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Hip Hop Decoded: From Its Ancient Origin to Its Modern Day Matrix
This masterpiece takes its readers from Hip Hop’s ancient origin, to its modern day Matrix. Never before has a book been written about Hip Hop through the spiritual scope of the culture, or has examined the culture from a mystical perspective. The Black Dot cleverly accomplishes both, while providing plenty of fuel for conspiracy theorist.Hip Hop Decoded reveals that Hip Hop is far deeper than just beats and rhymes, and masterfully illustrates that each element of Hip Hop (Graffiti, DJ, Emcee, and B-Boy) has an ancient origin (hieroglyphics, drummer, oracle, and dancer), as well as, spiritual significance (earth, air, fire, and water). Knowledge is the fifth and most sacred element of Hip Hop, however, the most misunderstood. The Black Dot has compiled the most comprehensive study of the subject in book form. Hip Hop Decoded is the red pill for those looking to escape from the Matrix of Hip Hop, and begin the journey to uncover the truth about the culture.The foreword to the book was written by legend and Live Rhyme Master, Grandmaster Caz.
- GenresNonfiction
269 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2005
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144 people want to read
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March 30, 2021
EMMA LEE M.C.’s RAP & REVIEWS
Hip Hop Decoded
By The Black Dot
Rap & Review Video Here...
Hip Hop Decoded: From Its Ancient Origin to Its Modern Day Matrix was published independently by The Black Dot in 2005 and reprinted in 2006 with a foreward by the legendary emcee and Hip Hop historian Grandmaster Caz of The Cold Crush Brothers. Accompanied by prophetic illustrations by graffiti legend James Top and window dressed with mini-reviews from the likes of pioneering emcee Kool Moe Dee, widely iconic photographer Ernie Paniccioli and Hip Hop scholar Professor Griff of Public Enemy, the critical fanfare of legends sets the stage but still only unveils a peep through the keyhole of the uninhibited journey brave and curious readers will take.
The book is not just a surgical concert of who’s who and what’s what in the entertainment industry; it’s a hybrid manual, case study, story and self-help book centering how the global super culture that is Hip Hop is both the red and blue pill for everyone who comes in contact with it. Is it you, or is it your programming?
No Hip Hop heavyweight nor factor of industry, government or media control is beyond analysis from the voice of someone who participated in its infant “chaos realm” to its presently evolved on-demand industrial age at the creative, social and business levels. The Black Dot offers space to think about what President Bush and Eazy E sitting down for a lunch has to do with The Black Panthers and the implications of Lauryn Hill’s sudden exit to valuations of love and higher-minded sexuality. He puts as much depth into writing about the Hip Hop “King of New York” and messiahs of Southern rap as he does into examining idolatry, image manipulation and the occult sciences dominating our perceptions.
Some commentary is affected by passing time ie. the career journeys of R. Kelly, Kanye West, Jay Z, Dr. Dre and the likes of Beyonce, however the prescribed take-aways of their programmatic choices and what that has to do with us resonates almost timelessly. This is a very full read to come back to in full or in part especially as you gain more mind-experience.
The book is broken down into 34 manageable chapters, a potent bonus and a few larger examinations stretched out over the course of the book, methodically weaving through the theater of your mind’s eye. The Black Dot also applies his establishment of conceptual facts, links to science and universal law to a semi-fictional mini story playing out a Hip Hop planetary future.
While there's seemingly fun and games, many forms of self-harm and mental limitation are rightfully scrutinized. Never straying too far from the principle of self-preservation, clear distinctions are made as to the frequency of defeatist rhetoric also in racism, colorism and prejudice within the community. The author is also very deliberate to highlight entrances and seemingly unchecked deviations within the culture, including the prosperous career success of Eminem and the effects of “diversity” beyond the music. The criticisms are fairly more than skin deep.
Brief eyebrow-shifting magnifications of everything from roaches to chess to Black celebrities named Michael are punctuated by themes Hip Hop heads will appreciate. Intelligent hot takes and concise projections of current cultural phenomena sound off like alarms piercing through decades just to reach us. None encompass this with as much humor and bitter candor as the proclaimed future of Hip Hop marketing in the “Rhyme Space” chapter.
For every emphasis is a well thought breakdown indifferent to the reader’s approval, much like Socrates and the forms, especially in regards to “agents and programs.” Vintage ones like the “5-mic program” or the “dead rapper program” to ones as potent but less thought of like Funkmaster Flex’s “bomb” and the underground Hip Hop scene itself as a program where progressing rebels are actually monitored, controlled and manipulated.
