A story of Hip-Hop’s place in our shifting culture
The date is August 11, 1973; it’s a warm summer night in the Bronx. You sense a bit more commotion than normal, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
Little do you know, that just a block down the street, a young DJ that goes by the name Kool Herc, short for Hercules, is getting ready to host a party that would launch an entire cultural revolution.
Herc had always been known for his unique Jamaican infused style, which made use of oversized speakers and percussive beats.
But, today… he wanted to try something a little bit different.
This was the night that he would experiment with some new equipment he’d gotten — and instead of playing each song in succession, DJ Kool Herc thought to lay down a beat and use two turntables instead of one, switching back and forth between the catchiest parts of each song.
He was quite literally, breaking the beat.
And in so doing, creating something completely novel that would endure for decades to come. Needless to say, the party was a huge success.
People responded well to the musical mash up that had ensued, and although Herc realized he had something new— he still had no idea that a back to school party would become the rhetorical launching pad for a generation of black boys and girls. Giving voice to new perspectives often left behind in mainstream dialogues.
Since that midsummer night, hip hop has grown to become a commercial powerhouse, pulling in an excess of $50 billion dollars annually according to Forbes.com, now even Goldman Sach’s wants in.
Its consumer base comprises of over 50 million Americans between the ages of 13 and 34, who combined have over one trillion dollars in spending power.
With a storied past, compounded with an economically strong base and an increasingly diversified audience, it’s no wonder the investors are flocking.
One would think that hip hop as a legitimate form of expression has won over some of it’s buyers to the fact that it is worthy of being elevated — or at the very least, tolerated as art within these communities of concentrated wealth.
And, one would be wrong.
Jeffery Hicks, a ranking member of the National Leadership Network of Conservative African Americans, said that…
“Hip-hop is not a style of music. It is a culture borne of poor, inner-city life in America [which] now serves to glorify stigmatized characteristics of the lower class”
Oof.
…but he is not alone.
I’m sure most purveyors of music today have at one point or another caught wind of a misogynistic, violent, or otherwise explicit chorus found in one of the top raps hits of our day.
Some even openly say that rap music should have no place in an enlightened and forward-thinking society. (Looking at you, Ben.)
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Before I mount a defense for the genre I love, I must concede that much of what I hear today is deserving of sharp reproach.
In fact, a large majority of the artform since its commercial debut in the mid 80s has been particularly harmful and regressive —
But to single out hip hop as a singularly destructive force in our world today is not only unfair, but incorrect.
Theodore Sturgeon, a writer and observer of culture, eloquently stated that;
“ninety percent of most any genre of expression — from film to science fiction — is crap”
So to present songs on the radio as an accurate representation of an entire culture without opening oneself to the quality just beneath the surface is akin to forgoing The Dark Knight because you saw Green Lantern.
(The one with Ryan Reynolds.)
The perception of rap as ‘less than’ only served to stigmatize an entire group of people. I think it’s about time we wake up to the genius of hip hop music.
Rap is a valid and essential form of expression that simply needs to be freed from it’s commercial incentives. Not just in America, mind you.
In any social structure with silenced voices, street poetry serves to help those left behind to better annunciate their narrative. To reclaim their stories.
Hip Hop has often gotten a bad rap… (sorry)
So, it’s time to flip the script.
First, understand that hip hop provides a voice to the voiceless, allowing individuals of varying backgrounds to relate and engage at scale.
Next, see how the medium acts as a launching pad for new ideas and from this learn to reframe your perception of boom bap bastions to urban philosophers.
Finally, observe how rap can be redeployed as a stabilizing force within disenfranchised communities. Though, only when understood in proper context, and used to uplift constructive ideas rather than harmful ones.
Rap gives society a deeper look into current events, creating spaces for dialogue and opportunities for connection.
We talked a bit about DJ Kool Herc, but he only represents a slice of the inception story. A means to place a definitive label on the start of what we now know as Hip Hop.
Though, the reality is, the birth of a culture can’t really be contained to a single time or location.
Afrika Bambaataa, another pioneer of the sound, was hosting parties around the same period as young Hercules.
His get togethers were more intentional, as he wanted to draw angry kids out of the gangs and onto the dance floor, thus was the beginning of what is now the Universal Zulu Nation — an organization based on cultural awareness and the spread of ideals such as peace, love, unity and fun.
