Black Expressive Culture Narrative Stage: Horace "Spoons" Williams; The Punk Funk Nation & The INTL Playgirls; The Scanner Boys
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[Horace Spoons Williams] HORACE: All you have to do- {speaker 2} So you've got-you've got your hand clasped with your thumb between the spoons and your thumb is-is not right at the end near the cuffs of the spoons, but down towards the bottom. So you-
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HORACE:[?] not like this, but like that.
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{speaker 2} Don't put your thumb inside your fist, leave it out.
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HORACE: There you are, now the next thing you have to do you just pat your feet to any type of rhythm that you might know.
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[[Playing spoons]]
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HORACE: [style?] you get it
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{speaker 2} Just try and hold your hand down far enough so that the spoons are apart. Maybe a quarter to a half an inch. So that when you hit something, they strike together.
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[[Playing spoons]] HORACE: Now, yeah.
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[[Playing spoons]] {speaker 2} ah ok well we hear something out there now.
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[[Playing spoons]]
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{speaker 2} Now this man makes it look so simple.
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[[Playing spoons]]
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HORACE: Just, there. I'll tell you what, say just hold them and beat them. Now.
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HORACE: It won't be as easy as it might seem for the first two or three moments,
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HORACE: but then again if you practice for quite a few hours you will know how to hold the spoons.
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[[Playing spoons]]
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{speaker 2} Now check this out.
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HORACE: This is a roll. This is like you might hear
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Do it on your fingers first [??]
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HORACE: You might hear this roll on a set of drums. We have what you call paradilas, slams, and rolls.
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HORACE: Now lets see if we can determine the different rolls. Listen, the different sound.
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[[Playing spoons]]
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{speaker 2} By changing the placement of the spoons against his palm, he's creating different resonances.
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{speaker 2} So always working between his palm and his fingers he's able to give us different tones there.
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[[Playing spoons]]
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Speaker 1: Show him the finger rolls, Spoons.
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Speaker 1: Now watch his fingers there. Holding his fingers apart. Holding his spoons apart. He draws down them across down his fingers. To create a roll. You got to hold them tight. Hold them tight to get the click click click. All the way down those four fingers.
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Speaker 1: I say watch there. Keep doing that roll there Spoons.
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Speaker 1: Just across the fingers, held up.
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Speaker 1: And now he's gone.
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Speaker 1: There's the finger roll again.
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And then, down the whole arm is where you go next.
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Spoons: Alright, thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
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Speaker 1: Now, who out there is ready to come up on stage and challenge Mr. Spoons?
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Speaker 1: awwwww
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Spoons: Well somebody out there I know to have learned or read the spoons this way. Oh, come on up here lady, you come up here.
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Speaker 1: Uh Oh, we have a volunteer. Right in the corner here young lady.
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Spoons: I want to show you something, come on.
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Speaker 1: That's Right, That's Right.
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Spoons: Here we go.
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Speaker 1: Alright, we got two on the stage here. Here we go.
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Speaker 3: This is too hard.
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Speaker 1: Uh, oh. Hey
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Spoons: Alright, here we go.
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Speaker 1: Hey, we got a different way of holding the spoons.
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Spoons: Y'all just...Don't stop, keep that same time. Keep the beat. Here we go.
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Speaker 1: Go ahead and jam Spoons. [Spoons playing]
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Speaker 3: Let me move back. Now, how do I get that good? [Spoons playing]
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Speaker 1: Boy, I pity the school cafeteria's in this city after today. [Spoons playing]
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Speaker 1: They'll be looking, sayin, where did all the spoons go? [Spoons playing]
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Speaker 4: You're doin it now. girl [Spoons playing]
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Spoons: Give it up, give it to the mic. Hold that mic down for these ladies. [inaudible] [the ladies playing the spoons].
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Speaker 3: Okay. But my fingers hurt. My spoons keep falling. [the ladies playing the spoons]
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Speaker 1: Go ahead now.
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Speaker 2: Don't stop 'till I tell you
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Speaker 1: Folks, we needed to rest all day long man, let's go on.
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Speaker 3 or 4: Wait a minute [laughter]
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Speaker 1: Let's have a big hand, a big hand for our help on the stage.
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Speaker 1: Are there any last-minute questions for spoons, if not, are there? Hands up? No hands up? Yes ma'am.
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Speaker 3: [[inaudible]] [00:06;33]
Speaker 1: Playing spoons is an old art. Yeah. Spoons, how old were you when you first started?
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Spoons: [Horace Spoons Williams] I was 14.
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Speaker 1: 14? And you are now --?
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Spoons: 74
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Speaker 1: That's 60 years ago right there. Spoons playing goes way back. Easily into the 1800s you have references made to spoons playing in like the 1820s and 1830s, where African-Americans on the plantations, slaves, would be playing spoons and bones. [00:06;57]
Speaker 1: Okay we wanna -- one more hand for the audience this time for the help and we'll ask you to please bring the spoons up front here to the stage. Thanks a whole lot. We'll take just a minute break and we'll go into our next workshop which will be on the art of rapping. We have the rappers here with the Grand Masters of Funk. Nope, the Grand Master Nell and the Punk Funk Nation. I'm in, I'm in last week's groove. And the International Playgirls. So just stay around ladies and gentlemen as we study the art of rapology. [[??]] Would you please join us on the stage?
