Who is a Hip Hop pioneer and what is a legend?

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Who is a Hip Hop pioneer and what is a legend?
by Popmaster Fabel
Popmaster Fabel

Popmaster Fabel

Peace,

The following thoughts are a follow up and further clarification to the statement I made yesterday:

“Fascinating how people appoint themselves as Hip Hop pioneers yet they pioneered nothing in this culture. Thanks to GrandMaster Caz for coining the term “lieoneer”! This term is brilliant! I piggy back on that and ask that people question the lieoneer’s by checking their “liographies”. You might fool some but you can’t fool all. People should play their positions and stop fakin’ the funk.”

pioneer (noun): inventor or innovator
a person or group that is the first to do something or that leads in developing something new

legend (noun): celebrity
somebody famous admired for a skill or talent

Who is a Hip Hop pioneer and what is a legend? The definitions above are taken from the dictionary on Microsoft Word. Both of these terms were used in their proper context back in the day. Nowadays, they are used synonymously – loosely thrown around with no merit or truly earned credit. A prime example would be a martial artist who advances in rank and degree. They earn their belts and are dubbed a higher-level student by the sensei, master, grandmaster, etc. Another example is the way Free Masons earn their degrees from an apprentice to a master mason and beyond. Those who either taught you or came before you grant you the privilege of that title. Hip Hop culture has it’s own sense of protocol and hierarchy.

We have the first generation of architects who for the most part established each component of the culture (DJ, MC, dancers, aerosol artist, beat boxers, fashion trend setters, etc.). Then we have those who either added on to their equation as innovators or just followed in suit and made a name for themselves locally or globally. Hip Hop’s pioneers are recognized and credited for their contributions and are considered legends as well. Others may not be pioneers but did earn legendary status as a result of their skill level, commitment and lastly, their fame.

In summary, I chose to write this because I feel that there are too many “Hip Hopportunists”, a word that I coined for those who fake the funk just to get over in the culture today. They tend to distort history and try to take titles rightfully earned by the true pioneers and legends. I never considered myself a pioneer or legend until my mentors, teachers and elders bestowed upon me these honorable titles. Out of respect, I didn’t mention any names in my initial post so anyone who feels guilty should question their own sense of history. Be careful how you respond to this so that you don’t add yourselves to the list of fakers or discredit others who are pioneers or legends in the process. If you want to learn Hip Hop history, you should carefully examine how it all came to be.

Bound by honor and loyalty,

PopMaster Fabel

 

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Comments

  1. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    Its never been hard to figure out who the “starters”, or the best, of rap, breaking, and grafiti were. Pick up any book and you should know about the “inventors”. The confusion starts when people try to claim “credit” just for being back in those days and when you have jewish people writing books, magazines, and making movies and changing the history. Those who have just gone along to be a part of the books, magazines, or movies are the real “hiphoportunist”. If “I” ain’t heard of you, you ain’t no pioneer or legend in Rap Music, sorry. A Legend and Pioneer 30 years ago was “Sugar Hill Records”, its just that the”lioneers” been listening to the Bronx and them jews for so long they stop believing the “truth”.

  2. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    A “lockin” pioneer and legend was Shabadoo and all of the brothers from Soul Train. “Re-Run” and Shabadoo were doing it well before they got commercial with it with the movies. That was “hip hoportunistism”. Take away the movies and documentaries, and like the Ruckers – “The Goat”, that’s how “we” know the legends. Everybody knows Crazy Legs. Why? That’s Legend!

  3. I like this. As much as I agree 100%, we have to remember that the head pioneers laid the foundation for more local pioneers. For example, DJ Johnny O in Cleveland is not the first DJ, but he’s a pioneer in Cleveland in that he was the first DJ to have his own radio show and played Hip Hop Records in Cleveland with Clubstyle. No DJ Johnny O, then many of us would have never known our possibilities and potential in Hip Hop in Cleveland in particular. In essence, I just wanted to add that Hip Hop is like a tree. You have the Roots, and then you have branches, leaves, stems, the trunk. All apart of the same family tree. You even have birds in the tree, insects that eat off the tree, people who find shade under the tree, and people trying to cut down the tree… But at the end of the day, it’s the roots that cause it to survive and the same thing goes for Hip Hop

    • I have a different take on this.. Hip Hop is NOT just one tree.. The expressions that make up Hip Hop were in existence all over the country before, during after the birth of Hip Hop as we know it in NY.. I think we are a groove of trees in a forest..

