Wandering Muses Reflections

With the desire for more female presence in Hip Hop, I knew I wanted to use the mandala, as I have been so often recently. The circle seems so feminine, the egg, the curve. From there, I started looking at the female hip hopartists I love. Erykah Badu is among the top on the list. I've been very drawn to the art work on her last couple of albums and searched a bit to find the artist. Love almost all of his work and am particularly inspired by his work with Badu and the creative relationship they have. From this album cover I new I wanted incorporate pink and purple into my wandering muse piece. I also began to think about using a the female form, not any specific woman. This lead me to two other hop hop album covers that I have always loved...

(For more on the collaborations between Erykan Badu & Emerk see:

http://emek.net/posters/b/badu_covers_2008.html or www.Emek.net)

A Tribe Called Quest released these albums in the early 90s. I always loved the images of this figure. It's all about the tribal body not the individual. Tribe was also one of the original groups to bring conscious hip hop into the mainstream. I saw them performed the album above on the right, Midnight Marauders, last weekend. I definitely wanted to go with a close up figure like this but with zero doubt the gender is female.

I tried to find the artist who did this work to no avail. I even contacted JIVE records, who owns the rights to the cover art. So far, no reply. If anyone knows the artist, I'd love to be educated.

I thought I would listen to The Goddess Alchemy Project while painting and maybe incorporate some of their lyrics into the piece, for me they represent the divine feminine in hip hop. I also went to their website (http://www.goddessalchemyproject.com) to check out their artwork. They have creative talent moving in a lot of different directions. So, I was bound to find some inspiration...

This piece entitled "Alkemista" by Nikila Mamawisdom of the Goddess Alchemy Project, reinforced the mandala concept. From the overlapping mandala behind the woman's head in this painting came the idea of the overlapping of shapes and playing with the effect of the color and shade.

In the end, I discovered two artists in this process, Emek & Nikila Mamawisdom. I am still searching for the third artist who did the cover art for A Tribe Called Quest. The Wandering Muse piece I'm working on is almost complete. But you will have to wait for class next week to see it. So, far it looks nothing like these other artist's work but I can clearly see the influences. I'm like it so far.

:)

Ladies

An amazing range of things emerged for me at my Wandering Muse day at the Rock The Bells Hip Hop Festival last Sunday. I'm not going to attempt to cover it all in one post but I will say I left satisfied that my love of Tribe Called Quest & KRS-One is rooted in something far greater than nostalgia alone. That said, I started the day struggling inside. Outwardly, I feel like my struggle for hip hop is to allow people to hear the music beyond the stereotype, to help myself and others bridge the cultural gap and experience the universal messages. Inwardly, my major struggle with hip hop is a lack focus on female representation. Where my ladies at?! We need to step up, drop money, be heard, and represent because the hip hop industry is not doing that for us.

The line up was almost entirely men. The only woman in the line up was Lauryn Hill, DIVA beyond DIVA! Yes, she gets accolades for her talent but her behavior lacks respect for her peers, the musicians on stage with her, and her fans, which makes me not want to be one anymore. And that is what we had to represent the ladies at the longest running, most successful hip hop festival in the world. Seriously? Then looking around, well, there were some women in the crowd. Maybe 1 to 7 or so. I'll admit I do fall into that consumer stereotype of women when it comes to events like this. I have pride in my love of hip hop music, culture, and art. And while I'm not rich, I'm willing to drop money to support it and represent it. I was looking for art/clothes that represented hip hop and consciousness. I was happy to see quite a bit of it. More than the gangsta bent that the mainstream associates with rap, if not hip hop. The problem... "Do you have that in women's sizes?" I had several vendors look at me with a blank stare as if I wasn't speaking in English. Argh!

Let's start with MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Pam The Funkstress, Salt-n-Pepa, Miss Elliott, Lil Kim, Eve, M.I.A., Lady of Rage, Foxy Brown, Angie Stone, Erykah Badu, Goddess Alchemy Project, Lil Mama, J.J. Fad, Monie Love, Jean Grae, Khia, Remy Ma, Fergie, and it goes on and on. Those are just the artists representing the ladies in the house! There are far more of us in the listening/paying audience. I hate to say it but it seems to me that at least at this venue for hip hop women are being subjugated in a way that has nothing to do with objectifying lyrics. One's presence must be acknowledged, let alone valued, in the hip hop market place.

I should mention that KRS-One spoke to the absolute importance of women to hip hop and hip hop culture. It's not the first time this man has managed to keep me open by acknowledging what is burning in me. I'll always love and respect his wisdom. Still, where is my female Teacha? I know she's not silent but she's also not being heard.

Hm...