Ameni. Hope all is well.
Today, I would like to talk about the true magic of Hip-Hop, and what it really means when we say "Hip-Hop Magi."
Hip-Hop is a culture about intelligent-moving self expression. As all of life in itself is an expression of physically unseen forces, and that process of expressing oneself is its own magic, you can see how we get this title and it permeates everything we do. Writing is called "spelling" in school for a reason. To give more context, we'd like to review the four principles and four elements of Hip-Hop.
The 4 Principles of Hip-Hop are Peace, Love, Joy and Unity. These principles are things that all of humanity would like for their lives. No matter how you get there, this is where you're looking to be. This means that the best way for this to be possible is to actively express those qualities in your actions. Hip-Hop has (as of the last 15-20 years) not expressed these things in the mainstream environment due to the intentions of those releasing the music. However, the original idea was to express and defend these principles within the community. Everything you do is for these 4 Principles.
The 4 Elements of Hip-Hop are Graffiti Writing (or Art/Wall Art), Deejayin' (or Transmutation/ Alchemy), MC'ing (Master of Ceremonies, or Rhythm and Poetry, aka Rap) and Breaking (or break dancing, b-boying, or dance in general). As you can see by the quick explanations of each element, these are also things that humanity has done for as long as we've been on the planet. We have always used wall art, poetry/divine speech, dance, and the transmutation of the environment around us to express ourselves and emphasize the 4 Principles above.
Along with this, as artists, we know that our ideas come from an unseen force that is expressed through us, then translated and alchemized through our medium of expression, and showcasing or presenting that to others can create endless ways of sustaining ourselves. How is this not magic?
We mention these things because doing these things allow you to create a life for yourself, so long as you are expressing yourself authentically. Expressions with no principles will always lead to chaos, and that's what we are looking to avoid by realizing the power we have and how to use it.
Meditate on this today. Ameni.