It wasn’t too long after this when you began to see other small communities of hip hoppers popping up all over the place. Kids with a brand new outlet for self-discovery began looking for literal outlets in street lights.
Dance groups became B-Boys, as they were drawn toward the banner of this new form of culture. Visual artists became brick aficionados, using spray cans to redeploy a new form of identity.
From the graffiti and clothes, to the burgeoning flows — Hip Hop was beginning to take on a life of its own as people from all walks began to come in and set up shop under the umbrella of this new paradigm.
Speaking of flows — rap as an artform didn’t start right away.
It took a few years before we began to see the originators gain prominence.
The first among them is generally attributed to Coke La Rock, who coined phrases like “you rock and you don’t stop” phrases like this are etched in our collective memories, even from the very first commercial hit by the group Sugarhill Gang and their single Rappers Delight.
Up to that point it was all about the beats, and the party.
Added remarks were mostly seen as a distraction.. that is, until wordsmiths like La Rock or Grandmaster Flash were able to incorporate griot traditions of West Africa into a cohesive form of storytelling.
Stylistically laying verses over beats until it became the norm of this new form. The next generation of MC’s were just as likely to spit 16s, but these cats also had a proclivity to speaking truth to power.
Parties are cool, politics are cooler.
“Artists such as KRS-One revolutionized hip hop by transforming it into a more mature art form”
— Yale University Press; Anthology of Rap 2010
KRS was one such artist who paved the way for newer acts to get in on the noise — though not all would see this as a good thing.
Entertainment became the modus operandi. This spurred a new generation of acts dominated by your MC Hammer’s and LL Cool J’s.
Political speech was giving way to the party, again.
Not that this is bad by any means, the heart of hip hop was always about the letting loose and enjoying ones self, though some early practitioners believed it to be morphing into something less authentic.
As the music grew, the crowds did too. And as the crowds became concerts, early pioneers saw their place in the space become less pronounced.
The hip hop train left the station, well on its way to financial exploits — many rappers, dubbed ‘underground’ by their contemporaries, began to lose the influence they once held in the community as youths instead opted for more nationally renowned acts.
These underground rappers continued to speak truth to power, but their platforms for spreading this truth were shrinking.
All but a few icons were able to still successfully speak their truths despite underwhelming (some may even say dangerous) conditions for doing so —
Namely, a young west coast MC by the name of Tupac Shakur.
Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.2pac
Hip Hop still had the ability to heighten cultural awareness.
A quote from the Media and Race Journal’s section on rap and its’ state of influence claimed that —
“Hip hop has powerful potential to address social, economic, and political issues and act as a unifying voice for its audience”
That word potential is an interesting one, because in many ways it’s an acknowledgement that on the whole, hip hop had yet to capitalize on its ability to be used as a positive change agent.
Another quote from early hip hop journalist Kevin Bottero…
“[Underground rappers] believe in raps artistic ability to catalyze social change. While mainstream rappers tend to commodify hip hop”
Uh oh.
And while this may be true (that mainstreams acts commodify the art form), much of the problem seems to come not from the artists themselves, but from the system which churns them out.
Like with many industries today, especially at the highest level, in order to break through, you’re expected to compromise.
It is this structure based on greed that silences genuity while giving rise to less “real” acts getting elevated.
A system of gatekeepers that fuel practices like payola, that keep ghost writers employed, and fan the flames of industry plant conspiracy theories.
To be sure, this is nothing new.
Though, fast forward to the 2000’s and you had folks like Lauryn Hill, Kanye West and Eminem who were able to speak truth to a new generation hip-hop historians.
What struck many about these new rappers was their propensity to go against the grain, saying things that in any other context would likely land them in prison.
From Kanye claiming that he “knows the government administered AIDs” to Marshall Mathers freely speaking about his inner demons to the levels of glorifying the murder of his own mother.
The internet in it’s early days made it possible to hopscotch the industry line while everyone was recalibrating to new norms.
This lead to a more refined generation of players in the years since that have managed to combine the conscious aspects of the underground with the attention grabbing one liners of a club hit.
In my estimation, Big K.R.I.T and Kendrick Lamar are among those who have emerged in this era as “kings” of the sport.
It is in their abilities to tell vivid stories (again, harkening back to the Griot tradition of West Africa) that was, and still is, crucial to their continual success in the industry.
Speaking harsh truths, and yet remaining able to pull in audiences indicative of 70s rock stars.
