@emsteemians is an initiative created by @elamental to support CONSCIOUS hip-hop emcees, DJs, and producers on the Steemit platform. I have noticed some support systems for Steemit musicians, but there is a serious lack of organized support for hip-hop on Steemit, especially of the conscious variety.

My goal with @emsteemians is to fill this void, provide a curation-support system for all conscious hip-hop I come across on Steemit, and create collaborative oriented contests that are not always solely competitive.

WHAT DO I MEAN BY "CONSCIOUS HIP-HOP"?

Conscious Hip-Hop demonstrates lyrics and instrumentals with the intent of spreading wisdom for healing humanity, the Earth, and proliferating the messages of truth and freedom. Topics in this category may also include promoting cannabis as the divine plant medicine that it is, overthrowing oppressive governments, and reporting on the woes of society that are often overlooked and/or ignored. Promoting lyricists with this kind of content will inspire higher awareness, consciousness, and action from our brothers and sisters who we share this planet with. Conscious Hip-Hop seeks to put people in touch with what is really going on in this world, and make everyone who listens aware that it is each and every person's responsibility to take every action they can to change things for the better. Small steps made by many can change the world.

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Hip-Hop properly defined by one of hip-hop's founding fathers, Professor Griff of Public Enemy, is actually an acronym.

"H.I.P. H.O.P. stands for, ‘high infinite power healing our people.’ This is contrast to the rap sometimes mistaken for hip-hop. Hip-hop is the umbrella, and rap is inside it. Most rap contains misogynistic material within its lyrics while hip-hop is positive, uplifting and attempts to raise consciousness. This was the crusade of Public Enemy" (1).

Conscious Hip-Hop is not limited to just the lyrics however. Consciously inclined instrumentals with tones of spirit, ancient ceremonial instruments, along with native style flutes is also a part of the conscious Hip-Hop movement. Of course other types of beats are used in conscious hip-hop, as the conscious spirit oriented Hip-Hop instrumentals are actually a lot more rare than the conscious lyrics themselves. I aim for this project to support all well made hip-hop instrumentals that conscious emcees support.

CONTENT @emsteemians WILL NOT SUPPORT

There is a crucial distinction between the two genres of "RAP" and "Hip-Hop", that is often overlooked or confused by the casual listener. Rap music is what you hear on the radio, with lyrics that support degrading women, idolizing money and ego, and glamorizing violence. Hip-Hop was not founded on these principals, and only due to the rise of "gangster rap" in the 80s and early 90s was hip-hop associated with these anti-principals. Conscious emcees across the board seek to bring Hip-Hop back to what it was truly destine to be, a conscious revolutionary movement to help humanity live in harmony with each other and our Mother Earth.

@emsteemians will only be supporting the conscious and the real, and those who support the whole truth, freedom, peace, love, spirit, and express true passion from deep within. Any kind of rap music presented that promotes violence, large corporations, or any other negative topic that digresses our ability to positively evolve and live synergistically with the Earth, WILL NOT be supported by this project.

If an emcee chooses to tell stories or create demonstrations or metaphors that revolve around any negative topics such as violence, but does so in a manor that demonstrates why it is wrong, or is bringing to light injustices of the world, then it would still be considered a conscious composition. However if an emcee uses violent or aggressive lyrics for the sake of promoting violence and aggression, with some misplaced sense of superiority derived from an aggression fed inflated ego, then that is obviously not conscious Hip-Hop, and is the type of content that I, along with many others, want to wipe clean of the Hip-Hop genre.

I wrote an article in my first month of actively posting on Steemit with a more in depth explanation of the true meaning of Hip-Hop, and the distinction between the two genres of "Hip-Hop" & "Rap".
The following however is a quote from my recent answer to the @tribesteemup bi-weekly question; can you unite the whole world?

"Some say that all the separation is what creates so many problems of this world, however it is not the separations themselves, but the reasons for those separations that require a more in depth examination to better understand the roots of our conflicts" (2). ~ @elamental

I also wanted to mention that @emsteemians will support anything spirit oriented, and while religious references are acceptable and sometimes necessary for conscious Hip-Hop, we will not be supporting music that is too religious, if I feel like someone's religious beliefs are being pushed on people too much through their music. Religion is not necessarily the same as spirituality, however I do respect people's religious denominations, if they have one, and support their freedom of religious choice.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

In order for this project to be effective, @emsteemians would either need one very large delegation, or a large amount of smaller delegations to have enough SP to really support conscious Hip-Hop on the Steemit platform. I considered a tiered delegation system originally, where delegators would receive a proportional percentage up-vote on their articles based on their delegation amount. I ultimately concluded however, that this type of delegation system would not be effective for actually supporting conscious Hip-Hop artists, since only random delegators would be getting up-votes, on potentially non-Hip-Hop related content.

Since it is unlikely that enough people would make small delegations to an account that most delegators will not even get up-votes from (unless they happen to be a Hip-Hop artist), it seems the only solution is to seek out an investor that would be willing to make a large delegation to make this initiative a reality. With a large enough delegation, I would have guaranteed prize support for the collaborative contests, by up-voting the contest articles, and using the rewards payouts to give back to the winners. I would also be able to deal out meaningful higher dollar up-votes to as many conscious Hip-Hop artists as possible, for their quality musical content on Steemit. I want to make conscious Hip-Hop artists on this platform feel like their music is truly supported here. If a large delegation is made to this account, all of the above will actualize.

WHERE TO BEGIN

Until a large delegation arrives, I have made a 100SP delegation from my @elamental account to @emsteemians to get things started, and am open to receiving delegations in any amount to help support this project. I am also asking all of my fellow Steemian friends/supporters to please re-steem this post to help get the word out. Starting today I will be looking for conscious Hip-Hop artists to start up-voting, and will be starting a curation trail when there are more than a few emsteemians involved. If you feel like you or someone you know falls in this category, please comment below with links to your/their music.

I will also be posting videos from this account, of certain emcees from Portland, OR that performed at @elamental's record release party. You can view these videos now on @elamental's blog, or click here for the compilation video that includes clips from every artist's set that night. You can also get @elamental's recently released debut album The Hex Wrecker FOR FREE by following the download instructions in this post. I already have many conscious Hip-Hop Steemit artists in mind to receive support from this project, who I will be posting about soon.

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The fact is that there is a need for this type of container on Steemit, not only because Hip-Hop is becoming a bigger part of this platform, and that Hip-Hop is a great way to promote Steemit, but because we should always support those who support the Earth and the betterment of humanity. Please help us help everyone by making true Hip-Hop artists feel at home here, and giving them the support they deserve. Giving more power to conscious emcees is giving more power to the rise of good deeds. Imagine how much easier it will be for conscious Hip-Hop artists to fund and promote their musical projects if they had a support system like this. A lot of us do this for free, even though we spend money on production and distribution.

Thank you for your consideration, and I hope you will become an integral part of this initiative's actualization. I will create a Discord Server and have a nice logo designed for this group sometime in the near future. Blessings everyone & stay tuned - into the right frequencies.

Sources:

1. https://www.thenortherner.com/arts-and-life/2009/02/25/professor-griff-speaks-to-hip-hop-our-minds/

2. https://steemit.com/tribesteemup/@elamental/can-you-unite-the-whole-world-my-answer-to-the-tribe-steem-up-bi-weekly-question

The @emsteemians logo located at the top of this article is based on the Hieroglyphics symbol, which is based on the Mayan symbol for 8 or infinity, and is only a temporary logo until an official one is created.

CLICK HERE to view an article about one of Hip-Hop's most controversial and influential artists, Tupac Shakur, the concious music he created early in his career, and the true meaning of T.h.u.g. L.i.f.e. ~ by @elamental.