  4. e-scribblah says

    great article, fabel.

    of course the lines kind of get blurred with each successive generation, which is why its so important to remember the cultural tradition in a historical sense…

    of course,on that note, i’m not sure why Crazy Legs wouldnt be considered a pioneer…from what i understand he scoured the boroughs to reform Rock Steady Crew after its original founders disbanded, kind of like Jason searching throughout Greece and finding the sailors for the Argo to use a mythological analogy. in this context, “developing something new” could also be continuing or re-establishing a tradition so it’s not lost, right? and i’m not sure that everyone does know Legs, though they should.

    no need to coast-trip on this one, Bro. McClendon. i think we can say Rerun, Shabba-doo, Legs and Fabel all have their place in the pantheon. i wouldnt try to distinguish between Hercules and Achilles as to who was the more heroic…

    (on a side note, McClendon, your continued anti-semitism is really distasteful and unwarranted. i dont care if you’re pro-black or a Nazi, it’s bigotry any way you slice it. if you really want to blame the Jews for everything shouldnt we also note the Ethiopian-Jewish historical connection? or is that going too deep for you?)

  5. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    There is no such thing as an Ethiopean Jew. They are Hebrew Israelites. Jew is a sect that took the books and history of the original Hebrew Israelites. Now that’s deep! Anti-semetic? More like “anti-hammitic”. You ain’t got no arms, e-scribblah. How many times I got to tell you that?

  6. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    Ask your Pastor to tell the truth – Every “Ite” in the Bible was Black, how did isreal get to be so pure white, e-scribllah? This ain’t mythology. Truth hurts! No disrespect, Pop MasterFabel, this e-scribblah guy just couldn’t add nothing better…

  7. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    Expound on that, Davey D, because djing, singing, graffit, being cool, dressing, and trying to avoid gangs and trying to express ourselves was happening every where in the ’70’s and still to this day. Without taking away from the pioneers and legends, please expound.

  8. e-scribblah says

    “There is no such thing as an Ethiopean Jew.”

    not true. they are called falashas.

    Ethiopia was Jewish before it was Christian. the Ethiopians hold the Ark of the Covenant to this day, in Axum.

    i’m not going to debate this until you do more research.

  9. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    You ain’t got no arms. You al called them “falasha”. The Bible and history call them the original Hebrew israelites. Stop with the Talmud racsit crap, e-scribblah. There’s never a debate.

  10. fyi, “falasha” is an Amharic word.

    fyi(2), you just seconded my point, that the original Hebrews were Ethiopian.

    fyi (3), the only racist on this thread is you.

  11. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    falasha – is a racial slur to Black people meaning “stranger’. The “original’ Hebrews and Isreallites (the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) were Black people, and the word “jew” comes from those who practiced Judaism, they are a sect – “not” the chosen people. They didn’t put the word “jew” in the King James version of the Bible until atleast 1611. I am a racist because i know the truth? Let’s get back to the subject., I apologize, Pop Master Fabel. This guy must be a jew – those of the sect who practice jewry and judaism and created the myth that Black people are the cursed children of Ham. Now go run to the ADL, “God” got something for you all.

  12. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    Cpt. Ahmath, you got to give a better google than that. The people need “scriptures” and explaination, “not’ 5 percenter-like, Black nationalist looking stuff. They need scriptural truth about who the zBible says they really are. Saw some brothers that we dressed like them brothers calling our sister the “B” words. Don’t know if it was them, but let’s not get it twisted on Blacks being the original Hebrews and Israelites.

  13. e-scribblah says

    you’re wrong. Falasha is not a racial epithet–it refers to religious belief and spiritual practice. in an Amharic/Ethiopian context, it means “exile” or one who does not practice Orthodox Christianity, but adheres to the original Abyssinian Hebrew tradition practiced in Ethiopia before the advent of Christianity (4th century).

    fyi, Haile Sellassie I traces his lineage back to King Solomon; his line is the Solomonic dynasty and he is given the title “King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah.”

    if that’s not clear enough for you, maybe you need to refute your Masonic brainwashing. didnt the Masons claim they were descended from the builders of Solomon’s temple?

    http://robtshepherd.tripod.com/falasha.html

    “The “original’ Hebrews and Isreallites (the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) were Black people”

    this much i will agree with. but seriously, McClendon, your blanket assumptions and deep-seated racial hatred are hard to stomach. you may want to look in the mirror one of theses days, if you can stand it.

    you are a racist because you make a lot of bigoted, assumptive statements based on your interpretation of “facts”–for example, i dont practice Judaism, Zionism, or any other ism. i do smoke ism, though.

    if you really knew the truth, there would be no need for you to be racist.

    and i apologize to Fabel too for this off-topic diversion, but you went there first.

