Sep 23
Recently I was involved in an email discussion with some good friends in regards to two new albums being released: The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z and Only Built 4 Cuban Links 2 by Raekwon Da Chef and Ghostface Killa. What started out as a funny moment of reminiscing (being that we all at one time had been engrossed fully into the Hip Hop culture) degenerated into a bout of ageism and elitism. Some of them had apparently outgrown Hip Hop, here is a quote from one of my more successful, respected and intellectual friends:
“I’d only share that the majority of hip hop music (both now and in the “golden age” too) rang empty to me once I personally matured to an extent. The musical celebration of themes like misogyny, substance abuse, drug trafficking, gunplay, misogyny, homophobia, pride in incarceration, satisfaction with poverty, misdirected territorialism (aka a stolen people reppin’ their stolen land to the fullest), financial irresponsibility and misogyny admittedly fueled my teenaged entertainment appetite…somehow right alongside the more conscious or mindful music I also loved.”
This came in reply to one that I had sent out to tell those who felt that Hip Hop had an age limit (I think the imaginary number is 30) that I disagreed. That unlike the former outcast music of our ancestors (Jazz, Rock n Roll, etc.) we are given an age limit to either listen to it or take part in it. This has been a daily battle for me as part of the internet, having to shoot down comments such as “Jay-Z should retire isn’t he like 40!” – This coming from a troll without the balls to even reveal his name. Troll or not though, he reflects the general thoughts of Hip Hop’s immature audience and even some of it’s artists. When friends alluded to the same on the email, I felt I needed to say something there and after my rebuttal it turned into a more serious accusation, where Hip Hop was the albatross for black communities failing.
Be a Parent and stop Blaming Music
There is definitely something about a kid who lacks parenting and decides to do the things that Plies tells him to do, but it seems all too convenient to blame the music. As a Gamer and movie lover, I know a lot about blame games in regards to entertainment mediums. As a citizen I also know that good parenting is a rarity when I travel alongside the screaming, kicking, future serial killers of America (as their worthless mom or dad sits there defeated). But is it right to blame the entertainment mediums or is this a case of can’t see the forest for the trees.
To my friend’s argument that Hip Hop is a huge part of the problems, I wonder if abandoning and shunning it would make it go away? In the “Golden Years” when we had Public Enemy, KRS-One and other black upliftment lyricists as the mainstay, was our communities that much better? What about the happy rap era of The Fresh Prince, Kid n Play, Kwame and other corny emcees? Were things better then? Were there more black leaders in the community? Was crime at an all time low? I would need to hear or see this data in order to believe that somehow, our era of rapping about crack cocaine leading to riches, shaking your ass to the new catch-phrase and bragging about cars is any worse off than before.
Its just too easy to blame music, video games, and cinema. How about we take some personal responsibility and realize that it really does take parenting to steer kids correctly. Yes a few may fall off the track but what can you say about yourself if your kid chooses to listen to Jeezy over you?
Am I too Old to Listen to Hip Hop
I wish I could go back in time to the days when Jazz was a crazy black thing, where the mainstream shunned it and a few rebellious white kids sought after it. I want to see if people were spewing the same ageist crap they are now about an age limit. When I look at images from the past at the Miles Davises, the Charlie Parkers and the Billie Holidays it sure doesn’t seem that way. How about Rock n Roll, the so-called “devil music” that had holy rollers screaming bloody murder. Did you have to be of a certain age to enjoy it? I’m sure the people of that era will say differently. Yet here we are with our version of urban, rebel music that is within it’s 3rd decade and still under scrutiny for tearing up black communities and being a sound made only for teenagers. It’s enough to make me throw my hands up in the air out of frustration.
What makes me the most upset over the entire thing is that as a lover of many music forms, if I didn’t have Hip Hop within that circle it would ring strangely hollow. I like having the older Jay-Z to remind me that 30 is the new 20 and that I should be progressing financially. I like hearing the tales of sex, drugs and money being told in the story raps of Ghostface Killah and Raekwon the Chef. Having Method Man hint at me about what’s going on in his life lyrically and the crazy antics of the Soopaman Lover by Redman. I identify with these emcees by tradition, age and music, they are my Bird, my Miles and my Trane. Who are you to tell me that they should quit because they have past the age of 30? If they can still profit from album sales, it says that they still have an audience who loves their music and that is truly what matters.
I have said it before and I will say it again, if you don’t want to hear something then turn it off. There are tons of young kids out there making music, or some variation of, that you can listen to. Keep the ageist bullcrap to yourself because nobody likes to hear it. I think Jay-Z said it best when he referred to his music as grown folks Hip-Hop because I fully agree. If you want to dance to the latest teen sensation, just turn on your radio and let the OG’s be. It’s not a question of age, it’s a question of taste and we have quite a variety in the Hip Hop world.
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Filed under Access Hollywood, Money and Business, Music
Tagged with cocaine, ghostface killa, internet, jay z, raekwon
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on September 23, 2009 - 12:34 pm
I think that people often point to Hip Hop as lacking maturity, and lacking evolution, which has it’s merits. However we don’t put other aspects of our culture, such as the Black Church, religion, Black activism and politics, etc. under the same scrutiny, when they are equally lacking in maturity and evolution. So while it is not my feeling that I should defend Hip Hop, I think getting distracted by the problems with Hip Hop, don’t help us evolve to deal with larger societal issues.
There is a difference between Hip Hop and Hip Hop music, Hip Hop music and rapping. Also it is important to remember there is more to Hip Hop than what we see in mainstream American Media. We are all well traveled and savvy enough to know there are some incredible things going on with Hip Hop in Español in the Caribbean and South America, east Africa, west Africa and in South Africa. Not to mention off the mainstream radar around the U.S. And I don’t just mean musically. This is something that was mentioned, but when most people talk about Hip Hop, they are not coming from such a broad perspective, they are thinking of 50, Jay-Z, Weezy etc.
I think this conversation points to a larger problem of us being in control of the media that is used to define us, in addition to issues of media literacy. I also think that we need to evolve beyond looking at things as negative or positive. It’s rarely that simple. That was part of the point of the link I sent about the “Pirates” in Somalia. I also think we do have to “Knuckle Up”, and get active, a la the Jeff Chang link I sent. There are plenty of people like him, Van Jones, Adisa Banjoko, DJ Spooky, etc. who are not thought of in the traditional canon of Hip Hop, but who are making a larger societal impact, politically, academically, and in some cases on a grass roots level.
I guess I get discouraged by the “Hip Hop witch hunts” because I fear that people’s monolithic perspective on Hip Hop will adversely affect OUR ability to use it for productive means and social change. So while I welcome critique, acknowledging HipHop’s problems, I try not to get self-righteous about people’s means of expressing what they feel is going on in the world. Rarely can we say someone’s point of view or means of creative expression is not valid. It is usually more productive to aspire to there being more variety.
on September 23, 2009 - 3:18 pm
both of you are absolutely correct. i feel like there is so much more to hip hop than what’s on the radio these days. as a parent of a preteen girl, i cringe at the thought of her being a “bust it baby” or having some little boy tellin her to lick it like a lollipop. i’m a parent that pays attention because, lets face it, the kids are gonna hear the radio whether the parent allows it or not. it’s truly up to the parent to monitor what the child hears, and in turn, discuss what they heard and make sure it’s perceived the way it should be. my daughter is annoyed by sagging pants and loves to hear any song by tribe, de la, public enemy, etc. however, she also knows how to swag and surf, do the jerk, and the soldier boy. my point being, as a parent who knows the difference between hip hop and rap, i gave her plenty years of the foundation for the music, but i still let her live in her decade knowing how i feel about the songs her friends are listening to. and what’s refreshing is that on any given day, she will pick run dmc over lil wayne…not because i won’t allow her to listen to wayne, but because i’ve taught her to have her own mind and she decided for herself that he sounds like he’s mentally challenged.
on September 24, 2009 - 2:52 am
How’s it goin, e’erybody?
Hey, so since I’m the author of the quote that makes up the second paragraph of this Dragon blog, I’ll weigh in now to say that I feel my comments (which were describing my own experience with what I identified as a subset of hip hop music) are taken out of context if the suggestion is that I claimed “Hip Hop was the albatross for black communities failing.” As you’ll read below in the full unedited version of my email, I expressed that hip hop did not create the conditions I addressed.