Fans of shows like “The Wire,” Sex and The City, The Boondocks, even takes from Rick and Morty or the opening seasons of The Chappelle Show will love this book for its graphically poetic realism on culture; illustrating the beauty of the ugly in everyday by bravely placing powerful thoughts and realities side by side. The Black Dot in effect offers a roadmap to just how we got here in Hip Hop’s quick 50 years of formal existence and a diagnosis of where we could possibly go.
Unafraid to paint his boldly organized words (and provide visual aids) he creates an almost gallery effect of oversized and eye-level criticisms. We read them, but our minds paint the actual pictures and it’s up to us to feel something. Due to this every reader’s paintings will vary depending on their entry point of Hip Hop, preferences and processing (or ignorance) of its limitations.
The parallels drawn about things the average Hip Hop participant has seen before are really outlines and intersections for a graduated study of structure, function and consumption. This is creative math for every level of brain who will accept it—cultural geometry, social science at its peak applicability. The sacred is given and taken through a series of reveals and sobering diffusions.
The Black Dot waxes on the spiritual agency and intelligence taken hostage by the colonizers of Hip Hop and often surrendered by its own people while exemplifying the one guaranteed avenue of reclaim, thought. If only more were aware Hip Hop has always been capable of this level of awareness from the inside, what could be prevented and shifted with this reclaim?
Hip Hop Decoded while blunt is full of personification and allegories which like a classic Rakim verse bring cool revelations like ice melting into a well anticipated drink. The cultural segments of Hip Hop presented as universal elements are an ongoingly polished touch from start to finish. The more you read of them, the more you sense the author has thought this through and more importantly it just makes simple sense. I will forever be affirmed in referring to emceeing as fire, knowledge and melanin as ether, sound as air, DJs as air-benders, B-girls/dancers as water, and graffiti writers as hieroglyphic chair(wo)men of the Earth.
This book is not for the faint of mind and will swiftly gut-punch what you thought you knew about what you thought you knew. Details of classic album roll-outs are given spiritual dimensions. The look at behaviors of Hip Hop in electoral politics give pause to the antics of today. Women may not be as present throughout the book, but attentive readers are affirmed in how essential women are to the indigenous, diaspora and Hip Hop community as a world power at every level. Where we flow, power goes. What we cherish is paramount.
The Black Dot has since added to this series and I certainly hope he continues to. It’s all worth a look, in the mirror and through the Decoded looking glass that is.
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Hip Hop Decoded
By The Black Dot
Rap & Review Video Here...
Hip Hop Decoded: From Its Ancient Origin to Its Modern Day Matrix was published independently by The Black Dot in 2005 and reprinted in 2006 with a foreward by the legendary emcee and Hip Hop historian Grandmaster Caz of The Cold Crush Brothers. Accompanied by prophetic illustrations by graffiti legend James Top and window dressed with mini-reviews from the likes of pioneering emcee Kool Moe Dee, widely iconic photographer Ernie Paniccioli and Hip Hop scholar Professor Griff of Public Enemy, the critical fanfare of legends sets the stage but still only unveils a peep through the keyhole of the uninhibited journey brave and curious readers will take.
The book is not just a surgical concert of who’s who and what’s what in the entertainment industry; it’s a hybrid manual, case study, story and self-help book centering how the global super culture that is Hip Hop is both the red and blue pill for everyone who comes in contact with it. Is it you, or is it your programming?
Nothing personal, it’s spiritual* business.
No Hip Hop heavyweight nor factor of industry, government or media control is beyond analysis from the voice of someone who participated in its infant “chaos realm” to its presently evolved on-demand industrial age at the creative, social and business levels. The Black Dot offers space to think about what President Bush and Eazy E sitting down for a lunch has to do with The Black Panthers and the implications of Lauryn Hill’s sudden exit to valuations of love and higher-minded sexuality. He puts as much depth into writing about the Hip Hop “King of New York” and messiahs of Southern rap as he does into examining idolatry, image manipulation and the occult sciences dominating our perceptions.
Some commentary is affected by passing time ie. the career journeys of R. Kelly, Kanye West, Jay Z, Dr. Dre and the likes of Beyonce, however the prescribed take-aways of their programmatic choices and what that has to do with us resonates almost timelessly. This is a very full read to come back to in full or in part especially as you gain more mind-experience.
The book is broken down into 34 manageable chapters, a potent bonus and a few larger examinations stretched out over the course of the book, methodically weaving through the theater of your mind’s eye. The Black Dot also applies his establishment of conceptual facts, links to science and universal law to a semi-fictional mini story playing out a Hip Hop planetary future.
While there's seemingly fun and games, many forms of self-harm and mental limitation are rightfully scrutinized. Never straying too far from the principle of self-preservation, clear distinctions are made as to the frequency of defeatist rhetoric also in racism, colorism and prejudice within the community. The author is also very deliberate to highlight entrances and seemingly unchecked deviations within the culture, including the prosperous career success of Eminem and the effects of “diversity” beyond the music. The criticisms are fairly more than skin deep.
