Tag: rant

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business

Fact-checking for the Win

Google search mask with the text: "is it true?"
Fact-check 101 - step 1: google it

In my early days of blogging I was known for sarcastic rants about every topic I disliked. I stopped this because I did not do any good. Today I have a relapse because I need to get something out.

There is one thing that gets more and more uncommon in our society which leads to more and more stupid things being said and later to even more stupid actions happening. This rare thing is called fact-checking.

It means that you don’t run off to tell everybody everything you heard without checking if it is true. I am guilty of this as well sometimes, but at least I try. When the BC One Cypher UK went down, I heard that B-Boy Sunni lost in the first round and I told it to other people. Later I heard that he won the first round but pulled out of the competition due to being sick. So the guy who lost against him could continue and win the whole competition. This second version of the story is the truth. Approximately a dozen people heard that he lost in the first round and this info was out. But it was wrong. Luckily, in that case, no real damage was done. But I was responsible for that false information being around.

Dance teachers, battle dancers, promoters, everyone who might be a role model in our scene: there are people who look up to us and treat everything we say as the truth. It is our responsibility to check that the stuff we spread is true.

Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but nobody shoud abuse this to spread lies or fake news. So when we have something we want to rant about: breath in and check

  • if you have the news from somebody who was acutally involved
  • if there is maybe the same info from different independent sources (me and my cat saying the same thing are not different sources as my cat gets the info from me)
  • if you are not entrapped to believe something because it plays well into a story that you want to believe
  • if you want to get this out because it fits well into your agenda

More often than not a shitstorm on social media happens because someone says something wrong and then the mob jumps onto it without checking or reflecting. If it’s wrong on purpose – means a lie – or just because this someone doesn’t know, does not make a big difference in the end. Don’t tell/post stuff that’s not true. If you don’t know, don’t post it. Don’t jump on a hate-train and demand to stone someone without checking if the claim is valid.

Shit like this happens enough in politics and the economy. Hip-Hop can do better than that. We can do better.

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blog

acknowledge your roots

Every great thing that happens has it’s roots somewhere. Hip hop freestyle is based on social dances and breaking took a lot from rocking and martial arts. Even krumping, which is not officially hip hop, can not deny that it has roots inside the hip hop culture. The music we krump to evolved from hip hop music, some of the moves that are used in krumping have been there before in the hip hop dance styles.

And you know what? There is nothing bad about that. Cultural movements can part, despite the fact of having common roots. What’s not ok, is denying your roots. None of us would be doing what we do, without the people who layed down the foundation. And there is a foundation to everything new, because nothing comes from nowhere.

If you have inspiration in other things, don’t deny it, own it.

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blog

don’t talk to talk

I am not quite sure if I’ve become intolerant or if our society cultivated a certain kind of behaviour where it seems more important to talk about stuff, than actually doing it.

For every guy out there that is creating something or doing his own thing there are five that talk stupid behind his back or upfront without ever trying to do the same he does.  That is plain stupid.

I think most of us know when they have something valuable to say and when not. If the big NOT is the case, it is a great thing to remain silent or openly state that you have nothing to contribute in the actual matter.

Of course there is nothing wrong about giving feedback to other people. That is one hell of an important tool that helps us grow in whatever we do. But giving somebody shallow or crude feedback that is far beneath the amount of thought that went into creating the thing or idea in the first place, is an affront and a waste of precious time.

If you want to waste some time, waste yours. Don’t get into the way of people who actually do things.

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blog

Tight Eyez vs Junior or Krump vs Breaking

Usually I do not comment on battles and recent stuff but at the moment the Tight Eyez vs Junior thing is getting a little bit out of control because a lot of people miss the context of what happened. Everybody who does not know what I am talking about can check the video here.

The thing is: the discussion is evolving into some krunping vs breaking thing. But the truth is – this is not about dance styles. Dance styles do not disrespect each other. People do. This is not even about the battle and who won. This is about one guys missjudgement of what he can do or can not do.

There only two reasons why one would make this a matter of dancestyle. Either one is stupid and does not understand that this is not about dance or there is an agenda to create extra fuzz around it.

Both reasons are not to be supported. So be clear on what we talk about: Respect and disrespect between people, not dancestyles. Don’t make a war from this, that should not there. That is happening enough in real politics, we don’t need this shit in dance.

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blog

a plea to the djs

Todays post is about laziness … and how it does damage to people that did work that some of us make their money with. DJs that play only their own stuff can stop reading here.

The following stuff is based on laws in Austria. Most countries have their own societies for that and the details in the process may vary but the concept stays the same.

In Austria we have a very controversial insitution: the AKM. It is the copyright collecting society for musicians an composers. This means whenever a piece of music is played in a commercial context, the AKM takes care of giving some money to the people who created that music.

That’s great, right? Yep but a lot of DJs don’t care about doing their part in giving the people their money. Because the AKM gets money from the promoters. Either with a yearly fee or on a per event plan. The money goes to the artists of the music that was played during the event. But the AKM needs to know which music was played. And it is your responsibility as the one who plays the music to send your setlist there. If you don’t do this the fee that is payed by the promoter is distributed via a distribution key that favors mainstream artist and well known composers.

Damn, that means by not handing in the list of your set, you give money to the people that are aired on mainstream radiostations instead of the people that made the awesome sound you are playing. Shame!

 

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blog

Playing the missing Instrument

At the Red Bull Beat Riders Camp in 2007 we had a lot of discussions about topics related to dance and life in general. One evening was about musicality in dance. B-Girl Asia 1 made the following statement:

When dancing I don’t follow the music. It is more like I am playing the missing instrument to the track.

While Asia 1 is really doing what she says she is doing, the same statement is often used by other people to justify the fact that they are off-beat and not listening to the music while dancing.

The thing is: improvising an instrument to an existing piece of music is not as easy as it may sound. You can not just do “whatever you want”. To make such an endeavour successfull you have to follow the rules of the music played. Using it as an excuse to dance without a relationship to the music is disrespectful to the people who can actually do it. There are people out there who can pull it of. Asia 1, who made the original quote, is one of them. If you are not, don’t worry – all is good. But please don’t make claims you are doing it, when you have trouble hearing the music or you just don’t care enough.

#thinklikeamusician

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blog

Being upset without listening?

Sometimes you meet people that don’t listen to the things you say, but they get upset about the things they think you said.

I know that can happen when there is a language barrier. So people have to communicate in languages they don’t fully understand. Or the topic might be totally boring and therefore somebody does not listen.

But I do not understand why shit like this is happening when people talk about at topic that is relevant to everybody in the discussion AND everybody speaks the same language. We need to start paying attention to the things others are saying in order to understand what they mean.