Conservatives vs Rap, maybe - 9.7.2007.1

I recently read a post by Min. Paul Scott that deals with the conservative right and their reaction to hip-hop culture. There are parts of this post that I agree with, but there is far more that I disagree with. I agree that overall, there is a feeling in the conservative right that hip-hop is equivalent to gangsta rap. Such equivalence is unfair to some degree, as everything that is considered hip hop is not in fact gangsta rap, though everything that is gangsta rap is hip-hop. The difference is subtle, especially when considering the nature of mainstream rap today is so prevalent and so violent.

While I agree that at its best rap has had the potential to give a voice from the Black community to the world. Perhaps one of the best examples of that voice would be Chuck D. and Public Enemy. Political rap was a powerful genre of rap music that came onto the scene at the end of the 1980s and was quickly extinguished by 1992 with the birth of gangsta rap. The loss of such a powerful medium has never truly been addressed by the mainstream, and I believe not fully understood by most of the Black community.

Something that is to be understood is what happened from approximately 1992 forward as opposed to what happened prior. Prior to the birth of gangsta rap, the entire rap industry was considered to be a fad, though it had existed at that point for roughly 10 years. The influence, diversity, and attention being given to rap and its subgenres had been growing continuously, which bewildered many while it was described consistently as being a false form of music. This denial of what is now considered a valid music format, ended very shortly after the appearance of NWA and other similar groups. At the same time, corporations invested heavily in marketing, music videos and distribution for this new music format. As gangsta rap grew, all other forms of rap were minimized. Few groups of any other style were signed by the music corporations and existing artists were weeded out. With the recognition of gangsta rap as a form of music enormous amounts of money were made from the commercialization of this genre.

[It is my long-held and absolute belief that for all the comments people may make about what is selling out and "keeping it real," gangsta rap does not keep it real and is the most explicit form of selling out I have ever seen in four decades of life. Some may disagree, but that's what I feel.]

The post mentions the greatest fear of Senator Robert Wentworth being his young son getting in trouble for threatening to bust a cap in another student. I would have to believe that for every parent this would be a great fear. That is unless I missed the time when threatening to kill a person became a positive statement. That's not conservative thing, it is a human being thing. Anything that promotes such extreme violence is something that I would expect every parent would be against. I submit that only through the excellence of various corporations and their marketing programs, has such a concept become considered anything besides undesirable in any community of people.

Of course that isn't hip-hop. That's gangsta rap. But at the same time, the elements and identifiers of gangsta rap are hip-hop. The baggy clothing, baseball caps, gold chains, platinum teeth, overpriced speakers, and other forms of crunk or ghetto fabulous attire are part and parcel hip-hop and gangsta rap. It may be to the detriment of hip-hop that it is almost impossible for someone to not associate one with the other. I have yet to hear a solid explanation of where the line between one and the other exist. But given the fact that there is some fuzzy gray area dividing the two, I am not surprised that a parent seeing their child dressed in this manner and espouses such commentary would be concerned to say the least.

Continued in part 2...

State of the Black Union may be real black entertainment - 8.8.2007.1

Well here is something that sounds like television programming of worth. Viacom and all its properties should take note of what a program aimed at a target group can be like. Mr. Sumner Redstone, Mr. Philippe Dauman, and Mr. Reginald Hudlin should all be paying close attention.

In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, TV One will be presenting a 3 part symposium that deals with the state of African Americans then and now, what America would be like without us, and a recap with memorable moments (in time since the Jamestown landing I presume). The program is called State of the Black Union. That is an interesting subject. It delves into the past and the present day. It evaluates what is good and bad in this nation. It provides food for thought. That is what I consider Black entertainment.

This program, which will start on August 12th, and be repeated on the 15th, will involve Mr. Tavis Smiley as moderator of each segment. I notice that they are avoiding the comedic angle on social commentary another cable television network has taken. Perhaps because a serious subject is normally best handled by a serious credible host.

