Ron's+paper-Temple+of+Hip+Hop

Temple of Hip Hop Ron Cliff Hinton So I know what your'e thinking... Black man does Temple of Hip Hop because it would be "natural" him right? Well I mean, you're right. It is easy for me to do the temple of Hip Hop but not because of my African-American race. The temple of Hip Hop has been a personal influence in my life and has helped influence me in my journey through diversity and my career as an hip hop artist. See, i'm an MC and I go by the name of Cliff McCoy and my journey as an MC started my Junior year of High School in North West Washington D.C.

That's me. Cliff McCoy the MC. A personal productt from the Temple of Hip Hop.

When I was junior in High School at Theodore Roosevelt High in NW Washington DC, things were bad. In fact, I think they still may be just as bad. I got recruited to play basketball for the nationally ranked Rough Riders. Yes, the mascot is the Rough Riders. Coming from a high school in North Carolina the influence of the dominant social paradigm for inner city america was into effect in my eyes. Coming to DC and visiting the school before I decided to transfer, I saw what it was like and it really did seem like I was living in an episode of the movie "Lean on Me" with Morgan Freeman narrating it. Dennis Pirages and Paul Ehrlich help define the dominant social paradigm as "a mental image of social reality that guides expectations in a society." When I arrived at TRHS I didn't expect for my classmates and teammates to be anything but products of the streets. I didn't really fit in with my school even though I was the same color.

Besides my teammates I really had no friends at school. A lot of people saw me as the country outsider that thought he was better than everyone because he could read better. Seriously, somebody told me that in the middle of class one day. I had to work twice as hard to just blend in. I took a sound media production course that was centered around making projects with different sounds and it involved producing. Many of my classmates loved hip hop, R&B, rap, and go-go music and on their free time in class recorded it using the computer software we had available. One day, our teacher brought in a guest speaker. KRS ONE. KRS ONE came and spoke to our class that day and told us about the true meaning of hip hop. He spoke little about the Temple of Hip Hop but mentioned it.

KRS ONE is a hip hop artist that has been on the scene since 1986. He along with fellow hip hop artist such as RUN DMC and Afrika Bombattaa started the game and laid the ground work for what is today's version of hip hop music. He started the Temple of Hip Hop in 1996 and has used the Temple to promote true hip hop values and why it started. He noted that many of today's hip hop artists use hip hop to promote the very things he worked against. The Temple of Hip Hop teaches that there are four main cornerstones of Hip Hop. B-Boying (Break Dancing), MC-ing (rapping), DJ-ing, and Tagging (Graffiti artist). The Temple also defines Hip Hop as the artistic response to oppression.

Many of my classmates and teammates were oppressed. Oppression was something I had never had to face before. Something that never really effected me directly. All I knew about oppression was the definition and what was taught to me in school. When I moved to DC I saw the oppression of my fellow students. I saw the streets, gangs, domestic violence, teachers, administrators, the police, members of the community oppressing them. Holding them down. Pushing them back. People came from homes where parents didn't care. Parents told them that they were nothing and many of my peers turned to things such as selling drugs, joining gangs, and violence as their recreation.

KRS ONE started the Temple to fight oppression. To fight the streets crime. To fight against violence among our young people. Sports used to be a major outlet and still is in the inner city. The Temple of Hip Hop and Hip Hop provided another outlet for our youth. After KRS visited Roosevelt instead of fighting we used to Rap Battle. A lot of us could rap. None of us were really into tagging or dancing but we all had bars. The Temple changed my world and my school for awhile. By changing the school I believed it changed our community. People used to DJ out at the basketball courts for hours while we played. At nights, I remember the court turning into a cypher spot. Hip Hop changed lives. Hip Hop helped me make friends and fit in with my peers. Hip Hop and the Temple changed my view of the social paradigm because I didn't just see my classmates as drug dealers, abusers, and bandits but as artists, poets, and positive expressionists.

Even though my music has changed a lot since High School, I always keep one motto. I keep it real.



=^Click that link above. It is my song Whatever you want (remix) featuring Kid Comz=

This song mentions my DC life and my dad's influence.