To effectively communicate one’s frustrations, both with his society and with himself, while at the same time allowing the musical excellence to permeate an entire subculture, is critical.
And frankly, amazing.
It shows a level of self-awareness that is rare today.
This apparent connection between the conscious and mainstream was not an easy one to bridge; and even today, acts such as the now infamous Tekashi 6ix9ine threaten it’s very existence with the onslaught of what has been dubbed ‘mumble’ or ‘troll’ based rap.
This isn’t to say that trolls have no place in the culture, though, if you were to ask fans of the old school, this is their position exactly.
Though I see it as a natural progression. Rap is an artform used to uncover silenced voices. In this day and age, the upcoming youths represent those voice that have been told to quiet down.
Mumble rap, to me, is what happens when the kids have been suppressed to the point of self destruction.
What’s real has no place anymore, and what ensues are the sounds of a lost generation hyped up on pills and social media; trying to figure out what (if anything) matters.
Just as former iterations of hip hop gave rise to uncomfortable facts — such as gun violence — so does this phase in hip hop’s development give credence to a generation of mentally ill kids overdosing on meds and suffering from record high rates of depression and anxiety.
Perhaps older generations don’t want to hear it for reasons that are legitimate.. but frankly, it doesn’t matter anymore.
The kids are coming whether you like it or not.
So, how exactly are we supposed to reframe how we see rap — today?
In it’s early days, Hip Hop seemed to derive largely from the percussive roots of mainland Africa by way of Jamaican immigrants packed tightly within New York City.
As it matured, it also borrowed sounds from other black music forms such as Jazz, Soul, Gospel, Reggae and R&B.
This made Hip Hop a formidable force in terms of its malleability. It could be used in a variety of ways to a ever widening base of potential listeners.
This also lent rap music a form of legitimacy that was beginning to accrue notice from the more financially well off.
The Griot was now able to rock crowds of virtually unlimited upside, especially with the growth of sites like DatPiff.com — which allowed anyone to download and listen to the newest mixtapes, free of charge.
Yes, hip hop started off a “black” art form, but has since expanded to become a platform for other cultural motifs as well.
To be sure, white audiences now account for over half of all hip hop listeners according to a Radio and Television Business Report from January of 2016 — and if you’ve been to a concert or festival recently, you realize that number is probably growing.
I’m not here to knock it.
There are already enough perspectives out there that claim to have a problem with Hip Hop’s ‘new found’ whiteness, but from my vantage point, every artist brings a new flavor into the fold.
Acts like Yelawolf, offer a unique southern twang. Folks like Mac Miller (RIP) bridge the gap between city and suburb. Asher Roth shamelessly speaks from his frat-infused perspective without watering down the wordplay.
This isn’t to say “it’s all good.”
In fact, it’s not.
Because much of the music was and still is contaminated by the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Raps have gotten increasingly hyperbolic as gatekeepers continue to influence the content of what is widely available, causing talented individuals to switch up their style in order to remain relevant.
This is cool for the record labels who get to cash in, but has effectively stripped the music of its significance.
Historically, DJs had the power of distribution.
In that power, they held a considerable amount of influence over the shape and direction of the culture.
Today, that influence has been lost, in part due to folks like Livingston Allen, aka “DJ” Akademiks, who uses the moniker to exclusively fuel his career as a professional muckraker.
No longer do you have to find a way into Kool Herc’s basement, now you can just turn on the TV or log into Instagram.
I think J Cole said it best in his song, “Let Nas Down”
“Where’s the hits? You ain’t got not none / And dog, you know how come / labels are archaic, formulaic with their outcome.
They don’t know, they just study the charts / Me, I study the shows, the fans / study their hearts…”
Unfortunately for musicians today, to “study the hearts” of fans often means to abandon checks… which nobody really wants to do.
Today we exist in a hyper inflated bubble where all that seems to matter are numbers, dollars, and charts.
Thank goodness there’s still history — which can’t be altered.
Meaning, despite all the negative potentialities of our modern world, there are still hundreds of thousands of quality songs out there, just waiting to be discovered
Essentially, hip hop is a melting pot of ideas.
If this is the case, why not create a cannon for rap music?
Maybe the idea sounds crazy to you.
To encourage the study of a form of expression that you may or may not vibe with. In many circles, there persists an antagonistic view of rap writ large.
But this only leads to a self-fulfilling vacuum that reinforces the lack of ascribed value.