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Speaker 3: Tell him he can't sit there.
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Speaker 1: That's my chair.
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Speaker 3: Sit over there.
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Speaker 1: My chair.
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Speaker 4: That's my chair. My chair. My chair. My chair. My chair. My chair, my chair, my chair. [[laughter]]
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Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome all of you to the workshop area, the narrative area, here at the Black Urban Expressive Culture area where we're featuring performers, traditional performers, and not-so-traditional performers but nonetheless folk artists from Philadelphia.
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Speaker 1: Now many of you have probably been around, seen some of the main stage performances in the large blue and white tent over there to my right. What we're trying to do in this stage is to provide a little background for the performances you see over there in cases of dance and some of the verbal traditions. What we hope to do is break down the traditions so that you can gain a fuller understanding of what it is that goes into the artistry.
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Speaker 1: When you see a performance, or when you hear something on radio or on a record player, you get an idea that something is happening. You listen to it, it goes off, and it's all over, it passes out of your mind. What we'd like to do on the workshop stage is go a little beyond that by talking to the artists themselves, by attempting to reveal some of the artistry that goes into the creations.
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Speaker 1: Now what we'll be discussing here on the workshop stage today is the art of rapology. The art of the rap. We have with us, from Philadelphia, four master rappers. The first two here, are rappers with Grand Master Nell and the Punk Funk Nation. Immediately to my left is Robbie B. Next to him M.C. Caesar.
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Speaker 1: Next to the two of them, another rap group one of the few women's rap groups in the city of Philadelphia, The International Playgirls. Lazy Smurf and Lady Iced Tea. [
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Speaker 1: The four artists here on stage are among the finest rappers, if not the finest rappers, in the city of Philadelphia. Now some of you may ask what is rapping? How many out there know what a rap is?
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Speaker 1: Is that all? Ah, ah, we gotta teach somebody.
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Speaker 1: I think what we need to do--before I even talk about the roots of rap,
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Speaker 1: is to give someone an idea of what a rap is.
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Speaker 1: Now for a rap, we need some rhythm.
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Speaker 1: Who's gonna be our beatbox?
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Speaker 1: [laughter] MC Caesar, you be the beatbox, he'll be the rapper.
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Speaker 1: Why don't you just pass those two mics right down.
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Speaker 1: No, no.
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MC Caesar: [?]
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Speaker 3: [?] this mic a bit of volume.
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MC Caesar: Listen to this
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Speaker 3: [?] the human beatbox
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Speaker 1: This will give you an idea [laughter] of a general rap [?] do a bit of history
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MC Caesar: A little bit
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Speaker 3: Do you have an echo in here? That will be the real beatbox.
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Speaker 1: Since raps are done to rhythm
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MC Caesar: A little bit of echo
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Speaker 1: And we don't have the turntables
MC Caesar: A little bit of echo. Bit, bit, bit. Hey we are cookin
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Speaker 3: We are ready to go.
Speaker 1: Given us a rhythm MC Caesar
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MC Caesar: [beatboxing starts]
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Speaker 3: [?]
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Speaker 3: And the [?] is the time for me to rap aloud
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Speaker 3: Another know my name [?]
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Speaker 3: All the A, the Might MC rapping on the mic Because naturally I got my Ph.D, Master's degree Rocking the mic Shock on the mic
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Speaker 3: Rock on the mic And do what you like You see uh
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Speaker 3: Yes you take a guess 'Cause you rocking with the best [?]
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{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3") See the human beatbox y'all [?]
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Speaker 3: A little beat beat A funky beat goes on
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Speaker 3: You don't stop the vibe Until the wake of dawn
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Speaker 3: [?] The everlastin lover For word tree [?]
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Speaker 3: Well I'm a, the all Mighty MC like this y'all I don't quit y'all
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Speaker 3: In case you don't know it My rhymes are legit y'all
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Speaker 3: Just clap your hands Everybody come on Just clap your hands Everybody
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Speaker 3: Just clap, clap, clap your hands
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Speaker 3: [?]
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Speaker 3: Just clap your hands, everybody
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Speaker 3: If you got what it takes [?]
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Speaker 1: Alright, let's have a big hand for the Punk Funk Nation.
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Speaker 1: Now, a little bit of an explanation of what we've got there. Rapping as an art form, as it is currently popular, is something which only developed within the last decade.
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However, rap has its roots way back.
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The art of rhyming within the Black community has been with us easily since the early 1800s.
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The street rhyme, the impromptu verse, has always been a very very important part of the verbal culture of Black America.
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From references made in newspapers and books in the 1800s through the - in the early 1800s - through the late 1800s when you start having in the Black minstrel shows, in the Black carnival shows, people who specialize in saying whatever they had to say in rhyme.
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Rhyming was important, rhyming was the skill which was in many ways a symbol of one's proficiency.
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If you were a good rapper in terms of being able to rhyme in the community, then you built your status.
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Now, around the turn of the century there developed two forms in the Black community of rhyming; two different traditional forms where the rhymes appeared in a rather set manner.
