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Afro-Pop Art: Politics, Life and Lyrics by Ghariokwu Lemi

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Afro-Pop Art: Politics, Life and Lyrics by Ghariokwu Lemi
As the title says… it is a visual commentary or issues ranging between politics, life and lyircs in a pop-art style… all by a legendary Nigerian artist by the name of Ghariokwu Lemi.

When it came to first impressions I was confused. The exhibition was set in a couple of barges. One for the art, the other one was for food, drink, music and had a screen with Lemi’s old and new work being projected. As Shanell caught up with Lemi all I could see was photoshopped print outs that that did have a great message but they were still photoshopped prints cut out and pasted. In fact one was a colorized email forward! As I was introduced to Lemi he explained taking a new direction so that was good to hear and what an amazing person himself… always lively and happy… and he’s like that sober. I warm up to his work as Shanell tells me about his past work and how she was his personal photographer touring in the USA. Even she was surprised by this new direction because his previous work was more detailed and more hands on instead of digital. There’s images of Michael Jackson and also one of Barak Obama in the campaign style posterization called Red, Blue and Black. Another one with someone getting stoned and I forgot to ask Lemi what NNG means coz the person smokes those letters out. The one I was really impressed with was one of Fela Kuti where it’s mostly colorized clips from papers about the star and Lemi but it took me a while to make out the face of Fela Kuti on it. And then there were the series of solidarity in 3 square images called Union, Unity and Unite… at first I thought it was saying something about the UN in Africa but after reading their names it all fell in place lol.

Anyway so head for some drink, snacks and chit chat. Note: There were normal snacks and also cherry tomatoes and Fox mints? I must admit I scoffed on the tomatoes. I come across a dude called Aj and he gives me his card… I see what he does… and it’s like his card itself had all the magic words… “music + art + creativity”… I’ll definitely be in touch dude. He was also the DJ and I noticed the deck had a telephone handset… nice touch! As I look at the screen I see Lemi’s old work and now I’m hooked… this guy has done a number of Fela Kuti’s album covers. Shanell mentions him working for Puma. And then I get a hold of his program and read through his biography… major props man! Cartoonist for the papers, 26 iconic covers for Fela Kuti, more covers for another record label. By 2000 he’d created 2000 album covers! Political cartoons, commissioned by MTV to paint a mural in New York, Stussy releases 4 of his designs for limited edition T-shirts, lots of exhibitions, awards… wow… this guy left me inspired. All that work, especially on such serious subjects, and he’s still so happy-go-lucky? Then again art does that and more. Big up Shanell and big up Lemi.

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Hip Hop History and What It’s About from Paras

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Hip Hop History and What It’s About from Paras
Note: If I’ve got something wrong or missed our something or you just wanna share your take on it… please feel free to comment.

I’ve been wanting to write this for ages since a lot on uninformed folks confuse hip hop expression or being gangsta in the wrong way and mistake it with being a thug, a vandal etc. Even though it is part of the attitude it’s not all there is… especially being a gangsta and being a G. Most of this info I’ve tried remembering from The History of Hip Hop book I’d read ages back. If there is one thing you must ALWAYS remember is that hip hop is a form of expressing yourself… from your clothes, your moves, your attitude, being a G without getting in a fight kinda thing… its about your flavor, execution and pulling it off well… like myself! So lets get down to it shall we.

A bit of history first…
See there was a mass migration of black folks in like 50s or so. Lots of people moved from South USA to North as job prospects were better… the racism issues were less… you know segregation and all. So black folks got crammed up north and def didn’t wanna go back to the old ways in the south. This is where the Projects came in. The government could not provide all the jobs it promised and stuff. And so these folks had parties at like basketball courts or places which had street lights so as to tap the electric juice from such power supplies to play their radios, turntables and microphones etc. Now I guess they still carried on partying as they did… Swing dancing and stuff right… BUT… it evolved. A new crowd experiencing new situations and all right… which gave birth to hip hops elements.

