European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Is hot it s now but is it music Story and photo by Daryl e. Green staff writer Frederick e. Ducksworth and a posse of unknown hip hoppers from the youth Center in Baum older West Germany kick their rap Groove live to a Funky beat being Laid Down by Bare hands on a Ping Pong table. My rhymes won t Wax my High Power stacks my lyrics Are completed by a musical track i was Chattin with your girl Kaleidoscope and bold she said she like my rhymes and my Chest full of Gold she said you ought you know you ought bought but i told the girl no cause from me she gets Nada Ducksworth raps. The Baum older Crew is among the countless number of Young people All Over the world falling in line with the rap craze a craze that some think May be doing music and the world More harm than Good. Rap is dangerous in that a lot of people Are being manipulated by this being brainwashed by this and they re forgetting the real thing the instruments says Arthur White a jazz drummer. There s no music it s just beat and  White is a composer producer and percussionist who was trained in his Craft at musical conservatories in Europe. He s paid his dues playing behind headliners such As Percy Sledge and Latoya Jackson. The practitioners of what White Calls a musical fraud sharply disagree with his assessment. It May not be music to some people but it All depends on How you yourself relate to it says Ducksworth 20, an aspiring rap artist. Unlike White and most other conventional musicians rap artists Are More often born out of frustration and deprivation than of education and instruction. Without the luxuries of music lessons or instruments they learn to be resourceful. We make our own beat explains Trevino Mathews 14. Sometimes we just use anything like beating on a table or  even among non rapping entertainers White s View in t unanimous. You know what the Best thing about rap music is it s relevant says Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the news. Rap is the Only raw form of music out today says Maurice White percussionist and founder of Earth wind and fire. Early rappers did t have the luxury of going into studios and using the samples and technology available to today s recording artists. So along with their homemade sounds they mixed records already on the Market As they inventively scratched the albums to keep the beat. They were mixing records together that already had these sounds on them notes White disputing rap s claim to purity and innovation. Those sounds were generated by computers echoes drum machines and electronic keyboards. White says there is not much new about this musical craze that has invaded the world. The Only thing that s new is that a lot of Wanna be musicians Are starting with this people who i think maybe can t sing so Good or Don t have much idea Harmony Wise White says. Harmony May not be first and Foremost on the minds of these Wanna be  rap like athletics has become a Hope for salvation for much of America s intercity youth its supporters say. Rap is an easy Way to get out says Ducksworth. Who Hopes to ride his rhymes to respectability perhaps even Fame and Fortune. Where rap comes from is like new York and places like that you know Black people and poverty. And that s the Only thing they had to do besides gangs drugs and that Type of  rap is not Only a Way out but a Way to be in. Haircuts clothes jewelry and language Are All important elements in the hip hop counterculture. Yeah yeah says 13-year-old Dexter Sims. Rap is More than  it s what people feel agrees Fred d. Curll 15. It s clothes sometimes the Way you talk with your hands and stuff like  the Well dressed rap aficionados Are sporting labels Frederick e. Ducksworth Center and several rappers at the youth Center in Baum older West Germany. Like Louis Vuitton Mcm Gucci fila and troop on their sweatsuits and accessories. They re wearing their air Jordans Reebok and Adidas sneakers without laces and the tongues standing straight up in the air. Mercedes emblems and Wall size clocks hang on their chests on Large Gold rope chains. It s hard to Tell if the artists Are trying to stay in touch with the fans or the fans Are emulating the artists. One thing for sure is that the word according to rap is gospel to its followers. Jazzy Jeff & the fresh Prince one of the hottest rap acts in 1988, made the Job of being a Parent a Little bit tougher when they preached to their minions that parents just Don t understand. And their fans seem to know where the Philly duo is coming from. I remember my Mother used to buy me them skips and Bobos says Ducksworth with a chuckle. I could t Deal with  but with the ability to hold the collective ear of today s youth comes responsibility says White. They can sing about Why they Don t like their parents but then in the next moment they have to sing about where that comes from he says. They can t just make parents look  rap is not Only sending out messages about parents. Sex violence and drugs Are among the themes often found in rap recordings. It s generally agreed that rap is the language of the Street and it is the language that its listeners relate to. Today s youth have been raised on violence Ducksworth says. They get it in the streets in the schools on to and All top often at Home. The violence they Are exposed to gives them a common Frame of reference a basis for communicating. That s Why mostly everybody i regret to say uses some violence on their records Ducksworth says. I m not saying that kids today relate to guns More than lollipops. It s just words and you gotta understand what that particular my is  along with violence comes crime and the major crime of today s intercity youth seems to be drugs. Like for instance on ice t s i m your Pusher he s talking about drugs but the drug that he s trying to sell is not dope cocaine crack heroin Ltd Ducksworth Points out. It s the music. Dope music something that s  and fresh Sells. Rap s mercurial Rise in commercial popularity is partly due its Uri canny ability to deliver a message which Many non rap listeners fail to understand and partly a result of the ease with which it can be produced. This music does t Cost much to produce White notes. Whereas a band of six to eight musicians May be in the studio for months laying Down tracks on 64 or More channels a rap song can be produced in a matter of Days. They have their beats that they programmed already at Home they record it on two Channel stereo and then sing Over two channels. That s it White says. The ease with which rap can be produced Means less need for musicians. Critics say the void created by the loss of musicians is being filled by people with Cash registers not musical registers in their Heads. The very big problem today is that music is not made by musicians anymore White says. Music b made by promoters and these people want to make Money. Either they Don t have time and Good musicians or they Don t have  but rap May be changing. Many rap acts like Stets sonic Are moving away from the dual turntable musical background to real musicians. And More rap acts Are doing covers of previously recorded songs actually trying to sing the fat boys recorded the Beach boys wipe out and Chubby checker s twist run dec put out Aero Smith s walk this Way and the monkeys Mary Mary and Salt n Pepa covered the beatles twist and shout. Rap is a kind of junk music White contends. It s like an Art of noise. There Are not Many big music creators around today but when everybody gets their Heads Clear and gets Back into composing real music rap will  but for now the rap beat goes on getting bigger and Deffer. January 26, 1989 stripes Magazine 11