Whites love Hip Hop, like Whites love the pyramids, but they did not build them. Spiritual decisions should be made by the architects.
Brief eyebrow-shifting magnifications of everything from roaches to chess to Black celebrities named Michael are punctuated by themes Hip Hop heads will appreciate. Intelligent hot takes and concise projections of current cultural phenomena sound off like alarms piercing through decades just to reach us. None encompass this with as much humor and bitter candor as the proclaimed future of Hip Hop marketing in the “Rhyme Space” chapter.
The corporations now have a “front and back door method” of operation aimed at getting their hands on our hard earned dollars…the fact of the matter is, whether its paid advertisement or free advertisement, someone is cashing in on the very words that we speak. We are the ones who allow our so called “hood” representatives to endorse the very things that are killing us. I say all this to ask, can you even trust your favorite rapper anymore to keep it real, or is every clever punch line or witty phrase that comes out of his mouth paid by corporate America? In a sense, I understand a rapper’s frustration with being pimped for so long wanting to turn the tables and pimp them, but at whose expense?
For every emphasis is a well thought breakdown indifferent to the reader’s approval, much like Socrates and the forms, especially in regards to “agents and programs.” Vintage ones like the “5-mic program” or the “dead rapper program” to ones as potent but less thought of like Funkmaster Flex’s “bomb” and the underground Hip Hop scene itself as a program where progressing rebels are actually monitored, controlled and manipulated.
NWA stepped on the scene, the first…but certainly not the last to have their cause further someone else’s agenda. Whether you’re a knowing or unknowing agent is irrelevant to those who are pulling the strings. Understand social engineering: they were victims being paid to tell their story. Biggie took Hip Hop to the highest realm of its lowest level and cemented it there. Killing the THUG was the easy part but killing the T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E. would not be as simple. An energy of this magnitude would require an extensive amount of time, power and sophistication to eliminate…if Tupac was a modern Harriet Tubman, was Nas in a similar evolution?
Fans of shows like “The Wire,” Sex and The City, The Boondocks, even takes from Rick and Morty or the opening seasons of The Chappelle Show will love this book for its graphically poetic realism on culture; illustrating the beauty of the ugly in everyday by bravely placing powerful thoughts and realities side by side. The Black Dot in effect offers a roadmap to just how we got here in Hip Hop’s quick 50 years of formal existence and a diagnosis of where we could possibly go.
Unafraid to paint his boldly organized words (and provide visual aids) he creates an almost gallery effect of oversized and eye-level criticisms. We read them, but our minds paint the actual pictures and it’s up to us to feel something. Due to this every reader’s paintings will vary depending on their entry point of Hip Hop, preferences and processing (or ignorance) of its limitations.
The parallels drawn about things the average Hip Hop participant has seen before are really outlines and intersections for a graduated study of structure, function and consumption. This is creative math for every level of brain who will accept it—cultural geometry, social science at its peak applicability. The sacred is given and taken through a series of reveals and sobering diffusions.
The Black Dot waxes on the spiritual agency and intelligence taken hostage by the colonizers of Hip Hop and often surrendered by its own people while exemplifying the one guaranteed avenue of reclaim, thought. If only more were aware Hip Hop has always been capable of this level of awareness from the inside, what could be prevented and shifted with this reclaim?
If you’re not intelligent enough to think for yourself then someone should do the thinking for you.
Hip Hop Decoded while blunt is full of personification and allegories which like a classic Rakim verse bring cool revelations like ice melting into a well anticipated drink. The cultural segments of Hip Hop presented as universal elements are an ongoingly polished touch from start to finish. The more you read of them, the more you sense the author has thought this through and more importantly it just makes simple sense. I will forever be affirmed in referring to emceeing as fire, knowledge and melanin as ether, sound as air, DJs as air-benders, B-girls/dancers as water, and graffiti writers as hieroglyphic chair(wo)men of the Earth.
This book is not for the faint of mind and will swiftly gut-punch what you thought you knew about what you thought you knew. Details of classic album roll-outs are given spiritual dimensions. The look at behaviors of Hip Hop in electoral politics give pause to the antics of today. Women may not be as present throughout the book, but attentive readers are affirmed in how essential women are to the indigenous, diaspora and Hip Hop community as a world power at every level. Where we flow, power goes. What we cherish is paramount.
The Black Dot has since added to this series and I certainly hope he continues to. It’s all worth a look, in the mirror and through the Decoded looking glass that is.
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August 2, 2018
I Love Hip Hop & I am open minded but, please do yourself a favor & avoid this rubbish book.
P.S: Someone gave me this book, I didn't buy it.
P.S: Someone gave me this book, I didn't buy it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews