When I tell people that hip-hop can save the world, I am usually met
with confused looks, blank stares or people rolling their eyes. But it’s true.
Hip-hop can fight against racism, sexism and other injustices. First step is to
forget everything you think you may know about hip-hop. I want you to clear out
all the top billboard hip-hop hits from your iPod. Delete all the Jay-Z,
Eminem, YG, Drake, Kid Ink, Tyga and all the other auto-tune, hyper-produced,
overly-polished, consumerist, sexist, mindless, heartless, cultureless dance
beats sold to you as hip-hop.
Hip-hop did not start with Snoop Dogg and Dr.
Dre in the 1990s. Hip-hop began in the South Bronx in 1973 when DJ Kool Herc
and his sister co-organized a birthday party and began spinning records. This
was, arguably, the beginning of what would later be called the music and
culture of hip-hop. Now, throughout the five Boroughs of New York, and in other
places around the country, other people and groups were experimenting with
mixing records, speaking over songs, usually during break beats or instrumental
portions of the songs (which would later be known as rapping).
Hip-hop’s origins were a direct result of many
socioeconomic factors during the harsh 1970s in urban, poor New York City,
especially in immigrant African-American and Latino communities. Hip-hop was
born out of a lack of opportunities for poor black and brown young people. The
reality of a lasting white supremacist legacy, shutting people of color out of
unemployment and in to incarceration. Hip-hop concretely gave these people
opportunities of financial/cultural creativity and what DJ Kool Herc, Afrika
Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and countless other pioneers of this new culture
created was a way for people to make, enjoy and potentially financially survive
off of throwing shows, playing gigs, selling records and becoming artists.
Since its creation, hip-hop has not just been
about survival. It has been a culture of resistance. Artists from the
very beginning such as Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run
DMC, Public Enemy and X Clan have always focused on challenging the status quo
and raising awareness on racism, mass incarceration and oftentimes capitalism
itself as a devastating political economy. Hip-hop as a form of cultural
resistance continues till this very day with groups and individuals such as
Lauryn Hill, Cihuatl Ce, Dead Prez, Lupe Fiasco, Blue Scholars, Low-key and
many others whose content range from much-needed reform to flat-out revolution.
The late-great cultural theorist Stuart Hall
spoke critically on the fluidity, the “constant transformation,” of culture.
Hall often spoke on culture not being a static thing but something that exists
in a state of constant change. Fast-forward 41 years later and much has changed
in hip-hop since its birth, which is to be expected. Certainly hip-hop
challenged the traditional way of doing business under capitalism but it most
certainly did not dismantle it, or want to and it is precisely because of
hip-hop’s ability to survive, to teach survival, to unite people, to give an
expression for oppressed people, that it can be used as a culture of challenging
oppression while raising consciousness.
In this way, hip-hop is a gun, and in the right
hands, it can be a tool for liberation. But in the wrong hands, like the
uncritical mass media, it can be a tool of destruction.
Hip-Hop is not the music of resistance that is
once was. These claims are outrageous? Not exactly, deconstructing mainstream
hip-hop begins with understanding how hip-hop culture has been appropriated and
turned from a force that challenged the status quo of traditional mainstream
music into another product of capitalistic sedation. It is no apparent surprise
that hip-hop music and artists, like all celebrities, are used to mass-market
products. Check out 50 Cent and his ad for Vitamin Water or how about Kanye
West and his endorsement of Ciroc? Not only that, P Diddy is actually Ciroc’s
brand ambassador.
Jay-Z even went as far as creating his own
brand of vodka, Armadale. Jay-Z’s marketing doesn’t stop with his vodka brand.
Jay-Z has a song titled “Tom Ford” in his latest album, “Magna Carta Holy
Grail.” Now that’s some blatant but smart advertising. Essentially, hip-hop has
been commodified. A culture that once challenged mainstream culture and
capitalism became another cog in the machine. A hip-hop artist using their
power and status to market items is just the beginning. Artists themselves are
perpetuating a culture of ignorance. Look at Nicki Minaj’s recent marketing
scheme.
In order to sell her new single, Lookin’ Ass
Nigga, Minaj decided to use a historic image of Malcolm X on the song’s art
cover. While some may argue that it’s not a big deal for Minaj to have pulled
this stunt, it is quite offensive for those who understand the story behind
Malcolm X’s picture. The image depicts Malcolm X looking out of a window while
holding an assault rifle in his hand. The history behind the iconic image was
that Malcolm X and his family were in danger of being attacked because of
numerous death threats. Malcolm X was in fear of his life; he was in danger
because he was standing up for the right to self-determination of
African-American and Minaj blatantly ripped off the picture as an unofficial
single art cover. Adding insult to injury, the song itself has next to nothing
to do with promoting awareness of the African-American struggle. The Malcolm X picture
was just being used as a sad marketing device.
Hip-hop evolved from a counter-culture against
a racist society to some monstrosity that is a slave to the machine of
capitalism. But that’s why it is necessary to read on in order to understand
why hip-hop can still be a weapon against this oppressive system.
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