Rockit!: Rap's Got No Rules

I found Steve Salerno (author of SHAM: How The Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless) saluting Herbie hancock for his Best Album Grammy Award, and knew I ought to do the same. Rockit!, of course, is the song that inspired most DJs to think they could go it alone - without Rappers. Just check out what Prefuse 73 does to this guy's flow over a slamming Jazz groove:



Leave it to an old-school Jazz artist, like Herbie, to teach 'em that. Herbie's Jazz was inspired by Rap and, likewise, Jazz has always inspired Rap artists. Honestly, unless they have mental problems, Rappers are inspired by *everything* they come in contact with - even fuckin' Bambi - This shit's hilarious:



Here's another one by Pre, with robots, rockets, and (for some reason) mermaids:



I remember getting into an argument with some jackass Buddhist about Rap music, and (as happens a lot today when I talk to anybody "spiritual" about anything) having to inform him, in a most unpleasant manner, that he didn't understand the depth, or breath, of Rap music at all. He thought because he hears what's on the radio, or on MTV - or what some fucking gangsta's beat out of their rides - that he's heard everything out there, when real heads couldn't give a rat's ass about that shit. Prefuse 73 is a perfect example of how far from the mark simple-minded assholes can be - about everything:





Here's some Beat Jugglin' too (which, contrary to what my Buddhist friend thinks, they don't teach in monasteries):



And, for anyone who would dare say "Rap's not music", Kid Koala ("The nicest guy in Rap") is a fine example of the control that one man and his turntables can demonstrate, making Jazz new and fresh again, for people who probably rarely listen to it: