Hip Hop, The Boardroom, Together With The Street

What are exactly about of the factors that influence the ideas, values, too models of life of immature inner-city African-American men t...

What are exactly about of the factors that influence the ideas, values, too models of life of immature inner-city African-American men today? There are the everyday weather of life inwards the neighborhoods of segregated American cities, which Elijah Anderson considers inwards link). But at that spot is also the increasingly tearing too misogynist output of hip hop music too video. It is apparent that the images, values, too modes of deportment presented inwards hip hop music too videos respect their agency dorsum onto the street too into the lives of immature dark men too women. Hip hop doesn't only mirror the street -- it helps to create the street. So the content too identities portrayed inwards the music makes a difference.

Byron Hurt's rattling interesting 2006 PBS documentary on violence too sexism inwards hip hop music too videos, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats too Rhymes, addresses these issues. (The video is posted at the top.) Hurt does a slap-up labor of reading the business office that violence too misogyny play inwards hip hop lyrics too videos. "Why are then many rappers preoccupied amongst violence too gunplay" (6:30). The basic see that he puts forrard is that this major aspect of hip hop civilisation is a commercial exploitation of a cartoonish version of masculinity—hard, tough, unafraid, cook to kill, cook to exploit too sexualize women. (Hurt calls it “hyper-masculinity”.) The representation of women inwards much of this music is hyper-sexualized too brutalizing. And at that spot is a recurring topic of homophobia too homophobic slurs.

Hurt asks penetrating questions nigh the human relationship betwixt the street, the music industry, too youth culture. The documentary takes on a powerful strand of pop civilisation too the pop civilisation manufacture that creates it too undertakes to slice together an interpretation of the meanings this organization of lyrics too images has. Hurt wants to know how this medium influences the immature men too women who follow it. But he also asks how the content of the medium itself is shaped yesteryear the turn a profit imperatives of the music industry. And it becomes clear that this is a complicated mix of commercial interests too exactly about immature men’s distorted ideas of masculinity.

This is existent social criticism, inwards the Frankfurt School sense. The documentary raises a crucial question: Why is it that the music manufacture gives the lucrative contracts to the most violent, misogynist, too degrading rappers? And why has it been increasingly hard for to a greater extent than radical too critical rappers to larn contracts too distribution inwards the yesteryear 15 years? H5N1 immature rapper offers a striking theory: it is preferable for white America to induce got hip hop music glorifying violence too sexual practice inwards the hood than the messages of anti-racism too class-sensitized anger that are establish inwards Public Enemy.

And inwards fact at that spot is a segment of hip hop that has a rattling dissimilar orientation -- political rather than violent, expressing rigid messages nigh economical too racial justice, too largely immune from the homophobia too misogyny of mainstream rap. Artists like Public Enemy, Poor Righteous Teachers, the Coup, the X Clan, KRS-ONE, too Digable Planets autumn inwards this category, too The Roots is a to a greater extent than contemporary version. (Thanks, Ahmad!) But hither is the fundamental point: this current of travel doesn't frequently upshot inwards the giant contracts too world acclaim of the other stream, too amongst a few exceptions the music too videos don't larn inwards into the mainstream. (Yes, Public Enemy is an exception.)

Hurt asks several other fundamental questions inwards the video: Why is it that dark men are aiming their violence against each other, too overlooking the forces that create the degradation of inner metropolis neighborhoods inwards the commencement place? And why is it then hard to respect a positive message inwards hip hop lyrics? One of the on-screen voices places the responsibleness squarely on the turn a profit interests of the music industry: “Media too the corporations are defining what hip hop is.” Here is how 1 of the immature rappers puts the signal on camera:

That’s overnice but nobody wanna listen that correct instantly … They don’t wanna listen that correct instantly … [Narrator: Who’s they?] The manufacture … they don’t wanna listen that correct now. They don’t laissez passer us deals when nosotros verbalize righteously or things of that nature. (40:00)

And this perception is born out yesteryear Carmen Ashurst-Watson, onetime DefJam president: "The fourth dimension when nosotros switched to gangster music was the same fourth dimension when the majors bought upwards all the labels, too I don't retrieve that's a coincidence.... The music became less too less conscious" (43:30).

Imani Perry's Prophets of the Hood: Politics too Poetics inwards Hip Hop is a rattling thoughtful reflection on hip hop. She is an advocate for hip hop equally a cultural expression. But she also feels that it risks beingness poisoned yesteryear the commercial interests of the industry. She writes:

The combination of commonwealth ("speak your piece") too meritocracy ("be the best MC") that exists inwards hip hop is threatened at every turn. The manipulations of capital, media, too tape fellowship distribution, the ruthless advertisement of exactly about acts to the disadvantage of frequently musically superior ones, the commodification of dark woman soul bodies, too the grotesque marketing of racist images of dark manful soul violence threaten to completely overwhelm Blue Planet confront of hip hop. (Reunion)

This is a complex fix of issues, amongst causation going inwards many directions. The commercial interests of the major music companies motion the content of the videos too recordings; the content of the music influences the deportment too do of immature men too women inwards the neighborhoods; events inwards the street reverberate dorsum into the content of hip hop art; too realities inwards the neighborhoods are determined yesteryear the larger structures of ability too race inwards our society. It is possible to come across the formative ability of pop civilisation on behavior; the media on pop culture; the concern of music on the content of pop culture; the extreme behaviors that seem to upshot on the street; too the ideological forces that permeate all of this.

(Here is an interesting piece yesteryear Solomon Comissiong that analyzes the music manufacture too the fate of progressive rappers.)