  14. “The Falasha have a Bible and a prayer book written in Geʿez, the ancient Ethiopian language. They have no Talmudic laws, but their preservation of and adherence to Jewish traditions is undeniable. ”

    –http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/200649/Falasha

    “The Beta Israel (Hebrew: ביתא ישראל‎: Beta Israel, “House of Israel”; Ge’ez: ቤተ እስራኤል Bēta ‘Isrā’ēl, modern Bēte ‘Isrā’ēl) is the Jewish community from Ethiopia, but with most now living in Israel. They are also known as Falasha (Amharic for “Exiles” or “Strangers”) by non-Jewish Ethiopians”

    –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel

    “The Falasha prefer to be called ‘Beta Israel’ which means House of Israel. They inhabit the northern highlands of Ethiopia, and the biggest population is concentrated in Gondar as well as the regions around Lake Tana. The Falasha claim to have descended from Menelik, who was the son of Queen Sheba and King Solomon.”

    –http://library.thinkquest.org/C002739/AfricaSite/LMPeopleFalasha.htm

    in other words, the falashas are the missing link. they are not Jewish (in a modern sense) but Hebrew.

    they also ruled Ethiopia for approximately 350 years, from 960, until the early 14th century. if the KJ version of the Bible dates to the 17th C., they obviously predate that by quite a bit.

    Their Bible is written in G’z, so it’s closer to the original scriptures than anything known to Europeans.

    personally, i’m always wary of people who proclaim they know the “truth” but only add to the confusion.

  15. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    Yes, I am a racist because I know that there is no such thing as a “Black Jew”. Sure, you are a Black jew if you practice jewry and judaism, but there is no mention of judiasm in the Bible. Black people are mentioned as Hebrews and isrealites, but jews are always those mentioned as those of the synagogue of satan that say they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The truth hurts! Stop proving my points, you all.

  16. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    http:rob, that’s some old white people crap you done put on here. That’s not the google site nor books that I read from. You and e-scribblah already got our people messed up with hip-hop, stop lying on “God”. Ain’t no such thing as no “Black jew”, we are Hebrew Isreallites brainwashed that “jews” were chosen people. The truth is going to come out. That’s why you won’t stick to the “real” pioneers and legends – Hebrew/Isrealites – “Black people”. “Those of the synagogue of satan that say they are jews and are not, but do lie, I will…”

  17. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    I must be a racist, because it ain’t white people who I’m always blaming for “helping ignorant people – hurt our people” Hip-hop, its the same people who call themselves jews that have been exploiting black people for centuries based on a myth. If Jesus says something about jews you people can’t stomach it and He’s anti-semetic. And what is a Semite? Let’s not get started. It ain’t the white people who are exploiting Black folks through the media, its your friends. The Romans just doing what the Romans do. TELL YOU PEOPLE TO LET MY PEOPLE GO! Sounds familiar?

  18. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    Honestly, I couldn’t figure out why God would have me messing around with this West Coast hip-hop site. But I understand now. Moses and the Isrealites wandered in the desert for forty years before God allowed all of the non-believers to be killed off and allowed the “new generation” to enter the promised land. You don’t have to agree with what I say, but you will “not” be able to say that you didn’t know – is my purpose on this site.

  19. flavorblade says

    The only authentic mention of the word “Jew” in the bible is in the last book. Other mentions of the word Jew in the Bible are later day translations/intrepretations. Going further in the New Testament there are only 3 holy books. Matthews, Hebrews, and Revelations. Peter wrote the original versions of Matthews and Hebrews. Paul the liar plagerized his stuff and made up other stuff. Jesus said Peter would be rock he built his church on not because the Romans would take over, but because it is Peter’s literature that gave rise to Christianity. The Romans got real greasy, but enough survived to do the job. Jews I don’t know who they are?

  20. e-scribblah says

    so, according to you, McClendon, there’s no connection between the Ethiopian exiles who claimed lineage from the tribe of Judah and Judaism? just want to make sure i understand where you’re coming from on this one.

  21. Robert Jr. James McClendon says

    Basically, for Pop Master Fabel and the audiences sake, let’s stick to the hip-hop pioneers and legends, class is out, e-scribblah. I told you you ain’t got no arms You can’t hang. 🙂

  22. Speaking of pioneers, legends, liarneers, hip hoportunist and all, if you carefully look at the page before this on the left it will say “HIP HOP SCHOLARS” and the first name beneath that title will read Adam Mansbach. When did this guy get to be a scholar of hip-hop? Boy, you guys will let anyone be the “keepers of your knowledge”. I don’t remember that name back in the day of hip-hop, you? Maybe he’s financing this website. Never heard of him until I just looked to the left.

  23. e-scribblah says

    so McClendon, is it fair to say that you refused to answer my question because you are too racist? or too ignorant? was i making too much sense for you?

    what kind of anti-semitic pro-black wanna-be has an Irish name anyway?

    maybe if you changed your name to Robert X and wore a dashiki you could get over on nostalgia points.