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The first of these was called the Toast. Now, when we talk about Toasts, we're not talking about one- or two-line verses that you say when you take a drink.
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How many of you know what a Toast in the Black community is?
[SILENCE] Not too many--
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Now, for those who did know, tell me if we could do a Toast on stage here.
[SILENCE]
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If we were to do a Toast, most Toasts, on the stage at the Smithsonian, we would be run out of here so fast--
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Speaker 2: So fast.
Speaker 1: back to Philadelphia.
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The Toast is a narrative poem that often extends 150, 200, 250, up to 500 lines.
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Now, the thing about a Toast is that it is never written down.
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Toasts are built around traditional stories told in the community at social gatherings, at parties, on the street corner.
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They are invariably profane; every fourth or fifth word is something that we couldn't do up here without getting in real trouble.
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The Toasts are traditional in that the storylines, the rhyme, and the meter are passed down in the community. They're largely male, though not entirely, but primarily male performance forms.
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There's a correlate, there's a parallel to the Toast in the Black community, at least in the African-American South, that was simply called the Poem.
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Now, the Poem is not a traditional story.
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The Poem, again, is an orally recited piece, can be just as long as a Toast, you can say it for 15 minutes, it's never written down, it is not profane, nor is it traditional in terms of the actual content.
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Rather, a Poem, as it's called in the Black community, is a long rhyming recitation that is based in experience. What is traditional thus is not the content, because the content thus is one's own personal experiences.
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The rhyme, the meter, those are traditional. And the act, of course, of rhyming in a party and social situations.
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Poems and Toasts were very popular in the South and the urban North and are still rather popular in the urban North though both forms are receding in popularity and have been replaced over the generations with a variety of other forms of rhyming.
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Perhaps the most obvious to most of us here is the rhyming art of the DJ.
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Now, when I say the DJ, I'm not speaking about the DJ who works the double turntables to a rap group or a breakdance team,
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but rather the DJ who worked the radio stations, the rhythm and blues DJs of the 1950s who would come up with long rhyming patter to introduce or conclude the records that they put on.
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The raps of the DJ, those long rhyming pieces, were what gave birth immediately to the art of rapping as we now know it,
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just like the rap you heard a short while ago with our rappers here from the Punk Funk Nation.
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I think the question now that we should ask is, "What makes up a rap? How do you put together a rap and why do you do it?"
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And I'll address that to both of the members of the Punk Funk Nation here.
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M.C. Caesar, why don't you start?
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M.C. Caesar: Well, I take all kinds of rhyming words, and I put 'em together. Whether back-to-back or in a sentence form and I create a message.
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And create a message and then I end it. Trying to make it rhyme is like you know use the same endings with every word like late, debate, stimulate, captivate, saturate, you got to use the last ending.
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and sometimes you don't even have to do that, you could say two words and one sentence with the same word, its just the matter of if you bring your voice up high or low and different tones.
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Now there are a lot of different kinds of rap, some people write their raps out in advance others come up with them on the floor, a lot of people do both. How do you all work when you put together a rap?
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Well, we most of our rhymes, we you know I be home I write mine and he be home and he write his so we just put them together
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And you know we hear something and I know most of his rhymes and he knows most of mines so
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we know you know when you're in a group and things and they when you be rhyming
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I be like Noah what are you gonna say cause you know we used to rap and everything
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Like where is he be saying like he might say a {hip hop a hibidiby hip hop}? and I knew after that he was going to say you don't stop, like that
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so, after that I'll just be going right with him.
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Another point and uh rap there really is no rules, no kind of limitations to what you could do.
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So while you're on stage, as you're on stage you create as you go along
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Therefore you gotta graze it out.
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So really we're talking about two different forms of artistry in the rap. Talking about first the raps that the writers will go home, write out and prepare.
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Memorize those so when behind the microphone at a party, at a club, at a disco, they can come straight out with the raps they have written before. Very self consciously created messages.
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On the other hand, there's the rap that comes to you when you're behind the mic the thing that you didn't write down
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but because you're familiar with the rhymes and the meter you're able to say and real off literally off the top of your head.
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Now there are a number of ways that different raps are defined. Sometimes raps are defined according to tempo.
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There are, for example in the community, slow raps, there are speed raps. What we heard earlier Robby B doing was probably best called a general rap.
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It's not.. It's not real slow it's not real fast. It's just a mid-ranged rap; a party type of rap, rather than a rap that has a particular sort of message.
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Can we get, perhaps, examples of what is the difference between what is a slow and a speed rap to give people an idea there?
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MC Caesar, how about a- Explain what a speed rap is and maybe give us an example of that.
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A speed rap is taking a lot of rhyming words and just mixing the sentences altogether. When I say mix I mean, like, rub out the sentence, must be all together, and saying those rhyming words back to back and make it make sense.
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Speaker 1: And uhm, me and Robert demonstrated.
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Speaker 1: Cuz imma go back, imma imma start it off, and he's going to run right into me. Without stop -- We're going to do it without stopping.
[SILENCE]
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Speaker 1: And usually we use this in battles.
Speaker 2: Now
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Speaker 1: Like the battle of the MC's to show who is the best between other MC's.
