Wow it's been ages since I've written a blog post. I've just been............................ who cares. Lets just start writing. Here in the U.K. because I'm a black man (proudly of Jamaican descent) I keep being lumped with the ''rudeboi/badman'' subculture. Allsorts of people think just because I have a similar style of clothing and I listen to hip hop I must be a rudeboi/badman.
The worst offenders are the so called ''alternative'' crowd. They're happy to lump every hip hop head, chav and rudeboi/badman into one catergory. Yet they'll kick up a fuss when you lump them together e.g. lumping goths, rivetheads and emos together or lumping punks and metalheads together. Also mentioning that conforming to ''non-corformity'' is still conforming. You'll be barraged with the usual tripe of ''No, we're individualist'' ''Not all goths or whatever so called alternative subculture look the same.''
They're right of course. Nobody in whatever subculture looks or acts the same but I digress and will come back to this topic on a later date.
As you should've guessed by now (and if you haven't I'm going to tell you anyway.) I am a hip hop head. And yes there's a difference between a hip hop head and a rudeboi/badman. I shall explain the differences with some help from wikipedia (I know it's lazy but I don't care.)
Oh btw I should mention that I'm going on about modern day U.K. rudeboi/badman not the ones from yard (Jamaica) or from the 60's and 70's!
A Hip Hop Head:
Is a person that is into the whole of the hip hop subculture. They would be involved in one of the 4 elements of hip hop (some would say 5 and KRS ONE says there are 9 elements of hip hop.) and they're not physical involved ine elements of hip hop, they would love to be involved in all aspects of hip hop culture. Sometimes we are labelled as Backpackers. However some find that term derogatory (I don't.)
The Modern Day U.K. Rudeboi/Badman:
I am going use the wikipedia links but I'm also going to elaborate and expand the meaning of Rudeboi/Badman.
The rudeboi/badman culture is the black (urban) culture of Britain today. It's the combination of the worst parts of hip hop culture, the worst parts of yardie (Jamaican) culture and chav culture. While it says on wikipedia that the term rudeboi/badman was used to describe this culture was in the early 2000's.
The modern day U.K. rudeboi/badman culture actually came about during the late 1980's/early 1990's. While the subculture is black, many races have adopted it from white, south asians and even some east asians. Also the music of the subculture tends to be mixed and changes quite often. The rudeboi/badman culture started in London and has spread to mainly english inner cities (less so in northern cities.)
There are some similarities between hip hop culture and rudeboi/badman culture. One of them being that Jamaicans have influenced both cultures. (Heck DJ Kool Herc is Jamaican and he started hip hop.)
I shall explain the similarities and the differences.
Fashion/Clothing:
Hip Hop Head - Hip Hop fashion and clothing tends to be expressive, colourful and made for comfort i.e. not too tight. The clothing tends to be hoodies, T-shirts, vests (tanktops), shirts, track bottoms (jogging bottoms), jeans, sneakers, worker boots, (throwback or non TB), baseball caps, beanies, bandannas, do-rags. Also some of the clothing tends to be custom made with graffiti art or in some cases tie dye. They wear allsorts of name brand clothing like Nike, FUBU, Reebok Pro-Keds, Adidas, Ecko Unlimited, Mecca USA, Lugz, Rocawear, Enyce etc. However, some hip hop heads (like me) tend to eschew name brands. The hair style seem to change with each era. Nowadays they seems to be a mix of hair styles from bald to dreadlocks to corn rows to afros. Hip hop fashion has influenced a lot of youth and subcultures all around the world. From everyone wearing hoodies to the showing of the underpants while wearing trousers (pants for you yanks.)
Hip Hop clothing has been influenced by U.S. prison culture, xtreme sports culture (mainly skater culture) and many other cultures (like basketball) and can and will continue to influence and evolve.
Rudeboi/Badman - Is quite similar to hip hop fashion and clothing but it tends to be more darker colours, less expressive and much more ''chavvy'' (I should note that nowadays this is starting to change the clothing has become more colourful.) The clothing brands are less American hip hop designer and more sportswear (again this changing.) There is also less expresion in terms of hair styles. The hair styles tend to be corn rows or short back and sides.
