Tuesday, May 1, 2007

SHOOT THE MESSENGER

My heart goes out for kids running the streets,
Ten years old with nothing to eat, playing in dirt,
Hair never combed, been the same since birth,
And they moms gets too high to change they shirt,
Pardon me this is my vision, the shit that I live in,
Crack heads,baby mothers with n_gg_z in prision,
Stack bread playing the dozens with liqour and izm,
Clap lead, spraying your cousin for sticking your Wisdom,

Ransom - "Hood Visions"
From the 2006 mixtape: DJ Lust Presents Ransom Is The Best In The City

The effigy has been burning for a while. But the long time apprehensions of black activists like Chuck D, Rev. Sharpton and others has taken on new impetus since Bill O'Reilly, Paula Zahn, Anderson Cooper and other mainstream (read: white) commentators have jumped on the bandwagon in the aftermath of the Don Imus fallout (Pitiful, that if it doesn't have White America's imprimatur it remains a fringe issue). And the hollerations are clear: blame hiphop!

Blame hiphop for the fact that influential white Radio Jock, Imus, called some high achieving Black women nappy-headed hoes and got crucified for it; that many of the images you see in Black Entertainment involve misogynistic and derogatory images of women; blame it for the subversive street messages like those that exhort all and sundry to stop cooperating with the police; that Inner City violence continues. Blame hiphop that words like Bling bling have made into the official American Lexicon. Blame hiphop!

Hiphop, like Blues, has always exhibited a blunt-force-trauma style of presentation. While Michael Dyson, Sharpton and others were trying to put together soundbytes for the media castigating the Federal Government as it wrung its hands early in the Hurricane Katrina Disaster, rapper Kanye West put it thus at a national telethon appearance: "George Bush doesn't care about Black People." You may have thought it, may have thought it was too contentious to say around the watercooler or at the supermarket checkout queue to the lady from next door, but there. Kanye stated without apology what he thought was the bottom line on a prime time national tv broadcast.

And hiphop has been saying it. Pinpointing the destruction that is part of the way of life of one of most endangered species on the Planet: the black man. Saying it in ways that the middle and upper class find uncomfortable to face. Jay-Z said "I can't see them coming down my eyes so I gotta make the song cry," rappers stunt like they're uberthugs in search of the next hapless victim to exact a 200 shot drive-by on, but beneath that, they are people wailing for a way out. Just like a drunk will stand up proclaiming he's fine to drive home and then totter dangerously on his feet quietly hoping the performance will elicit a volunteer from his audience to shuttle him safely home.

Before we blame the bearer of the unpalatable news, there are issues that have been ignored for far much longer than hiphop was born in 1974. The disenfrachisement of the American Lower Class - populated by a majority of the black population - in wealth generation and education is not a hot button topic on Anderson Cooper 360 ( "Tonight on The O'Reilly Factor...Libraries. Where are they in the Ghetto?"). The misogyny directed at the Black Woman is a long-standing blight. Think Hottentot Venus, or the scores of black women sexually violated during slavery. Was that perpetrated by Nelly with Snoop keeping watch? The glorification of the Barbie ideal as the standard of beauty that has led Black People to reject their own kinky-headed and dark skinned beauty for horse hair extensions and skin lighteners, was that Uncle Luke's fault? When civic actions by elements of the Los Angeles Black society grew into the nationalist Black Panther Party, the FBI got involved in shutting it down for good and put black people in jail. In the early 20th Century Jewish immigrants in New York, for example, uplifted their lot by forming socialist type groups that created businesses, housing and social support for their own. Contrast that to the demise of the Black Wall Street. There are 2.2 million black males in american prisions, which is directly related to consistent long term discriminate vicitmization of black men by the Police and the Justice system.

Against this backdrop, with dilapidated neighborhoods that are simply economic deserts, the resultant crime and the violence it creates, drug abuse, prostitution and the ultimate disaster,the dismemberment of the Black Family, Hiphop Culture lives. What do you expect rappers to talk about? And while it's true that the billions in revenue hiphop generates come from a mostly white audience, the the audience a rapper directs his music to is the people who are from or bear a similar background to the rapper, or understand it. The rest of the world simply dials in, like watching a gripping reality show.

Another major issue that all the commentators gloss over is the American Recording and Radio Broadcast sectors which bear similarities with professional sports. While Blacks excel as performers in the arenas, they are a small presence in the boardrooms where billion dollar decisions that affect the game are made. And the Federal Trade Comission has been a cheerleader as the recording industry has dwindled to four major players through mergers and acquisitions (Sony, BMG, Universal & EMI) and 80 percent of all the radio stations in America are owned by two companies (Clearchannel and Infinity). The radio aquisitions were initiated by a Clinton-era law that a Republican majority Congress approved. It eliminated the cap on the number of radio stations a single company could own.

Let's not forget the main music video outlets that broadcast urban music (BET, MTV, VHI) are all owned by Viacom. There are simply no avenues today for rappers with an alternative voice to reach the mainstream without going through these corporate gatekeepers. And they are not interested in these rappers. In the early ninties for example, when the marketing formula wasn't set in stone yet, it was possible to contrast the NWA guntalk with the positive philosophies of the Native Tongue Collective. Both perspectives were on blast on major outlets and thus the audience was able to get a more nuanced message out of rap music. At the very least, there was a choice available to listeners.

Similarly in Hollywood, the gatekeepers dictate the content of black films: comedies and action flicks that exploit the common sterotypes. That's what's proven to deliver favorable box-office returns. Any attempts at creating dramatic or serious films that don't make a play on the sterotypes is simply not on the table.

The profit motive will always reign, and simply, vice sells. Be it violence, lust, pride or prejudice. Training Day is feted before Malcom X. Similarly, the recording industry knows now after the trials of the 80's and 90's and the runaway success of some rappers who lived and died by the gun in their lives and music (RIP), that 50 Cent will raise more eyebrows - and hence generate more revenue - than Common Sense. The radio broadcast industry, long in bed with the recording industry through a system of payments-for-airplay, bows to the the will of its symbiotic partner. When the decision is made to promote crime and gunplay, empty antagonism, excess materialism, pimpery and rump shaking and the stifling of messages of upliftment and genuine explorations issues in the ghetto, the rappers have no say. The ones that want to move from Hollis to the Hamptons, from Bankhead to South Beach, from Long Beach to Palm Springs, they have to hop to the masters organ tune and make music along these lines. Radio obliges and plays the same 30 or so songs the record companies want to sell the the most over and over, all day long. The playlist on a hiphop & r&b radio station in Boston is similar to the one in Chicago or St Louis or San Diego with few variations. Independent Labels that currently support messages alternative to the status quo in rap simply have no pull on mainstream networks, and therefore, their records never reach the larger part of the listenership.

And there is the problem, O'Reilly, Anderson Cooper et al. First, the opportunities for Rap and other Black music to fully express its First Amendment Right to Free Speech has been slaughtered at the altar of the Greenback Temple. The corporations involved do their best with marketing blitzes that leave the listenership no option but to swallow the drivel that is force fed to them.

Secondly and most important, the destructive issues that plague the ghetto haven't changed for generations, and thinking banning certain words from lyrics will change things in the ghetto, where these messages hit home the hardest, is window dressing. Parking the blame in front of the Rap driveway is myopic and futile. Integrated solutions that address the socio-economic issues as well as harmful messages in rap music are in order. So burn the Hiphop effigy. Paint it as the Bad Guy. Find Killa Cam and ask him why he won't snitch. Boost ratings, work up a lather among the Leafy Surbub Set whose kids buy the music and solve nothing.

26 comments:

Sue said...

You kill Hip Hop you kill me... Hip Hop may look as the bad guy, but I think it's because we see only what we want, but never really, even try to get the message in the songs...
DK

Rap Music said...

Nice poem at the top, sad but nice :)

Hip hop Honeys said...

Well written, good stuff

Anonymous said...

It's very straightforward to find out any topic on net as compared to textbooks, as I found this article at this web site.

Feel free to visit my site; loans for bad credit
my page > loans for bad credit

Anonymous said...

І love reading a post thаt cаn make pеoρlе think.
Αlso, thanκѕ fоr allowіng
for mе to comment!

Take a look at my homepage - payday

Anonymous said...

I simрly couldn't go away your site before suggesting that I really enjoyed the standard info an individual supply in your visitors? Is going to be again incessantly to investigate cross-check new posts

Feel free to surf to my weblog; payday loans
my website :: payday loans

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where you are getting your information, but great topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for great info I was looking for this information for my mission.

my webpage small loans

Anonymous said...

Whаt's up to every one, the contents present at this web site are in fact awesome for people knowledge, well, keep up the nice work fellows.

Also visit my web-site payday

Anonymous said...

Nice wеblog here! Aԁԁitionally your website so much up fаst!
What web host aге you the use οf? Can I am getting your аffiliate hyperlink tο
уоur host? I ωiѕh mу webѕite loaded up аs fast as yours lol

Also visit my wеblоg instant payday loans

Anonymous said...

Hello, i think thаt i saw yοu vіsited my
webѕitе so i came tо “return the favor”.
I'm trying to find things to enhance my web site!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!

my blog post: payday loans

Anonymous said...

