Culture and heritage...

[sYgMa]

I know a lot of people from the US on this site are African-American and some are blacks living in the states, we have some hispanics, asians, africans, etc...

What I'm wondering is, even if you are into hiphop (obviously, since you're here), do you still listen to the music from your culture? Do you listen to it more than hiphop? In other words, what is your connection to your parents culture or your own heritage...

I'll take myself as an example: I'm haitian and in Haiti, our music is kompa and rara (well, those are the most listened to). I didn't listen to it that much before, but I always wanted to make a hiphop/rara or a hiphop/kompa track... cuz I want to represent what I am.

Then again, when I go to an haitian club, if there is no hiphop at all, I'll be a bit pissed off. I'll dance to kompa, no problem, but, I like hiphop more than the music from my own country, as if hiphop was my new culture...

I know it might sound wierd or too deep to some, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one thinking like this... am I ?




also, on another topic. What is the culture of americans(whites, I mean)? Do you have a culture? I'm not dissing here, I'm really wondering... cuz, for a mexican, it's pretty easy to see. Same for japanese, haitian, portoricans, jamaicans, germans, russians, etc...

 

[classic]

interesting topic, well since im afro american is hip hop considered part of my "home culture". I think it does but thats a whole nother topic!

But its funny though, casue most traditinal afro american music is listened to world wide. You can go almost anywhere in the world and find someone playin jazz, blues, funk or soul. Other styles of music like hatian, soca, middle eastern etc.. dont have that same appeal world wide
So in essiance the music of afro-americans has become the music of the world..

Back to the topic, yea i listen to jazz, funk, soul, blues & R&B all the time(since that is my Home culture)

clas..

 

[Ozmosis]

That is a tough question because unless your Alex Haley most of us African Americans do not know what their true African culture is. I know I dont, all I can assume is that my African Heritage is from somewhere on the Western side of Africa. So as far as music goes I grew up listening to soul and gospal music. If might be two faced of me but I can listen to an old NMA tape one day then turn around and be listening to a Fred Hammond cd the next.

 

[classic]

also, on another topic. What is the culture of americans(whites, I mean)? Do you have a culture? I'm not dissing here, I'm really wondering... cuz, for a mexican, it's pretty easy to see. Same for japanese, haitian, portoricans, jamaicans, germans, russians, etc...

Thats a complicated one also, its not as cut and dry as u think. THink about it, whats my culture?? i dont have any direct connection to a specific country like jameica, or Nigera,

But i also am not part of the same american culture as rednecks, im somewhere inbetween. Shit gets real complicated.

 

[FuzE]

There are not many if any african-americans under the age of 30 that are not into hip-hop. And you say "what is your connection to your parents culture or your own heritage" well like said earlier my folks listened to Jazz, R&B, Funk, Gospel, and Soul which 98% of tracks I make are influenced by these except for Gospel ( only cuz i just dont choose to). I enjoy all of these genre's. Now if you are referring to heritage as in where our ancestors came from. The answer to that is no.

Now as for white folks I couldnt touch that. Cuz white folks in America have so many different descent from places all over the world. And black folks can pretty much be summed up to the west coast of Africa.

 

[sYgMa]

Both you and Class said the same thing about the west coast of Africa... Is there something in the history books that talk about it ? Or it's common knowledge ?
(I'm really not familiar with African American history...)

And since you kiiiiiind of know where you originated from, would y'all want to look that up and make a lil research... rooting yourselves ... like Nas (in a sense)

 

[classic]

Both you and Class said the same thing about the west coast of Africa... Is there something in the history books that talk about it ? Or it's common knowledge ?
(I'm really not familiar with African American history...)

And since you kiiiiiind of know where you originated from, would y'all want to look that up and make a lil research... rooting yourselves ... like Nas (in a sense)

Yea its a proven fact that most african americans are decendents of west africans(particuallry Nigera and ghanna). This has been proven with history as well as genetic researcb(recently)Thats were most of the slave trade took place. Thats why west africans cultural attribtues are very simplar to afro american(food, dance etc..)

clas..

 

[classic]

And since you kiiiiiind of know where you originated from, would y'all want to look that up and make a lil research... rooting yourselves ... like Nas (in a sense)

You cant man, thats one of the troubles that haunts our communitity to this day, most afro americans cant go back more then 3 generations becasue they dident keep records of slaves and share croppers(which most of us decended from). In essance the history has been cut off....

here is where it gets interesting , jamericans and hatiains and other carrabian folk have the same history slave wise as african americans do(w we were all takin from west african, one boat went to hati, another to america, another jameica, etc...)

