Golden era

ILLUSTRATION | SOPHIA MA

How 90s hip-hop artists have shaped the current rap scene BY ANUSHKA DE

This is dedicated to the ni**as that was down from day one. Welcome to Death Row.”

Then, Snoop Dogg’s (Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.) synth vocals overtake Dr. Dre’s (Andre Romelle Young) opening lines of “The Chronic (Intro),” the hit opening song from his album “The Chronic,” as rolling basslines and a funkadelic beat plays in the background. One day, “The Chronic” would become one of the most influential and acclaimed records in hip-hop history. It would also become the first CD social science teacher Bonnie Belshe purchased one on her own dime. But long before that, Black America had been piecing together the music, culture, struggles and stories that has defined hip-hop into the modern era.

Rap music secured its beginnings from the West African drum rhythms that traversed oceans on slave ships. Then, Blues musicians who traveled from the Mississippi Delta in the South to Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit sprinkled in their own influences of gospel and country Western. It was these struggles that manifested in the Hoe Avenue Peace Meeting, a peace treaty between 40 of New York’s biggest gangs in the 1970s, giving way to DJ and MC battles in the South Bronx, the birthplace of gangsta rap. In the 1980s, Afrika Bambaataa coined the term “hiphop” as Black culture grew increasingly popular with white youth, and created the first hip-hop institution: Universal Zulu Nation. This led to rappers like Ice-T (Tracy Lauren Marrow), Dr. Dre and 2PAC (Tupac Shakur), artists who defined the period of rap music from the mid 80s to the late 90s that was coined the “Golden Era” of the genre.

“There is a very clear understanding of the history that hip hop artists have — they know Black history,” Belshe said. “They understand it, they live it. Their music is such a vibrant representation of all of that, from slavery, through Black Power, right through the rise of current mass incarceration. That history is represented in all of it — both in the sound and in the lyrics.”

Senior Gohitha Venkluri initially became interested in 90s lyrical rap during the summer of 2020. He was drawn to the genre precisely because of the “intricacy” of the lyricism. Whereas he felt modern rap focused on many of the same overused themes like drugs and wealth, he was enticed by the complex hiphop rivalries, themes of brotherhood and myriad of styles that infused 90s hip-hop music.

“[In the 90s], the lyricism and the poeticism was at its peak,” Venkluri said. “Nas, Jay-Z, 2PAC, Biggie, they actually talk about real stuff. They paint stories from their lives— their own experiences really show and they show their emotions. The way [90s hip-hop] was presented, the delivery — there was more thought put into it as an art form and more skill.”

Venkluri and Belshe attribute much of the evolution of the rap scene to the creation of music for mass production and consumption. Despite this, Venkluri doesn’t believe the rap scene has declined — rather, he believes that the best lyricism and rhythms of today are as good as the best music of the 90s. With the advent of Soundcloud rapping and proliferation of music over social media platforms, however, Venkluri explains that the rap music scene has merely gotten “bloated” with mediocre music as well.

Current artists whose music Venkluri believes is infused with 90s influences include A$AP Rocky (Rakim

