As some of you might have already noticed, I am currently residing in London and working on my diploma project for the MA Sound Arts course at LCC / University of the Arts London.

Aside from that, I am fortunate enough to have met a lot of influential people in the last months here, that's why I am actually writing this post. One of these persons and also a current colleague of mine is Karl Gibson a.k.a. DJ Fingers and he is one of europe's true originators in my opinion. That's why I'm sharing these videos: Just see for yourself and you'll know what I mean... (btw the footage is from 1987!) This one belongs, by all means, in the Respect section.

But that's not the whole story. Karl is, like me, working on his masters, which in his case is a book that's due to be released soon called The Misappropriation of Hip-Hop. It's basically about how the original spirituality of Hip-Hop has been replaced over the last two decades by a negative, media-supported stereotype image and about the multiple influences that caused this change. Having been confronted with some excerpts, this text has opened my eyes to some extent, made me think about hip-hop in a way I haven't before, and taught me some aspects about the movement I didn't know yet. I'm not trying to judge in any way here, it's just my personal view, but if you're interested, make up your own mind: Here's a promo video with a few passages read.

For more information and a very in-depth and precise explanation of his work and thought, I strongly advise you to visit DJ Finger's MySpace page.

Peace.