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Speaker 2: Now you all also have to watch our signer, Barry, who is the first signer ever to work raps,
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and a speed rap, I assure you, works this man. Go ahead MC Caesar.
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Speaker 1: Check it out. I go like this.
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You see, I'm Disco-Caesar any of us never side the East or West survives the [[??]]
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for you to hear the words that [[??]] so clear [[??]] to make your body go insane and do it.
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You just don't stop because I am the man to make you rock.
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I'm the everlastin' [[??]] finger popper, toes topper, bull shaker, baby maker, heartbreaker, woman taker,
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Predead in my bed, nervous Ned, [[?]] seven days a week.
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Robbie B, my throat is dry, won't you get on the mic and give it a try?
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Speaker 3: I'm a dedicated, motivated, situated, dominque, can't speak my mind, never ever can speak your own till you break it, to be on.
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I'm the OIG, double equality, rockin is the place to be.
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Move your ass to the man called the CC got to be the fun to be best and be raised to be bad and bodacious super CC
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Space superman or disc organic, funk, punk, and [??] and disco and sound.
Speaker 1: Oh, man.
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Speaker 3: To all you party hoppers throughout, we're here to announce the message of the player disco Caesar, jazz Caesar. Rock, rock your body for here to eternity.
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:37.000
So listen everybody we're gonna tell you the real deal we ain't gonna mention no bullshit we're gonna mention no [[??]]
00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.000
It's not everything to tell you [inaudible]
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:43.000
Speaker 1" and "Speaker 3: SHOT.
00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:45.000
[Audience Clapping]
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.000
Speaker 2: All right, let's have a double round of applause for the Punk Funk Nation and for our signer here!
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:52.000
[Audience Clapping]
00:21:52.000 --> 00:22:00.000
Speaker 2: Now the exact contrast to the speed rap, the speed rap which is used in competitions; and more for flash, is the slow rap.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:07.000
The slow rap gives the message slowly, clearly, and precisely.
00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:10.000
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1" or "Speaker 3} Ha.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.000
Speaker 2: Robbie B is yawning over here, he's ready for a slow rap.
00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:17.000
Could you give us an example of a slow one?
00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:21.000
Speaker 1: The girl I love, I shall protect just to hold and to woo, to kiss her neck.
00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:23.000
Speaker 3: Say what?
00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:24.000
Speaker 1: You see to hold her body in my arms [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:30.000
to treat the girl like my good luck charm. Just to give my love until the day I die. [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:32.000
My sweet young lady not trying to be sly. [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:35.000
I want to hold you and treat you baby with the utmost respect. [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:37.000
Cause I got to be the lover of the disco tech. [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:40.000
Well, I'm a joy and romantic, so, so fine [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:43.000
And when it comes to rockin', I'm one of a kind. [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:45.000
Oh man.The master, blaster, rapper with the mic in my hand. [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.340
And check it out check it out. Can you understand? [[Beatboxing by Speaker 3]]
00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:03.000
Speaker 1: Type of raps we've done so far on the stage, are ones defined by tempo, raps are also defined within the community by their content.
00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:14.000
Speaker 1: How many of you all are familiar with the song done by Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, a New York rap team about two years back, called the Message?
00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:21.000
Speaker 1: The theme was "don't push me I'm close to the edge", and does that strike...there we go, got a few more hands on that one.
00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:37.000
Speaker 1: That song, that rap I should say, gave the title to an entire form of rap, which was becoming popular at that time and now, has become very much a part of the rapping tradition, that being "The Message" rap.
00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:43.000
Speaker 1: MC Cesaer could you pass the mic on down to the, to the, International Playgirls at the end.
00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:52.000
Speaker 1: We'll give you an example here of what exactly a "Message" rap is. Lady Ice Tea, could you explain what a "Message" rap is, and how you put one together?
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:58.000
Lady Ice Tea: [the mic is quiet] A Message rap is a rap to let you know what's going on in the world.
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.000
Speaker 1: [to the sound techs] Could we have a little more volume on that?
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:01.000
Lady Ice Tea: Volume.
00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:10.000
Lady Ice Tea: A "Message" rap is a rap that talks about or, how the way I feel about, what's going on in the world.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:20.000
Lady Ice Tea: War, life around me, stuff I see in the streets, things that are going on. That's, pretty much...
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:21.000
00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:25.000
Speaker 1: What is the name of one of the ones you all do?
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:28.000
Lady Ice Tea: Well the one we do, is called "Living in a City".
00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:32.000
Speaker 1: And how did you come to write that, or put that together?
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:37.000
Lady Ice Tea: I just sat down-- we both of us, we sat down, we thought about a lot of things that's happened to us,
00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:47.000
Lady Ice Tea: things we've been through, and things we see, and things that happen to us so we put that together and it's becoming it.
00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:49.000
Speaker 1: Okay. Could you give us an example then, of the "Message" rap, Life in the City.
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.000
00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.000
Lady Ice Tea: [[rapping]] Hey listen, lis..lis..listen up!
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.000
Accompanying Voice: Just listen, lis..lis..listen up!
00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:59.000
Lady Ice Tea: A yeah listen, lis..lis..listen up!
