Mixtape
under construction
"not only can we never forget it but we never forget who we are."
-Marcyliena Morgan
When Amina discovers her mother's mix tapes, the songs reflect Fatima and Muhammad's migration stories to America, and serve as a roadmap to Amina’s identity.
Amina is able to create her own playlist, preserve her roots, and hear her true self in the process.
Definitions: "The mixtape is defined as a compilation of songs recorded (as onto a cassette tape or a CD) from various sources. " Amina discovers and begin to sample the tapes.
The Sampler
the brain
is a sampler
In Hip hop is like alchmey. It's an art form that rearranges space and time.
-Rodney Carmichael
Music not only records and remembers, but lives within us. Like DNA it has genetic memory that can't be destroyed.
The traditions of hip hop; specfically sampling achieves this.
Whenever we listen or dance to music, we are remembering histories and building off traditions towards the future.
Sampling allows Amina to unlock and rearrange memories in the present. A dance ensues between the feeling of being watched and watched over, as memories of herself with her mother create an oppositional gaze to surveillance.
Definitions:"A sampler is defined as as electronic or digital musical instrument which uses sound recordings (or "samples") of real instrument sounds (e.g., a piano, violin or trumpet), excerpts from recorded songs (e.g., a five-second bass guitar riff from a funk song) or found sounds (e.g., sirens and ocean waves)."
“Neuroscience is barely catching up to Hip Hop in understanding that music records, remembers, and lives within us. Our brains have been compared to light bulbs and computers, but the more I learn about how memory operates, the more it feels like the Brain is a sampler. Our memories are samples that are constantly rearranged and given new meaning, ”