Meyers) and Joey Bada$$ (Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott), Harlem and Brooklyn natives respectively. He also sees the thoughtful lyricism of 90s artists echoed in the work of artists like Pulitzer Prizewinning artist Kendrick Lamar (Kendrick Lamar Duckworth), a sentiment echoed by senior Samika Swamy, who also enjoys the rich lyricism of artists like Kanye West and Earl Sweatshirt (Thebe Neruda Kgositsile), both Chicago natives. However, Swamy explains WE CANNOT TAKE that she also enjoys THE PIECES [OF the more melodious BLACK CULTURE] THAT vocals and snare PEOPLE THINK ARE beats of trap FUN AND WANT TO artists like Lil Uzi LISTEN TO WITHOUT Vert (Symere Bysil UNDERSTANDING Woods) and Playboi THE VERY REAL PAIN Carti (Jordan Carter). AND JOY FROM THE “[Trap music] puts BLACK COMMUNITY me in a good mood OF WHERE THIS because it’s also [CULTURE] COMES hype,” Swamy said. FROM.” “It keeps my energy HISTORY TEACHER BONNIE BELSHE level high. I like listening to that type of [music] while I do homework because it’s motivating, energizing and keeps you in a positive mood the whole time.” Along with its influence on music through history, Belshe explains that Black culture, specifically Black hiphop vernacular, has shaped “mass pop culture” today. With the mass proliferation of Black America’s music through history, and with it, Black culture, Belshe emphasizes the importance of acknowledging where the art and culture that people consume originates from. “We have to acknowledge that and understand that and look to make reparations against those Black people that have [been discriminated against for expressing that pop culture],” Belshe said. “Much of what is considered ‘academic’ and ‘professional’ is from white supremacy. We cannot take the pieces [of Black culture] that people think are fun and want to listen to without understanding the very real pain and joy from the Black community of where this [culture] comes from.”

HIP-HOP

THE GAMING REVOLUTION

Exploring how gaming has impacted MVHS community members’ lives BY CRYSTAL CHENG AND SHIVANI VERMA

When science teacher Kyle Jones was in college, he and his roommates were completely immersed in the world of console game Mario Kart 64. He recalls taking the game “to another level” — having gaming tournaments with his friends, keeping track of scores and even collecting their data in graphs. Video games, whether as consoles or online games, have always been a part of Jones’ life since he started playing at 7 years old.

“I remember putting hours and hours and hours of time into the original Pokémon games on GameBoy Color on family road trips, just sitting in the car playing that over and over again,” Jones said. “[The games] allowed me to sort of be immersed into a world where I could just do something that was fun, interesting and engaging.”

To Jones, games were essential to his childhood, especially because he was at the right age for what he calls the “video game revolution.” He started playing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, more commonly known as the NES, but ended up using the Nintendo 64 console the most. Since Jones was in middle school, he says he had enough free time and not too much responsibility.

Along with a few other older gaming systems, senior Shalini Krish also owns the Nintendo 64 — although it only works if you “hit it.” To her, this gaming system is associated with the older generation of gaming. Many of the games she’s played that she believes are “notable” are ones that stemmed from the older gaming systems rather than the new ones she uses today.

One of Krish’s favorite games is Breath of the Wild, an open-world console game where players are given the freedom to explore and take their own journeys. Jones has noticed that this expansive storytelling quality has arisen in games over the years, as they’ve improved their graphics, become longer and more complex and now, more immersive and engaging. Part of this complexity and challenge adds to what Jones believes is one of the benefits of gaming, especially for people who may be more introverted.

“The thing about video games is that it provides you with a challenge in a relatively safe environment,” Jones said. “Certain things can provide you with a challenge in real life, but there [could be] a lot of anxiety around them. But in video games … you can practice with yourself and it feels a little bit less intense. You’re not going to be publicly embarrassed if you make a mistake, right? Your peers are not crowding around you like if you’re playing soccer [or] something [where] everyone’s watching you.”

While Principles of Engineering teacher Ted Shinta believes that games are good for recreation, he warns people against getting too attached. He was first introduced to gaming in college through arcades, where he enjoyed frequent games of pinball with his friends. After, when video console games first released, not only was he unable to afford consoles such as the NES, he simply wasn’t very impressed, believing the console to be “pixelated” and “not very good.” It was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or the SNES, which came out in 1990, that finally got him into console gaming and

specifically role-playing games.

However, at one point, Shinta found himself on the final level of a Final Fantasy game unable to beat the boss. After spending countless hours and days maxing out his character’s strengths, his frustration led him to look on a website with tips and tricks he initially refused to look on because he thought “it [was] like cheating.” Once on the website, he discovered the reason for his inability to beat the level — the experience soured games in his mind.