Hello, the whole thing is going perfеctly hеre and ofcourѕe evеry one is sharing datа, thаt's truly fine, keep up writing.

Feel free to visit my blog - short term loans

Anonymous said...

Excellent blog here! Also yοur webѕite lοadѕ up fast!
What ωeb hоst aгe you using? Cаn
I get your affіliatе link to youг hοѕt?
I wish my webѕite loaded uр as quiсkly аs уourѕ lol

my blog pоst: payday loans uk

Anonymous said...

Hello thеге, You've performed a fantastic job. I'll cеrtаinly ԁіgg
it and pеrsonally suggest tο my friendѕ.
I am suгe they'll be benefited from this web site.

Here is my webpage: payday loans

Anonymous said...

Hаve you еver thought аbout addіng
а littlе bit more than just your artiсleѕ?
Ӏ mean, what уou say іs fundamental and all.
But imagine if you аdԁeԁ somе
great graρhісs or ѵiԁeοs to give your ρosts more, "pop"!
Youг сontent iѕ excellent but with imagеs
and clips, thіѕ blog could undeniably be one of the verу best in its nichе.
Verу goоd blοg!

Feel fгеe to surf to my homеρage -
payday loans

Anonymous said...

ӏ was excited to find thіs рage. І
want to to thanκ уou for yοur timе just for thіs fantastic read!
! I ԁefinitely lovеd every part
of іt and i also have yοu saѵed to fav to see
new іnfoгmation in your site.

my homeρаge - Instant Payday Loans

Anonymous said...

Just wіѕh to say youг article is as
surprising. The clarity in your post iѕ ϳust nіce аnd i coulԁ аssume you are an exрert on this subjеct.
Wеll with your permisѕion let me to grab уour RSS
feed to keep uрdated ωith forthcoming
poѕt. Thanks a million and please continue the rewarding woгk.


my web-site; Payday Loans

Anonymous said...

I have rеad so manу content οn the topic of the bloggеr lovеrs eхcеpt this pieсe of writing іs actuаlly a nice piece of writіng, κeep іt up.



Also vіsit my hοmepage; Same Day Payday Loans

Anonymous said...

This is νery inteгesting, You're a very skilled blogger. I'νе joined уour rsѕ feed and
looκ forwaгd to sеeking more of your fantastic post.

Alsο, I have shared your wеb sіte in my soсial networkѕ!


my web-sіte :: New Bingo Sites

Anonymous said...

Gгeat pοst. I wаs chеcκing сonstantly this blog anԁ Ι'm impressed! Extremely helpful info particularly the last part :) I care for such information much. I was seeking this particular information for a long time. Thank you and good luck.

Also visit my web page - Single Trip Travel Insurance

Anonymous said...

After exρloring a number of the blog articles on yοur ѕіte, I honеstly lіke уour techniquе of writіng a
blog. I book mаrked іt to my bookmark webpаge list and will
be checking back in the nеaг future. Pleaѕe
check out my webѕite as well anԁ tell me hοw you feel.


Нere is my webpage :: New Bingo Sites

Anonymous said...

Fabulous, what a wеbsite it іs! This blog рrеѕents νaluable faсts
to uѕ, keep it up.

Here is my webpage :: payday loans

Anonymous said...

It's hard to come by experienced people about this subject, but you sound like you know what you're talking
аbout! Thankѕ

Viѕit my web-site :: payday loans no credit check

Anonymous said...

Thanks on your marvelous posting! I certainly enjоyed reading
іt, you hapрen to be a great author.

I will make сertaіn to boοkmark your blog and will cоme back later іn life.
I want tο encourаge yоu
continue your great job, haνe a nice holiday weekend!


Feel free to viѕit my webρage :: payday loans

Anonymous said...

hello thеre and thanκ уou for your іnformаtion
– I've definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise several technical points using this web site, as I experienced to reload the site lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I'm complaining, but slow loading instances
times will often affect уour placement іn
googlе аnd can dаmage youг high quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords.
Well I'm adding this RSS to my email and could look out for much more of your respective fascinating content. Ensure that you update this again very soon.

Look at my web blog :: same day payday loans

Anonymous said...

I saνour, lead tο I discovеred just what
I usеԁ tο be lοoking fοr.
Үou've ended my 4 day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye

Here is my web site: loans for bad credit

Anonymous said...

I thіnκ this is one of the most іmpoгtant information for me.
And i'm glad reading your article. But wanna remark on some general things, The web site style is ideal, the articles is really great : D. Good job, cheers

Feel free to visit my web blog small loans