Transcriber: Blanca Esteban Reviewer: Denise RQ
"Wu-Tang is for the children."
The statement was made by the Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard.
The Wu-Tang Clan was one of the most influential
and still is one of the most famous rap groups of all time.
And per coincidence, that's one of my favourite rap groups
- just saying they're playing crazy and shiz live shows -
but coming back to my statement,
"Wu-Tang is for the children."
What if we would change that statement into "Rap is for the children"?
And with this, I would like to encounter how I came to rap for the first time.
It all started when I was four years old.
My dad bought my brother and me
the all time classic: "The Eminem Show" by Eminem.
I was directly fascinated by him.
I was fascinated by his voice, by his rhymes,
by his craziness, and by his flow.
But one thing stuck out,
one thing fascinated me way more
with all these rappers I started listening,
because they were all something I wasn't.
I wasn't Eminem,
who was cruising or who was living in a trailer park with his mom in Detroit.
I wasn't Snoop Dogg,
who was cruising through Long Beach while rapping about gin and juice.
I was an ordinary, skinny, white, tall boy
who has a good relationship with his parents;
who was quite often really sick, so I had a few problems in school,
but rap changed everything about this
and rap impacted me in a completely new way.
I think first you need to know that I'm out of a family
where my mom is an artist,
and my dad is a filmmaker and entrepreneur.
That means I was always surrounded by language,
especially the German language.
I was always surrounded by words and by poetry,
but writing never fascinated me.
Writing was more something I needed to do for school:
greetings to my primary teacher,
for every crappy 10-line homework that you gave me I took literally 4 hours.
But when I started writing my own lyrics, when I started rapping,
it showed me how I can impact, how I can touch people with my music.
And with impact, I would like to introduce you my today's talking topic,
"How can rap change the fabrics of society?"
Some of you may still have the stereotype of this rapper
with the long white sweater, baggy, baggy jeans,
long gold chains, and some nice swaggy shoes.
This is the typical reaction I get
when people ask me,
"Leander, what are you doing in your free time?"
And I'm saying, "Yeah, you know, I love to do music."
And then they say, "Shiz! Nice."
(Laughter)
"Which kind of instruments are you playing?"
And I'm saying, "Yeah, you know, I used to play instruments,
now I'm doing something with words that rhyme, I'm doing rap."
And then the reaction is a minute of silence
and then there's, "Oh, so cool!" or they just leave it,
because I don't really fit in that image of a typical rapper.
But rap is way more than these stereotypes.
Let us take a look into the city of Atlanta.
Why?
Because Atlanta is the most dominant and influential city in rap right now.
And besides this, it is the sixth most dangerous city in the US,
it has one of the highest murder rates in the country,
and it's one of the major drug trafficking routes.
Atlanta's rap or rap scene is really controversial,
because there's one side who are saying
they lack originality, they have fake flows,
they use too much Auto-Tune,
it doesn't make any sense what they're saying.
Simply saying, they all sound the same.
Then there's other side, like me,
who are saying, "Turn it up. They're great. I love what they're doing,"
because they're exactly the way how they are.
When they rap about violence, with the Auto-Tune,
when they rap about drugs,
when they rap about their favorite strip club,
they rap about their daily life,
about the representation of Atlanta,
and rap is often seen as the only way to break out of the circle of violence.
For another example,
let us go a bit back in rap history, into the year of 1988.
Back then, a rap group released a debut album, nothing special,
but this debut album changed rap.
And the name was "Straight Outta Compton."
The group was called N.W.A
and the album included one hit single called "Fuck tha Police."
"Fuck tha Police" was extremely successful but sparked a lot of different opinions.
It even went so far that the FBI wrote a letter to Ruthless Records
stating that "Straight Outta Compton" can't be released
because it's too controversial.
But N.W.A didn't care, they started the revolution in rap.
They are seen as the founders
of the probably most famous genre in rap today: gangsta rap.
They were the first ones to rap about their daily street life,
about the gang life in an extremely open, honest, and brutal way.
