Two outta t'ree niggas is ig'nant.
So I was watching Attack of the Show last night, and on their "The Loop" segment the topic was "Has rap music gone to shit?" For those who haven't seen the show or seen it since it's revamp, they basically call in three "experts" on the topic in question and have a brief panel discussion, prompted by questions from the host.
So last night, to discuss the topic at hand, the panel consists of rapper and author Luther Campbell, rapper and Co-CEO of Diplomat Records Jim Jones and Grammy winning producer Kerry 'Krucial' Brothers. What a disaster. It started off reasonably enough, as Campbell pointed to the underground rap community as a sign of the art form's integrity. After that, it pretty much fell apart. Jim Jones, looking high as a fucking kite, looked the part of the walking stereotype. His contributions amounted to the all-too-common "this is all we know" and the just plain ignorant sounding "we're just making money, and that's all anyone's goal is."
Aside from Brothers, the panelists pretty much dodged the core of the issue -- the pervasiveness of the avarice, misogyny and machismo in modern rap -- and harped on the "this is what we know" and "you just don't get it" defenses. To top it off, when host Kevin Pereira referred to Elton John's recent claim that he wanted to make a hip-hop album, it was met with a storm of homophobia (once Jones figured out who Elton John was and that he was, in fact, gay).
Vicki and I had an interesting discussion last night about stereotypes. She made a good point -- in our attempts to be PC, we overlook the fact that stereotypes are too often true. Obviously, not every black man comes off looking as ignorant as Jim Jones, but you gotta admit, a lot of them do. What's funny, is that I'd be terrified to say that if I wasn't half-black, for fear of being called a racist.
I'm not trying to say that judging people by stereotypes is the right thing to do. You've gotta give everyone a fair shake. But honestly, sometimes black people make black people look bad. Or, to steal from Chris Rock, niggas make black people look bad. Unfortunately, the media seems to have at least as many prominent niggas as it does prominent black people, so there's just no way to come out looking clean. You know, Tom Cruise can get away with being a fucking nut-job because 90% of other white people on TV are at least halfway normal. Besides, Tom Cruise is a unique brand of crazy -- gangsta culture is just that: a culture. So, for every Denzel Washington we've got a pair of Wayans brothers (the dumb ones, see: White Chicks, Little Man). For every positive rap troupe like The Roots, we've got a G-Unit. For every intelligent innovator like Kanye West (off-the-cuff GWB comments notwithstanding), there's a Lil' Jon who may evolve music but pushes it in all the wrong directions. And for every working class, just-tryin'-to-get by black man in America, we've got a crackhead locked up behind bars.
So what now? Spoiled suburban white kids relate to the carefree ice-rapper and ghetto kids want to emulate him. Somehow, I doubt that introspection and social movement are gonna appeal to those audiences. Rich kids have no reason to care, and poor kids are too busy trying to get by. Besides, it's like Red says in The Shawshank Redemption: "Hope is a dangerous thing." It seems that MLK's legacy was all dreams but not enough hope... play the lottery much? What, then, do we do? What do we do? I don't have the answers. Just a flaint glimmer of hope.
So last night, to discuss the topic at hand, the panel consists of rapper and author Luther Campbell, rapper and Co-CEO of Diplomat Records Jim Jones and Grammy winning producer Kerry 'Krucial' Brothers. What a disaster. It started off reasonably enough, as Campbell pointed to the underground rap community as a sign of the art form's integrity. After that, it pretty much fell apart. Jim Jones, looking high as a fucking kite, looked the part of the walking stereotype. His contributions amounted to the all-too-common "this is all we know" and the just plain ignorant sounding "we're just making money, and that's all anyone's goal is."
Aside from Brothers, the panelists pretty much dodged the core of the issue -- the pervasiveness of the avarice, misogyny and machismo in modern rap -- and harped on the "this is what we know" and "you just don't get it" defenses. To top it off, when host Kevin Pereira referred to Elton John's recent claim that he wanted to make a hip-hop album, it was met with a storm of homophobia (once Jones figured out who Elton John was and that he was, in fact, gay).
Vicki and I had an interesting discussion last night about stereotypes. She made a good point -- in our attempts to be PC, we overlook the fact that stereotypes are too often true. Obviously, not every black man comes off looking as ignorant as Jim Jones, but you gotta admit, a lot of them do. What's funny, is that I'd be terrified to say that if I wasn't half-black, for fear of being called a racist.
I'm not trying to say that judging people by stereotypes is the right thing to do. You've gotta give everyone a fair shake. But honestly, sometimes black people make black people look bad. Or, to steal from Chris Rock, niggas make black people look bad. Unfortunately, the media seems to have at least as many prominent niggas as it does prominent black people, so there's just no way to come out looking clean. You know, Tom Cruise can get away with being a fucking nut-job because 90% of other white people on TV are at least halfway normal. Besides, Tom Cruise is a unique brand of crazy -- gangsta culture is just that: a culture. So, for every Denzel Washington we've got a pair of Wayans brothers (the dumb ones, see: White Chicks, Little Man). For every positive rap troupe like The Roots, we've got a G-Unit. For every intelligent innovator like Kanye West (off-the-cuff GWB comments notwithstanding), there's a Lil' Jon who may evolve music but pushes it in all the wrong directions. And for every working class, just-tryin'-to-get by black man in America, we've got a crackhead locked up behind bars.
So what now? Spoiled suburban white kids relate to the carefree ice-rapper and ghetto kids want to emulate him. Somehow, I doubt that introspection and social movement are gonna appeal to those audiences. Rich kids have no reason to care, and poor kids are too busy trying to get by. Besides, it's like Red says in The Shawshank Redemption: "Hope is a dangerous thing." It seems that MLK's legacy was all dreams but not enough hope... play the lottery much? What, then, do we do? What do we do? I don't have the answers. Just a flaint glimmer of hope.
posted by Kultcher at Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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