Slang/Language:
Hip Hop Head - will use mainly hip hop slang and language. They would also use there own language and regional accents and dialects aswell. Hip hop slang has been influenced by the black american experience in general. Also afro latin music and Jamaicans have also influenced hip hop language and slang. A hip hop head will use words like ''peace'', ''what's up''
Rudeboi/Badman - does use some hip hop slang and language but it more influenced by Yardie and London culture. Some rudebois from outside London will even have London like accents. A rudeboi/badman will use words like ''manz'', ''blud'', ''brap'', ''low it''.
Music:
Hip Hop Head - will generally listen to hip hop. Of course he or she won't only listen to hip hop. They'll listen to hip hop from all over the world.
Rudeboi/Badman - Has had a varied music affiliation. From Hip Hop to Ragga to Drum & Bass to UK Garage and it's subgenres and it's derivative genres like Grime (awful), Bassline and Dubstep (awful). Now they are begiining to affiliate more with hip hop (mainly U.K. hip hop).
They also seem to have a hypocritical disdain for some american hip hop and it's mannerism. They will shun any British rapper/MC that spits in an american accent yet will praise any british rapper/MC that spits in a Jamaican accent (toasting) or praise a non londoner rhyming in a London accent. It's fucking dumbarsery at its finest.
Mentality:
Hip Hop Head - Despite the media reports of hip hop causes violence. Hip Hop heads tend to be easy going and intelligent people. We're just normal people that loves hip hop culture. We tend to keep ourselves in shape and work out. So long as you're cool with us we're cool with you. Don't start nothing. there won't be nothing. Like with any clique, subculture or whatever, you have your good and your arseholes.
Rudeboi/Badman - Being that this culture is the combination of the worst parts of hip hop culture, the worst parts of yardie (Jamaican) culture and chav culture. The mentality of most of them are........... frankly repugnant. They always seem to have a chip on their shoulder. Looking at them in whatever way can be seen as an invitation to fight with them (this has happened to me on more than 1 occasion.) It's not too often to hear about how they have fought and killed someone over something so fucking petty and rediculous. I try to have as little contact and interaction with them as possible. Being that I dress more hip hop, am very dark skinned and have a very stern and angry look about me. I am often confused for a rudeboi/badman and people assume the worst of me.
Not all of them are repugnant but I'll say about 60% of them are negative. The rest are ok and in some cases pretty cool. If you want to see the what rudebois/badmen are like I suggest you watch these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidulthood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adulthood_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Boy
You should also watch this. It's a parody of the rudeboi/badman culture:
Well that's it. Make some comments and stuff.
The worst offenders are the so called ''alternative'' crowd. They're happy to lump every hip hop head, chav and rudeboi/badman into one catergory. Yet they'll kick up a fuss when you lump them together e.g. lumping goths, rivetheads and emos together or lumping punks and metalheads together. Also mentioning that conforming to ''non-corformity'' is still conforming. You'll be barraged with the usual tripe of ''No, we're individualist'' ''Not all goths or whatever so called alternative subculture look the same.''
They're right of course. Nobody in whatever subculture looks or acts the same but I digress and will come back to this topic on a later date.
As you should've guessed by now (and if you haven't I'm going to tell you anyway.) I am a hip hop head. And yes there's a difference between a hip hop head and a rudeboi/badman. I shall explain the differences with some help from wikipedia (I know it's lazy but I don't care.)
Oh btw I should mention that I'm going on about modern day U.K. rudeboi/badman not the ones from yard (Jamaica) or from the 60's and 70's!
A Hip Hop Head:
Is a person that is into the whole of the hip hop subculture. They would be involved in one of the 4 elements of hip hop (some would say 5 and KRS ONE says there are 9 elements of hip hop.) and they're not physical involved ine elements of hip hop, they would love to be involved in all aspects of hip hop culture. Sometimes we are labelled as Backpackers. However some find that term derogatory (I don't.)
The Modern Day U.K. Rudeboi/Badman:
I am going use the wikipedia links but I'm also going to elaborate and expand the meaning of Rudeboi/Badman.
The rudeboi/badman culture is the black (urban) culture of Britain today. It's the combination of the worst parts of hip hop culture, the worst parts of yardie (Jamaican) culture and chav culture. While it says on wikipedia that the term rudeboi/badman was used to describe this culture was in the early 2000's.
The modern day U.K. rudeboi/badman culture actually came about during the late 1980's/early 1990's. While the subculture is black, many races have adopted it from white, south asians and even some east asians. Also the music of the subculture tends to be mixed and changes quite often. The rudeboi/badman culture started in London and has spread to mainly english inner cities (less so in northern cities.)
