A few weeks ago I got into a conversation...OK!.... I got into an argument with a friend about the position of black women in present day society. We started to talk about the misogynistic imagery of women in modern day society. Basically he was questioning the stance that I have taken to personally boycott modern day rap music as an art form. So here I am laying it down like it is.
My argument went something like this: back in the days when Hip Hop was an emerging art form and was on the fringes of main stream society, it was never an issue trying to find a good record. 2 out of 3 releases was a good record. Hit after hit after hit. Even more to the point, the songs that were released then did not systematically demean and degrade women. This of course is with the exception of a few.
The disrespect of Black Women
The day I realized that I did not understand hip hop music any longer is when I started to reflect on the conversations that a) I was having with women within the black community; b) the conversations that mainstream society was having with itself.
On the first point, I realized that black women are getting a raw deal in present day society. When I was out with female friends, it was not long before the conversations shifted to "there are no good black men out there", "black men are hard to come by" "Where have all the blackmen gone to?" This got me curious insofar as I started to look for that underlying trends and factors that were behind all these questions.
So what does this have to do with hip hop? Coincidentally this was the same time Nelly's "Tip Drill" was out. This is the video in which a credit card is swiped on a woman's....I was so incensed by this video that I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone expressing my contempt for such a humiliating act.
A few days passed in which I was anticipating a sort of response from the black community but none was forthcoming. What did this mean? Is it that black people (both men and women) were absolutely fine with this sort of disgusting and preposterous behavior or was it something else that I was not seeing?
I took it upon myself to evaluate rap video content that was released or in circulation during the time period of 2004 and 2005 to see whether it was what statisticians would refer to as a possible outliers in the sample data set or whether this sort of misogynistic, warped, backward, distasteful and oppressive representation of women (black women at that) was the norm. Do I need to relay my findings?
From that day on I took a conscientious decision to never buy a hip hop record again unless this was changed. When the debate over rap lyrical content was initiated by the late Dr. C. DeLores Tucker back in the 90's I could not foresee this sort of outcome and so I was amongst the collective that disregarded her argument and felt that she was over exaggerating. Boy was I wrong on that one!
Perception is everything
There is an argument out there that goes something like this: "Hip Hop is a lifestyle, and rap music cannot lead people to commit crimes, such as wife beating and rape against women." (Not to mention gun crime and robbery etc) I have grown up with Hip Hop music all my life and acknowledge it as both a lifestyle and an art form. But if black folk were completely honest and looked at the situation as a whole you will see that the current state of the music does nothing to discourage any of the ills aforementioned. When the message from rap music today is mixed in with other social issues such as school drop outs, absent fathers, teenage pregnancies, drugs and poverty then it does not take a genius to see that this can only reinforce a vicious cycle. Nothing virtuous comes out of it.
Chopping your own nose
When using statistics researchers can relay whatever story they wish. One set of data can be interpreted and re-interpreted to represent so many different opinions that one has to be careful when given these results.
But here is where personal judgment comes in. If you look at black communities in the USA and even in the UK, there is a collapse in certain pillars that would normally hold the society together. One does not need to be an expert in conducting correlations; regressions or factor analysis or whatever fancy techniques being applied in statistics to understand that the probability that the present day_popular rap music has contributed significantly to the position of the black woman in modern day society. The black woman has always been a shining beacon and a pillar within the black community and the present day rap videos have undermined her.
What I won't do
The reason I touch on this is not really to get on some sort of moral high ground and chastise the women that appear in these videos. In fact one thing that I have learned over the years is that in order to understand why things happen the way they do, you have to contextualize it, see it from a different perspective and then deduce, and since I am not a female model, and have no direct access to this world I will not claim to understand the motivation behind why they appear in this videos.
The Embarrassment
But what I am is a man and I feel that these male rappers have to become accountable for some of the things they have done. You cannot put out the sort of garbage that is most of present day rap and hip hop and then turn around and blame the executives and shareholders at the record labels for it. A man is not a man if he is not in control of his own destiny. Look through history; whenever the black man has found himself not in control of his destiny and life, he has done something about it. You cannot allow this sort of thing to happen. One day you guys are also going to father daughters and if you think that because you have secured your financial future, you will send them to some school where they will never be exposed to this negative elements that you have actually helped create I have 3 names for buddy, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian. (If I knew more names I would list them)
This is not a tirade on any one particular artist, No! mine is a protest to the entire art form as a whole. It really needs to become accountable to the community that it purportedly represents. These black rappers who claim to tell it like it is, they need to realize that the black women that they are disrespecting like this are the mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters and friends of our community and that it is unacceptable to treat them like this.
