Clin D'oeil

Yo, whats up this is Tre Hardson

Also known to y’all as Slim Kid Tre

The topic for today is uh

The influence of jazz

Now, jazz has come a long way

Back in the days

There was bebop

And now its hip hop

Jazz was revolutionary

And hip hop is also revolutionary

Unlike rap

Rap’s not really getting the message across

Like our forefathers

Like the Gil Scott-Herons, you know

They paved the way

They set the pace

They set the tone

Like the Last Poets

All of these are great people, great minds

To do things to carry the torch of our ancestors

And to let us know what’s really, really going on around the world

Hip hop has definitely carried that torch in a positive way

Rap was a vehicle for stopping the violence

Just as jazz was back in the days

Back in the 60s, back in the 30s

Quincey Jones, McCoy Tyrner, Grant Green

Wes Montgomery, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis

Eric Gale, Phil Sanders, Freddie Hubbbard

Billy Higgins, Jimmy Smith, Wayne Shorter

Ahmad Jamal, Thelonius Monk – all big influences

For what it is that we do

And what it is that we are

As we take our stance in music

Jazz was also like a secret conversation

I mean, it was a universal language

So no matter what culture you came from

You would still hear the music

And feel the story even if you didn’t know the words

In hip hop

We have to put our all into it

So you can feel the energy coming across

Just the same as the saxophone player

Who played with the same intensity and feeling

And that’s what we’re all here for

To feel that love and vibration music

To uplift the people, indeed

So that is indeed an influence on me