There are some similarities between hip hop culture and rudeboi/badman culture. One of them being that Jamaicans have influenced both cultures. (Heck DJ Kool Herc is Jamaican and he started hip hop.)
I shall explain the similarities and the differences.
Fashion/Clothing:
Hip Hop Head - Hip Hop fashion and clothing tends to be expressive, colourful and made for comfort i.e. not too tight. The clothing tends to be hoodies, T-shirts, vests (tanktops), shirts, track bottoms (jogging bottoms), jeans, sneakers, worker boots, (throwback or non TB), baseball caps, beanies, bandannas, do-rags. Also some of the clothing tends to be custom made with graffiti art or in some cases tie dye. They wear allsorts of name brand clothing like Nike, FUBU, Reebok Pro-Keds, Adidas, Ecko Unlimited, Mecca USA, Lugz, Rocawear, Enyce etc. However, some hip hop heads (like me) tend to eschew name brands. The hair style seem to change with each era. Nowadays they seems to be a mix of hair styles from bald to dreadlocks to corn rows to afros. Hip hop fashion has influenced a lot of youth and subcultures all around the world. From everyone wearing hoodies to the showing of the underpants while wearing trousers (pants for you yanks.)
Hip Hop clothing has been influenced by U.S. prison culture, xtreme sports culture (mainly skater culture) and many other cultures (like basketball) and can and will continue to influence and evolve.
Rudeboi/Badman - Is quite similar to hip hop fashion and clothing but it tends to be more darker colours, less expressive and much more ''chavvy'' (I should note that nowadays this is starting to change the clothing has become more colourful.) The clothing brands are less American hip hop designer and more sportswear (again this changing.) There is also less expresion in terms of hair styles. The hair styles tend to be corn rows or short back and sides.
Slang/Language:
Hip Hop Head - will use mainly hip hop slang and language. They would also use there own language and regional accents and dialects aswell. Hip hop slang has been influenced by the black american experience in general. Also afro latin music and Jamaicans have also influenced hip hop language and slang. A hip hop head will use words like ''peace'', ''what's up''
Rudeboi/Badman - does use some hip hop slang and language but it more influenced by Yardie and London culture. Some rudebois from outside London will even have London like accents. A rudeboi/badman will use words like ''manz'', ''blud'', ''brap'', ''low it''.
Music:
Hip Hop Head - will generally listen to hip hop. Of course he or she won't only listen to hip hop. They'll listen to hip hop from all over the world.
Rudeboi/Badman - Has had a varied music affiliation. From Hip Hop to Ragga to Drum & Bass to UK Garage and it's subgenres and it's derivative genres like Grime (awful), Bassline and Dubstep (awful). Now they are begiining to affiliate more with hip hop (mainly U.K. hip hop).
They also seem to have a hypocritical disdain for some american hip hop and it's mannerism. They will shun any British rapper/MC that spits in an american accent yet will praise any british rapper/MC that spits in a Jamaican accent (toasting) or praise a non londoner rhyming in a London accent. It's fucking dumbarsery at its finest.
Mentality:
Hip Hop Head - Despite the media reports of hip hop causes violence. Hip Hop heads tend to be easy going and intelligent people. We're just normal people that loves hip hop culture. We tend to keep ourselves in shape and work out. So long as you're cool with us we're cool with you. Don't start nothing. there won't be nothing. Like with any clique, subculture or whatever, you have your good and your arseholes.
Rudeboi/Badman - Being that this culture is the combination of the worst parts of hip hop culture, the worst parts of yardie (Jamaican) culture and chav culture. The mentality of most of them are........... frankly repugnant. They always seem to have a chip on their shoulder. Looking at them in whatever way can be seen as an invitation to fight with them (this has happened to me on more than 1 occasion.) It's not too often to hear about how they have fought and killed someone over something so fucking petty and rediculous. I try to have as little contact and interaction with them as possible. Being that I dress more hip hop, am very dark skinned and have a very stern and angry look about me. I am often confused for a rudeboi/badman and people assume the worst of me.
Not all of them are repugnant but I'll say about 60% of them are negative. The rest are ok and in some cases pretty cool. If you want to see the what rudebois/badmen are like I suggest you watch these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidulthood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adulthood_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Boy
You should also watch this. It's a parody of the rudeboi/badman culture:
Well that's it. Make some comments and stuff.