The differnce is this , over time the slaves in the carrabian being to develope an attachement to there islands, and created a distinct culture on them to the point where they can identify themselves with there island hertiage. Thats becasue on most of the islands, the blacks were the majority. Some even created there own language and dialects(hati) Thats why these days u have cats repping there islands(HATI, Jamica, etc..) like they have been there all along...... Its differnt in the U.S

In the U.S> blacks were and still are the mintoriy by a long shot, so we dont have the same distinct cultural freedom cats on the islands did. We developed our own cultural as well but it was under much more oppressed conditions. It was hinderd by the fact that we were the minoritiy. That distinct oppersive natural is what gives afro-american culture such wide appeal..... Its music for the underdog...

It gets real complex man, u should check out some books on this stuff, it gets deep


clas...

 

[sYgMa]

See, the thing is, here in Quebec, we dont have Afro-Canadians...the thing is, the history of black people in canada didnt really happen here, in Quebec (well, there was slavery and all, but not on the same scale as in the states or as the rest of Canada)...

Most blacks here know their culture, and frankly, there is nothing we can do to forget it. I'll never feel like I'm a real Quebecer here nor will I feel like a true haitian either. I was born here, but I'm black. My parents were born in Haiti and came here to have a better life and to raise their kids in a better environment. Still, even if all my growing was done here, Quebecers make sure a foreigner (and his family) never fells at home in Quebec. You always feel like they "accept" your presence, and that it's a privilege that we can live here...

So, with that in mind, I feel like y'all are kind of lucky down there. Your culture IS the culture of your parents and you live in it too... Than again, I feel like, since we (the foreigners of Canada) will be treated always as foreigner, we HAVE to know our culture and our roots. And, in a sense, I'm feeling that it could/should be the same for y'all... (but I dont really know)

 

[trinidad]

American Culture is a funny topic cuz just the mix of people alone is amazing im from the NJ NY area n ive done me all types of ppl and got a chance to hear all kindz of sounds, but some how what ever i hear wit h some exceptions, has an African background,

As for me and my culture Sygma Im Dominican (other side of the island!, Sak Pase my friend) lol, growing up in the NYC jersey area (raised in Jersey spent most of my time in the Bronx with the fam) All i knew was hip hop, i mean old school heads are amazed at how i know about schoolly d and kurtis blow all them ol head n im only 22 turinig 23 on saturday!!!!!!, but it wasnt till about 4 years ago that i wanted to really get into Merengue and Bachata and the other dominican styles but still i just cant rock to em i jus like u in a sense cuz if i go to a spanish party n dont hear any hip hop im pissed, i guess hip hop has taken over me but i wouldnt have it any other way, But i still love my Dominican Heritage, feel me.

 

[classic]

So, with that in mind, I feel like y'all are kind of lucky down there. Your culture IS the culture of your parents and you live in it too... Than again, I feel like, since we (the foreigners of Canada) will be treated always as foreigner, we HAVE to know our culture and our roots. And, in a sense, I'm feeling that it could/should be the same for y'all... (but I dont really know)

It depends on how u look at it.

your not taking race into account, u have to separate white American culture (which is the main stream) from African American culture. They are 2 different things. So in essicance most African Americans are foreigners in American also. Just like you are a foreigner in Quebec even though u were born and raised there.

But the DIFFERNCE between me and you is this, You have a home country and a heritage that you can always identify with. Sure you are born in Canada and u may feel like a foreigner. But you have your own distinct culture and something you can always look back to and trace your roots to. The same goes for trindadad.

With afro- Americans its different, don’t get me wrong im VERY proud to be a Afro-american, I believe black Americans are the leaders, and trend setters of all black peoples around the world. With that being said, our roots are gone, I have no real place to trace my heritage to. My great great father was a slave, that’s all I know. That’s all I will ever know. With you, its different, while we both are decedents of slaves( yours in Haiti my in the US). You have your own island, language and government that you can identify with. Think about it…. You have your own flag that you can wave proudly. What flag are black Americans going to wave…. The US flag?? The same flag that oppressed us???

The driving force behind the creativity and diversity of black American culture is the search for our roots……..

Class…


(Haitians were the first people to free themselves from slavery, you have a VERY proud history. Plus hatian chicks can cook their ass off)

 

[trinidad]

thats a good out look on it Classic, but as an african america u have too look past what was the opperssion of the past n take ownership of America because this country was buitl on black, jus ass much as white The circumstances were extreme n fucked up but regardless it is that, that shaped what is now americana, feel me, can wave the american flag proudly because this is where ur from this is what bread u as it bread me also, besides some how like u said in the end we are all a product of slavery, THe same slave brought here that created ur linage where that same that created mine and sygmas for the matter, so i can wave my my dominican flag but in the end i trace back even farther than that African Americans have a distinct culture hjus as developed as any other race a black in north america despite the circum stances, shyt it it wasnt for african american culture wed be lost musically there would be no Soul, R&B, Jazz, Blues, Country *yes some how), tribal, pop, Rock, and HIP HOP, that alone give u the right to wave the flag just as much as i can wave mine.