I get it.
But you’re wrong.
In the same way we study Walt Whitman, should we study Nasir Jones.
In fact, institutions like Harvard and Yale have already begun breaking ground in this field — though it needs to become the norm, and be accessible to those it actually influences.
NWA, Hov, Common & DMX all speak to different time periods and locales that would lend us a texture of experiences that could color our modern world.
When we better understand the plight of the disenfranchised, we begin to recognize our existence from varying vantage points; boosting our understanding and increasing our empathy.
Michael Eric Dyson, author and professor of English and Afro studies at Georgetown University, made the salient argument in his book
Know What I Mean, saying..
“It would be unfair for a critic to comment on the deficits of 20th century Irish literature without studying the works of W.B. Yeats.”
Basically, recognize the bad — but see the good also.
Personally, I more enjoyed my metaphor of The Dark Knight vs Green Lantern.
But alas. I’m not a professor at Georgetown.
Yet.
Last point.
I sense that rap can act as a barometer of sorts.
Measuring the potency of pain in a particular region, then translating it into a language accessible by the wider community.
A sort of beacon system, at least for those with the linguistic toolbox to understand the messages being disseminated.
One such example is Brazilian Hip Hop, which garnered and maintained the strong role of shaping political and racial consciousness within the South American landscape.
A study done for the Journal of Latin American Popular Culture found that 55% of Brazilians aged 16–25 listened to rap music, and when compared against other age groups; those between 16 and 25 also reported the highest levels of social consciousness.
This isn’t a coincidence.
“Hip Hop artists are educating Brazilians about racism and injustice. This is a qualitatively new phenomenon in Brazil, because until now, political art was the exclusive domain of elite intellectuals, who are predominantly white… Hip Hop music is changing this now… the historically excluded have found a voice and what they say is very relevant to urban black youth to the point where their lyrics have become one of the central vehicles to disseminate racial consciousness”
Bernd Reiter & Gladys L. Mitchell
Another such example of a subculture gaining legitimacy through hip hop, is interestingly enough, the Christian sub culture — which in years past has been akin to a sort of underground community when it comes to rap.
Though, in recent memory it has begun to mature into a force to be reckoned with on charts as well as in hearts.
Acts such as Lecrae and Cross Movement laid much of the groundwork, enduring ridicule from an industry bent of the rejection of their message —
But now, mainstream artists like Chance the Rapper and Kanye West can speak to Christ-centric ideals without fear of reproach.
This is in addition to the coalition of artists who make up the Reach Records label lineup, like Andy Mineo and Trip Lee.
Add in independent artists like Propoganda, NF, Nobigdyl, or Eshon Burgundy all of whom offer something distinct to the field, and you have an ever evolving subculture of “Christian rap” that speak eternal truths in a time where it seems harder and harder to find them.
They can voice their perspectives without fear of condemnation, nor a need to tamper down the message at hand.
They can also banter on less serious topics, such as their fascination with shoes or love for basketball.
We as a culture are getting closer to a point where it is finally considered cool to be different.
No need to fit in to be accepted, just be yourself; and your supporters will find you.
Yes, you can always find rap music that glorifies violence, which ironically acts as both a tool for liberation and a trap for occupation.
The fact is, art is a reflection of reality — and, I can admit, commercial interests have shifted that reality to fit a specific narrative.
Apparently speaking on the more destructive portions of our human condition turn out to be more profitable.
Who knew?
To pretend that rap is isolated in such obfuscations is disingenuous.
There is violence and misogyny is nearly all aspects of American culture; from Hollywood to highways; therefore to change the content coming out, we must begin investing in communities where it originates; and in so doing reverse engineer the toxic elements of our culture, while healing in the process.
Only then will the music become indicative of a better reality.
I’ll close with a question, why should hip hop music should be valued in 2020 and beyond?
To me, the answer is simple.
Because hip hop brings individuals of varying backgrounds together under the banner of free speech.
It acts as a platform for ideas and allows for expressions that can then percolate to mass consciousness.
And finally, it’s a steadying force for subjugated communities, revealing to us hidden realities while increasing the social awareness among all who dare to listen.
So, next time you’re at a party and see the DJ flipping back and forth between records spinning righteously on a turn table —
Remember, that the art which birthed a worldwide culture was born in a New York basement nearly 50 years ago, and then…
Shake your tail feather.