Take pride in what you do
No more. This has got to stop. We (fans) need to boycott this rubbish if they cannot be accountable to the community. If they cannot release sensible music that will encourage a sense of pride and confidence then they can take the trash somewhere else.
(Artists) stop with the half naked, scantily clad women, if you really are as creative as you say you are, come up with something new.
Take charge of the creative futures and turn it into a beautiful art form once again. I am not going to become nostalgic and ask for records of yester-years (though that would not be so bad), NO! What I beseech you to do is sing about something that is really morally uplifting and that will reflect on our society. A music that we can turn to and say Hip Hop is music of black origin and I am proud to be BLACK.
2 comments:
Hip hop is a major reason why a lot of people today are proud to be black but I won't go into this discussion of Blackness and so on because it's misguided, in my opinion.
Now, is there something wrong with hip-hop? Sure there is! From the current quality of the music to the prevalence of negative-image portrayal of men and women doing demeaning or criminal things and other things which need not be mentioned.
That said, people who rally against hip-hop (like anything else, of course) hyperbolise their own arguments in order to make it seem more sinister than it really is. For example, How many 'Tip Drill'-like videos have you seen lately (or before it)? Not many, I gather. And the mainstream videos and music are pretty tame even relative to pop or rock standards. I mean Britney Spears' 'Toxic' video has images of her looking almost naked. If that were a hip-hop video of a male rapper's song, no doubt somebody would have used that as an example of the exploitation of women.
As for the other things that are portrayed (violence, crime and whatnot), yes they are bad. But these existed prior to hip-hop. The Crips gang predates hip-hop (c. 1969) as does the Bloods gang. So we can't blame that on hip-hop as much as people would like to do. The portrayal of other violent or criminal behaviour is no different from other forms of media such as film or television (see: The Sopranos), but hip-hop once again is the preferred scapegoat.
According to some people like Bill O'reilly, "The Sopranos is well-written. So I'll watch that...". Well, isn't that a matter of judgement and preference? I think a lot of rappers' rhymes are well-writtten while I don't think the same of mant TV shows and films that get a pass.
Anyway, this issue is never going away and they are now discussing banning the 'n' word, the 'b' word and something else; I lost track. This is silly, won't work and we'll be having this discussion for the foreseeable future (until another scapegoat comes along).
Meanwhile, as they resolve the issue of which words rappers can use, let's stay entertained by innocent Hollywood, the 'Paris'-loving 24-hr news channels and the lovely Marilyn Mansons...
Hip hop is a major reason why a lot of people today are proud to be black ...what kind of statement is that? It is probably just as well you did not get into that cause that has got to be one of the most ludicrous and unsubstantiated statements I have ever heard. Just because it is trendy, cool or the in thing does not equate to pride.
The same argument that you are using when you state..."people who rally against hip-hop (like anything else, of course) hyperbolise their own arguments in order to make it seem more sinister than it really is.…."
This is the same argument that was used when 2 Live crew first came out with their records. Now I ain't gon' front I was down with 2 live crew like whoa! But fact remains this was more a consequence of my growing up and development as a youth. But if someone would have told me that the 2 Live Crew videos would be setting a precedent a precedent that permitted or made it ok! for rappers to demean women or for misogyny then I probably would have sat up and listened and made an educated choice.
Back then it was difficult to see what the consequences of rap would be. To-day rap (or hip hop) has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry in which hot and sexy (read lurid and lecherous) is the order of the day. I know you have seen the video clip by Cameron where he is talking to Anderson Cooper and in defending his point of view or paradigm he makes reference to a fan base of 500,000. i.e. no matter what, he has a public image to protect and whether he is a gangsta or not, whether he is a criminal or not (I am not implying that Cameron is), he has to come across as all this things in order to guarantee 500,000 sales and then everything above that is catered for through marketing and promotions. I was shivering in me timbers when I saw that clip. Here is someone who might as well have been on the Apprentice or an MBA graduate because he was applying business principles to his twisted view. I don't know about you, but back in the days when rap and hip hop were still marginal entities never once did I hear such business terminology and principles emanate from the artists’ mouth. And even though he issued an apology only a blind man can take the apology at face value and not see that their was pressure from above on him to retract his statement and views i.e. the PR department was in overdrive
To surmise my point, hip hop and rap have gone unchecked over the years and they need to become accountable especially to the society that they purport to be representing. A rapper is in the hood when they can afford a house in Manhattan upper east side, or an apartment in park avenue or a 8-10 bedroom house with cinema etc. That is not the hood you are representing and so if hip hop is about keepin' it real, why not rap about the millionaire lifestyle and target it to your peers i.e. the millionaires sort of like rap music by the rich for the rich.
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