture to a convergence culture. From participating in social media to producing content for that media, we find that hypermediation is not something the Muslim culture has not been exposed to.

For instance, this website describes the effect that social media has had on the culture as positive in that it increased exposure and awareness of the religion. However, the general content in the coverage of the Muslim religion is in bad taste and only highlights radical incidents, so this leads to a necessity for self-representation on websites such as Facebook. We found a page titled "Muslims for Social Justice" With this page the Admins use different hashtags to attract their users such as: #BlackLivesMatter. Travelling through the timeline of the page we’ve also noticed that this page would repost and share certain articles and videos to keep their demographic updated on what is going on world-wide. Miguel and I also were able to find out that the same group is active on Blogger. With such adversity “Muslims for Social Justice” has multiple outlets to connect with their users and share their purpose and utilize it very well. YouTube and other video media have been significant sources for different Muslims to attempt to reverse the pre-conceived notions such as abuse/domestic violence, which continue to affect a lot of people who identify within their group. These are some of the media that are used to communicate messages that are important to the Muslim culture.

More specifics about our Muslim justice project

In the previous week, we discussed our topic of interest, social justice for Muslims. Now, we will attempt to provide a little more definition to our group. First, we plan to focus on how Muslims are represented and what they do to represent themselves on the internet and other technological platforms. This can range from Muslim parents to children or just any other Muslim demographic that might be misrepresented in today’s media. This will happen as we monitor different movements and events on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Muslims in our current American media are portrayed 97% as terrorists or even just as threatening citizens. Throughout the web there has been a wide variety of movements to stop such perceptions. Miguel and I want to analyze such movements by contrasting perception versus reality. We chose this because of the frequency of which these misrepresentations happen.

 A recent incident that comes to mind is that of Ahmed Mohammed, a 14 year-old Texas student, who has circled the internet due to an unjust arrest. Mohammed was arrested when he arrived to school with a clock that he had built on his own. His attempt to impress his teacher led to him being arrested under the circumstances that the school believed he had brought a bomb to the school. These are the types of incidents we hope to acknowledge and clarify throughout our project.

Not All Muslims

There is plenty of discussion about discrimination on campus but many of us forget others that should be talked about. One demographic Khalil and myself (Miguel) found worthy of uncovering was that of the muslim community. We realized that there is a stigma surrounding the Muslim faith suggesting they are violent or are terrorists. This was something that did not sit well us, since we are aware of the diversity among Muslim followers. A majority of muslims in our American media(99%) are portrayed in a negative light. Miguel and I are curious to find out and understand core values of the Muslim religion, for which it holds sacred truths. Throughout this process we are choosing to seek understanding of religion, and plan on to project such understanding through video, pictures, text, and interaction with community members.

 We hope to facilitate a wider acceptance of the Muslim religion by highlighting the fact that they can be everyday people like you and I. Through research and experience we will post periodically on this blog in order to keep track of what we have learned and expand on ideas we have learned in class. Hopefully, by the end of this project we will have affected enough people to see a change in the way people on campus think about Muslims.