“I found out that there was something in the middle of the game that you were supposed to find under a rock, and I didn’t find it [but] I had everything else except that one thing,” Shinta said. “If I want[ed] to go back to that point ... I’d have to fight my way back through the game. So then I got disgusted with games and I realized, I’m working and I’m wasting all this time playing games [when] I could just work another job.”

Despite his beliefs about the benefits, Jones also believes he “probably spent too much time playing games” in high school and in college, missing out on opportunities when getting absorbed in video games.

“It was almost an easy way to get out of having to do things that would have been more beneficial for my growth,” Jones said. “Instead of putting myself out there in social situations, I just defaulted into playing games. If I could go back, I would make sure that I had a more balanced approach to gaming in the sense that I would not use it as a crutch where I had some social anxiety.”

However, Krish sees benefits of gaming that go beyond simple enjoyment and hopes that it can be integrated into other fields, such as computer science, which she plans to pursue. Ultimately, she encourages others to explore gaming.

“I feel like gaming is a really big part of culture,” Krish said. “It’s an entire community, right? You have people from different games bonding over the same thing. I do see a lot of potential for gaming, and I feel like it shouldn’t be something that’s limited to nerds or geeks or something but should be just a general shared experience.”

GAME TIME

NES (1983)

Nintendo Entertainment System

There were only three games that came with the system at its first release in Japan: F-Zero, Pilotwings and Super Mario World.

N64 (1996)

Nintendo 64

This was the first console to feature 3D graphics and an analog stick. Later, players sued Nintendo because they developed blisters from playing with the console’s analog stick.

Gameboy Color

(1998)

The GameBoy Color allowed up to 56 colors to be displayed on the screen, an improvement from only four with its predecessor, the Game Boy.

GRAPHICS | SOPHIA MA

TIE-DYE REVIVAL

Delving into the resurgence of hippie fashion in the MVHS community BY ADITYA SHUKLA

Leather boots. Tie-dye shirts. Halter tops and flare jeans. All these articles of clothing trace their popularity back to the fashion era of the 1960s and continue to leave their mark on pop culture today. The hippie movement of the 1960s that was born out of opposition to the Vietnam War bled into fashion choices, and icons like Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles further popularized these trends.

This era of clothing has had a small resurgence within popular culture, with MVHS students adopting flare jeans and leather boots into their wardrobes. Almost 60 years after the hippie movement, junior Kailey Daugherty finds an alternate quality to the movements presentation, and her ventures into niche clothing often lead her to this type of fashion.

Colorful headbands, large earrings, thighhigh boots and freeflowing dresses are a few iconic ‘60s accessories that pique Daugherty’s interests. She attributes another aspect of its appealing presentation to the high amounts of contrast between colorful clothing with natural tones.

“Honestly, I think since [the hippie movement is] so bold and colorful, it makes it really fun,” Daugherty said. “That’s why it’s super inviting for a lot of people, and I like to be experimental with my fashion. So if I ever see something and I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, that can look good,’ then I will try it, and a lot of the time it is ‘60s fashion.”

For art teacher Jodi Johnson, the hippie movement represented an opposition to cultural norms, especially within the roles of men and women and family structures. This form of opposition came to a visual platform in the form of how free and expressive the clothing was — a sharp contrast to the formality of the ‘50s fashion.

