January 07, 2004
Politics, Dentistry and Why Hip-Hop Matters
A few comments on the conversation I posted between Bob Law and Louis Farrakhan:
No doubt I am tired of all these emcees reheating the same thug-life leftovers, and I'd love to see more new dishes on the menu. No matter how dire your circumstances you can always strive for more than simply "keeping it real" by taking what you see around you and presenting it at face value. Bob Law illustrated this nicely with his prison art analogy: "If you ever see the paintings that prison inmates do, they never paint jail cells. They paint landscapes, they paint freedom. They paint what can be, what they would like to create."
But my problem with much of this discussion, especially Farrakhan's initial comments, is the assumption that hip-hop's importance derives primarily, or even solely, from its potential to instill political consciousness and initiate social activism. Many of us might see nothing wrong with that, and feel flattered that our elders have found some value in our work. But it is false flattery, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what hip-hop is, and why hip-hop matters.
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but hip-hop music is just that, a form of music, that is made by musicians. Hip-hop matters because at its best it is an incredibly innovative and vibrant form of music. Hip-hop artists are important because of their contributions to the world of music.
These words should not appear strange to anyone. But they probably will, because our sense of hip-hop's worth has been so distorted by this overemphasis on its activist potential. If I said that Duke Ellington, James Brown, or the Beatles were important because of their contributions to the world of music, nobody would bat an eye. But when I say the same about hip-hop artists, someone is bound to reply: "No they are much more than just musicians, they are this generation's leaders/teachers/soldiers! Hip-hop is not just music it's a culture/movement/revolution!"
These protests (especially from older speakers like Law and Farrakhan) tend to carry an underlying assumption that hip-hop's musical contributions alone are not enough to make it worthy of respect. And perhaps more importantly, they promote a faulty conception of how effective activism can be realized.
The confusion is understandable. If you don't have an ear for what is going on musically, hip-hop probably just sounds like a bunch of people talking, so it's only natural to conclude that they can only become relevant by choosing relevant things to talk about. Plus, hip-hop became the dominant cultural force in Black America at a time when we had developed a gaping void in Black leadership/activism. The last generation of militant Black activist had faded away, whether due to cointelpro or whatever other factors you want to blame.. at the same time the church's influence continued to wane.. and it was in this setting that hip-hop rose to prominence.
So it may seem proper to assume that hip-hop was sent here to fill the void. It's certainly a convenient interpretation for our elders who were never able or willing to comprehend hip-hop's artistic merit, but still yearn for some way to connect with us and embrace us (or at least for a chance to shift the blame for this leadership void onto someone other than themselves). After all, rappers are the only ones around these days who can capture the attention of our young people, so it must be a rapper's responsibility to educate and politicize them, right?
Wrong. If your family dentist retires and a plumber moves into his office space, would you tell the plumber it's his job to fix your teeth, since he has a bunch of tools and there's no dentist around anymore? That's basically what you're doing when you implore rappers to provide our activist leadership just because they're the ones our kids watch on TV.
As Melanie Campbell said in the Voice piece, "The challenge is that artists are artists and activists are activists." Musicians make music. Activists extensively research the policy and history surrounding today's issues, develop and articulate goals and strategy, then inform, organize and mobilize their community in substantive political engagement. Each one of these is a full-time job, and each one calls for very different skill sets. Expecting anyone to do both simultaneously is a spectacularly bad idea.
Musicians and artists can play a crucial role in assisting and supporting bonafide activists in any social movement. But calling on those artists to "lead the revolution" themselves is not just unrealistic, it's downright ridiculous, and nothing constructive will ever come out of it.
Nobody will ever say that Muddy Waters or Sarah Vaughan or Eric Dolphy or Minnie Riperton failed us because they did not propagate a comprehensive political platform. Judging hip-hop by such criteria is equally foolish, unfair to the artist, and counterproductive for whatever cause you hope to aid by coronating these rappers as leaders.
