“The uniqueness of style and individuality was of utmost importance to a writer’s signature, for it was at one time, the only significant vehicle to represent one’s existence” (page 181).

This chapter concluded the relationship between hip hop and kung fu, but it also spoke of survival and existence. It tied the medium of hip hop (and all it included such as tagging) with mediums kung fu and Jeet Kune Do together by showing us how they are representations of a people forgotten. Later on page 181, Kato writes of how the use of Subway trains was meant to remind those who rode them (“corporate clones”) of the ghetto’s youth and existence.

The survival is also seen through the use of sampling, for both hip hop artists and Bruce Lee’s creation of Jeet Kune Do. By sampling all the best parts of their respective practice, they are recreating a part of their past to fit their present and deelop their future. I described this as an “immigrant’s art form”, because it mirrors the necessity for immigrants to accept parts of their new world without forgetting parts of their old world. For example, Bruce Lee is trained in kung fu and can never fully rid himself of this. For many, he is the face of kung fu. However, his use of sampling what works and creating a new art form allows him to the ability to neither deny nor be overwhelmed by kung fu. And for him, and others, it becomes the most fluid and workable representation of what they can do (which is later explained in more detail on page 192 in reference to the fight scene between Lee and Abdul-Jabbar).

And while both of these art forms have been comodified and put into the capatilist machine to be pumped out for mass consumption without any ingredient labels, they opportunities that have arose and the expression of “I exist!” have become even larger.