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Pope Blesses Hip Hop

D

DavisBAnimal

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2002
52
0
New Hampshire
Not sure if this has been posted yet:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/01/26/pope.breakdancers.ap/index.html

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- In an unusual spectacle at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II presided over a performance of break-dancers who leaped, flipped and spun their bodies to beats from a tinny boom box.


The 83-year-old pontiff seemed to approve, waving his hand after each dancer completed a move, then applauding for the entire group. He watched the performance from a raised throne.


"For this creative hard work I bless you from my heart," he said.


During Sunday's show, one dancer -- part of a Polish group that helps poor and marginalized youths -- planted his head on the inlaid marble floor of the Vatican hall and spun to loud applause from his group and from Vatican officials.


Another performer flung his body around in a series of spins and handstands.


"Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it," John Paul said.


Earlier Sunday, members of an Italian Catholic youth organization enthusiastically cheered the pope's weekly remarks in St. Peter's Square. A few were invited into his papal apartment and helped him release doves from his window.


The pope, who suffers numerous ailments but appeared relatively strong Sunday, called out to the other children cheering below his window.


"I love you all. I love you very much," he said.
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Looks like the Pope quite enjoyed watching these break-dancers do their thing in his private audience! I wish I could have seen the "Vatican Officials" cheering at the kids spinning on their heads.

I always assumed God had a special place in his heart for Hip Hop culture - I think this provides even more evidence!

Davis
 
Originally posted by MrMacman
Yes, the pope did looked like he enjoyed it a lot...


As for hip-hop, you can't break dance to anything else?

:p


Good Show guys, good show.
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Well, to be technical, Hip Hop isn't a form of music as much as it is a culture in itself - a grouping of art forms made up of four basic, artisitic elements : Break Dancing, Rapping, DJing and Graffiti.

The word "break" and "break dancing" refers to the part of any song where there is a "breakdown" - which is best described as that part of your favorite song you wish the musicians had played just a little bit longer, where the drummer just goes off and it's funky funky funky for a brief, brilliant moment. Back in the early days of Hip Hop, DJs would utilize techniques to repeat the break over and over (the equivolent of the modern day sample - after which such porgrams as GarrageBand are based) and people would dance to the extended breaks. Thus they were called "break dancers".

Hip Hop is a great movement to study - so much more in depth than it comes across normally, where people think it began with Dr. Dre, and ends with Eminem, and is only made up of rappers. Rapping is only one quarter the game!

Davis
 
I wonder what His Holiness would think of the iPod ads. ;)


Interesting note on Hip Hop, Davis. I didn't even know what Hip Hop was until about 5 or 6 years ago.

Squire
 
That's cool, I always knew the Pope had it in him. If only he was younger, he could have busted a phat move right then and there!

(Still) proud to be Catholic.
 
Thread title is a bit misleading, I don't think pope knows what is hip-hop, he would never bless that "culture".. its evil heh.
He saw boys dancing, and since they are Polish kids and doing it for him he got all warm about it..
 
Originally posted by Megaquad
Thread title is a bit misleading, I don't think pope knows what is hip-hop, he would never bless that "culture".. its evil heh.
He saw boys dancing, and since they are Polish kids and doing it for him he got all warm about it..
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Judging by this post, it's not the Pope who doesn't have a clue about hip hop - it's some of these posters!

Hip Hop is evil? Give me a break.

Dudes dissing women and glorifying violence is evil, sure - but that's not what hip hop is about (although that is at times what it's protrayed to be).

And why the quotes around "culture" and "hip hop" - is this an attempt at suggesting a lack of legitimacy?

Hip Hop is prob. the greatest counter-culture revolution to come about since the 1960s - it's carrying out an artistic legacy originated during the Harlem Renaissance with the likes of Langston Hughes, extended through Jazz with Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, represented again with the Beatnick poets, from Allen Ginsberg to certainly Amiri Baraka, then birthed on the backs and from the souls of underpriveledged 11 year olds in the Bronx throughout the 1970s - kids who turned to the music, the dancing and the art, rather than the drugs, the gangs and the violence.

Any form of art that gets kids writing poetry on their bus ride to school, has them entering into part-time jobs so they can work up the cash to buy some turntables, and has them dancing in the streets with their friends on recycled cardboard boxes instead of running in gangs, is certainly fine by me.