(this is expanded from an old comment in Lynne's blog)
Posted by jsmooth995 at January 7, 2004 02:32 PM
Great, great post. The part of this that most interests me is your observation of how hip hop fans (and by this I think you were talking about underground fans and fans in more sophisticated markets like NYC, it's less common in Texas, where folks are pretty unabashed hedonists) insist on the music's 'revolutionary' role. This is really important to understanding how hip hoppers perceive themselves, and I think ties in nicely to some of the material on consumerism I'm running at my site now. The contradictions of participation in overtly materialistic hip hop culture are smoothed over by the consumer's insistence on the music's "revolutionary" status in just the same way that someone buying an SUV thinks of it as a way of "breaking away from the herd". But if you don't do something with that rhetoric, you've got nothing but the superficial label of revolutionary - just like most rappers.
Posted by: David at January 7, 2004 04:16 PM
All I can say man is THANK YOU!!!
The last four years of my life, as my interests in politics and culture have increasingly converged, your main point about the difference between culture as movement and politics as movement have just been reinforced for me again and again.
This is the most frustrating thing I also encounter in my own writing because if I talk about the politics in or of hip-hop music, people automatically project their own confusion about your main point onto my own shit. To talk about the politics of culture is never to suggest that culture IS politics.
Bill Stephney said it best in 1987 or 8 on a panel at Howard University on politics and music to Amiri Baraka and Mutabaruka, who insisted on rappers being leaders:
"Woe be it unto a community that has to rely on rappers for political leadership. Because that doesn’t signify progress, that signifies default. Now that our community leaders cannot take up their responsibility, you’re gonna leave it up to an 18-year kid who has mad flow? What is the criteria by which he has risen to his leadership? He can flow? That’s the extent of it? If our leadership is to be determined by an 18-year old without a plan, then we’re in trouble. We’re fucked."
Posted by: Jeff at January 7, 2004 05:28 PM
Excellent observation...I thought the rappers were ok to take leadership, BUT after reading these comments i have so much more to evaluate..This is a heavy subject.
AMOON A,first generation british bboy.
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Speaking of the British empire... may I recommend Partha Dasgupta and Amartya Sen.
Posted by: eric at January 7, 2004 07:58 PM
I said it six months ago on my site and I'll say it again here- "Hip-hop doesn't need to get more political, political movements need to get more hip-hop"
Or in other words, hip-hop is fine at doing it's job which is entertaining us. Political movements should harness the music as a medium to get their message across. NOT the other way around!
But Jay, don't let us off the hook. Hip-hop is critisized for not being political enough for two reasons-
1. There is a real history of the artists using the music for social change. Afrika Bambaataa used the music to cure gang violence in NY. Also, according to my hip-hop professor David Lamb, the music was also used to bring together Puerto Rican and Black kids back in the early eighties. That activism in the music is certainly in our roots. It's not just something forced on us by our elders.
2. The music can be so one-sidedly and grossly negative that it begs for the conscious amongst us to condemn it and demand something positve as retribution. It's like saying, "Hip-hop, you're helping to glorify what's wrong in our communities. Now do something to clean it up."
If hip-hop were filled with "regular dude" rappers (as I predict will happen this year) who rap about real life and not the thug life hyberboles we wouldn't have leaders trying to burden the music with morality and social purposes.
But what do ya'll think about what I just said?
Posted by: Madison at January 7, 2004 10:48 PM
I don't think any of us on this forum like the majority of Hip Hop that's being broadcast due to the shallowness of the lyrical content. But it is not the content we should be complaining about, it is the broadcast that's the key. In my opinion, there are only two forms of lyrics people want to hear: something they can escape into, or something they can relate to. Ex, if peeps are broke and hungry they a) want to know that they are not alone or b) want to escape in their minds where they arent hungry anymore (a la Cash Money). I'm certain the record companies (who still don't know much about hip hop) would rather make money via keeping people ignorant rather than educate. If everyone were educated by the music to make better people of themselves, the capitalist balance would be rocked by peeps getting into self owned businesses rather than the 9-5 that gives peeps enough money to live, buy CD's and get crunk on the weekends.
my 2 cents
Posted by: Kelron Magnanimous at January 8, 2004 02:46 PM
I'm hearing you M. I love the way you put it. FYI hip-hop as bridging Black and Latino predates the 80s. I'm actually spending a good part of the first half of my book trying to document it...
And K I think that goes to the point of how we change the culture (many would argue the politics first, but I'm of two minds about it) to make that stuff more relevant to folks. Cause PE certainly didn't emerge in a vacuum.
Respect,
Jeff
Posted by: Jeff at January 8, 2004 08:49 PM
very interesting points madison.. on my way to get some food but briefly:
Good point about Bam but on the other hand what he accomplished with the Zulu Nation was in a totally differently world than the one hip-hop artists work in today, so i'm not sure how applicable it is. I mean, the artists I am talking about here have expectations placed upon them because of their status as mass media icons, and Bam set his moves in motion at a time when hip-hop had no mass media presence whatsoever, hip-hop was not being communicated through mass media even on any underground level.
Whatever he accomplished may have been due to his direct connections and influence in the community having been a gang leader etc. than his status as a recording artist or pop celebrity (which he wasn't, yet).
thinking out loud cuz i really need to eat. great comments in here, i really appreciate the feedback.
Posted by: Jay Smooth at January 8, 2004 09:00 PM
Yo Jeff, you're right when you say PE didn't emerge in a vacuum...they emerged in the Wild West of Rap. A time when it wasn't proven that rap could sell on an industrial global scale. At the time, the biggest sellers were the Fat Boys due to their crossover singles with the Beach Boys and Chubby Checker.A Lot of good music came out in this era and a lot of bad stuff too. Everyone was trying to stake claim to this emerging frontier. And since it was the business minded men (like MC Hammer) and not the artists or political activists who could promote and sell themselves to both the recording industry and the public, the music suffered. Since the crap was promoted so well, that's what the mindless public wanted...they didn't know about the other dimentions of hip hop (outta sight, outta mind).
I don't think the culture needs to change...I think it needs to expand beyond the borders it has created for itself...a slow process for sure but we are already seeing the benefits. Personally I think LaFace, more specifically dungeon fam, is a perfect example of what can be acheived. Our people running the management (LA Reid at the time), investing in talent(Babyface and his production crew), staying true to the artist's whims (Andre3000), and letting them be as political as they want(Goodie). Made for all sorts of good music and grammy's over the years. most labels that now have the ability and funds, do not want to change the status quo and it is these frontiermen than control what goes and what doesn't on national levels.
Posted by: Kelron Magnanimous at January 8, 2004 09:35 PM
You're missing it.
The beatles were just as political as rap and hip hop.
James Brown too.
The only difference is the level of subtlety. You're devaluing the music. Make it all instrumentals and see how far you get.
Have them all talking like teletubbies and not making sense and see how far you get.
You do have to say something real to catch someone's ear and everything's political. Don't matter what yer talkin about.
Thing is the people under 35 are still rebelling against the over 35's. Gen X vs. the Baby Boomers.
So you got ppl who aren't teens asking for more. The baby boomers have fucked up this world for the Xers and the Ys.
And the Xers will never have a voice cause the Y's are bigger than the X's and the Boomers are a bigger voice than the Xers (we're just changing from the Y's for people born last year on).
Posted by: Nerd at January 12, 2004 03:09 AM
Just to follow up...
I'm saying that the "world of music" isn't about the sheet music and lyrics on paper but the impact of the music.
The Beatles and Brown had impact. They changed things with their music.
But after rereading what the whole topic is about (scuse me it's 3AM) I agree Ferickin' is going off his rocker.
