Too Legit to Quit

Yeah, yeah. Before you tell me I’m hopelessly outdated, I know that “Too Legit to Quit” is an M.C. Hammer song and the picture on this post is Queen Latifah. I have no idea if these artists are considered Hip Hop. I think they are. But definitely Old Skool. Like me. None of us have anything on Young Skool, which is clearly the Skool my almost five year old Goddaughter Amelia May attends. I didn’t even get a chance to get her enrolled in Ballet classes — which I believe is in the Godmother’s charter of duties — when I was informed that she is taking Hip Hop dance class. At Junior K. Which we Old Skoolers knew as pre-school. This afternoon Amelia May told me that Hip Hop was her favorite class. And she suggested we have a Hip Hop dance party. Which means I scroll the internet channels looking for good tunes and she demonstrates her fly moves. Put on the spot with the remote, that’s when I started racking my brain to see if I could name even one Hip Hop artist. So, if Queen Latifah counts, yeah, I’ve got one of her CDs. It’s that one where she sings standards. Does that count? Oh, and I loved her in Chicago where she channeled Ma Rainey to steal every scene she was in.

By the way, can Hollywood get on the stick and find a way to really tap into Latifah’s talents? She should be helming a long-overdue biopic of Bessie Smith.

But I digress. Clearly as a ploy to cover my complete ignorance of exactly what Hip Hop is — either the music or the dance. I have a feeling I’ll learn pretty quickly. Amelia May is busting some pretty serious moves.

I have a feeling Amelia’s going to raise the Hip Hop bar even higher and bring Princess dresses into the mix. Professor Wikipedia tells me Hip Hop is as much about style as it is about music.

Amelia May is going to be teaching that Skool.