I hope u unders-tand what i mean.....

 

[CampO]

I AM CANADIAN ! yea I like Hockey Strong Beer and Saying Eh Every 10 words

But lol On da real Im Half Trini Half English and Thats with out goin into detail of all the different blood i got .

And yea I listen to Reggae And some SOca but uhh British music I duno is there any besides Bettles ?

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Class has all the bases covered just about, I mean I dunno but the original question was what is my cultural music.....I think any music made in the USA Since 1900 is open season as what I listen to and consider my music....even country music.........

now I cannot answer for the other people.....but I know genres like Rock and Bepop and the shoobedwop type music is all watered down and stolen from most of the Black innovators then exploited and accepted as maintstream....dont get angry at me but this is the truth for the most part so I dont know what music is original in the since of the non african americans than maybe BlueGrass and probably country music....rock developed from Chuck Berry what lil Richard was doing......then is drifted across the oceans to the England and the Beatles sort of created their own version .....so I dunno how they might answer the question....because even today.....you see hip hop with a lot of non black producers doing big things even though we were the innovators, supporters buying the records to make that grow in the beginning then gradually taking more mainstream appeal.....and now the world being able to tell us how hip hop is supposed to sound...its really very crazy how music evolves....

 

[O-H-TEN]

I myself am half african-american & half puertorican. I love the music from both sides of the fence. I am proud of both sides of my roots. Though the African side was lost over the years; the Puertorican side gives me another land and flag to connect to. I have a house and some land in Mayaguez, PR. As a matter of fact; my family owns a part of the city that carries our name. Land that was passed down for generations from my 3x great grandfather. Our history there is deep. Though I was raised with both types of music; I tend to listen more to Hip Hop than anything else. I am African, I am Puertorican, and I am Hip Hop!
As for white-americans; there are no ORIGINAL white-americans. There roots are based in Europe. The only REAL american is the American Indian. Most white americans will swear all day long that America is their original land; but they came there on a ship like everybody else. Well, except for us Africans. We were chained to the bottom of that bitch..........
ONE

 

[Ozmosis]

The reason why we African Americans dont know our African Heritage is because the slaves that were brought to America were severly punished if they showed any parts of their culture. Your name was changed and you had nothing from an African name to an English name. After hundreds of years of slavery mostly all slaves had no idea about Africa and all they knew was slavery. And that just shows the innovation that African Americans have. They had nothing so they made something, now a majority of the world is imitating our sytle.

 

[classic]

And that just shows the innovation that African Americans have. They had nothing so they made something, now a majority of the world is imitating our sytle.

REAL TALK!!!

 

[CampO]

I wanna no where African American Food ( soul food ) came from that shitz good! I Wish they had a few SOul Food Resturants up In T.O Hey maybe thats a Idea $$

 

[DJ Combz]

I am Native American (Shuswap & Okanagan) and there are alot of people that know their culture and the whole history of it, like for my tribes we have only had about 200 years of contact but still so many people have forgot the teachings or the language through varouis problems that have happed through the years. Hip hop is really big with the native youth trying to get out their messege through the music, our traditnal music is the term you would probly know is pow wow in which I can sing and drum. The first settlers tried to extreminate all nations with small pox in traded goods, tried to take us as slaves (didnt work), alchol is a really big problem with natives, Residential Schools where they took young kids from their homes and made them live at a school where they were beat for speaking their language, molested, got scraps of food, raped, work in the farms and fields, basment aborations and all whole lot more and this was done by Priests & Nuns in the name of God to try made the savages a better people. The Federal Government began to play a role in the development and administration of this school system as early as 1874, mainly to meet its obligation, under the Indian Act, to provide an education to Aboriginal people, as well as to assist with their integration into the broader Canadian society. So the as the generations got older they had lost that family structure and didnt take resposiblity for thier actions and one of the last of the Residential Schools schools ceased to operate by the mid-1970s, with only seven remaining open through the 1980s. The last federally run residential school in Canada closed in Saskatchewan in 1996. Many of my family have went to these school an come out pretty messed up in side had lots of problems. But Iam not here to complain just stating through all of that our nations are still strong, and that the culture is alive but like any other culture some lose their path and forget, dont have the chance to learn it or just dont care. Me I do care an can speak Shuswap and understand Okangan, and so will my son.

 

[The Bastard]

i def listen to a lot of italian folk music. not really any italian pop music cuz its basically american pop music translated