In years of riots, like the one in Ferguson;
in years of shootings, like the one of Trayvon Martin
on 26 February 2012, in Sanford, in California;
and in years of raising police brutality against Afro-Americans,
N.W.A and "Fuck tha Police" is becoming and needs to become relevant again,
in a really sad way.
While doing the research for my TEDx Talk, I thought about,
"Hmm, N.W.A had a huge influence.
But is there something or could there be someone new, like a new N.W.A?"
And I came up with the answer, "Yes, there is."
And his name is Kendrick Lamar.
(Cheering)
Kendrick Lamar is or shares a few similarities with N.W.A.
Both are born and raised in Compton,
one of the most dangerous districts in Los Angeles;
and Kendrick Lamar got discovered by Dr. Dre, who as well discovered Eminem,
and who is a former member or N.W.A.
But what makes Kendrick Lamar
- for those of you who don't know Kendrick Lamar -
famous is his breakthrough album "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City".
He just received 11 Grammy nominations for his 2015 album "To Pimp a Butterfly",
which is a record in rap history.
What makes him so special?
What makes him so different from other rappers?
He's extremely jazzy, he's really melodic,
and he raps about human emotions like fear, insecurity, or anxiety
in a completely new way, and in a way that a lot of people can relate to.
But most important,
he raps and represents the wishes, hopes, and fears
of the Afro-American society as well as no other rapper.
His song "Alright" is seen as the unifying song of the Black Lives Matter movement.
He received 4 Grammy nominations and won 2 Grammys for the song.
Why is it seen as the unifying song?
Because protesters while protesting were singing its chorus,
"We gon' be alright, we gon' be alright" while protesting.
They meant with this,
we are going to be alright even if there are racist policemen,
even if there's raising police brutality, even if there are shootings.
In my home country, Germany,
a lot of really famous rappers
are engaged in the campaign of Refugees Welcome.
Why?
Because a lot of them are refugees or immigrants themselves,
so they know how it is to live in a war zone,
they know how it is to leave out of an unstable home,
they know how it is to live in not safe conditions.
So they want to contribute to this movement
that refugees are getting welcomed and integrated into German society.
You can ask yourself,
why all these rappers are doing this?
Why is Kendrick Lamar so involved in the Black Lives Matter movement?
Why is N.W.A so active in raising awareness against police brutality?
And why are German rappers so active in Refugees Welcome?
There's one reason:
rap is the voice of the voiceless.
Rap is like the Robin Hood of music:
it gives the powerless a voice again to stand up for their own rights.
Rap is the expression form for everybody
because of its openness, rawness, and truth.
You can express human emotions or extremes,
like pressure, fear, anger, and happiness for rap.
Let us come back to N.W.A and "Fuck tha Police."
Do you think N.W.A would have been so successful and controversial
if they had written a letter to the LAPD stating,
"Dear LAPD,
We're strongly disagreeing with the police brutality against us.
Thank you. Dear, N.W.A."?
But no, of course, they didn't say, "We're strongly disagreeing,"
they said, " Fuck the police."
That's why it was so open, that's why it was so successful,
and that's why it was so honest.
If you open up the art form, if you open up rap,
you can open up your mind in a completely new way.
If you respect and challenge or question the freedom of art, such as in rap,
you can create and challenge new perspectives.
To conclude this talk, I would like to ask you a few questions.
How can we see rap as a method of change?
How can rap still influence people's mindsets or people's lives
in a positive way?
What I always used to love about rap or what I love about rap, why I am rapping
is because it doesn't matter where you're from, in rap.
It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done in the past.
It just matters, and that's why I'm rapping,
that you are who you are.
I'm rapping because I'm feeling I can express myself in this way.
I'm the most myself, I'm 100% myself when I'm rapping,
and I'm not a fake, someone who I need to be for anybody else.
With rap, you can break out of your own realities,
and it doesn't matter if you're a gangsta rapper out of Compton,
or if you're a skinny white boy out of Germany.
Referring and coming back to my statement at the beginning,
"Wu-Tang is for the children,"
no; Wu-Tang is not for the children.
Rap is not for the children. Uh-uh.
Rap is for everyone.
Thanks a lot.
(Applause)