Back to Business

Welcome back from Spring Break, CSUN students, staff, and faculty. And to everyone else, good morning to you.

We are still working steadily on this year's annual Hip Hop Think Tank Journal, and as previously mentioned, are excited about the contributors and what their pondering, analytical minds have brought to the table.

One of the topics of discussion in the world of hip hop - from its formation to the present day - is one of culture vs. genre vs. state of mind, and all other such variants. While some may consider it an academic atrocity to quote Wikipedia, for definition's sake we'll be referring to it briefly here, on the topic of culture:

"Culture [...] is a term that has different meanings. [...] However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:

-Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture
-An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
-The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group

With the definition available, it would seem that hip hop is a culture, live and breathing, kicking and screaming, krumping and grooving. Whether it is the punctuation mark or as sentence, or even a whole paragraph is the question. As a neutral topic of conversation, we invite your opinion - what is hip hop to you? If it is indeed a culture, what makes it so (according to 'scientific' definition or personal experience)? Is it a genre seperate from its presumed cousins R&B, rap, soul, groove, and/or funkadelia? Is it solely musical or is it a way of life? What is it to you?

Don't be shy... when it comes to personal stance, we have all the time in the world.

Running Thought

Hello world, and good morning. We sincerely hope you weren't expecting any elaborate April Fools Day jokes from us today. We're cool, but that's not our style. Just an update today, and more in the very near future (read: today, tomorrow, and whenever the desire strikes)... so much is bustling in regards to our yearly Hip Hop Think Tank Journal. So many concerns, opinions, strong points of view - working with brilliant young minds who, whether they realize it or not, are paving the way for future generations with the attitudes they cultivate and maintain.

Of course, being based on the foundation of hip hop means more than being based on the moving and the shaking, the booming beats and infectious rhythm. We'd like to think that the message behind the music is what's keeping hip hop in the forefront. Some questions being raised regarding the genre revolve around responsibility, positivity, and reliability. For example: how are women being portrayed in the genre - as an accessory like gaudy bling, or as an equal contributor to society? How are relations to one's fellow man being conveyed? Is it brotherly, or is it violent? If it is, how can we change it? And if we think it isn't, are we in some sort of denial?

Forgive the running thought, but sometimes it's imperative, if not cathartic. Allow your mind to run around rambunctiously today. Think about The Something that consumes you the most, and whether it's taking you to where you want to go. And if it's not, take out a piece of paper - notebook, receipt, or napkin - and figure out how to make it happen.

Peace...

March in March

(Click on image to enlarge)

The issue of the California budget in respects to education is one of heated debate on and off campuses across the state. Students attending respective UC and CSU campuses along with the Community Colleges of California (CCC), along with friends and family, are continuing to make their stance on their opposition of budget cuts, and the support of furthering of quality education. Of course, the students and faculty of CSUN are not exempt from such sentiments.

To many involved, the walkouts taking place on March 11th was considered just the beginning. In support of the collective peoples' voice, a March in March is set to take place this coming Monday, March 21st, at our state's capital in Sacramento. Buses will be departing at 2:00 am, transporting students, faculty and community members alike to march with other supporters residing in this state in the hopes that we will finally be heard.

For those who have not already made advance plans to join the march or who may not be able to attend for various reasons, there is still a way in which you can show your support. CSUN will be hosting a March in March Eve on Sunday, March 20th. Events will start at 8:00 pm at USU Quad (Plaza del Sol), with music from DJ Gomez IV. In addition to all night teach-ins and workshops, there will be free food and poster making activities. Everyone who is able is encouraged to support and join in with the CSU community for an important cause.

"Compton Cookout" Not a Laughing Matter

Various news outlets have recently touched on an issue at University of California San Diego, in which invitations were sent to students via Facebook for an off-campus "Compton Cookout" party (source: Los Angeles Times). This supposed "Compton Cookoout" required its attendees to take on assumed roles of various members of the Black community, which - according to the suggested attire and personas to be emulated - was so ethnically debasing that we won't print it here. Perhaps we're a more than little affected here at the Hip Hop Think Tank, but the goal of this "cookout" encouraged an air of mockery and insult towards the Black community as a whole, doing nothing to 'show respect' to the ideology of Black History Month (as they so detestably joked).

Whether whether ethnic- or gender-based, terms that debase who we are or who anyone is as people should never be accepted. Sure, there is an understanding in the saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", but there is definitely no truth in it. The very idea that our women are referred to as "bitches" and ho's", and our men are referredd to "niggas" - it is of no doubt that ancestors are rolling around in their graves. And in some ways, we as a nation or possibly (admittedly?) as a culture have allowed this to happen. Now before you get up in arms, reader, I have a question for you: what have you done to stop it?

Sadly, some members of the African American community have accepted culturally pejorative terms and supposedly "comedic" cultural exaggerations, having turned them into something "acceptable" in casual use. Where did it all begin? From the minstrels of the 19th century that poked at Blacks with "blackface" make-up to - dare I say it - Tyler Perry's "Meet the Browns", we have to ask ourselves: when is it not funny anymore?

This is the stuff that racial profiling is made of, not to mention the perpetuating of unwarranted prejudices and strong feelings towards the societal term of race. What does this say about the present state of things? What does this say about respect for all ethnicities? More importantly, what does this say when the general you - as a university student, an adult, a fellow human - are supposed to know better?

Our future generations are in a lot of trouble if an attitude like the one behind the party organizers of UCSD's Compton Cookout is still the attitude being displayed towards Blacks, towards anyone. While some would think that by now the dust has settled, it hasn't. If such a view towards a people is being perpetuated - with our permission or not - then whoever "they" is better have another think coming.

Hip Hop Think Tank Mission

Who We Are:

The Hip Hop Think Tank (HHTT) of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), exist to facilitate, provoke, and realize positive movement through academic analysis, research and critical discourse relative to issues which impact and/or emanate from the world of hip hop. HHTT represents the merging of Hip Hop culture with academia, completing the core components of Hip Hop Culture by advancing Hip Hop’s political, social, and economic evolution through community activism, organizing, and mobilizing the hip-hop generation. We do this by maintaining local, national, and global communication between Hip Hop organizers, activism, artist, and students via the Hip Hop Think Tank annual Scholarly Journal and its corresponding website, pod cast, blogs, publication, and other media outlets.


What We Want:

1. We want freedom and the social, political and economic development and empowerment of our families and communities; and for all women, men and children throughout the world.

2. We want equal justice for all without discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, creed or class.

3. We want the total elimination of poverty.

4. We want the highest quality public education equally for all.

5. We want the total elimination of racism and racial profiling, violence, hatred and bigotry.

6. We want universal access and delivery of the highest quality health care for all.

7. We want the total elimination of police brutality and the unjust incarceration of people of color and all others.

8. We want the end and repeal of all repressive legislations, laws, regulations and ordinances such as three strikes laws; federal and state mandatory minimum sentencing; trying and sentencing juveniles as adults; sentencing disparities between crack and powdered cocaine use; capitol punishment; the Media Marketing Accountability Act; and hip-hop censorship fines by the FCC.

9. We want reparations to help repair the lingering vestiges; damages and suffering of African Americans as a result of the brutal enslavement of generations of Africans in America.

10. We want the progressive transformation of American society into a Nu America as a result of organizing and mobilizing the energy, activism and resources of the hip-hop community at the grassroots level throughout the United States.

11. We want greater unity, mutual dialogue, program development and a prioritizing of national issues for collective action within the hip-hop community through summits, conferences, workshops, issue task force and joint projects.

12. We want advocacy of public policies that are in the interests of hip-hop before Congress, state legislatures, municipal governments, the media and the entertainment industry.

13. We want the recertification and restoration of voting rights for the 10 million persons who have lost their right to vote as a result of a felony conviction. Although these persons have served time in prison, their voting rights have not been restored in 40 states in the U.S.

14. We want to tremendously increase public awareness and education on the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.

15. We want a clean environment and an end to communities in which poor and minorities reside being deliberately targeted for toxic waste dumps, facilities and other environmental hazards.