The Hyphy Movement

I'm really interested in the hyphy movement and it's glorification of all things excessive. It became extremely popular and continues to spread, and I'd like to know why. It's pretty much diametrically opposed to the equally popular, and often equally empty/meaningless, "green" movement. What's going on?!

Considering the two lame hyphy puns on my blog, I thought it would be appropriate to explain what Hyphy is for those who may not be familiar with it, and also to tie it in to the idea of the San Francisco "contado". If you have any thoughts, please comment! I'd be really interested to hear what you think about how this relates to the course, especially since I arguably spent way too much time compiling these videos...

A) What is Hyphy?: Some introductory videos to the so-called Hyphy movement

1. Berkeley High students - "We started that shit" vs. "Hyphy is spreadin! I'm up in a suburb of seattle and we're goin stupid, dumb, retarded, mayne.. yadadida?! " Why are people going stupid in the suburbs? Does it carry the same meaning when reiterated in a Seattle suburb?
2. E-40, Vallejo rapper, on the definition of Hyphy. Note that it's explicitly called San Francisco's hyphy movement in the sidebar. Is hyphy the worldwide phenomenon he claims? Can San Francisco claim the hyphy movement?
3. How does hyphy affect society? There's a lot going on here, especially in terms of what was included in and what was left out of this video.
4. CSU Long Beach and Fairfield High (skip to 2:50, everyone gets excited when E-40 is played)
5. The most informative of the videos?

The commentary on all of these videos is also useful, and provides some insight into how people conceptualize locations and why they might come to personally identify with them, i.e. rep' their cities.

It might also be worth comparing Ferlinghetti's portrait of cultural diversity and minority life in San Francisco to those presented in these and other videos. He seems to teeter between (a) depicting the city as previously culturally diverse and accepting but moving toward homogenization and (b) an indictment of it as a hodgepodge of antagonistic racial groups (for example in "Baseball Canto" or "The Great Chinese Dragon").