Hip Hops Main Elements
1 – DJing/Turntableism
2 – Breaking/Breakdancing/B-boying
3 – Graffiti
4 – Rapping/MCing
- Other sub elements include: beatboxing, dressing, lingo, attitude… hell Viv even recommended a vid purely about shoes and how they had to be fly! Customised laces, cleaning, colouring them in, etc… for that Google vid Just For Kicks.

Each of these elements by now has diversified and evolved into lots of sub catagories so I wont get into it too deep. Now the first 3 have recently been hating on the 4th because rapping found so much success and didn’t not bring the other elements along with it. The way I see it… for the first 3 you needed skill and practice so it was harder for everyone to get into while rapping… well you don’t need any tool or exceptional skills. But anyway thats my thought on it.

1 – DJing/Turntableism
If I remember correctly. Folks used to tap into the power supply to hook up their turntables and just play music normally. It went something like… first it was just one deck and then evolved to two to keep the music nonstop and then either someone made a mistake by moving the record while playing or someone felt creative… oh yeah someone was waiting for the next song to play and held the other track in place and then moved it back and forth and the idea bulb struck. After which folks tried out different stuff and evolved it more and more… Viv hooked me up with the ‘Scratch’ documentary about it where for some reason these guys have a fascination for space/alien stuff??? DJ Kool Herc gets a lot of props here as he used to just make a ‘break’ which is basically the part of the song with just beats and loop it. Theres an article on the most recent chopped and screwed style on Universal somwhere.

2 – Breaking/Breakdancing/B-boying
Now while the music was going on folks would bust moves especially during the mentioned ‘breaks’. I’m sure Capoeira comes into this somewhere… but yeah folks would ‘battle’… trying to out do each other. Hell back then even the Gangs used to settle disputes with a battle on the dancefloor… solos or crews etc. Note: Back then Gangs were more like political activists or if it really got down and dirty it used to end up in melees and not gun fire. The flier the combos you did the more props you got and the more your opponent would lose face or have to bust fresher flier moves. There was a big controversy over the ‘breakdancing’ term and apparently that’s the name the media gave to it so it’s not used too much by true hip hoppers. There’s lots of styles… hell too many to mention but the main ones are uprock/toprock which includes upright footwork, glides/slides, boogaloo, popping, locking, krumping and floor moves which are pretty acrobatic. Again popping and locking has issues coz some call it pop locking and what not. Get it right alright!

3 – Graffiti
Gangs come into it as they used to ‘tag’ or claim their turf, or it was used as political activism and most of these artist were big in the rest on the hip hop elements or scene. So while the DJ did his thing and dancers did theirs… these guys were expressing them selves on the walls and trains. Um… think thats about it. Google vid Wild Style to get the idea.

4 – Rapping/MCing (Also called spitting)
We get to the most controversial element. This one has the deepest history as it’s a form of storytelling, giving out props, bigging up folks or showing off. I think again Kool Herc started it off. While the DJ did his thing and the dancers were busting moves… the MC would big up folks with fly moves, announce next events kinda thing and find ways to make it rhyme or flow or just scat it. Some say the roots are in Jamaica as there they MC as a way to boast and toast while others say Africa where folks would storytell to music and yet others say jazz. Some say it’s an acronym for Rhythm and Poetry or shlack others say it came from a much used english word. I say whatever man coz lots of things in history you can’t really tell for sure. Anyway there’s so many styles now… flow, freestyle… I don’t know proper names or if they do have names but there’s dissing, earlier mentioned story telling, bigging up or boasting, gangsta rap, speed rap, philosophical, etc etc. It has a lot to do with the latest slang or slang itself. It can be judged on speed, flow, metaphors, etc etc. I personally owe a lot to rap especially gangsta rap coz it gave me an avenue to get out my aggression, helped me LOADS with english (trust me!) coz it got me writing down the lyrics and reading. My folks used to say they need to get school subjects in rap form to get me to read or know it coz I knew my stuff word for word. I see why so many get into it but after a while I got bored of the same content especially the mainstream stuff coz its bitches, guns, drugs, thugs, money and self praise. Thank god Viv hooks me up with some diverse refreshing stuff. I’ll leave it here coz I could go for pages.