00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:04.000
Both: Everybody lis..lis..lis..listen up! A life in the city is very hard.
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.000
Both: You gotta watch your kids they might get hit by a car.
00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:11.000
Both: Your next door neighbor might be a crook. You say hi to a cop, and get a dirty look.
00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:16.000
Both: You took your life in your hands, just walking the streets. Cuz everybody's trying to hustle to make end's meet.
00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:21.000
Both: You see jobs are scarce and the pay ain't good, and it affects all cities and neighborhoods.
00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:27.000
Both: A city life you got to stay on your toes. A city life they'll take your gazelles and Joes.
00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:31.000
Both: City life is so bad, you can say it's a pity. City life life's tough a livin' in the city.
00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.000
Both: Grown men on the corner with nothing to do they just brag 'cause it hassle you.
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:41.000
Both: Instead of taking care of Junior they're buying beer, it's a sad thing to see a child shed a tear.
00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:51.000
Both: Your children aren't hip to what's going on. Some don't even know how they were born but you make them suffer for your mistakes and they grow up thinking their life is fake.
00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:56.000
Both: A city life, our streets are filled with grime. City life, silly crimes time after time.
00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:01.000
Both: City life, it's so bad you can say it's a pity. City life, life's tough livin' in the city.
00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:06.590
Both: Hey everybody just listen up. Listen to our DJ cut the city cut, uh, Slice it up
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:25.000
Speaker 1: Now that is also an example of another form of rap called Harmony Rap. MC Caesar, could you explain what Harmony Rap is?
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:40.000
Speaker 2: Well Harmony Rap is uhm, it's like the vocal to a, it could be like any kind of vocal to a record, or it could be, it could be melodies that we made up.
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:56.000
And, we make up melodies and put it to the beat and add it along to our raps. And that's how we make the harmonies.
[SILENCE] [[??]]
00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:11.000
Speaker 1: Okay, what, in speaking about the message raps and the content, the parallel form, the complementary form I should say to the message rap, is the rap called the Hip Hop rap.
00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:13.000
Robbie B[[??]] what is exactly a Hip Hop rap?
00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:21.000
Speaker 2: You know like, if you want to get the party moving, you know like Little Richie {Little Richard] back in the, back in old days when they like
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:27.000
Bop botilo bop di bi bam bo, bop botilo bop di bi bam bo
00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:37.000
You know so they changed around a bit like to the HipHop hibibi hibitiby hip hip bop bop snap crackle pop [[?]] the beat don't stop gee thanks a lot or like that.
00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:51.000
Check a check it out. Check who get the most respect you go a dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it then don't stop c'mon let's rock to the [[?]] shot.
00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:54.000
Let's have a hand for Robbie B. [Robert Bolling] there. [[clapping]]
00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:15.000
So the difference in terms of the content of the raps should be real clear. The message rap is just that: a rap intended to relay a message. Especially a message about social conditions to the dancing audience. A Hip Hop rap is relaying a very different sort of message. The message is get on your feet, get dancing, let's get this party rocking.
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:16.840
Right.
00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:28.000
Speaker 1: Now in Philadelphia, there has been added a new effect to rapping with the use of what has come to be called in this city, "The Voices".
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:37.000
Speaker 1: We've got with us a real voicemaster here on the stage, MC Caesar is one who uses a variety of voices in the course of rapping.
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:43.000
Speaker 1: When he gets up, and begins to do the MC work, instead of just going forth with a rap in his normal voice,
00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:52.000
MC Caesar: Echo
Speaker 1: what he will do, is use a variety of variety of voices changing back and forth to get the crowd's attention, and to get different messages across.
00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:54.000
MC Caesar: uh, uh, uh, uh
00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:56.000
Speaker 1: Caesar, can you give us...
MC Caesar: Reverb.
00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:59.000
Speaker 1: ...can you tell us why, first you started to do voices?
00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:05.000
MC Caesar: Well, the DJ used to play introduction records.
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:07.000
MC Caesar: And then we used these space records...
Speaker 3: (space noises) kchoo kchoo
00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:20.000
MC Caesar: ...and they sounded real funny, so that's what used to get the crowd on the dance floor. And so I added voices to the music and I made it sound a little something like this.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:22.000
{SPEAKER name="MC Caesar") "Can I have some?"
00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:30.000
MC Caesar: one one one [[echo effect]] some reverb (reverb)
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.000
MC Caesar: [[reverb effect]] It used to sound like this.
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:42.000
MC Caesar: [[deep scary voice effect]] We are about to Astro Travel into the amazing sounds of the Grand Master Nell.
00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:47.000
MC Caesar: Production Bay [[??]] clearly, vearly, feel the funk.
00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:53.000
MC Caesar: [[high pitched]] We love you Washington D.C. we really do hahahahaha
00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:55.000
MC Caesar: And that's how it sounded.
00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:00.000
[[applause]]
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:08.000
Speaker 1: Now voices can be used within a rap that tells a story so that it can become a dialog rap.
00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:12.000
Speaker 1: Can you give us an example of the rap that you do when you switch the voices back and forth?
