Okay, duh.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't heard of Hype Williams until his name showed up on the wikipedia page for No Diggity and I remembered it from Kanye's Heartless video. This guy is crazy. I'm amazed at how many music videos he's done. The man's in his 30s. He did Mo Money Mo Problems by Biggie. He did movies for the Wu Tang Clan when he was 23 and 24. Amazing. He won the Vanguard Award from MTV in 2006, but I missed how important he was until today.

You can see his music videos here:
http://www.hypewilliams.com/videos.html

A more complete list is on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_Williams

Today's Hip Hop/R&B Top 20: Regions

[Dirty South] 1. Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
[Dirty South/ Barbados but on Def Jam from East Coast] 2. T.I. Featuring Rihanna - Live Your Life
[Dirty South (Florida)/ Dirty South]3. T-Pain Featuring Ludacris - Chopped 'N' Skrewed
[East Coast, East Coast, East Coast] 4. Jim Jones & Ron Browz Featuring Juelz Santana - Pop Champagne
[Dirty South] 5. Ne-Yo Featuring Jamie Foxx & Fabolous - She Got Her Own
[East Coast (Phili) and East Coast] 6. Musiq Soulchild Featuring Mary J. Blige - IfULeave
[Dirt South] 7. Beyonce - Diva
[Dirty South] 8. Usher - Trading Places
[Chicago] 9. Kanye West - Heartless
[Dirty South] 10. Ne-Yo - Miss Independent
[West Coast and West Coast] 11. Keyshia Cole Featuring 2Pac - Playa Cardz Right
[Florida and ?]12. Plies Featuring Chris J - Put It On Ya
[Ohio then Penn and Dirt South] 13. John Legend Featuring Andre 3000 - Green Light
[Dirty South] 14. The-Dream Rockin' That Thang
[Dirty South and Dirty South] 15. Jamie Foxx Featuring T.I. - Just Like Me
[Chi town then Dirty South, Dirty South (Florida)] 16. Ludacris Co-Starring T-Pain - One More Drink
[Ohio, so midwest?] 17. Avant - When It Hurts
[Dirty South and Dirty South]18. Keri Hilson Featuring Lil Wayne - Turnin Me On
[Dirty South]19. T.I. - Whatever You Like
[Chi-town]20. Jennifer Hudson - Spotlight

East Coast, West Coast, Dirty South, Mid West?

I'm starting to get a hang of guessing East Coast, West Coast, and Dirty South. I was listening to some old stuff (03 Bonnie and Clyde) and had a feeling that Jay-Z was from the East Coast and Beyonce was from the south. Not bad. Notorious helped a lot in understanding the difference between East Coast and West Coast. I really like This is Why I'm Hot by Mims. Everybody pointed how it was dumb because he says he's hot because he's fly, but I love how he features each hip hop area in the beginning of the song. Here are the artists' I've nailed down so far:

West Coast
Dr. Dre
Tupac
Suge Night
Snoop
Coolio

East Coast
Biggie
Puff Daddy, or Puffy, or P. Diddy, or Diddy, or the artist formerly known as Diddy
Jay-Z
Busta Rhymes
Lil Kim
50 Cent
Mims

Dirty South
Nelly
Beyonce (probably shouldn't be in this list because she's so hard core r&b)
Missy Elliot
Nappy Roots
Young Buck
Three 6 Mafia
Chamillionaire

Chicago
Kanye (LOVE him right now)
Lupe Fiasco
R. Kelly
Yung Berg

I guessed Faith Evans was Southern... technically she was born in the south and then moved to Jersey. I'm not sure what that classifies her as... maybe both?

I think I want to look at the top songs from 08 and classify them. I"m wondering what West Coast hip hop looks like now.

Links I want to revisit

'Cousin Jeff": Don't Blame Hip-Hop for Society's Sexism

Southern Hip Hop

Southern Hip Hop on wikipedia

Billboard Historical Charts

Goals.

"You who control the dance floor control the people"
Wise words from the beginning of one of my favorites - California Love by 2Pac. Hip hop, rap, and r&b is my head constantly. I can tell the influence it has on how I think just by the products I'm aware of. Apple bottom jeans thanks to FLO rida and T-Pain. Blackberry two-way thanks to Jim Jones. Maseratis from Lil Wayne. Patron from, well, ten songs in the last year.

Hearing A Milli by Lil Wayne made me realize how much I want to study hip hop, rap, and r&b. The songs is ridiculous, to say the least. Four sets of triplets followed by four eighth notes laid over straight up four four. For four bars there's two sets of snare hits on 1, 3, 4, +6, 7, +8. The next four bars have claps on 3. Lil Wayne freestyling over this beat is ah-mazing. I might have broken down the song wrong, but bottom line: this is music. Good music.

I want to know as much as I can about these genres. Here's what I want to focus on the most:

- Music theory: What makes the songs musically unique? How do the pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres, and textures distinguish one song from others? What musical elements define hip hop, rap, and r&b? What musical elements are borrowed from other genres? What instruments are used?
- Lyrics: What do these songs say? Can we categorize the songs by their lyrics?
- Geographic Areas: Where do artists come from? What distinguishes artists from specific areas? Is there a noticeable difference between east coast, west coast, and the dirty south?
- History: How has hip hop, rap, and r&b evolved?
- People: Who creates hip hop, rap, and r&b? Who are the artists? Who are the producers? Who else is involved? Who has the original ideas? Who listens to these genres?

I think once I get a good handle on these issues, I can understand the following:
-Sociological Basics: How does this music affect and reflect the people who listen to it?
-Gender Relations: How does this music encourage men and women to treat each other? What stereotypes of men and women are presented?
-Intercultural Relations: What do these songs say about intercultural relationships? What do they say about racism? How does the music affect intercultural relationships? How does the music affect minority relations?
-Christianity, Hip Hop, Rap, and r&b: What role does Christianity play in the artists' backgrounds? In the listeners' backgrounds? In the songs themselves?

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions when I start understanding more, but that's the basics for now.