  24. Anytime “anyone” starts writing in “Yidish” spelling on here, Oh, you are definitely askenashi “jewish”! We see why you take so much offense. Black people don’t know nothing about them type of keys. Stop playing yourselves.

  25. “Anytime “anyone” starts writing in “Yidish” spelling on here, Oh, you are definitely askenashi “jewish”! We see why you take so much offense. Black people don’t know nothing about them type of keys.”

    apparently you are unfamiliar with the cut-and-paste command of your computer. your ignorance speaks volumes.

  26. plus you act like black people dont speak Hebrew anywhere in the world or know how to write any other language but ebonics–which isnt even a written language.

    you should really read that article i linked to on Beta Israel–youmight learn something.

  27. Here we go with the “racist” ebonics comments. We know the white people or rather” jews” on here. You got schooled, go sit down!!!

  28. e-scribblah says

    dude, you don’t even know me… you probably think Obama is a white jew too…

  29. e-scribblah says

    “You got schooled, go sit down!!!”

    actually i think i’ll keep standing…

    sorry, but it’ll take more than a racist Mason and an ig’nant Negro apologist to shut me up. how you gonna school me when you ain’t even educated yourself?

    besides being dead wrong about my ethnicity/religion, you dont even know the difference between Hebrew and Yiddish, let alone the difference between Beta Israel and an Israeli Jew.

    sheesh, just because i know the difference between the Kabbalah and the Cabbage Patch, you wanna crucify me. since when is knowledge a bad thing?

    now allow me to elevate your game, “Real Low.” that’s right, i said “elevate,” Low. get it? i’m articulate like that, ya dig?

    you probably have no idea, for instance that the so-called falashas were ostracized in Ethiopia and subjected to extreme racial discrimination in Israel. you probably took McClendon at his false word when he said there were no black Jews–a historically and contemporarily-inaccurate assertion, and one easily disproven.

    in fact, black (Ethiopian) Jews in Israel today face the same kind of struggle for basic rights that African-Americans did in the pre-Civil Rights-era Southern US : http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c40_a16654/News/Israel.html

    to continue your schooling, Mr. Low, i highly recommend “Live and Become,” a 2005 film about an Ethiopian immigrant in Israel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O1tBFjeoGA

    perhaps not surprisingly, the film hasnt seen wide domestic release, though it’s on Netflix.

    however, this subject is gaining wider representation, as evidenced by the growing number of important films on the subject, including2009’s “Zrubavel,” an award-winning film about Ethiopians in Israel recently written up in the LA times–you do read newspapers, right, Mr. Low?– : http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-blacks10-2009aug10,0,5349917,full.story

    some other films on Beta Israel:
    Sisai
    Israel, seen by the Ethiopian Eye
    Teza
    Across the River
    To Be an Israeli Woman-Rebecca
    Falasha: exile of the Black jews

    ***
    i know Fabel is a student of history and one who appreciates accurate knowledge (and research). so i hope he wont mind the disgression on this thread–i know its O/T, although one could consider Ethiopian Jews both (modern-day) pioneers and (historical) legends.

    but the only reason i even went there in the first place is my distaste for racist black people, especially those who spread ignorance. unfortunately, Mr. Low and Mr McClendon have proved my initial point many times over.

    so consider this an adjustment, on behalf of Ma’at–that’s Kemetic, not Hebrew, btw.

  30. cats like jerry bloodrock, the awesome two then awesome touch definately poineers

  31. heh “Black Racist” that sounds like some Jesse Powell intellect.

  32. Shwartzer (jewsih for nigger) says

    You people are incredible! Come on a “Black” website and call Black people “racist’. You people have too much control. God will deal with you “devils”.

  33. Shwartzer (jewsih for nigger) says

    As a matter of fact, read “The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews” and see if you can see the corelation between the history of the Bible being stolen and changed, how jews exploited Blacks and forstered slavery, and how they are using hip-hop t to thisd day to continue this. God will deal with you “devils”. The truth will be exposed.

  34. Find the “attacker” in this discussion and you’ll see who the “oppressor” is as well. “He who writes the most. controls the media, not tells the truth”. Its called “propaganda”.

  35. I believe sir mixalot is the mac daddy of all things DJesque. http://www.musicthingz.com

    Hail hip hop pioneers!

  36. The Jews are the same Jew today since the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. The oral Talmud and the written were given at the same time. DNA testing has been done to test Jewish geneology, such as the Kohen gene, which is undeniable. We are the hebrews, and there are plenty of black Jews here in Israel as well. Have you ever heard of the Japanese Shinto, or the Bnei Menashe of India. They are all descendents of the lost tribes. These are two examples among many. They are not all black. Race is irrelevant, they could have all been different skin tones.

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