Grammy Time

Grammy Time

by | Feb 19, 2019 | Blog

Grammy Time?

 

Now that the Grammys are over I can talk about then without changing the outcome. 😉

 I especially want to talk about the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.

This year was no different than last year and things need to change, but I’m guessing that not a lot of people in the hip hop world care who wins this award. Probably a few less than rap album of the year, so I’ll give you a little background.

 

Cast Albums and the Grammy Awards

 

A Grammy Award has been given to the Best Cast Album since 1959. It goes to the producer (which means that we anticipate Rhymes Over Beats winning some down the road) and to the composer and lyricist.

This year there were three nominees. They were: The Band’s Visit, Once on This Island, and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. The Band’s Visit won.

The fact that there were only three nominees is due to the lack of product.

Most musicals lose money during their initial run, and so creating an album of the songs of the show only increases the amount of money a show will lose. As you would imagine, it happens infrequently. And this year only one of the nominated shows is an original. The others were re-recordings of material that was previously recorded.

Imagine the reaction of the hip hop industry if someone came along and recorded “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”, what are the chances that it would get nominated for Rap Album of the Year?

This is exactly what happened in the musical theater album category. Too many new recordings of previously-released music.

 

Two Suggestions

 

I have two suggestions for change.

The first has just recently been enacted, and the second needs a commitment from all of us.

Eligibility in the category used to be determined first by the show being performed, and second by an album being created. As fewer and fewer albums were made, even of semi-successful shows, the pool of potential nominees shrunk.

Now eligibility has changed. The “show being performed” requirement no longer exists. I believe that more and more producers will look on the creation of an album before a production as a marketing opportunity for a future show.

This is an opportunity for hip hop artists.

And my second suggestion: I’d like everyone out there (especially those who already have successful writing & performing careers)  to collaborate with us. Write a musical. At least the songs.

There might be a Grammy in it for you.

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Be My Valentine

Be My Valentine

by | Feb 11, 2019 | Blog

Love and Hip Hop

 

This week is Valentine’s Day week, so I thought this week’s blog should be about love.

Or specifically, love and hip hop.

You may think that this is an odd pairing, but don’t tell that to the the producers of any of the successful iterations of the reality tv shows.

I’m not going to be reviewing any of the shows in any of these blogs. I’m only pointing out that love and hip hop go together like a horse and carriage.

Say what??

One of the reasons that this pairing strikes people as odd (especially since one of the most frequent criticisms of hip hop is that it is so misogynistic) is because hip hop is often believed  to denigrate women.

And certainly some of the music does, especially the earliest music.

However, there is nothing inherently within hip hop that would make it that way.

 

Hip Hop is a Product of the Culture

 

Hip hop grew out of a particular time and place, namely Urban America at the later half of the twentieth century, and is an authentic representation of that culture. American culture was then, and is still to a large extent, misogynistic. So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that hip hop has misogynistic elements.

But it seems that often hip hop’s misogynistic reputation has been exaggerated. Many people believe that hip hop is more misogynistic than other types of music, or is misogynistic when other types of music are not.

This expanded claim cannot be supported. I’ve never heard of or seen a study that analyzed different types of music according to misogyny. It’s all anecdotal. People point to a song or an artist and say, see, it or they denigrate women.

But this could be said about any kind of music. “Light My Fire” is not a song about treating women with respect and consideration.

 

A Valentine Challenge

 

I challenge you this Valentine’s Day to create a play list of hip hop love songs and share it with those you love.

And try to think of as many rhymes as you can for Cupid.

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Black History Remembered

Black History Remembered

by | Feb 4, 2019 | Blog

Welcome to February – Black History Month

 

This month is dedicated to black history in the wider world.

Since we are a theater collective, in this post I want to emphasize the length of time blacks have been involved in American theater and how pivotal their contributions have been. There would not be an American theater, even if it is not as diverse as it should be, without those contributions.

Some examples are:

  • The first published black play was William Wells Brown’s The Escape, published in 1858.
  • The first known play written by a black man was King Shotaway in 1823. Sadly no script seems to have survived (although the first black playwright may have been the Roman Publius Terentius Afer, known to us as Terence, writing around 170 BC. Whether he was black or not history can’t decide.)
  •  The first black theater company, The African Grove, was founded in NYC in 1821, on Bleecker and Mercer.
  • The first show with an all black cast was Clorindy in 1898.
  • The first full length Broadway musical written and performed by blacks was Dahomey in 1903.
  • The oldest, continuously-operated black theater is Karamu House in Cleveland, founded in 1915.

 

What About the TONY Awards?

The River Niger won the Tony award for best play in 1974.

The first Tony award for best featured actress in a musical ever given went to Jaunita Hall in 1950, a black actress.

The breathtakingly talented Audra McDonald has the most Tony’s EVER as an actress on Broadway.

 

The list goes on and on.

If you are interested in more examples. Please look at our social media. We will be posting a different milestone in black theater history every day this month.

And as always, don’t forget to make a donation so we can continue doing what we do!

