In these blogs I try to be practical instead of inspirational.
Rather than verbally sketching a picture of a kitten clinging to a cord and saying “Hang in there,” I say things like, “First extend your claws, then grip the rope with them…”
You know. Practical how-to advice. That’s the kind of guy I am.
But every once in a while, something happens where I just have to put on my preacher’s robe….
Hip Hop is Today’s Culture
I was on Bart (what we call our local subway in San Francisco) the other day. A person who could have been an older relative (except he was wearing a suit) was staring at me and seemed to be humming something. He noticed that I was looking back, so he said, “I’m looking at your hat trying to figure out what the tune is.”
Ah. This has happened before.
For anyone who has not seen the Rhymes Over Beats logo, it is the letters of the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet – abab cdcd efef gg – over musical notes. The notes are free clip art. They don’t represent any tune specifically, which is what I told him.
He then asked what the logo meant. I started to go into my pitch about hip hop theater, and his immediate response was, “It’ll never work.”
What the….. ??
I tried to enlighten him by talking about Hamilton, which seems to be working reasonably well. But he wasn’t buying it. He thought that Hamilton was “just a fluke.” He told me that the very fact that there were no other hip hop shows on Broadway or anywhere else proved his point.
My defense was that there were other hip hop shows, they just were not being marketed that way.
And Tomorrow’s Too
About then is when I decided to write an inspirational blog. This blog.
The fact is that hip hop IS today’s culture. In art. In fashion. In music. At the Super Bowl Halftime show. and increasingly more and more in theater. People just need to claim it and label it as hip hop.
So, in the spirit of giving and in community with everyone else in hip hop, I’m asking that in addition to #rhymesovebeats on your social media posts I’d also like you to put #hiphoptheater.
Looking Toward 2019
This is the last blog of the year. I’m spending the next couple of weeks getting ready and getting focused on going into 2019 at full speed.
I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a joyous and peaceful holiday season and the best ever new year.
See you in 2019!