Chuck D masterclass
My little story on the chuck D masterclass started the day before, around 22:00. Since I found the last masterclass with Killah Priest somewhat uninspiring due to the lack of commentary for the young one’s out there, I figured I’d prepare myself a little better this time around. Fortunately Dokter Moon presented us with a treasure of information right on the blog, so I wouldn’t have to figure out all of the shit myself, except some parts about his history. So I searched around on the internet about his youth, his motivatios, his history and the links between him and other rappers, producers and all that.
Damn that man is interesting! Still should’ve grabbed to popcorn for the long sitting (the combined time of youtube material posted on dr. Moons blog was equalavent to a decent movie) but it was interesting enough, and I kept watching this man go on and on, throwing fact after fact on the table about history of music, and at that time I totaly agreed with him. This guy looked like a nice honest man with a lot of knowledge about hiphop. So I watched all of it, and I can honestly say I’ve learned a thing or 2 as well.
After the complete motivational lecture by chuck D on youtube I had to make some music, which I sat down to. This took on to about 4 o’clock at night when I figured I’ve been creative enough for one day, and went to bed.
The next morning I overslept, which didn’t matter cause Waterfront, where everything would be going down, was figuratively speaking 3 blocks away. So I got dressed and David came to my place so we could go to the masterclass together.Once we got in (damn it’s cold outside!) We saw some of our other fellow classmates already inside. This is where the waiting game started….
I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so my stomach started rumbling around 3:30. Jeremy had put Chuck D on the phone apologizing for the fact that he was late, but he got stuck in traffic so he would be there in half an hour. 4:00 still no chuck D. I was really getting hungry and some people got agitated by the long waiting. Thank god for smoking terminals inside the waterfront. We didn’t have to go outside, we drank a beer, we networked and talked some with the guys from the Herman Brood academie and had some laughs. Half a pack of cigarettes and 3 beers later Chuck D still hadn’t arrived. It was 4:45 and Kenny and me we’re thinking about getting something to eat, but we didn’t wanna miss the great netrance, so we waited a little longer, untill it was 5:15. We were so hungry that we just had to go grab something to eat, and we went outside to get some mcdonalds Junk. By the time that we came back we saw a large group of rappers leaving the Waterfront, and we thought that chuck D might not be coming at all anymore. Luckily one of them told us that chuck D had just arrived and was giving some sort of introduction speech. Wondering why the fuck people would leave right after chuck D arrived kept buzzing in the back of my head, but we ran inside and we saw the master himself sitting in the chair, educating the masses.
I realy paid attention to what he had to say, and the more and more I listened to him, the less focus I got. reasons for this are that the speech took awfully long, and most of the opinions shared with the group I’ve had already seen shared on youtube. I had a small list of questions prepared for chuck D, given what I’ve seen about his opinions on different subjects, and some of them got answered already in the speech he was giving. Shame.
with 2 questions left on my list, and almost another decent movie of monologue from Chuck D, I started realizing that I don’t realy agree with the statement that you need thorough knowledge of the records and all that. I think music should come from the soul, and though it is very wise to know where your type of music originated from, he also told that there is no new music anymore, cause verything has been done. I also don’t agree on that point. Years ago we all thought the earth was flat, and we got proven wrong, meaning it takes time to see where things are going. Maybe in 10 years we’ll have invented 20 new instruments, or we are all interfaced to the internet. I dunno. What I’m trying to say is that new music is always possible. Ofcourse it has roots somewhere, I know, but telling people that you can’t make something original anymore is just not true. If you trace that statements back to it’s core, you could say that every tone has been used once already, and that every musician who uses that single tone copied it from the guy who used it the first time, and that doesn’t sit well with me.
Original music depends on your state of mind, besides music doesn’t have to be completely original. The other statement about knowing your roots is a simple matter of opinion. While knowing records can tell you a lot about what has been done and what hasn’t, it doesn’t mean you have to know everything about them. Is a man who doesn’t know anything about his history (amnesia) not still a man. Can’t he function in society as long as he knows what he has to do now? Maybe this is not the best example, but you catch my drift. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about hiphop, but I’m learning, and I bet a lot of the hip cats out there have no sense of history and roots either, but they made it, so why can’t I? I use my knowledge of music to make my own, definetly, but I’m also just working from the soul and personal preferences, and I try to find a sound that matches my emotions and feelings, and my lyrics are written in that same context. Does the fact that Tin pan alley was the first large get together of songwriters as a companie have any effect on that? will I make my music differently now? NO!
To shorten the story, I do agree that some knowledge of music in general is important for knowing how to make music, what goes together and what not, but in the end, don’t you decide what sounds good and what doesn’t? beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak. ANd to be yourself and make music because you like it, without worrying about what other people think of it is something even chuck D has in it’s high standards, so why say that people who don’t have all the knowledge of all the records don’t know what they’re doing? they make music just like anyone else, probably because they just want to do it, because it what makes them happy, and maybe even to express some emotions, like the first people opressed did with blues.
After a while I got realy tired, and almost all of my questions written down had been answered already, untill jeremy came up to me to ask if I wanted to open Q&A. And I did. The man had been talking and talking, and though there were some interesting things he told us (“we live in an audio/visual world now, If you make beats or rap, you have to get the picture with it. Shoot clips, make pictures, art whatever, to give people an image with the music you make”) the greater part of it I’ve had already checked out in the internet interviews and wikipedia. I opened the question round and was charmed by his directness, his attention and the way he spoke to me. It startled me a little, but still I was able to give the man his question. The answer however was less satisfying. I wanted to direct my question in a different matter to him, but he was already talking again, and I didn’t want to interrupt. 10 other people were standing behind me in line and I was forced to watch from the side what the other people were asking. I smoked another cigarette and realized I was already late for another appointment. After calling that I would be a little later, I watched the questions go on for like half an hour untill I really had to go.
All together, It was worth the wait. To see the man in person and to see him tell so concrete and clear about his thoughts on different subjects was nice to see, but most of it I’ve had already heard, and not all of his opinions are shared by me. I came to see a man who could answer the questions I had, and tell us how to be rappers, and that has partialy worked out, so I was satisfied with the whole masterclass thing in general, but next masterclass I’ll be sure to be 1 hour late at minimum, cause I’ll probably arrive half an hour early for the actual rapper to show up. Gives me some time to think of more questions, and get breakfast before the long sitting….or some popcorn.
Thanks!