All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.
Every now and then I listen to the popular radio stations on my way to work, sometimes flipping between stations to get to a song I half-way like. Over the past decade or so, it has been quite a challenge to find a song I truly like on the radio which is why I make my own playlists and let them stream as I drive. Much of the music today is toxic trash offering nothing to nourish the mind & soul. It's Death with a catchy hook & lyrical turn of phrase.
When you listen to much of today's rap music, think Minstrel Show/Stepin Fetchit/Jim Crow. The stereotypic images of Blacks were perpetuated in the minstrel show by Whites-in blackface in the 1800s-as a means of entertaining other Whites. Today, you have folks like Lil Wayne & Wiz Khalifah perpetuating false portrayals of Black life for the entertainment of a mostly white-suburbanite audience who download this music constantly (rap music’s consumer market in the United States is approximately 80 percent white). The funniest/saddest thing to me is witnessing young white folks wanting to "be black" by talking, acting and dressing like these stereotypic rappers. Sadly, it is these white folks who are getting the biggest checks in all of this. They throw scraps at the struggling hip-hop artists who in turn proceed to boast of how much money they possess, but it's the mostly white-owned recording and distribution companies who are pimping the game. It's all spectacle with little substance to speak of...<<>><<>>And you wonder why most rappers end up burned out & broke?
-Ellen Glasgow
Every now and then I listen to the popular radio stations on my way to work, sometimes flipping between stations to get to a song I half-way like. Over the past decade or so, it has been quite a challenge to find a song I truly like on the radio which is why I make my own playlists and let them stream as I drive. Much of the music today is toxic trash offering nothing to nourish the mind & soul. It's Death with a catchy hook & lyrical turn of phrase.
Of all the genres of music out there, the one that offends me the most right now is Hip Hop. This wasn't always the case. Most people in my generation got into Hip Hop with "Rappers Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang. From there we jammed to the pioneers from Public Enemy to De La Soul to Wu-Tang. The music was pulsating, oftentimes cutting edge & almost always thought-provoking. Even the harder-edged rap from the likes of Ice-T & BDP (Boogie Down Productions) wasn't solely about cultural stereotyping and gangster stylings. There was a lot of harsh, bitter truth in the music especially as it related to being young, black and stuck in an over-crowded & economically-challenging environment with few options. Ice-T, for example, would sometimes hype the gangsta life only to flip it in the end by saying things like, "That fast money leads to a fast life and a quick death" (check out his cut "High Rollers"). Hip Hop was an incredible tapestry of sounds, styles & communities, but it was the more powerful & progressive aspects of Hip Hop that catapulted it into a formidable cultural & political force to be reckoned with & this made a lot of people in high places pay attention, nervously. Listen to Grand Master Flash's "The Message" or Public Enemy's "911 is a Joke". Even the controversial N.W.A resonated with the heat of a despised & hated people & lyrically brandished swords & decapitated, mercilessly. "Fuck Tha Police"was the anthem for a young generation who felt, at best, tolerated in
schools, feared on the streets, and almost inevitably destined for the hell holes of prison or low-wage employment. It is this pathos of being black in America set to a tight, menacing rhythm which vacillated between amorality and conscious wisdom which describes Hip Hop in my day. It wasn't devoid of meaning in any way. The music was the message. In fact, Hip Hop was widely viewed at the time as the "black CNN". This is the reason Hip Hop from the mid-80s to the mid- 90sis considered to be the "Golden Age of Hip Hop".
From the mid-90s, things changed....
With the exception of lyrically-gifted, socially aware and politically insightful rappers such as Talib Kweli, M1, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco & Q-tip, Hip-Hop is now a modern day Stepin Fetchit show. With gang references, glorification of prisons,
objectification of women, big pimpin', celebration of the worst aspects of the ghetto, and odes
to marijuana & alcohol which have become consistent themes within the genre, today's young generation has been blindsided. Although the aforementioned elements have always been present in the music, it has never been as emphasized/glorified. It almost seems intentional - like one big brainwashing operation meant to justify all the evils visited upon a group of people. It should come as no surprise that when it was discovered that a lot of money could be made from this art form, a handful of powerful corporations swooped in & now control the business, playing down to the lowest, most misogynistic, violent & racist stereotypes. It would do many a Hip Hop artist some good to research the history of Stepin Fetchit as way too many of them flirt with shameless, disreputable images. As the saying goes, "whoever controls the images, controls your self-esteem, self-respect and self-development"...
When you listen to much of today's rap music, think Minstrel Show/Stepin Fetchit/Jim Crow. The stereotypic images of Blacks were perpetuated in the minstrel show by Whites-in blackface in the 1800s-as a means of entertaining other Whites. Today, you have folks like Lil Wayne & Wiz Khalifah perpetuating false portrayals of Black life for the entertainment of a mostly white-suburbanite audience who download this music constantly (rap music’s consumer market in the United States is approximately 80 percent white). The funniest/saddest thing to me is witnessing young white folks wanting to "be black" by talking, acting and dressing like these stereotypic rappers. Sadly, it is these white folks who are getting the biggest checks in all of this. They throw scraps at the struggling hip-hop artists who in turn proceed to boast of how much money they possess, but it's the mostly white-owned recording and distribution companies who are pimping the game. It's all spectacle with little substance to speak of...<<
All of this goes
against what our ancestors fought against
during slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. What would Ida B. Wells & Ella Baker think of our dear, misguided Nikki Minaj? What would Martin Luther King & Malcolm X think of Drake & Future who choose to use their obvious talents & influence to make the most despised group in American society (the young black male) look even more hopeless & trivial? Like minstrels, they prance across the stage, oftentimes bare-chested, tatted & stoned for the money & notoriety. Damn a message & standing up for something meaningful. As a matter of fact, even if some of them wanted to, the rich, white, old men who run the industry would never allow such potent resistance in their “product”. Act like a fuckin' goon, dumb it down and we'll all get paid.....
We've come a long way from "Straight Outta Compton"(N.W.A), "Self-Destruction" (BDP) and "The Message" (Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five). Now we have "Truffle Butter" (Nicki Minaj Featuring Drake & Lil Wayne), "Drop That Kitty"(Ty Dolla $ign ft. Charli XCX & Tinashe) & "Amazing Amy" (Lil Wayne ft Migos). Not all of today's Hip Hop songs are bad, it's just the ones that are burning up the charts & getting the most air time/video rotations that I take issue with. The progressive voices are being drowned out and swept to the side. Listen to "Scar-Strangled Banner" (Dead Prez), "Caught In A Hustle"(Immortal Technique) & "Deliver" (Lupe Fiasco) to get a taste of the revolutionary fervor that still bubbles below....
OneLove
:::MME:::