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Keep What You Own

Keep What You Own

by | Jan 27, 2019 | Blog

One of the strategic goals of Rhymes Over Beats is to encourage past and future hip hop artists to write musical theater pieces rather than individual songs.

It is admittedly a selfish goal since it increases the amount of work we can produce, but it also helps the hip hop artist.

 

Do You Own Your Own Work?

 

The way it helps is that the tradition in the theater industry, unlike the music industry, is that the writer always maintains ownership of their creation, in all senses of ownership.

Ownership means that you are the only person who has the right to sell or rent the artistic work.

  • Ownership means you are the only person allowed to profit from the sale or rental of the artistic work.
  • Ownership means that if you rent something, you have the ultimate say in when, if, and how it is used.

In theater the writer always maintains control, because when someone (usually a producer or theater company) wants to use the material it is only rented to them by the writer. They never give up any ownership under any circumstance.

That’s why this blog is about Owning Your Work, or why you should stop writing individual songs.

 

Stop Writing Individual Songs?

 

Hear me out.

Say you have written a song and a famous singer wants to record it. In the music world, the writer owns, depending on the publishing deal they have, the words and music. The singer owns his performance of it. There are two different sets of copyrights.

However, if you write a musical and a famous actor wants to perform it, the actor owns nothing except the right to be paid a salary for their performance.

There is only one copyright – and it’s owned by the writer.

 

In Theater, the Writer is King

 

The writer also maintains control over when, if and how their work is used. The agreement a theater writer signs with a theater publisher is a conditional rental agreement. It’s not co-publishing. The only rights the publisher has are the ones granted by the writer, and those can be revoked at any time.

The only income a publisher makes from a writer’s work is when they arrange for it to be performed. The role of the publisher, in theater, is that of a commission-only sales person. Plenty of incentive to sell.

 In the old days of vinyl, the music industry model may have made sense.

It no longer does.

 

If you are a writer, or know a writer please let them know about Rhymes Over Beats. Encourage them to create for us.

And for themselves.

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Where’s the Beef?

Where’s the Beef?

by | Jan 21, 2019 | Blog, Storytelling

We are a Hip Hop  Theater Collective

 

What does that mean, other than just developing new works of theater that celebrates the hip hop culture?

That part is obvious. We’re also more on theater side than the hip hop side.

 

Something’s Still Missing…

 

I keep feeling that there is something we should be doing on the hip hop side.

Something that has been missing up to now. Something that is unique to hip hop. Something that we should be doing but aren’t.

Then it occurred to me. Everyone in hip hop has had a beef with someone else.

Some are legendary.

Except us. We don’t have a beef with anyone.

You see, we are nice people. Smart people, but nice people. We like almost everyone.

We probably even like people we shouldn’t.

But here’s the thing: we can’t be so nice anymore.

We need to start a beef with somebody. Anybody.

 

Where’s the Beef?

 

The question is, how do we go about having a beef? And who do we have one with?

The “how” is an easier question to answer than “who”.

If we wrote music all we’d need to do is to pick someone out that we don’t like, and write a diss track about them. A negative comment about a significant female person in their life, or how they don’t write their own material.

But here’s the thing: we’re not musical artists.

We don’t write diss tracks, we write plays. So, should we should be writing diss plays? Ten minute plays about how horrible the object of our beef is?

That answers the how question. To answer the who question, we need your ideas. We need your suggestions.

 

So What Do You Think?

 

Who should our first beef should be with?

Please give us your thoughts. We want to get busy hating. 

 

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The World is Ready for Hip Hop Theater

The World is Ready for Hip Hop Theater

by | Jan 14, 2019 | Blog

 To a Beat

 

Hip hop began underground

Didn’t need fussy fancy melody

Just needed DJ and MC to create sound

They created complexity from brevity

 

Dull main stream gave it no play

It’s just a fad. Disco the future

No way will rap stay

No way will it become culture

 

But beneath the surface

Change was happening

Community had a new purpose

Old mainstream started crumbling

 

Today it’s the same damn thing for plays

Be our community. Help us to amaze

 

Hip Hop Found Its Audience

 

At the beginning hip hop was dismissed. It was considered a fad.

The powers that be decided that hip hop music was not worthy of attention.

Radio stations wouldn’t play hip hop.

BUT – no business survives by giving its customers what they don’t want. And the people wanted hip hop.

 

Next – Hip Hop Theater?

 

Today theater is in the same situation. The audience is there for hip hop theater. Hamilton proved it. But none of the mainstream theaters believe it. They say it was just luck. A fluke. Unrepeatable.

There needs to be a place where hip hop artists can go and develop new work. Our mission is to be that place.

To do that we need the help of the audience. You. We need you.

We’ve opened submissions to our new RAP (Resident Artist Program) residency, with the aim of supporting hip hop artist who want to write plays and musicals that voice our community’s concerns and put them up on the stage.

Please join us. Help show the world is ready for hip hop theater. Follow us on social media. Donate. Submit your scripts. Buy tickets.

Let 2019 be 1973. Let Rhymes Over Beats be 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

 

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