Hip-Hop’s Evolution:
Vol III: …the effects on the culture

Recently I read an article on a popular hip hop website that not only intensified my thoughts on the state of hip hop but it also confirmed some as well. In this article the writer felt the need to express his distaste for conscious rap and spoke with much boldness as he pronounced it dead. Really? Conscious rap is dead??? This writer had to have been mistaken. If anything, the conscious spitting emcee is what’s keeping true hip hop fans interested. Artists such as new comers Wale and Jay Electronica may not be 100% conscious and clean but the content of their lyrics is ear candy for true hip hop heads.

Back to this article; in it, the writer argues (quote), “For conscious male emcees, the position of the alternative to gangsters, thugs or whatever you want to call them, was this type of super-sensitive captain save a ho. It emasculated men and robbed us of the fact that a male emcee could be intelligent, articulate and ignorant all on the same album.”

Before I go any further, I wonder who taught this writer that it is okay to be ignorant. This was the writer’s response to some bars spoken by Dead Prez’s Stic.Man in a song called “Mind Sex” where he said:

Somebody please tell me… what’s so emasculating about a brother whose interest in a woman goes beyond “tappin some ass.” I see nothing wrong with dude wanting to cook and spend time with the girl before… well you know. If anything, this is more masculine than a more popular emcee that says “all a nigga really need is a lil bit.” Does every male emcee have to speak ignorance? Does sex have to be at the forefront of every male/female interaction? Where did this come from? Women of hip hop are no longer considered attractive unless they’re showing some skin, cleavage, or the infamous back shot. Hip hop men are considered soft when they speak about culture, love, religion, or positive change but are highly regarded, considered cool or “with swag” when they act gansta, thuged-out or when they’re known for being a player, disrespecting women by calling them bitches and hoes. Where are these definitions of manhood, beautiful, and successful coming from?

Let’s Think about it… when Bobby Brown, Kid-n-Play, or Kwame were considered the in crowd, what was the popular hair style? Let’s go back to songs like Tupac’s “Keep Ya Head Up” or LL Cool J’s “I Need Love.” These were times when most men respected women, and weren’t called soft nor did they feel emasculated, but they were appreciated for it. I remember when young women aspired to be the next Janet Jackson, Halle Berry, Tyra Banks, or Oprah Winfrey, but when the most sought after women in hip hop became Lil Kim, Melissa Ford, or Buffy the Body something changed. When asked, “Could hip hop be the blame for the tarnished images of urban community men and women” both the responders and I agreed that it isn’t the emcee’s, but the record labels and mass media outlets, like radio, TV, and websites, that promote this image. Most would assume that the videos and songs that are in continuous rotation on music video channels and radio stations are the best that hip hop has to offer. I and many others would beg to differ.

Hip hop is no longer the urban style of music and culture that was birthed with the intensions of getting the pains of the urban voice heard, at least not primarily. Now it’s primarily about business and unfortunately the music and videos that yield the best profit are the ones that mostly contain messages of materialism, misogyny, and sex. Consequently, new up-and-coming artists are faced with the dilemma of making, what they believe is, creatively sound music or succumbing to the status quo. For some of these artists, even if it’s mentally and spiritually degrading, it’s hard to say no to a record deal, especially when you are an inner-city individual whose main objective is to move yourself and your family away from the madness. Independent hip hop artist, Amanda Diva, said it best when she wrote the “for the love of B-Girl” verse that says:

The flip side to this is that I’m becoming convinced that other up-and-coming artists are willing to do and/or say anything to get a record deal. Unfortunately I’m also convinced the young, inner city men and women will consider doing whatever it takes to be considered cool and it’s highly unlikely that the image of cool will come from their home; it’s usually a sports athlete, a super model, or an entertainer.

Why is it that most of hip hop’s elite seem to fit the above description… you know, the current status quo of “good hip hop”? Is it coincidence? If so, is it also coincidence that these are the very images that are seen on the My Space and Twitter pages of aspiring rapper and models? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems as if these are the exact images of the cool and “IN” crowds of many urban communities. I’m actually confident the if I ask the youth of any urban community in America what they would do with $150k somewhere on the list of a major percentage of them would be some type of luxury vehicle with rims, bling/jewelry, or clothing/accessories from an expensive designer label. Why is that??? Could it be that these are the only examples of beauty and success that is known? Trey Songs and Drake seem to think so, especially after singing this hook:

In a previous blog, one of my subscribers commented (quote), “Hip hop is a tool to control the uneducated mass by the government, and unfortunately almost everybody falls into this trap…” Most would probably say that this person is just venting or stating his own opinion, which may be true, but could there also be a hint of truth… You be the judge.

Songs highlighted in the Blog
Dead Prez – “Mind Sex”
For more on Dead Prez visit their website @ www.deadprez.com

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Amanda Diva – “For The Love(B-Girl Mix)”
For more on Amanda Diva visit her @ www.amandadiva.com

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Tagged as: Hip hop, inner-city, Let's talk..., Life Cypha, Urban community