Break It Down: Reflections on Hip Hop from Young Minds

By Assata Makonnen, Nyela J. Davis and Tatiyana J. Terrelonge

Break It Down: Reflections on Hip Hop from Young Minds is a compilation of how the era of rap music has had a major influence on the young people of today. Told from six different youth perspectives, Break It Down explores the dynamic interconnection of rap music with jazz, fashion, and media, and how rappers influenced each of

• Language: English
• Publisher: Purposely Created Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644841334

Book preview

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BREAK IT DOWN

Published by Purposely Created Publishing Group™

Copyright © 2019 Youth Writers Challenge, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, quotes, or references.

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AUTHORS

Assata Makonnen

Bradley Glory Scott

Ky’Jai M. J. Campbell

Nyela J. Davis

Raina Love Scott

Tatiyana J. Terrelonge

Thank you to everyone who has supported the Youth Writers Challenge, Inc., and the Youth Writers Rock organizations. Thank you to the instructors who helped guide this project:

Patricia Johnson-Harris, Roger Harris, Deborah Billips, Shelley Buynum-Blow, Robyn Franceen Evans, Jackie J.C. Gardner, Jackie Anderson, and Nanette Buchanan.

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Table of Contents

My eXpression of Hip Hop

Tatiyana J. Terrelonge

Hip Hop Runway

Nyela J. Davis

My Daily Life with Hip Hop

Ky’jai M. J. Campbell

En Pointe: The Ballet–Hip Hop Connection

Raina Love Scott

Jazz, Hip Hop, and Me

Bradley Glory Scott

The Dimensions of Music

Assata Makonnen

About the Authors

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My eXpression of Hip Hop

Tatiyana J. Terrelonge

What is hip hop? What’s the meaning behind it? Have you ever wondered? Is it a story, a message, a lesson, or just truth? I’ve asked those same questions, and I think everyone has their own way of expression. Hip hop invites you to express yourself without limits. It could be through your choice of clothing, the way you talk or walk—even the way you dance can show people how you feel. For me, hip hop has that X factor, that thing that makes it stand out from everything else. You know it’s special, but you can’t always explain it the right way. It just is. That is why I choose to express myself through hip hop in many different ways. It’s my way of telling the world my story through melodies and movement. Sometimes I dance, and sometimes I just nod my head to the beat. There is no wrong way to express who you really are or how you feel. Just have fun doing it.

To help you understand where I am coming from and why I feel this way, let me take you back to elementary school. Picture this: I’m eight years old, sitting at home. The TV is playing in the background, and suddenly I hear this lyric from Irene Cara’s Fame: You ain’t seen the best of me yet.

It sparked me. This lyric really made me think. I ran to the TV and watched the rest of the lyrics unfold in the music video. I saw the dancers being free and moving to the beat in beautiful ways. I started thinking about my own dancing skills, and felt like no one had seen skills better than mine. I claimed that lyric and believed that even though I was already good, I could be great. I started studying a dance group called The Despicable Duo. I watched the video of a hip hop dance routine they did over and over. They knew they were talented, and I thought they were dope. I knew every move. I could do every last one of their dance steps, so I knew I had skills.

Mastering their artistry gave me so much confidence. I knew I was the greatest dancer, and no one my age could ever reach my skill level. I begged my mother to put me in an advanced dance class. After seeing how excited and pumped I was, she signed me up. I was so excited about my first class. I was really going to show them a thing or two. I was kind of feeling myself, but when I walked into The Steppers dance class, my mind was blown. The dancers moved so fast, but they were still in sync with one another. They were even better than The Despicable Duo. It was unbelievable.

I quickly realized that I didn’t have as much skill as I had thought. Bummer. The realization that I was not the best-skilled dancer changed my life at that moment and changed the impact that dance had on me. My desire to dance went downhill, and it seemed like there was no way I could bring it back. I still loved listening to hip hop and seeing the dance videos, but now the only reason I danced around the house was because it made my mother happy.

But I soon realized that even though my love for dance wasn’t strong, my love for music was still there—specifically, my love for hip hop.

Even though I didn’t want to dance professionally, I still enjoyed moving to the beat. In fact, beats helped build a bond between my brother and me. He raps on an app called SoundCloud, but we also used to be in the same hip hop group. Oh wait, did I forget to mention I got bars, too? Yeah, I used to be in a group, and if you catch me on the right day I can still freestyle to a tight beat. My brother was the only boy in our group, but he was cool about it. He always killed it when he stepped to the mic, and we always had fun making music together. I loved the feeling I got connecting with my brother through hip hop. I think that the beat in hip hop captures you, connects you, and reveals who you are. It makes you move, sometimes without even thinking about it.

Learning how to rhyme and flow came early for me. I would say I first met the lyrical side of hip hop when I was ten years old. I was changing channels on my mother’s TV and came across a channel called MTV that was showing music videos. I was stunned at all the music and talent on the show. I think the first video I saw was an old school video called Ladies First. It was a cool video because it was all female rappers talking about representing hip hop in their own personalities. They talked about being strong and crushing stereotypes. The video showed me that hip hop belonged to anyone who bravely stepped to the mic, no matter the gender. I kind of liked it, even though it looked like an old video. I thought it was cool that there were female rappers back then. I was about eleven years old when I got wind of another channel called BET, where I would watch old and new school hip hop videos.

I was in hip hop heaven!

It didn’t take long for me to have old school hip hop favorites, like MC Lyte and Queen Latifah. The vibe that MC Lyte gives me when it comes to her music is legit cool, and she keeps it rocking. And even though Queen Latifah is