Here I am, a man frustrated with the state, status, complacency of Hip-Hop, listening to an R& B album, ‘Neo Soul’ CD that is almost replacing my desire for finding Rap music that sounds ‘different’. Hip-Hop doesn’t create in me the same emotions it used to. Maybe once or twice, or a few more times I found myself completely in awe of an emcee’s ability to move beyond simplistic weed smoke, drinking anthems and hood stories on wax. But due to the insistence of the media the vast amount of rap music pushed to the public and the youth (who are unaware of more sonically, lyrically challenging rap that exists) distorts the image of Hip-Hop so the artform is suffering. Along with these media representations not only is the image of Blacks in America crumbling, but the actual fiber is being broken down like metamucil in water.
America consumes the negative aspects of rap with an indifferent and damaging ear. Ironically, it isn’t Black America that supports the majority of the negative rap music. It is also not the majority of Blacks who support the positive acts in Hip-Hop. White America is the major consumer of rap music period. We can not however expect Whites to state, “This negative Hip-Hop music is damning to the images of Blacks let’s stop purchasing this.” The artists who capitalize have to become more aware of the affects of the music and stop. But the argument stands, “Does the artist have a responsibility to the consumer, or does the artist have a responsibility to create art?”
White people have always encroached upon Black art. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem lies in the Black artists catering to the stereotypes presented for profit.
My belief in the learning process tells me that the unconscious, and conscious, mind learns and acts on those things it has consistently heard. In other words, even the strongest person learns through repetition. When a person is listening they are learning. Even the strong, who can supposedly differentiate between right or wrong, hears certain things over and over and those things become habits that are innate.
An abused child is continuously told they are ugly. The child eventually has self-esteem problems. Regardless of how handsome or beautiful, the child carries that repetitious refrain of ugliness inside and their appearance/ life is skewed. Something is not quite right and the child has problems that manifest because of this.
How is it that a person, ‘mature’ people included, can listen to music so destructive and repetitious in its desire to be ‘hard’, hear this music without carrying ill effects in their soul? A person rides the bus 2 hours a day. Through headphones the hook of the latest popular rap song repeats, “You ain’t no friend of mine, you ain’t no kin of mine, I’ll get you with a nine.” Is it any wonder why students, young men and women act out this attitude in the classroom? This identity that reflects ‘cool’ in the song is mimicked, whether the emcee is justified in creating the lyric is irrelevant.
I will state that great Hip-Hop albums speak to the heart of the individual creating the song. But I state this with one caveat, only the first Hip-Hop album from an artist is true to that state of existence. After an artist has become successful the murderous hood narrative, becomes exploitation and deceit in an attempt to remain relevant and rich.
The lyrics of the song floating through the headphones are seductively sung and richly produced to a point that the style of the song covers the content and the ignorance within the track. The song betrays the listener and makes the buyer accept ideas such as suicide, rape, drug abuse, and misogyny, as cool in the context of the song. When, if those words are printed in a book and read by a man to a woman, or parent to a child, the person writing would be thought of as a threat to any positive movement. However, because the track has a bangin beat and is considered the shit, an emcee can literally say whatever the ‘fuck’ he wants, holla.
Stupid and asinine lyrics are so accepted that Hip-Hop outlets have allowed the conscious lyricists little access to the mainstream. The listener is entranced, hypnotized by straight up foolishness and ignorance. How does one learn? Repetition.
The simplest method of control for a person in a dominant position is the constant reinforcement of rules and punishment for the subordinate.
1. You don’t go to work on time you’re fired.
2. You make a mistake at practice you are required to practice longer and harder.
3. You don’t make curfew…
You get the picture. These things are laid out before all people as a matter of defacto and dejure laws. They are understood and engrained; therefore we try our best to adhere. Even rules we have never heard from a direct source become embedded in our subconscious. So what makes a listener believe that hearing, “Bitches ain’t shit but ho’s and tricks,” isn’t detrimental to one’s well being? “I’m a mothafuckin gangsta,” “I got girls,” over and over again. How does one learn?
People who seek out Hip-Hop beyond capitalist rap are not an elite and small number of people. We are not a distinguished group who should be revered and private in our music choices. We should try our best to spread the word about ‘empowering’ Hip-Hop music to battle against the ill effects of rap. If you were to check when the decline of Blacks began (I’m speaking of the lack of a nationalist movement to continue gaining access to social, political, and financial arenas) one only has to check the year rap music began to make an impression on the U.S. economy. This era, the mid eighties, coincides with Reaganomics and the placement of crack cocaine in poor neighborhoods. Hip-Hop began to change, and of course it would. As Tupac said he was ‘reporting’ on life in the inner city.
A year before the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, Tupac, on his album 2pacalypse Now, consistently prophesized the potential for this event to occur, “One day I’m gonna bust/ Blow up on this society/ Why did you lie to me/ I couldn’t find a trace of equality.” Ice Cube in 1992 followed up this sentiment in the song, “We Had to Tear This Muthafucka Up,” from his album The Predator. In a rush to report the problems with America, artists like Paris attempted to create a more conscious music beyond the New Jack Swing/Gangsta Hip-Hop of the time.
The misstep by Hip-Hop was embarrassing. Only two years removed from the King incident, and the LA uprising, the West Coast rap invasion and the movie industry decided to capitalize on this moment by introducing some of the most destructive material of our time under the guise of reality. Dr. Dre released The Chronic and the Hughes Brothers introduced probably the most influential gangsta in movie industry history O Dawg from Menace to Society. These two moves were pivotal. It is not that there wasn’t any violence or problems before this movie and cd, but the image of weed and an extremely charismatic and attractive psychotic gangbanger was overwhelming to a generation of kids and adults looking for a Black icon to latch onto.
In relation to movements (civil rights, BPP, NOI) Hip Hop has come up as short as a pair of 1979 NBA game shorts. Instead of maintaining and supporting the Human Education Against Lies/ Stop the Violence Movement, New BPP, the L.A. Peace Treaty or taking aim at displaying the injustices of the legal system, we create The Chronic and Ready to Die as ‘classic’ Hip-Hop records. Yet albums like Blowout Comb or records by Spearhead, Souls of Mischief and Freestyle Fellowship, and artists like Organized Konfusion, were pushed to the side. The Chronic did have the song “Little Ghetto Boy,” but one positive song on an album does not give you the right to condemn a whole culture. Am I being a little hypocritical here, yes, but the duality of emceeing is that when it is done well, it can consume you. However there has to be a point where you say 'wait a minute'.
Our culture has rarely addressed war or conflicts central to the problems in Black America (education, joblessness, single parent households) beyond words to fill in blanks for a rhyme to be completed, or as metaphor.
At what moment did Hip-Hop lose its power? How did this artform’s failure to foster Black upliftment destroy everything Blacks have worked for?
The world is so vast. There are so many problems that to read of every issue becomes overwhelming. How do you fix the world when your house is not in order?
Indeed the greatest threat to Blacks remains the structural makeup of capitalism which requires segments of the population to remain impoverished, but where is the moral fiber of our people and our culture?
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