| Yo, whats up this is Tre Hardson
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| Also known to you all as Slim Kid Tre
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| And the topic of today is uh
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| The influence of jazz
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| Now, jazz has come a long way
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| Back in the days
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| There was bebop
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| And now its hip hop
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| Jazz was revolutionary
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| And hip hop is also revolutionary
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| Unlike rap
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| Rap’s not really getting the message across
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| Like our forefathers
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| Like the Gil Scott-Herons, you know
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| They paved the way
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| They set the pace
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| They set the tone
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| Like the Last Poets
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| All of these are great people, great minds
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| To do things to carry the torch of our ancestors
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| To let us know what’s really, really going on around the world
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| Hip hop has definitely carried that torch in a positive way
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| Rap was a vehicle for stopping the violence
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| Just as jazz was back in the days
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| Back in the 60s, back in the 30s
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| Quincy Jones, McCoy Tyrner, Grant Green
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| Wes Montgomery, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis
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| Eric Gale, Phil Sanders, Freddie Hubbbard
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| Billy Higgins, Jimmy Smith, Wayne Shorter
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| Ahmad Jamal, Thelonius Monk — all big influences
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| For what it is that we do
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| And what it is that we are
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| As we take our stance in music
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| Jazz was also like a secret conversation
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| I mean, it was a universal language
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| So no matter what culture you came from
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| You would still hear the music
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| And feel the story even if you didn’t know the words
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| In hip hop
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| We have to put our all into it
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| So you can feel the energy coming across just the same as the saxophone player
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| Who played with the same intensity and feeling
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| And that’s what we’re all here for
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| To feel that love and vibration in music
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| To uplift the people, indeed
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| To uplift the people, indeed
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| So that is indeed an influence on me |