Posted by: Nerd at January 12, 2004 03:14 AM
Have you ever thought about why you like hip hop so much? Is it the beats? the lyrics? the originality? For right now, I can't for the life of me understand why I am drawn to this genre so much. Maybe it's because I grew up to people such as Biggie and Tupac. Maybe its because hip hop has sucked me into its word and I can't seem to find a portal out. In my opinion, rap music has changed so much. Originality has be substituted with ghost writers and the beats sound all the same to me. That is no surprise since there are very few "beat masters," which cost a fourtine to hire anyway. Overall I want to know the opinion of you viewers.... Why do u love hip hop so much?
Posted by: Lauren at April 3, 2004 08:50 AM
Where to start? Considering the fact that i'm a South African head and have no clue as to what is really going on in the States, in terms of hip hop, I can't comment on its role within your society. I prefer listening to the conscious and underground hip hop as opposed to the "jiggy" and "bling-bling", did you know that these words are officially part of the english language now, music. This is my preference, and i'm part of a minute percentage, because hip hop in South Africa started off as a means of adressing the fucked up political situation that we were in, namely, Apartheid. It started off as a means for the enslaved majority to fight back at the system. The youth of the early 80's were tired of accepting inferiority. With hip hop they could have fun and express themselves artistically as well as address the issue. I guees what I'm saying is that , for me, hip hop can be artistic and activist at the same time. it is the responsibility of the youth to mobilise, politicize and educate ourselves. There's nothing wrong with an 18 year old emcee speaking to his peers about more than bitches and booze, cars and money! In my country we've been liberated and opportunity is there for everyone. But, because of the mainstream American hip hop that floods our radios and television screens, our goals and aims in life are limited to a nice car, beautiful girl, clubbing on the weekend,getting drunk and high. We live our lives only for these temporary satisfactions. Hip hop to me is about elevating the people, awakening their sense of responsibilty to their families, community, country and world. if we don't speak about the problems we're facing, who will.
Peace to everyone who made a comment and also to the writer. We need more debate about the role of hip hop in society because, whether you like it or not, it has become a major one and if we leave it up to record companies and redundant emcees to steer its destiny, we're seriously fucked!!
Peace and love
Rize Emcee
Posted by: Riaaz Palmer at May 7, 2004 05:45 AM
Hey ya'll,
Sorry to use this forum to ask a simple question, but does anyone know where the next Black August shows are going to be? Something needs to be done in Zimbabwe, it is a beautiful country under economic attack by the former colonial state because they are not getting their way.
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Posted by: Laayla at September 19, 2004 03:45 PM
But again, Can't say I agree....100%
Posted by: Laayla at September 19, 2004 03:47 PM
How can you say the beatles were as political as rap and hip hop is today. I don't agree...
Firstly, the beatles spoke sh**! compared to Hip Hop Artists today, and secondly rap & hip hop artsits today talk about Real Life, real issues!!
the beatles didn't!
Posted by: Peter Boaker at October 11, 2004 10:38 PM
This is a very fascinating posting in its complexity and diversity. I understand where Jsmooth is coming from, and he is both right and wrong, because hip-hop is not a reductive artform any more than rock or other forms, meaning it can be purely shake your booty and party(Aerosmith, Rolling Stones) or social and political (Springsteen, Bob Dylan) and all points in between. I like what the Brother from South African said, because hip hop in many parts of the world outside the USA has been used by youth for serious socio-political commentary against oppressive forces. But hip hop cannot be stereotyped and essentialized by either camp. We need the progressive aspects of music, and sometimes we just need to dance and celebrate. Sometimes you can have both, or have we forgotten that "Fuck Tha Police" was a killer party song as well as a SEARING social satire commenting on police brutality faced by people of color in Southern California? The fact that hip hop is big enough to cover it all speaks to the magitude of its scope and depth, not to any one person or group's limiting notions or expectations of it. Great postings by all. Respect.
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