One day Hip-Hop music may go down as one of the most successful art forms ever created. Think about it. In just 30 short years Hip-Hop music and the ensuing culture has become one of the most influential and widely discussed forms of expression ever. From Run DMC, to NWA, Tupac, Biggie, NAS, Wu-Tang, up to Jay Z, Kanye, Eminem, and even Kendrick, Drake, and J Cole, Hip-Hop artists have been under both massive scrutiny, and held up to enormous idolization. Which leads us to the question; does Hip-Hop degrade society?
Many people think so. Or at least, that Hip-Hop music doesn't add value to society. We as Americans have watched many rappers grow to fame by rapping about wealth, fame, sex, drugs, alcohol, crime, and violence. 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne, Migos, and most recently Bobby Shmurda have made their living by appealing to the most base aspects of the world. Rappers like these glorify prison culture, violence, and materialism. Doctor Boyce Watkins, a self made academic who is widely respected by the black community, argues that rap music preaches 7 commandments to those who listen to it. 1) Never respect or value women 2) Money and material wealth reign supreme over education, security, loyalty, and love. 3) Chase money immediately and always put the pursuit of money over all else 4) Masculinity is defined by your ability to be violent 5) Alcohol and drugs are glamorous and are should be abused 6) Society is patriarchal 7) Sounding educated or "white" is lame, wrong, uncool, etc. Watkins argues that as rap music glorifies prison, black on black violence, alcohol/drugs, misogyny, homophobia, and ignorance, the stereotypes that exist for black males are going to continue to exist and be used as justification for the subjugation of a whole race. For example, how many people have you heard blame black youths for the choices they make pertaining to culture? "They need to pull their pants up" "They sound ignorant" "If they'd stop pushing drugs, stop shooting each other, go to school [fill in any other stereotype] they'd be better off" "All they want to do now a days is shake their ass." I could go on forever. Hip-Hop not only allows black people to be negatively stereotyped, it also glorifies and entrenches the aspects of life that have arisen from centuries of subjugation deeper into our culture. I would argue something different. First of all, to blame hip-hop for giving people a reason to negatively stereotype black people is to ignore history. American society has been skeptical of the humanity of black people literally since the founding of our country (see the 3/5 compromise). Second of all, since the 80's and hip-hop's birth, crime rates have dropped significantly. Third, hip-hop did not create the problems that black people face, rap music only serves to express what life is like for the most distressed people not only in our country, but increasingly globally. Furthermore, what about the sheer artistic value that Hip-Hop brings? My 12th grade AP teacher would be amazed at the complex system of enjambment, rhyme scheme, personification, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, meter, allusion, consonance, and assonance that hip-hop contains. And that is before you explore the musical beauty of the rhyme flow and the beats that artists rap over. How can this music be viewed as the "ignorant genre" when it takes rhetorical, lyrical, and oratorical genius to be successful? I was watching a debate hosted by google+ when an Oxford English professor said that "In twenty or thirty years Tupac Shakur will be considered as great a poet as Walt Whitman." And what about the voice for the oppressed? Hip-Hop is the most democratic thing we have in America. Rap music is one of the most successful ways that the poor, the degraded, the subjugated, and the discriminated have been able to make their voice heard. Hip-Hop culture, and I mean the dress, the dancing, the language, the visual art, as well as the music has been the most successful counter-culture in the history of our country. A whole generation of young adults has grown up in a culture that challenges the many notions taken for granted by those who supersede them. Yes, a lot of hip-hop is sexist, misogynist, homophobic, violent, materialistic, and nihilistic. However, hip-hop is very diverse, and to attach that label to all rappers is simply unfair, especially when it is the cancer of over capitalism that created the commercialized crap that gets on our radios. Rap also does not exist in a vacuum. It was created and continues to exist in a very specific context. The problems that persist in rap music are not the products of the music, but of the conditions that gave birth to it. To attack hip-hop is not to attack the music, but to attack the culture of an increasingly diverse community of listeners. Hip-Hop most definitely does not degrade society. But if people aren't careful, it may give a sound to social change. -515
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October 2018
Matt BruceViva DSM!! |