About a month ago I had a idea for a Blog that would have been aptly titled "Nigga Hate". Subtle I know, but the heading would have been extremely relevant to the text it preceded. After repeatedly listening to lines like ("IF I WANT YOU DEAD NIGGA I'LL TAKE YA SOUL" ) and ("I RATHER WASTE A NIGGA THAN WASTE TIME") while sharecropping at work, I began to ponder how much self hate I listened to during the course of the week. No matter how much I wanted to disregarded or deny it, the vast majority of the lyrics I listened to sounded like the drunken ranting of past overseers, or possible future proclamations of Neo Nazi's during a race war. I'm firm adherent to the belief that if you hear anything repeatedly for long enough duration, you will internalize and attain and believe of some, if not all of the rhetoric you've been exposed to, such a conviction is exacerbated by the fact the subject matter alluded to, most including myself have been listing to for at least half of there lives. So at the risk of seriously hampering my productivity, I began logging in the music I listened to at work by album, and pin pointing the most egregious lines. You know stuff like (YOU KILL ONE NIGGA YOU MINES WELL KILL SOME MORE") ()Then something happened that abruptly caused a change of plans. While browsing (Allhiphop) I hapend to see a news clipping (yep I'm old enough to say "clippings") mentioning a CNN special dealing with "Hip Hop". Now my initial inclination was "I'm not watching this s$&*". CNN has long been on my "fuck you list" of television stations, long before I basically gave up own cable news as a whole. I immediately conjured up visions of a show constructed by inept producers with a woefully inadequate knowledge of Hip Hop culture, let alone the music, spewing ignorant rants akin to 1950's rhetoric of Rock n Roll being the "Devils Music". My inclinations where further spurred by programs title "Hip Hop… Art or Poison", and the subsequent advertising which asked insidious leading questions like "How do they get away with it?". The power of DVR technology and resonant words of a former professor who stated "You should always want to know what your enemy is saying about you" prevailed over my, I hate CNN and Paula Zahn isn't that talented or attractive thoughts, and I decided to give hilariously labeled liberal channel a hour of my life..
At the shows inception, as expected it went thru the quick ubiquitous 3min synopsis of history. You know, some kids n the Bronx, Rappers Delight, Run DMC, NWA, and gangsta rap, Tupac n Bigge, then the hedonistic times of the present. Of course pertinent facts had to be mentioned, such as 80% of the purchasers of rap cd's just happen to be White, and 1 out of every 5 cd's sold in America (and prolly downloads excluding porn) are of the Hip Hop variety. Now a devout cynic would look at such a display of information and decipher from code "White people wake up, you and your kids are being infected with this insidious negro creation" but life didn't afford such a choice. for a common target of ire was beckoned for his opinion. When Chuck D appeared on the screen via satellite, the urge to change the channel never was stronger in my being. Lately when Chuck is asked to opine on Hip Hop matters it seems like the equivalent of asking Isaac Newtown to discuss nuclear propulsion, might have set the foundation for such a thing, but really not an expert on the subject. With right thumb placed in strategic position, I began to listen to the man who couldn't save Flava Flav's soul speak. Expecting the worst, and the best nonsensical punditry, literal amazement befell me as he refused to be a pawn in CNN game. Utilizing Fox News perfected tactic of suggestive questioning "Isn't it a fact that this type of music really can't be condoned?" Zahn peppered Chuck with far from fair line of questioning, he responded in a beyond adept manner. When the culture of Hip Hop was assailed, he posited about genuine American ideals and values that Rap had just adopted and adjusted to conjure its own manifestation. When rappers where continuality blamed for their product, the legendary group front man asked, "How come nobody brings up or asks about the Jimmy Iovines or Lyor cohens who really dictate what is put out in this industry??" At that moment I was instantly taken back to the days of "Don't Believe the Hype" and "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" and remembered why P.E is legendary even if one of its members is coon of the year. Just when I started to feel good about the show, the teaser before the commercial break came on. "Next up we are going to show you how urban kids think and Hip Hop's affect on it". Shit why don't we just put this show on Discovery H.D and resurrect Steve Irwin at least it would look better and be more entertaining. Note to you I hate the term "Urban" .
