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Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

DEAR READER: A COUPLE WORDS ON HIP-HOP, HATRED, AND COMMUNITY

Written by CHRIS FARAONE Posted December 6, 2016 Filed Under: A+E, Dear Reader, NEWS+OPINIONS

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Photo by Jaypix Belmer | Hanging with some old friends at the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive opening at the BPL

 

Those who have been reading DigBoston since we were called Boston’s Weekly Dig are not only old wankers, like yours truly, but may also recall that, long before I fell into the editor’s chair, I was a hip-hop critic, show reviewer, the works. As an underground aficionado who at one point in my life hit five or more concerts a week, Boston’s scene was one of the few nationwide that could quell my appetite, and in 2004 I moved here from New York and immediately found a range of artists and crews to build with. In the decade that followed, I literally wrote thousands of articles, for this paper and a crush of other publications, about the magic happening before my eyes and ears.

 

More important than the ink I spilled, however, was the family I became a part of. There are far too many Hub rap heads who I consider long-lost brothers and sisters and cousins to begin naming names, but from crushing beers and blunts during marathon studio sessions to actually living with and close to certain cats, my experiences in this realm all in some way or another gave me the support that I’d imagine anyone would need to succeed on new turf.

 

In turn I supported people back, and there you have it: community. A loose amalgamation of passionate and talented friends who span multiple generations, nationalities, backgrounds, and artistic styles. Imagine the television show Friends, but on a massive scale in much smaller apartments full of people who aren’t corny and smoke hella weed.

 

As white nationalist movements flourish and long-festering bigotry rears its hideous head in the mainstream via our president-elect, I have been thinking more and more about the impact of hip-hop on my life. And about the unbelievable relationships I’ve seen the culture forge between individuals and factions who, outside of the four elements (look it up), started off at odds or even at war. Clearly we need far more forces of this caliber.

 

 

Thankfully, I am far from alone in believing in the collective power of hip-hop, from the old school to the most ignorant trap garbage imaginable. In these last few weeks I’ve felt especially blessed, first by a weekend celebrating the Lecco’s Lemma recordings, an unparalleled smorgasbord of works by Boston’s first generation rappers, entering the Boston Public Library collection, and second by the Hip-Hop Evolution documentary series on Netflix. Even for a curmudgeon like me, who wouldn’t watch an N.W.A. biopic with an Uzi to my head and couldn’t endure more than two minutes of the offensive series The Get Down, this gorgeous trip back to the root and heart of this art may be the most powerful video time capsule yet, and believe me, there have been many. It’s a critical reminder of how important it is to build across lines toward a common good, and the evolution couldn’t have come at a more appropriate moment.

 

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR

CHRIS FARAONE
+ posts

A Queens, NY native who came to New England in 2004 to earn his MA in journalism at Boston University, Chris Faraone is the editor and co-publisher of DigBoston and a co-founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. He has published several books including 99 Nights with the 99 Percent, and has written liner notes for hip-hop gods including Cypress Hill, Pete Rock, Nas, and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

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Filed Under: A+E, Dear Reader, NEWS+OPINIONS Tagged With: Boston, Boston Hip Hop, Boston Public Library, Donald Trump, hip hop, Hip-Hop Evolution, hip-hop history, Lecco's Lemma, Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive

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DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com