I should also disclose that for 20+ years I’ve been a producer as well as a consumer of hip hop music, which I only make known to illustrate that I’m obviously not advocating the abandonment of all hip hop music (because not all hip hop music is negative and for that matter not all music should have to neatly fit into an either “negative” or “positive” category).
And hopefully you’ll see for yourself that I never made any generalizations about hip hop listeners (nor did I suggest that at a certain age, one should stop exercising their freedom to enjoy hip hop music). At most, what I intended to do was open up with a personal commentary about a crossroads in my own experience, when I began changing as an individual and my conscious nudged me into recognizing that many of the subject matter themes espoused within my personal hip hop music collection were inconsistent with the kind of character I wanted to instill within myself and the person (husband, father, mentor, congregant, etc.) I was striving and eventually growing to become.
Finally (and this wasn’t intentional or even recognized until I read it back), it’s ironic that my statement begins and ends with Love. And while that even sounds corny by my standards, I put a spotlight on this because often times people do criticize musicians, listeners and all other kinds of people in a way that’s demeaning and without regard for the soul of the person/people they’re addressing. But when a message begins and ends with Love, it’s hard for me to accept how that message can be dismissed as elitist, accusatory, etc.
At any rate, here’s my entire statement, included the parts El Dragon omitted:
(begin email)
Love reading everyone’s POV. And leave it to [me] to now inject something negative, self-righteous and just damn wordy into the conversation.
I’d only share that the majority of hip hop music (both now and in the “golden age” too) rang empty to me once I personally matured to an extent. The musical celebration of themes like misogyny, substance abuse, drug trafficking, gunplay, misogyny, homophobia, pride in incarceration, satisfaction with poverty, misdirected territorialism (aka a stolen people reppin’ their stolen land to the fullest), financial irresponsibility and misogyny admittedly fueled my teenaged entertainment appetite…somehow right alongside the more conscious or mindful music I also loved. After all, I was a college standout at the top of the class at one of the nation’s foremost business schools and yet two of my favorite songs were simultaneously “Brothers Gonna Work It Out” (Public Enemy) and “Killin Every Nigga in Sight” (Black Moon). It doesn’t have to make sense.
But I think maturity and discernment began to disturb my consciousness and called into question the fact that such contradictions were acceptable to my psyche. Beyond a certain threshold, the same destructive themes above in hindsight not only began to feel childish/ignorant to me, but they also began pointing directly to some of the culpable factors contributing to the death of our communities in key areas like health/wellness, safety, education, wealth/employment, housing/ownership, etc.
Not that hip hop single-handedly created these conditions (and I’d be preaching to the choir on this particular email distribution to point out the obvious fact that there’s a hip hop music minority that touches on other positive, meritorious themes, blah, blah, blah). But much, MUCH of hip hop music does without defense absolutely contribute to the creation of a cultural atmosphere that allows these dangerous conditions to persist for a generation rather than become unacceptable to a generation.
Finally, hip hop rather sucks right now to me, if only to point to its lack of (or failure to place a value on) creativity. And as I see it, if human creativity is not growing toward its potential, it’s not maturing. If hip hop is in fact relapsing relative to its prime or peak, then hip hop is regressing rather than maturing. And c’mon let’s be honest, hip hop is suckin the diggity dozen bag o’ D’s right now, for real.
Love y’all.
(end email)
on December 28, 2010 - 7:27 pm
Hip hop music and dance is internationally accepted and demanded. This is an artform that is culturally loved by people all over the world. I am much older than the newbies appreciating Hip hop music, dance, yet everyone is going to grow older, and then do we stop to retire from hip hop? Hip hop music that grew from the streets, poverty, pain and loved by millions around the world is such a phenomenon. Keep embracing the world of Hip hop. Just wanted to add, that I really never translated every gangster song in detail, but the sound, rhythm and the beat was so cool, that it didn’t matter about some of the words. People around the world are not all english speaking yet they feel the groove and enjoy it .