Please feel free to listen to my music while you read. Thanks and I hope you enjoy!
Void School Rules
The end to a new beginning of Top 5 Conversations in Hiphop
If you haven’t studied how something grows you have a severely limited ability to fully understand it. It doesn’t matter if you’re DJ Kool Herc or Lil Durk, if you don’t study how things evolve you will express confusion about development. Learning more about growth hierarchies and holarchies will provide insights into the reality of things.
Evaluating growth should be done for the purpose of self, other and global improvement not ego building. If you have yet to learn how to experience Hiphop as more than egoic enjoyment you will only evaluate Hiphop from the perspective of the ego which is what makes ego work a necessity for any practitioner or fan of Hiphop.
The word “best” is now to be replaced with the word “developed” and what is of upmost importance is the potential to produce growth in oneself, others, communities and nature. That is not to dismiss the enjoyment of the full range of expression of Hiphop and how it makes you feel (even if it makes you feel grimy it feels good and grimy), just that that feeling when put in action may not be beneficial to the personal or greater good. Focusing on how Hiphop is expressed to produce growth reveals its greatest potential.
Conversations involving who the “best” emcee, producer etc. cannot be judged by mere opinion or feeling and must include measurable levels of development such self awareness, cognition, morals, perspective taking, values, societal influence, linear vs non liner thinking and complexity of writing. Those aforementioned areas are objective, can be measured, peer reviewed and researched and in fact many of these areas of development already have validated assessment tools.
Judging expressions of Hiphop can be based on internal and external factors: When judging based on internal factors, three perspectives must be taken into account. 1.) If the expression makes you feel anything at all, what does it make YOU feel, 2.) What does it make US feel (those of us in the “US” of Hiphop membership) and 3.) how does it make All Of US feel? Determining what feelings are beneficial to humanity will help to determine when an expression is used wisely. External factors include: experienced, objective expressions such as those listed under Rule 1. Judgement based on feelings can illuminate new found insights but will yield NO VALUE or determine who is more developed.
Judgements based on feelings are expressed horizontally and correspond with archetypes or styles: No style is better or more developed than another, however the individual or group expressing that style can be more developed along measurable lines of growth. Archetypes in Hiphop such as those expressed by Carl Jung can include hero, mother/father, villain, healer, outlaw, ruler, explorer, lover, jester, artist, sage, innocent, everyman and magician and have no value greater than the others. The truth is that each archetype can be expressed along measurable areas of growth. For example: The developmental theorist Lawrence Kohlberg who studied moral development found that there were three distinct expressions of morality; pre conventional (what’s in it for me?), conventional (what’s in it for us?) and post conventional (what’s in it for all of us). These three stages of morality can be found within any of the archetypes. Kodak Black, 2 PAC and MF DOOM are all outlaws but there is a difference between the moral expression of each. We aren’t evaluating the archetype, we’re evaluating the level of moral development within the person inhabiting that archetype.
Exploration of archetypes fosters horizontal growth i.e. span or the ability to feel into and experience the many expressions of humanity.
Exploration of stages of development fosters vertical growth i.e. depth or the ability to experience the varying levels of potential of a given line of development. Where we find development in view and praxis we should unearth lessons and share them with others.
Stop elevating ego to enlightenment and reducing enlightenment to ego: It is common for an egocentric expression of Hiphop (anti intellectual, misogynistic, violent, materialist, inhumane, narcissistic) to be taken as deep, mystical, advanced, next level or even “evolved” (which we will touch on again soon) because there is confusion about the difference between what are called pre rational and post rational levels of development.
The word rational has to do with the relationship with ones own mind. Pre rational means with little thought or regard or an inability to see beyond ones ego or take the perspective of the other. Rational means seeing into the perspective of others (usually others like myself) and post rational means beyond thought/mind, interconnectedness with others, oneness etc.
An example of elevating ego to enlightenment could be artists who “name drop” as a way of pulling you into the world that they want YOU to perceive that they inhabit, when in truth pulling you in is self serving because not only have they not given you a way to experience what they’re describing for yourself, they’ve done nothing to prove that they actually DO inhabit this world (ahem...Jay Elec, Wu Tang...). It’s what the great Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche called “spiritual materialism”. They name drop enlightening words hoping that you’ll think they’re enlightened too but in essence its all just words. They don’t abide by a spiritual tradition or help the listener directly experience that which they’re expressing, but they’re treated as enlightened.
Another example is complexity for the sake of complexity. It’s one thing to judge art on its own terms and artists such as Ramellzee, Aesop Rock, Freestyle Fellowship, Busdriver, Company Flow and Anticon have challenged listeners for decades to accept both abstract artistry and that their lyrics are guideposts to a greater reality. Other emcee are intellectual simply in order to be. They want to attract you to their ability to use words without concern for what you take from those words. It’s just as common these days to elevate 2 bar couplet murder rap music that sounds real pretty but is ultimately as hollow as the points they’re attempting to make.
The reverse is true as well. Very often genuine expressions of ethnocentric and worldcentric values are reduced to egocentric expressions simply because trans egoic expressions are misunderstood. Expressions of spirituality are dismissed by intellectuals and reduced to childish thinking and often intellectualism is thought to really just be you thinking you’re better than others instead of respected as the ability to see from multiple perspectives.
Misevaluations of expressions within Hiphop happen very often due to a misunderstanding of pre and post rational expression.
No one is smart enough to be wrong 100% of the time: Everyone contains a kernel of truth and it is your job to find it. Every person who feels that their Top 5 is the best around is part right and wrong. Your job is to identify both but never let go of the fact that they are not totally wrong. It is fair to point out where you think they need some work but also point out the areas that are true. The more you study how emcees, bboys, djs and graf writers grow the more you’ll be able to point out areas of consensus and disagreement.
Hiphop Alive
Justin F. Miles is the founder of Hiphop Alive and pioneering practitioner, theorist and educator at the intersection of Hiphop culture, mindfulness and contemplative studies. He is the leading voice championing the use of Hiphop infused contemplative modalities to foster resilience, emotional intelligence, and community empowerment.