The pope was right-on in blessing this most powerful of artistic movements.

Davis
 
Hip Hop is beautiful but its' being tarnished by the few WHO are being promoted and displayed by the BIG Record Companies, who only care about one thing and that's capitolizing on a trend to make some cash. So is it the Artist or the Big Companies that are EVIL? Unfortunately, most of the main stream doesn't get to see some of the great Hip Hop for whatever reason. This whole recurring theme in HipHop/Rap today with Money, Power & Sex is destroying it. Think about......You have all the Money in the World......You have all the Power in the World and you can have all the Sex in the world. THEN WHAT? Then what? What's next? After all that....are you planning on making this a better World? Or, just running it to the ground? If, a better World is what most people want(just guessing) then why not perpetuate that from the inception? Just my Opin! I'll shut up now.


~e
 
Yes, Hip Hop right now is all about sex, money, "bitches".. and general stupidity asociated with teenagers behaving like idiots.
Maybe it was okay once (I doubt it) but now it has been ruined anyway.

MacRumorSkeptic: good, believe whatever you want, there's much more to it that you don't want to see.. but anyway I don't think such content belongs to macrumors.
 
Originally posted by Megaquad
Yes, Hip Hop right now is all about sex, money, "bitches".. and general stupidity asociated with teenagers behaving like idiots.
Maybe it was okay once (I doubt it) but now it has been ruined anyway.
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Basing judgement on a large movement of art and culture on the treatment it gets in the mass media is no ways to go about fairly analyzing the state of anything. It's the same way that the Muslim faith is portrayed as being made up of nothing but violent jihadists. It's an unfair treatment, and doesn't speak for the movement, culture, or religion at all.

This is ridiculous - please, please look more into the state of hip hop beyond what you see on MTV and then get back to posting here. Your harsh words are entirely out of line with a movement that continues to be positive to this day, as made evident by the b-boys in the presence of the Pope.

I am wholly offended and slightly embarassed by your ignorance on this topic. Hip Hop is not a commercial art form, as I see it - commercialism will ruin anything. Hip Hop continues to be beautiful on the streets and in the hearts and minds of young people everywhere.

Do you ACTUALLY know anything about Hip Hop beyond its mass-marketed commercial form? Be honest.

Davis
 
Originally posted by eclipse525
oh yeah....that's exactly what "Hip Hop" needed, a blessing from the Pope. Gimme a Break!!! :eek: "Freakin hypocrites".


~e
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Hey, now all of the closet Catholics can come out and break dance...

:D
Originally posted by Pseudonym
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but this might amuse you:D
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Nice.

Sorry, Hip Hop is for DMC and the Beastie Boys.

Please anything else is garbage.
 
Originally posted by MrMacman
As for hip-hop, you can't break dance to anything else?
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That's why we have breaks and drum and bass. :D

Really, I never would have guessed how well these two genres lend themselves to break dancing. Some of the people who break into circles at parties are mind-numbingly smooth and coordinated. Jaw-dropping stuff.

Dan

edit: ps - i am sure many would agree that real hip hop is an attitude more than a product. i'm looking towards groups like blackalicious, nathaniel merriweather and dalek. though i don't like rap, i think a comparison between hip hop and bitches and money is like saying rock is about anger. it's not, that's just a large part of the mainstream. also, consider if someone tells you computers are about windows.... that's just the mainstream, not the idea.
 
Originally posted by alset
That's why we have breaks and drum and bass. :D

Really, I never would have guessed how well these two genres lend themselves to break dancing. Some of the people who break into circles at parties are mind-numbingly smooth and coordinated. Jaw-dropping stuff.

Dan
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Indeed, there is other stuff besides Hip Hop, and they were Polish... how mainstream could it be?
:confused:

Meh, alset you should release a track that people can Break Dance to.

:D
 
Originally posted by MrMacman
Meh, alset you should release a track that people can Break Dance to.

:D
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LOL. HAHAHAHAHA. Tell you what, MrMacman, I'll do one just for you and put it on the main page of my redesigned site when I launch it next week (it'll be the first update in months - lots of new music, too). Heh heh, I'm gonna smile about that all night.

Dan
 
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