Trying to follow

Music is the primary avenue through which most people connect with the Hip Hop culture. Therefore, I want to further explain one thing before we get into Lessons from Hip Hop. Yesterday, I posted a picture of a billboard that said: Hip Hop Rots Your Brain. I posted that because I believe a lot of people think that, but I believe it’s because they don’t complete understand Hip Hop, and instead they are usually referring to Rap.
I’ll say at times, “TV Rots your Brain.” Which also is a poor explanation of terms. What I mean is mindless TV watching, commercials, and many movies, shows and sitcoms are not healthy for you. However TV also has a lot of benefits, there are some powerful shows, educational videos, movies and more that are quite useful uses of TV.

Hip Hop ≠ Rap. Rap is a musical genre under the umbrella of Hip Hop. The reason I’m trying to make this distinction is that a lot of folks, from all walks of life, tend to misunderstand this. They equate ‘gangsta rap’ (a term often used to refer to the rap music with the negative lyrics) with all other aspects of Hip Hop Culture. This causes folks to have negative views of anyone they see wearing their pants low, listening to music with a Hip Hop Beat, or wearing their hat to the side (and, for many, any young black male they see).

Hip Hop > Rap. That is to say there is more to Hip Hop then the negative lyrics people have dismissed. That isn’t to say that rap is not important, does not have value, or does not have a role, but simply that it is important for those who don’t realize it to recognize that Hip Hop is more then just the rap lyrics they have dismissed. Hip Hop really is a culture. There is multiple art forms, attitudes, styles, products, values and forms to Hip Hop. And there is a lot of power behind it.

This is my second appeal to give Hip Hop a chance. I don’t know if this was adequate in laying the ground work to talk about Hip Hop, but it was my attempt. I’m not completely sure of my audience here, and I wonder how many are aware of, a part of, knowledgeable of or interested in Hip Hop culture. My hopes is that you’ll listen and interact with an open mind to some of the lessons I have learned from Hip Hop.

I’ve wanted to write a few post concerning Hip-Hop recently, but have hesitated because I’m not sure that this is the proper audience to be directing them to. No offense to you, readers, but there are some conversations I don’t think fit in this setting. Don’t worry though, I think we can talk about Hip-Hop a little bit, and so what I’m going to try and do is write a couple post ‘about’ first and then maybe, once we’ve built some understanding and respect, we can hear ‘from.’ I’m not sure this will be all that cohesive so I might as well just jump into it.

The first distinction that needs to be made is “Hip Hop” is more then what you might see on MTV. I would argue Hip-Hop is an entire culture, embraced mostly by the younger generation, but spanning all races and economic classes. Hip Hop can be considered a musical genre, but it is bigger then that. An extremely brief history: originally Hip Hop involved DJs, MCs, Break dancers and graffiti artist, all a part of what made the hip hop culture. Now it includes clothing styles, language, and styles. Unfortunately, most people write it all off with the parental advisory album or video they pass by at the store. But Hip Hop is much bigger then that and it is a forced to be reckoned with. One someone references “bling” it is more then likely they took that from Hip hop culture. When Karl Rove dances to a rap about himself, he is embracing (or at least trying to embrace) Hip Hop.

Now, to the musical genre. Hip Hop as a musical Genre should be distinguished from Rap. There are a lot of different explanations, and if someone has written off the whole “gangsta rappers” thing as evil and dangerous it’s hard to understand. Basically the type of music that tends to glorify drugs, sex, violence and materialism is Rap (50 cent, TI, Young Jeezy, Snoop Dogg and more). The definition of rap is more about the style of music, but I point out the content because that’s what most people know about and have written off. The Hip Hop genre tends to be more intellectual and often provides social commentary and challenging lyrics (Artist in this category include Mos Def, Common, Talib Kweli).

What’s the point? Hopefully you made it this far and enjoyed your two paragraph introduction to Hip Hop. For those who know and understand this subject a lot more, I’m sorry those paragraphs didn’t do it justice; and for those who hadn’t a clue, sorry I couldn’t have explained it quicker. The point of the introduction was to say that Hip-Hop is powerful, it is more then the violence glorifying lyrics you despise, and if your going to work with kids, have any kids, know any kids, you might want to give it some more of your thoughts and time.

That’s a good enough start for now. I’ll be touching on this topic this week a little more and hopefully we can create some health discussion around it.

Corporate Responsibility Mondays continues with a look into the fruit industry, and my personal favorite, Bananas. For those new to the Corporate Responsibility Mondays, my goal is basically to highlight a company in the industry that is being corporately responsible. My co-blogger, Josh, will be highlighting a company with a poor and sketchy history. This week we will be talking about bananas. My hope is that each of these posts causes you to seriously consider your purchasing choices. I’ll be honest this will be the toughest one for me, because I love bananas, but if there is an option, I feel pretty compelled to take it.


Today will be a brief lesson in corporate identity stuck into the middle of our banana conversation. The logo above is one you might recognize if you’ve ever looked for ethical coffee or tea. The first thing we need to clear up is that the logo above is for a Trademarked corporation, it is not the exclusive label for fair trade items. This means it is not like the FDA approval system were all fair trade items must be certified by it. The logo above is for a company whose business is to visit it’s (paid) membership producers and make sure that they meet the criteria of their Fair Trade Certified logo. So, it’s a good organization and a good business, but it is not the exclusive fair trade certifying group. All of the other companies I’ve highlighted in these posts are Fair Trade, though I don’t believe any are members of this organization. It’s unfortunate that this company was able to Trademark the words “Fair Trade”, because without the lesson your learning now, you might feel limited to exclusively items with this logo.

Now that we have that clarification out of the way, let me acknowledge that Fair Trade Certified really does mean that you are getting a fairly traded product.

Fair Trade principles include:

* Fair prices: Democratically organized farmer groups receive a guaranteed minimum floor price and an additional premium for certified organic products. Farmer organizations are also eligible for pre-harvest credit.

* Fair labor conditions: Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions, and living wages. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited.

* Direct trade: Importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to strengthen their organizations and become competitive players in the global economy.

* Democratic and transparent organizations: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to use their Fair Trade revenues.

* Community development: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like scholarship programs, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.

* Environmental sustainability: The Fair Trade certification system strictly prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), promotes integrated farm management systems that improve soil fertility, and limits the use of harmful agrochemicals in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers’ health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations.

They are the big boys on the Fair Trade block, but they seem to have done an ethical job of it thus far. You can search pretty far and wide and there isn’t any critique that I could find about their standards. The only thing I would say is that being a big organization and having the brand identity so established, you need to keep an eye on them if they lower their standards or start pocketing too much of the profit. For now though, they are about the only way in the USA to get ethical bananas.

The website will tell you were you in your state you can purchase Fair Trade bananas, but one place they leave out is Wild Oats. It’s the only place in Nashville that I can purchase fair trade bananas and that might be true for a lot of folks reading this from around the country. The fair trade bananas in my neighborhood cost .99 cents a pound which is double what I’d pay at the big grocer in town. So, maybe bananas become more of an occasional treat then an every day occurrence. Usually you buy a small bunch at a time and so the price difference won’t be that significant. There aren’t many other options out there right now, but as you and I and all your friends start buying things more ethically, business will see the need to comply and soon the whole fruit section will be full of fair trade options.

Resoures:

• Wild Oats
• Oké Organic Fair Trade Bananas

• Where to buy your bananas.

• Co-op America: Fair Trade Bananas

Don’t forget to check out Josh’s post this week on a less ethical banana choice.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

It’s not hard to see that I’m quite fascinated with Jesus’ teachings on wealth. There are so many parables, so many commands and rebukes and admonishments he makes concerning wealth, it baffles me that anyone could miss how radical Jesus was.
Funny that the first thing that runs through my mind as I read this parable is how the guy could have responded to God, “Well, my children could get what has been prepared. That would be a pretty nice inheritance wouldn’t it?” Yet, Jesus’ parable and the rhetorical question of God is clearly not expecting that answer. So, what is the point of the parable?
Well first let’s look at the situation which he tells the parable after. A guy comes up to Jesus demanding, not asking, Jesus tell his brother to split their inheritance. I’m not sure if that was custom for Rabbis to dictate that stuff, or if the guy just had a warped idea of Jesus’ view of money and possessions.
Jesus rebukes him and reminds him, “Man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Now, what we tend to do is rip the verse out of it’s context, say “it’s an issue of the heart” and go on about our business collecting inheritances and possessions left and right.
I’m not here to demand a certain interpretation of the verses, I just want us to see them clearly so you can reflect on their meaning. Jesus rebukes the demand for an inheritance and then he tells a parable about how it is foolish/unwise to store up in barns. How do you apply that to your own life? Maybe it means you don’t accept your inheritance, you empty your storehouses, you humbly live your life in a way that is “rich toward God.” Let me know, cause I’m still just trying to follow.