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.000
MC Caesar: Sure [[As he raps, his partner beatboxes in the background]]
MC Caesar: Well I was sitting on my steps one hot summer night,
00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:20.000
MC Caesar: When I saw a flying saucer in high powered light.
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:22.000
MC Caesar: It really stunned me, it shocked and amazed,
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:24.000
MC Caesar: That the saucer landed back in the hays
00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:27.000
MC Caesar: It was really fantastic for it made a funny sound
00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:29.000
MC Caesar: It was so, so loud I put my head to the ground.
00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:32.000
MC Caesar: Then all of a sudden, silence came.
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:34.000
MC Caesar: And I heard a funny voice screaming out my name.
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:36.000
MC Caesar: It said...
Speaker 3: CAEEEESARRRRR
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.000
MC Caesar: So I said to myself who the hell is that?
00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:41.000
MC Caesar: Should I get out my mag and shoot this cat?
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:44.000
MC Caesar: So I did proceed as I started walking north.
00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:46.000
MC Caesar: My legs started bobbling a back and forth.
00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.000
MC Caesar: Well I walked about a mile, 'til I reached the hatch.
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:51.000
MC Caesar: I reached up in the air, and pulled the latch
00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.000
MC Caesar: This big green water-headed creature popped out
00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:55.000
MC Caesar: I was so, so annoyed that I started to shout.
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:58.000
MC Caesar: I tore the hatch out of his head, so that he could see
00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:00.000
MC Caesar: Then he said, "Hey, can you rap better than me?"
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:05.000
MC Caesar: I said, "First of all, you tell me your name, your place of birth, and your game."
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.000
MC Caesar: [[alien voice]] He said "My name is Arthur from the planet Ice, and if you rap with me
Both: I'll BE NICE
00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:14.000
MC Caesar: Well I was sent here to party and to show you how to rock with my reverb voice and my future shot."
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:19.000
MC Caesar: I said, Arthur you're cool, you're really out of sight. You remind me of a legend, oh yeah the Black Knight.
00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:23.000
MC Caesar: Make love to your wife, we'll start a new race we'll call it "The Boogieboys from Outerspace".
00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.000
MC Caesar: He said "Cesar you got I can't do the do because I can't get along
Both: WITH MARY-LOU
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:30.000
MC Caesar: So he closed the hatch, back into space he shot
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:32.000
MC Caesar: But he left a thousand records that were sizzling hot
00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:36.000
MC Caesar: But before he left I get a heard my name he said
Both: CAESAR Rockin' in the Hall of Fame.
00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:39.000
MC Caesar: Yes a disco Caesar is a name of mine
00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.000
MC Caesar: I just had a close encounter of the third kind.
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:42.000
[[audience clapping]]
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:43.740
Speaker 1: All right.
00:31:49.000 --> 00:32:02.000
Speaker 1: We're running out of time here in the workshop, so before we close I'd like to have the audience ask a few questions that they might have of any of the rappers here on stage Robby B, MC Caeser, Lazy Smurf, or Lady Ice Tea.
00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:04.000
Speaker 1: Do we have any questions out there?
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:10.000
[SILENCE]
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:11.000
Speaker 1: Aw come on now there you go
00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:23.000
[[background talking]]
00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:33.000
Speaker 1: Come on. I here you breathin out there. The question was that although rapping has been around for a long time, why is it that it has suddenly become such a popular form?
00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:34.000
[SILENCE]
00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:40.000
Speaker 1: First thing I'm gonna do is ask some of y'all that and let's see what your answers might be.
00:32:40.000 --> 00:33:25.000
Speaker 2: Well, it says to me that a lot of combinations together: graffiti, rap, break dance, and djs, they all start to you know like, evolve because people are finally coming down to the streets to see whats there. Usually people were scared of the streets, right, that's back when people were real wild in the streets but people coming down from the suburbs, the people who have a lot of money, and they picking us up off the streets because they finally see talent in it, so that's why it started to evolve, and plus we starting to polish up our act, that's what we are really doing, polishing it up, cause it was kinda trashy before but now we polishing it up.
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:54.530
Speaker 1: You know it's really hard to say exactly what causes an artistic form to gain popularity. With rapping, the rapping that was done on the streets to rhythms-lets say 20 or 30 years ago- it's quite different from that which you find now. People such as Horace Spoon Williams who you see on the main stage performing as a spoons player is also a street poet who does poetry to rhymes which he beats out on a jug. Now he's been doing that
00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:13.000
Speaker 1: --teenagers more than 60 years ago. It is almost exactly like rapping, the only real difference being the social context in which it was performed, and the type of musical accompaniment. Here you're using the records spun by a DJ, there you're using your own accompaniment.
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:32.000
Speaker 1: Rapping, though-- why rapping is-- has come into such popularity in recent years, though, is a much harder question to answer. When MC Caesar said that it's part of a community, a part of a-- part of a, a complex one might say, uh-- a complex which is perhaps best defined by the word hip-hop.
00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:53.000
You've got rapping, you've got the art of the DJ, you have the graffiti artists, you've got popping, breakdancing, and GQ dancing. It's all part of a cultural complex which has risen together and developed together. Why each part of that occurs at this particular point in time, though, who knows? Is there-- are there other questions?
