Know Your History
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Know Your History: A Spotlight on Queen Latifah
Cover of Queen Latifah Queen Latifah has achieved more than any other female artist in the history of this hip-hop. She has starred in movies, a few television series, has written books, earned a Golden Globe, two SAG awards, a Grammy award, and several other nominations for a variety of award shows. She continues to…
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Know Your History: A Spotlight on MC Lyte
Cover of MC Lyte Welcome to the third installment of Know Your History focusing on Women in Hip-Hop. We are doing this here on DOPEfm to celebrate International Women’s Day and shine a spotlight on hip-hop’s better half, the women. We’ve already spent a half hour focusing on the 1970s and how present women were…
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Know Your History 14 – Comedy in Hip-Hop
Image via Wikipedia So many people outside of hip-hop culture think that rap music is just about sex, drugs, and violence. I find myself having to apologize for hip-hop a lot. I stand up and tell anyone who will listen that there is a lot more to hip-hop than you could possibly realize. Welcome to…
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Know Your History: 2nd Season – Sampling
Welcome to Know Your History, your monthly dose of hip-hop knowledge. Today marks the start of our second season here on DOPEfm. I tweaked the logo a bit for the new year, but just like last year, you can look forward to 12 excellent episodes about rich cultural history of hip-hop. My name is Chase…
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Know Your History: Season 1
Know Your History is a half radio program I produce for DOPEfm that focuses on the rich history of rap music and hip-hop culture. As a hip-hop historian, I wanted an outlet to celebrate this music that I hold so dear to my heart. This show allows me to play some classic material and discuss…
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Know Your History – Gangsta Rap
Rap music comes in many different shapes, forms, and styles. To the casual listener though, there may only appear to be two distinct categories of rap. First, we have artists like Solja Boy or The Black Eyed Peas. These artists put out music with commercial and mainstream appeal. Like the pop artists before them, such as…
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Rap Calls Attention to Real Issues
Image by 216 wear via Flickr In the 1980s rap exploded in popularity. This allowed a brand new voice to be added to popular discourse, the voice of the black man. Rap groups started to call attention to issues such as racism, freedom of speech, police brutality, racial unity, and countless other issues that affected…
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Know Your History: Episode 11 – Political Rap
Some people think hip-hop is totally devoid of a message. Granted, there are songs that are meant to be fun and pointless, but you will find this in any genre of music. Likewise, you will also find plenty of songs that carry a deep message to them, no matter what genre of music you listen…
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Beatboxing is an Art
Biz Markie was beatboxing before he was rapping. Most of us are familiar with his classic song “Just a Friend” but I’d like to play for you the way he can “Make the Music” with his mouth. That was Biz Markie “Make the Music With Your Mouth.” What a perfect song to play for a…
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Know Your History: Episode 10 The Beatbox
Welcome to Know Your History, your monthly dose of hip-hop knowledge. Today we are going to explore the fifth element of hip-hop, the art of beatboxing. Beatboxing joined the culture of hip-hop quite early. It can’t be credited to a single person, however. Much like graffiti, it sprung up quickly and we’re not exactly sure…