Bills where paid and then the audience is swiftly whisked to North Carolina, for an episode of "Youth Out Of Control". Teenagers are asked if they desire the expensive items they see in rap videos, they say yes. Kids are asked if they know anyone that has undertaken illegal means to attain objects in rap videos, they say yes. If my roommates T.V didn't cost more than my first car I think I would've committed High Definition sacrilege. Not content to just on relations from kids on the street, and local criminologist was summoned in to state her view that "I have no doubt in my mind Rap is influencing these kids to commit crime, due to them trying to attain the extravagant items they see in the videos". Just when I thought this Emmy award wining piece was over I had to hear the reporter say "They call it getting paid" aggghhhh. The complete obscuring of American opulence and extravagance during that segment was maddening. The United States as a whole defines consumerism, and for Hip Hops effects to be placed above the omnipresent bombardment of advertisements everyone in this land endures daily is absurd. The individualistic desire to attain massive amounts of wealth is a true red white n blue standard, weather you shoot somebody in the head for a chain, or rob hundreds of thousands of people for their life savings. Different scale same principle. One true caveat not mentioned was standard of living, even though we live in the most affluent nation ever, disparities of wealth domestically inhabitants of to use their term "urban" (I feel sick) an extra motivational factor for nihilistic behavior, trying to garner more self worth. If you live in a abyss of poverty that nearly every one who your acquainted with and looks like you is mired in also, there is a good chance you will only see the trees in front of you (gaudy items in the hood and in music vids) for the rest of the forest or even out side of it, is concept not often pondered. Say what you will about the Feds and crime statistics, but rates of violent crime where much higher in the 80's when Rappers where on a Black Pride theme and everybody was rocken African medallions. Guess that means that Hip Hop then was more liable then the cocaine rap of today?
Credit should be given where it is due, and CNN did (at least on the first and only part of the series I watched) host a group of panelist that made me temporally question everything I read in (Cable News Confidential). Any time I see hear or read Micheal Eric Dyson, I'm reminded why the higher power gave us two eyes, two ears and one mouth, and when I witnessed the name Roland S Martin (Damn you NPR when u lost Ed Gordon you lost him) I thought that maybe I hadn't given up the Jamaica, for I never would have thought CNN would have given someone of his acumen and bent a platform. Even the individual who I thought was the token white guy was beyond great in his expression, I had no idea who Tom Wise was before the show, but he proved himself exceedingly proficient in the position he held down that night. I actually started to feel bad for those who feel Hip Hop is poison because those who represented there argument where really out numbered and out matched. Well they did have the host on they side, but with ignorant comments by a Black Lady whose name escapes me at th moment like "We as Black People are rhythm based so we become so immersed by the beat that we sometimes don't even think about the lyrics and the message and just sing along" hmmm so that same theory doesn't apply the main white purchasers of the product? I kept wondering, where is Maxine Waters when you need her to save you from loud individuals who say nothing. After a intriguing segment about the misogynic nature of Hip Hop degrading Black Women for a largely White audience and Isaiah Washington, Tim Hardaway like lets blame Rap for homophobia story line the panel rounded out the show, one last round table discussion was had. Dyson displayed it best when he stated the true wielders of power in the Music industry are not going market and promote Hip Hop that describes and criticize the structural inequalities of America, "there are plenty of rappers who do not divulge in the type of rhetoric you've brought up tonight, but the do not get nearly the same exposure". After he recited a very true line about OJ and Woody Allen from Mos Def's "Mr Nigga" Roland Martin interjected, "These corporations only care about profit, and sex and violence sells very well". After watching the special and witnessing the poll results stating the majority of viewers not surprisingly found Hip Hop to be poison, I was left with the same bothersome feelings. I worry about Hip Hop as an art form and culture. Sadly it's a creation we don't control, which has been manipulated and turned against us. The main elixir for Raps problems can easily be seen as balance, but the attainment of such seems sometimes like a distant non realistic possibility. We live in a land where there seems to be a new sadistic horror film in theaters every week, a government that condones torture has to tell a highly popular television to slow down with its depictions of it's use, and there's enough intrigue about death to sponsor 82 CSI's and 67 Law & Orders. Yes America we are some sick fucks....or at least are bread to be so. It shouldn't be surprising that the 180 of whats prominently displayed by the likes of Viacom, rarely if ever gets to be witnessed by you. Yes there are a lot of White Kids at Dead Prez shows, but the majority of "America" doesn't want to hear nor consume that shit or anything remotely like it. No huge profit, no shelf space for the product. That product should also be looked at keenly to. In a country where torture and murder of Blacks was a recreational sporting act, is it disturbing that there is such a massive non Black audience that loves to hear about Black destruction? Maybe being in the trunk is better that being on the tree, but still it isn't a beautiful scenario. If the Irish where the Niggers of Europe, than Blacks are akin to the Jews on that continent of earlier times, both where easy to blame for societies ills. The sad reality is that energy that should be spent trying rectifying some of Hip Hops maladies are exhausted in trying to defend it, because for a lot of people, defending Hip Hop is akin to defending themselves. The vicious cycle continues.