Beyond the participation of Mr. Smiley, speakers include:

“Rev. Al Sharpton, actor/producer Tim Reid, former ABC news correspondent and current NPR host Michel Martin, radio personality Tom Joyner, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Judge Glenda Hatchett, Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, Radio One founder and chairperson Catherine Hughes, Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy, astronaut Dr. Mae Jamison, Dr. Cornel West of Princeton University, along with former Ebony editor Lerone Bennett Jr., Children's Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman, and Rep. Bobby Scott:”

Take a moment and review that list. It’s important. For all the images of poor Black people on the news every day, all the gangs, the rappers and music videos glorifying drugs, fatherless families, and degraded women, this list says something the media just does not.

The list includes entertainers that have lasted decades in an industry where most last a season. There are politicians of on the federal and state levels, national media makers and owners, religious leaders, a jurist, a teacher of the highest level of education in one of the most prestigious Universities, and an astronaut. And they even fit in a rapper, though unlike the current gansta sub-culture his entertainment was based in politics and self-improvement.

The list is diverse, covering so many careers and formats that are rarely acknowledged to have any African American influences. That alone should be a reason to check out the program. But to be honest I want to see it because of one reason.

Continued in Part 2...

Final thoughts on declining rap sales and the future - 3.1.2007.3

Continued from part 2 of the death of rap - 3.1.2007.2 ...

The fact is that the ‘thug’ life is a choice relatively few African Americans chose. But it is those few that have been paraded around on the media like a prize winning dog at a kennel show. I’m no fool, being Black in America is no picnic but it is far from a death sentence or a life long prison sentence in a ghetto. The “hip-hop hoodlums” responsible for the anarchy at the NBA All-Star game in Vegas that Mr. Jason Whitlock wrote about chose to be that way. The only Black artists that “shuck and jive”, as rapper David Banner calls it, are in my opinion rappers. Recent Oscar Award winners Ms. Jennifer Hudson, Mr. Forest Whitaker, Mr. Denzel Washington, and Mr. Jamie Foxx can hardly be described in such a manner. Entertainers like Mr. Stevie Wonder, Mr. Quincy Jones, Mr. Chuck D, Ice-T, and the late Mr. Ray Charles don’t fit such a description either. Yet I feel such a label could be applied more easily to 50 cent, than Mr. Spike Lee. Thus in my opinion rappers today that live the ‘thug life’ are merely showcasing a modern version of the minstrel show, for the main audience of White Americans that buy their albums.

So I am glad to hear that more are heeding the call started by Ms. C. Dolores Tucker, and continued by individuals such as Professor Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Mr. Bryan Hunt, Mr. Rashod D. Ollison, and others (including myself in my own small way). I am happy to learn that sales have dropped 21%, and that no rap album has hit the top 10 for the first time in 12 years. Happy that is if diversity becomes more prevalent. If the realities of what I think is accurate of most Black Americans gets to be heard. I’d love to see fewer music video girls and ‘crunk’ and ‘bling’ [what kind of ebonic idiocy are those words? They rate right up there with that ‘fasizzle’ lunacy. Get a dictionary and learn to speak your native tongue] if it means I can see substance, like that evoked by Public Enemy and KRS-One. Throw in a little mindless fun like Mr. Will Smith’s original alter-ego the Fresh Prince and Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five and I’m a very happy man. I’m sure sales would actually go back up, and probably surge beyond what they have been.

Because I don’t think rap is a temporary medium. I think it’s a powerful form of entertainment, and social outcries. It’s a voice that can express all the aspects of Black American life. Because being African American is not a singular mold, nor a commodity or as Mr. Chuck D states, "...one-dimensionalized and commodified us into being a one-trick image". It was all these positive things once, and it can be again. But until then rap aides and abets the worst attributes of the Black community while giving a show that makes ‘shucking and jiving’ look like a waltz.

This is what I think, what do you think?