I got an email from a good friend eat about 6 p.m. tonight telling me that Slick Rick was going to be giving a lecture at the Miami Dade College Kendall campus.  Slick Rick, one of the original emcees from the 1980s, is not to be missed.  I was amped to see the art of storytelling according to Slick Rick.

I made my way over to the campus and linked up with my friend.  We walked over to the music department where Slick Rick was tucked into a classroom.  Hiphop heads from across the campus all came in to hear what Slick Rick had to say.

He didn’t really give a lecture, but he engaged the participants in a question and answer session.  I asked Slick a question on whether the youth coming up should be schooled in the history of Hiphop culture as a way of reclaiming Hiphop from the corporations.  His take on the question was that veterans serving in Iraq when they come back to America, and begin to put their experience into their rhymes and the people have a choice over authentic experience or mediocre sludge, the people will choose the quality.

Another point that really hit home was that Slick Rick also said that you could be the most conscious rapper in the world but if you are whack then you are whack, or if you are fresh then you are fresh.  The point being that in order to get ahold the attention of the public Hiphop artist must come from a point of being original and authentic.

It was a great surprise to wander onto the MDC campus and hear one of the founders of the original old school HipHop. Slick might have been missing his eyepatch, but his soul was in full effect.  Long Live the real Hiphop!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Photography Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.