00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:59.000
[SILENCE]
00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:10.000
Speaker 1: Ok yes sir?
Unknown Speaker: [[inaudible]]
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:22.000
Speaker 1: Ok MC Caesar, your voices have captured an appreciative audience. The gentleman wants to hear you do the robot voice again, I think the one you opened up with.
00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:40.000
Speaker 2: Uh, this one [[robot voice]] We are about to astro-travel into the sounds of the grandmaster now production band. [[applause]] [[normal voice]] Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you.
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:58.000
Speaker 1: Are there other questions from the audience?
[SILENCE] If not let's have a-- oh there's one more question. Yes sir, all the way in the back in the light blue shirt?
Unknown Speaker: [[inaudible]]
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:05.000
Speaker 1: Why don't you come a little further up and ask the question?
Unknown Speaker: [[inaudible]]
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:15.000
Speaker 2: Glen Dynahue.
Unknown Speaker: [[??]]
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:21.120
Speaker 1: Ok the question was whether or not rappers will perform--
00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:27.000
Host: Parts of raps, in terms of content, when they're working on the street, then they will
00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:34.000
when they're working in a production studio, when they're recording a rap or when they're performing on a stage such as this.
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:36.000
Lady [[Ice Tea?]], why don't you take that one?
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:44.000
Lady [[Ice Tea?]]: Yes, um, yes, we do- when we're not- okay- if we're not in the big public like we are right now,
00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:48.000
if we're on the streets or when it's street parties or block parties or something like that,
00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:53.000
we would say a toast as he calls it, we would say toast,
00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:57.000
but- but here we wouldn't and on recording you wouldn't
00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:00.000
and if they do do it in recording they will, um
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:01.000
Host: Beep!
00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:09.000
Lady [[Ice Tea?]]: -right, and the record wouldn't be as good, but we do change it when we- during recording.
00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:15.000
Host: Okay, so, there we're dealing with the issue of censorship and different sorts of words.
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:20.000
What about the general content in terms of, let's say, a message rap?
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:25.000
Message raps are clearly a popular recorded form, and they're something that would be popular at events like this.
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:28.000
Would you do a message rap at a block party?
00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:31.000
Lady [[Ice Tea?]]: No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't do a ra-
00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:39.000
it's 'cause it's long and- and party raps are more- they're fun, they're much more fun.
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.000
'Cause they get to- people jumping.
00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:46.000
Message raps just sit there and you go "uh huh, uh huh, uh huh".
00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:48.000
Host: So where would you perform the message rap at?
00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:50.000
Lady [[Ice Tea?]]: On wax.
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:53.000
[chuckles]
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:57.000
[[?]]: You know what, I'm too glad- you can- you can take rap so far.
00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:00.000
You know, like, It's a versatile art, okay?
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:03.000
You could take mostly anything that you have to say.
00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:09.000
So therefore if we're on the street, and if we have, like, differences on the street, we'll use a rap.
00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:13.000
If you have, like, differences at a party, you can use the rap.
00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:21.000
And just like- just like she said, we censor it here, because, like, you have small children here, right?
00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:27.000
You have to have it censored. But if it was up to me and the children weren't here, and, like-
00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:31.570
the party rap is much more fun than the censored and the message rap.
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:42.000
Speaker 1: Yes maam
Audience member: im wondering what ladies brought to the art [inaudible]
00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:49.000
Speaker 1: Sexuality. Ok emcee, let Lady Ice Tea answer that one now.
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:57.000
Speaker 2: They turn the fellas on, ok? Ladies turn the fellas on cause they get up there, they start moving and everything
00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:02.000
Speaker 2: and they bring another face to the art. To me they do.
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:07.000
Speaker 1: Lady Ice Tea, lets hear your opinion here. Hold on emcee.
00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:23.000
Lady Ice Tea: Um, theres not too many females that do it, and those that are, there are some that-that are good but there are some that aren't good. and um,
00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:32.000
Lady Ice Tea: the only way you get to be good is if they think youre good. and ummm.. if you can compete with em. so.....
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:35.000
Lady Ice Tea: we just added sexuality as he says.
00:39:35.000 --> 00:40:00.000
Speaker 1: Rapping is still clearly a male dominated form. The city of Philadelphia was really fortunate enough to have a radio disc jockey who is a woman, known as Lady B. become really one of the rap leaders of the city. SHe got a radio show where she played only rap records and soon thereafter, they get a rapping and scratching herself on the show.
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.000
Speaker 1: She sort of inspired a new generation of new women rappers in the city.
00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:14.000
Speaker 1: Of I think In which we must include, the International Play Girls who are really close colleagues and friends of Lady B. So,
00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:21.000
Speaker 1: unfortunately the situation is still that such that if theres one person who happens to be in an influential spot
00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:27.000
Speaker 1: and if that person is a woman then she can gain a following and change the tradition.
00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:33.000
Speaker 1: By and large however, within cities such as Philadelphia, rapping is still primarily male dominated.
00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:37.000
Lady Ice Tea: but we are the best in Philly and National Play Girls
00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:38.150
Speaker 1: Thats right.
