Friday, September 15, 2006

Nuwaubian influence on musical culture

Nuwaubian influence on musical culture

Click here: Nuwaubianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adam Heimlich, in the New York Press, noted the effect of Nuwaubian teachings on hip-hop:

   
Nuwaubianism
By the time hip hop started taking off, Dr. York was already a prominent teacher of alternative black cultural knowledge, working extensively with young people. He was also an active musician and producer (played disco/r&b), with knowledge of the industry and access to studio equipment.

Doug E. Fresh and Afrika Bambaataa were among the old-schoolers who benefited from Doc’s guidance, according to the teacher’s adopted son, Tariq L., of the Atlanta-based duo the Hemisphere… “I just happen to be Nuwaubian,” says Tariq. “It’s not like I’m telling the world, ‘You got to be one.’”

That attitude is common among Nuwaubians in hiphop. So the teachings are a lot less prominent in rap lyrics than, say, Five Percent Nation lessons, which tend more toward the directive… Posdnuos from De La Soul… has been down with the Nuwaubians for years, but his rhymes lend De La fans nary a clue. Prodigy from Mobb Deep, among the most respected of active rhyme writers (sure to be published in The New Yorker as soon as its editors drop their bias against verse about why one shouldn’t step to the poet), revealed in a chat last summer that he adopted a strict vegan diet on advice culled from Dr. York’s books, which he recommended to a fan with questions about nutrition. MF Doom’s Operation: Doomsday, has on its back cover a photo of the artist and his late brother and KMD partner, Subroc, at the upstate New York Nuwaubian facility. It is not labeled as such.[2]

   
Nuwaubianism

Afrika Bambaataa donated a red fez with the legend “Proud Nuwaubian” to the Smithsonian for their upcoming Hip-Hop Won't Stop: The Beat, the Rhymes, the Life exhibit at Washington's National Museum of American History.[67]

Amongst the indie hip hop ranks you have Nuwaubians who perform what they call Nu-wop, such as Daddi Kuwsh, Twinity, Nefu Amun Hotep, 9thScientist, Scienz Of Life, Ntelek, and Lost Children Of Babylon to name a few. A report on the hip-hop group Lost Children Of Babylon says:

   
Nuwaubianism
Together, they made an album rife with quotes from The Matrix and rhymes about ancient Egypt, outer space and chromosomes, all laid over futuristic/sci-fi beats that seem transplanted from other worlds. It’s really much more than a musical creation; it represents a new, somewhat complicated religion called Nuwaubu (new-ah-boo).

“You can dance to our music,” Rasul[Allah: The Face of the Golden Falcon] explains of the group’s aim, “but it’s strictly to stimulate certain latent forces inside your chromosomes.”

On Where Light’s “Swords of Malachai,” Rasul lets loose: “When my tongue swings in the form of a double-edged sword, it brings forth Nuwaubu, which is right Knowledge, wisdom and understanding.”[68]

   
Nuwaubianism

Some other Nuwaubian artists that had more commercial success in the mid 1990s include Da Bush Babees and the Reggae group Born Jamericans. Other musical performers said by the Nuwaubians to have studied Nuwaubu at one point or another include Erykah Badu (who in turn introduced it to Andre 3000, who in turn introduced it to OutKast partner Big Boi and Khujo Goodie of the Goodie Mob), Common, Nas, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes, India.Arie and Musiq. The latter spent his early adolescence in the Putnam County area, and pictures of Dr. York can be seen pinned to his jacket in the video for his 2002 single “dontchange”.

In an article for Honor Nation,[69] A. L. JakeAl Reum speculated that the controversial Native American kitsch costumes and props from OutKast’s 2004 Grammy Awards performance were inspired by the Nuwaubian belief that the original Native Americans were Moors who came to America over a land bridge from Africa.

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