So there you have it… a quick tour around Hip Hop. If you aint hip hop and find these guys attitude aggressive… it’s just their ‘front’. You should check out a B-boy/DJing event to see that in the end it’s all about love and giving/getting respect. If course you could dress to get respect or do you and respect yourself no matter what others say coz even if you look the flyest you’ll still get a diss now and then and its part of the game baby. Just don’t be a hater if you’re not into the scene. It’s helped keep a lot of people involved in creative and constructive stuff you know.

Note: As much as I was dying to use some lingo I’ve kept it pretty user friendly. If you ever do want to know a word used please check out http://www.rapdict.org/Main_Page and type the word in the search bit. I started out with that ages back but now use more of http://www.urbandictionary.com since it has Naruto’s lingo, lots more definitions, origins and examples too ;o)

Example: Since I just got back from the gym and Genie is on my case to go for a drink I’ll say something like… Fall back yo, I was getting deezed at the gym, so now… I’mma lay in the cut and bust a nut.

Ok I covered the bits I wanted to… like I said if you got more to add… you’re more than welcome to edumacate peeps.

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ATTENBOROUGH’S LIFE IN THE FREEZER 6

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ATTENBOROUGH’S LIFE IN THE FREEZER 6
Life in the Freezer – Footsteps In The Snow
Creepy opening. Feet taking steps, door creeks open, cabin full of wood cartons, camera looks around, gloved hand reaches for canned food and turn to see label and return in place. Ok not that creepy. The camera does a close up on all the stuff around. Supplies, clothing and gear. Ah, it’s the hut in Cape Evans where Captain Scott and his crew spent the winter in 1911. Everything is as it was since. Picture of the crew at a long table on Scott’s birthday. They were waiting for the sun to appear to start their trek to the pole. Picture of someone at a piano? PIANO?! Shot of table with all sorts of chemistry instruments. And a well equipped lab. Well that was their main mission… study as much as they could. Meteorology too. Oh wow… pioneer of polar photography Robert Ponting was there too! While these guys were waiting, there was a Norwegian team racing for the pole too.

November 1st, Robert and team head 800miles to the pole. Wearing wool and cotton clothes, using long wooden skis with single bindings and transporting food and equipment on sledges, which they pulled themselves. While Emenson and crew (Norwegian team) used dogs. So not only did they reach 35 days after the Norwegians, they also died. Died from starvation and freezing conditions. 80 years later conditions are better. Clothes that keep you warm, satellites to communicate and navigate and there’s a daily flight to the pole. (Ever seen a plane on skis?)

Captain Scott marched for 79 days to get to the pole, David boasts that his plane will do the same in 3 hours. David is impressed by the distance and difficult terrain that Scott had to go through. Scott used motor sledge, ponies and dogs but after 409 miles he abandoned them. After that 4 men hauled the sledge… divided they hauled 90 kilos. Shot of them slipping around while walking. The decision of not taking the dogs was their undoing. On reaching the pole they found an empty Norwegian tent, only with a note to the king of Norwegia… I mean Norway, should Emenson fail to return. Upon reaching the pole and seeing the Norwegian flag, Scott wrote “Great God, this is an awful place”. Picture of 5 disappointed gentlemen at the pole.

Over to shot of domes and structures. The entrance tunnel is amazing. Imagine a giant igloo. 100 scientists and support staff will live and work in this dome. In the dome there are more buildings. Supplies are flown in. Engines have to be kept running. (Yawn) The fuel is stored in vast bladders to help the station throughout the year.

The south pole is the best place to study the heavens above. Atmosphere is clear and free of pollution, stars don’t disappear beyond the horizon. Special scientists are needed, as in they have to know how to shovel snow and start a diesel engine. Most stations are built on the edge of the continent or on terrain. Shot of Emperor Penguins. Once the peeps are shut in they wont see a living crew for 6 more months. No morning, no evening, no escape! The cook is one of the most critically watched members. Most places have at least a years reserve of supply in case of emergencies and most also have another building fully stocked with food in case of a fire. Ah just went I was about to fall asleep with this episode… a hardly seen shot of the sun skimming beyond the horizon. Imagine Knightrider’s light. Once it drops there will be no more sunlight for 37 days. Sounds of people clapping at this fact. Oh it’s a party, people in fancy dress. Entertainments practiced in secret are performed in public. Harmonica players, drunk sing-along-ers. Gorgeous shots of the Aurora Australis (Southern lights).

As the sun returns so do the Adele Penguins. The colony gathers near one of the stations. A wired fence counts and weighs them as they cross it. Some are caught in a black butterfly net for closer inspection. Beaks measured and chest graffiti-ed. Don’t worry it’ll disappear in the next moulting and their companions do not lose affection just coz of the new tattoo. Gangsta shot of flatland/ice with dogs, sledge, people and some gangsta ice mountain/cliffs in the background. David says the dogs are ecological aliens so its been decided that they must go. Then he goes on to say they’re great companions and best detectors of major hazards… snow covered crevasses. The team on the screen will be sent to Minnesota, USA. They well be replaced by motorised quaiks? (Quad bikes?) So, what used to take 2 days now takes 3 hours but they’re limited on the fuel they can carry.

Funny shot of penguins being tackled like they were playing American football. Human runs and dives for one… Oh, it slips away… and again… and again. Slippery fellas. They catch it, bag it, spray it and tag it with a transmitter and will be monitored in a station in Tasmania. After this the penguin continues its 100 mile march to open water. To dive up to 450 meters to catch fish! Shot of gliding Greyheaded Albatross with a transmitter too. Revealing where it collected it food and where it’s gonna feed it’s hungry chick. WHICH belongs to a colony that has been studied for the past 15 years by a British team. Before they were weighted using a typical scale but now it’s been camouflaged as a nest. (Latest technology!) The scales transmit a reading every 10 minutes to a nearby hut with a watching scientist. (Freak) But it shows the parent brings 500 grams of seafood to the chick every 3 days. And the adult has travelled several hundred miles to do so. Several? All this equipment and you give me several!?

Now they got ships following the Albatross to see just what they did to catch the seafood. To do this you need camera, lenses and cameramen to deal with these hostile conditions. Note: Hostile conditions means crazy waves and winds. Shot of cameraman swimming in freezing waters with the albatross. The reward is sights never seen. Then you got the remotely controlled cameras attached to inflatable. One of their priorities was to find a swarm of krill. The crew found them and so did a pair of humpback whales. This has been detailed in the first episode. Another smaller ship (they look more like sailboats) was doing its thing elsewhere… could only go on shallow waters coz of the keel, places no other vessel had been before. Some dude and his biologist wife on the ‘ship’ have been exploring every cove, bay and peninsula for 10 seasons. They set up camps and cameras in different places. They even got a camera on a jib arm! So that’s how they got the high angle and moving close ups. Imagine carrying around 120 kilos mostly of a long ass pole. Other guys on steady cams. (This things are mad heavy and you strap on a body harness so the shooting is steady)

They wanna get shots diving under the ice but the weathers frozen the entrance to the gear. Once they do dive under the ice imagine ice tunnels with faded silver linings of light. You only hear the winds roaring above the ice. Then you got this metal shaft with a bubble in the middle where you can observe all this. Record sounds like from seals, movements, etc. The seal has those puppy dog eyes. Others observe Emperor Penguins elsewhere. A cage is dropped into a waterhole so the cameraman is protected. Coz where there are penguins, theres Leopard Seals and Killer Whales. Shots of penguins shooting out of water while a Leopard Seal waits on the ice trying to catch one. Bite, you’re out! Wow, these two cameramen even dared to shoot without a cage. Deadly as those Leopard Seals are. Leopard Seal does try to bite the camera. Nice canines. (RUSH: Shot of cameraman being presented by the Seals catch!)

David talks about advancements and technologies to help scientists and tourists explore the area codes. But much is still not discovered and those that go find it how it’s been for thousands of years. The End.

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