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Speaker 1: The tradition is clearly changing too, that's the last point to be made. As more and more women get into the rapping, it's losing it's male dominated form, the topics are now beginning to be addressed from a woman's side as well as from a man's side, that's especially important in the party raps because-- ladies first, go ahead.
Speaker 2: It's also harder for a girl to get into rapping because she has pressures from home more than the male would because mom and dad don't approve of you going out there late night rapping at a party, standing on a stage in front of all these um, children, or say teenagers. They also don't approve of the way you dress. And someone came up to us once and said why do you dress the way you do? And I said, well (laughs), if I stood there, you know, and dressed like the average female did when she came to a party, why would she stand there and watch me? (laughs) I supposed to show them what I can do, I'm supposed to be unique and different, so,that's why we dress the way we do and we still look like girls half the time.
Speaker 1: Let's have a big hand please for the International Playgirls and the Punk Funk Nation. Y'all can see the show at 4:15 in the big tent. The big show, a whole hour
Speaker 1: At 4:15 what we're going to do is put on an hour long show opening with Grandmaster Nell and the Punk Funk Nation and the International Playgirls, followed by the breakdancing crew, the Scanner Boys, and if you wait around for about two minutes, we're about to change workshops, we're going to invite the Scanner Boys up here on the stage and do a workshop in the art of popping and breakdancing. Breaking it down into the different moves, so you can get an understanding of what it is that makes up the artistry of vernacular dance. So, thank you very much, you've been a great audience and an attentive one, if you'll just wait two or three minutes, we'll go on with our next workshop with the Scanner Boys.
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I'd like to welcome every one of you to the workshop in Black vernacular dance from Philadelphia. We have with us the popping and breakdance crew known as the Scanner Boys. Probably Philadelphia's best popping and breakdance crew, if popular acclaim in Philadelphia and the winning of competitions is any indication at all.
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What we'll be talking about today on the stage is the moves that go into popping and breakdancing. First, however, I'd like to give a very brief introduction into the nature of the dance.
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A lot of people when they come to festivals of this nature will see - will know of breakdancing and wonder to themselves why is this folklore? What does this have to do with the folk festival? This is a dance which doesn't go back forty or fifty years, it's something which we see right here now. It's something which happened maybe two or three years ago.
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Well in terms of the actual sequences of moves that you see in breakdancing, what you see on television, what you see in the movies, what you see on the street corner, it's true. Those moves, those sequences, as they are put together are perhaps only five, six, seven years old. In a form which developed, is popularly said to have been developed in the South Bronx of New York City.
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However, when you look at vernacular dance, when you look at what people are doing, in the - who are in the dance community, you must realize that what we see the dancers doing is taking a set of movements, gestures, and body postures and putting them together in certain ways. But those movements, those sequences, those body postures, those are all part of a broader repertoire, a set of things which are traditional to a community.
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So that a form of acrobatic dancing which may be popular in the 1980s and might be known as breakdancing. If you look closely at it, you might recognize moves that were popular in the 1920s or 1930s, when it was called perhaps flash dancing or in some areas called the acrobatic lindy hop.
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The reason that you have these moves in the 1930s and you have them reappearing in the 1980s is very simple. That within a group, within a community, you have an entire set of body movements, a set of ways of holding and moving your body, a set of ways that you walk, a set of ways that you bend over, a set of ways that you move to music, which combined in a certain set limited number of ways, this can be called the movement repertoire.
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And out of this, there are a number of ways which move - of moving - which come to the fore at certain times. Here at the festival, we have with us a fellow named Willy Ashcan Jones. Some of you may have seen him on the main stage appearing as a comic, but Willy Jones back in the late 1920s was a lindy hopper in Harlem in New York City.
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He was an acrobatic lindy hopper. Now the acrobatic lindy hoppers of Savoy Ballroom used to do things like spins on their back. They would take - it was a couple dance - they would take their partners and throw them under their knees, over their heads. They would switch them from partner to partner, not by moving their partner on the floor, but by throwing their partner up in the air.
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This sort of acrobatic dancing was popular for a while, for about a fifteen to twenty year period, starting in New York and spreading over the nation. It was a street dance and a vernacular dance, that by the late 1940s and through the 1950s had pretty much gone out of style. People still did the lindy hop but they didn't do the acrobatics.
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Well, when Willy Jones came to this festival and saw the Scanner Boys performing out on stage, he scratched his head and said, "I was doing that same thing when I was their age in New York City." And the fact is, that he was.
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And he didn't teach it to these guys, and he didn't teach it to someone else who in turn taught it to these fellas. Rather what happened was, the form that he was doing evolved out of this repertoire of moves in the Black community for a period of 20, 30 years it lay dormant.
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Those moves were not put together in the same ways to feature the same sort of acrobatics. But in the late 70s and the early 80s, they once again began to come to the fore, and you have the development of what we now know as breakdancing.
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In this workshop, what we're going to do is not as much the acrobatic breakdancing because this stage won't hold up to a lot of the spins.
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What we're going to do instead is focus on popping, the dance form which was immediately, which was popular immediately prior to the advent of breakdancing, and which was incorporated into the repertoire of breakdancers.
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What I'll do at this point, is introduce to you the leader of the Scanner Boys, the manager and the organizers of the group, and he will, as he introduces different--
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