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Teachers and Teens Mine the Message of Hip-Hop
Loading ...STAMFORD — Joe Celsis and Dave Wooley are the d_Cyphernauts, a hip-hop group that formed in 2000 in the South Bronx.
They also are English teachers at Westhill High School, where they hosted the third annual Westhill Hip-Hop Summit on Saturday. It’s aim is to set the record straight about the cultural value of hip-hop.
“I got involved in hip-hop in its infancy, and back then the most powerful rappers were rapping with a message,” Celsis told students and performers in the school lobby Saturday afternoon.
Even rap groups such as Public Enemy and Slick Rick served up themes such as crime doesn’t pay, he said.
“There was always the message that in the end there was a heavy price to pay,” Celsis said.
But today, the hip-hop messages aimed at social activism have been lost to a music industry more interested in turning profits than artistic themes, many at the summit said.
“I’m not saying there are not pockets of creativity in rap,” chimed in Armando Acevedo, aka Sketch the Cataclysm, a 27-year-old hip-hop emcee from Bridgeport. “But it is not being put out. The radio isn’t working for us. It tends to have a one-sided view of what the music should be.”
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