“I think a lot of the hippie movement [was] people trying to express themselves and trying to break away from that really rigid [family structure],” Johnson said. “The ‘50s were [characterized by] all the housewives [being] dressed [formally] all the time. I think the hippie revolution [was] really trying to break away from that and [used] bright colors and free flowing and those things. There’s much less [rigidness] in the way people dress now.” Sophomore Madison Polidoro also says the era of counterculture in the 1960s is what made the hippie movement’s colorful and earthy presentation appealing. She uses “unique” and “original” to note that the modern world’s accessibility to a wide variety I FEEL LIKE PEOPLE STILL ARE INTO of fashionable selections helps people look back [HIPPIE FASHION] into the past for BECAUSE IT’S FUN. the best way to IT’S LIKE DRESSING UP IN A COSTUME. SOPHOMORE express their values. However, Polidoro also states that the MADISON POLIDORO current era of fashion isn’t counterculture like the 1960s — rather, she finds the modern-day interpretation of hippie fashion to be more of a search for originality and vibrance than a message-backed statement. “I feel like it’s nice to have something that you feel confident in,” Polidoro said, “All black [clothing] is really nice [to wear] sometimes, but having something vibrant makes it more fun to wear, and so I feel like people still are into [hippie fashion] because it’s fun. It’s like dressing up in a costume. It was like a symbol of hope and optimism and positivity, [and] I feel like people still need that. The world hasn’t gotten a lot better since that movement — people still want something like that to brighten their wardrobes.”

ILLUSTRATION | LILLIAN WANG

6

NEW FILMS, OLD IDEAS

Exploring the roots of contemporary cinema from the 1970s BY NAMEEK CHOWDHURY

As an adolescent during the 1970s, art teacher Jay Shelton remembers going to the theater to watch films during what he describes as a “magic era.” For him, the decade was defined by its creative freedom, with past filmmaking censorship being phased out due to changing societal norms.

“By the time we get to the ‘70s, American film is open and free, and it can be whatever you want to be,” Shelton said. “You have these young directors like Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and many more, and it just became this passion of creativity.”

According to junior Niko Kocbayindiran, this creativity during the 1970s led to the rise of absurdist comedy, which still has a large influence on modern films. He notes parallels between classics such as “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and more modern flicks like “Hot Fuzz.”

“I can see a lot of [‘70s] humor mimicked today, specifically because of the internet,” Kocbayindiran said. “For example, in ‘Blazing Saddles,’ a great comedy from the era which has aged really well. A lot of internet humor has this breakneck [comedic] pacing.“

As the 1970s allowed films to be or make a sequel. We can make ‘Star more creative, Shelton believes that Wars’ 20 times.’” mental health represented in film during In the modern era, however, the way the period became that blockbusters closer to reality. In the WHAT appeal to audiences modern era, English [BLOCKBUSTERS] has changed. teacher Melissa Clark observes that mental health is still being SHOWED WAS THAT STUDIOS DIDN’T HAVE According to Shelton, modern fans of blockbuster portrayed in more TO TAKE RISKS. franchises base modern films. “There’s definitely ART TEACHER their opinions and excitement on how been a lot of movies JAY SHELTON well a movie does that are dealing with financially, a shift characters that might have some from the 1970s when the people who form of depression or even a [mental] cared about box-office earnings were illness,” Clark said. “Either those in the film industry. Additionally, Clark people have been points out that excitement on social I CAN SEE A LOT in the backgrounds in the movies, or media has an influence on whether or not she watches a certain movie in OF [‘70s] HUMOR they just never been theaters. MIMICKED TODAY, acknowledged.” “If a movie gets really hyped, I’ll tend SPECIFICALLY Along with the to watch it because I want to know BECAUSE OF THE INTERNET. creativity came financial incentive as the blockbuster what’s going on,” Clark said. “Even if it’s not good, I feel like I need to go see it to understand what everyone’s talking

JUNIOR NIKO KOCBAYINDIRAN film model emerged. This form of franchise building accounts for about.” Overall, Shelton attributes the use of themes and ideas from the 1970s, such a large number of as the blockbuster and the critique of films released, which Shelton believes America’s involvement overseas, as stems from the introduction of these a result of retread and lack of modern films in the 1970’s. innovation in film. “What [blockbusters] showed was “[Modern] films count on your that studios didn’t have to take risks, knowledge of previous work to do the with all these [artistically unique films],” work as a shortcut for them,” Shelton Shelton said. “Little by little they started said. “But when was the last time realizing, ‘We can just remake ‘Jaws’ something new came out?”