** This is an excerpt from the book "When Rap Music Had a Conscience"... It was such an interesting read that I wanted to share a chapter" ** In the social sciences there is a term called
"Manifest Destiny" which means that a person or a people who have been consistently subjected to a cetain message will evenntually come to embody that message.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the exaltration of thugs,gangsters, and pimps by most of the mainstream hiphop.
For ten years we have seen more ass,guns,vars and jewels than real lyrical writing talent simply because sex,violence, blinging jewelry, and pimped out cars allegedly move more units than clever,thought provoking lyrics. That means this generation can't remember hiphop as anything else but the soundtrack to an anti- intellectual, materialistic, nymphomaniacal lifestyle ideal.
If that wasn't bad enough, we have created our own lawn jockey system to criticise those who protest against the minstrel show that USED to be our music by calling them "playa haters" while praising the studio outlaws for "keeping it real"
Sadly, these same young men inspire envy in their peers by feigning power via a fake thug,hustler, or pimp image. Devoid of the ability to think analytically due to the "worker bee" mentallityy produced by the public school system and no encouragement to do so anywhere esle, no one stops to ask if a real "thug" would let a makeup artist powder his nose for hours prior to a photo shoot, get his nails and eyebrows done, or wear pastels or an ankle bracelet. Or, if we are the "players" who know how to peep the "game" then why do people who don't like us control every aspect of our cultural product while we get a small percentage in comparison to our labor as we strut around in our flashiest clothes and jewels for our customers?
After reflecting on these questions it is clear who the real hoes and the real pimps are.
Equally absurd is the honor given to the Mafia,murderers ,drug cartels, and other negative characters by rappers naming themselves after them. Thug implying that it is better to get paid and meet your end early than make an honest living at a "sqaure" gig.
The most recognized symbol of this hiphop today is the character Tony Montana played by Al Pacino in the movie Scarface. His image is everywhere from coats,sweaters and hats to belt buckles as the ultimate symbol of masculinity. Isn't there a better fictional icon who can embody the principle of manhood than an uneducated, arrogant, hotheaded junkie who lost in the end to someone who was more powerful and better organized? Everytime I see some kid thinking he looks tough with this image emblazoned on him, I want to remind him that TONY MONTANA LOST THE BATTLE! THE EDUCATED AND WELL-SPOKEN SOSA WON THE WAR!
But I know that, although Sosa was the victor, he simply wasn't as flamoyant or loud enough to inspire the same kind of adulation that Tony has. Thug, flashy "bling" messages go far beyond mere compressed rocks but have settled into the very psyches of the inner-youth.
Vanity is even at the source of the stampede to start clothing lines and more rap labels. In the twentyy-first century Black America has an unprecedented number of millionaires but no one is interested in opening desperately needed schools in our communities. Or how about purschasing farmland and opening a supermarket chain? Or car manaufacturing plants? It is so obvious that better things could be done with all this money instead of giving it back to the system via luxury items in a desperate attempt to purchase self worth. All of these variables contribute to the manifest destiny of young Black Americans as stupid, aspiring criminals with no desire to do anything but have a good time. That is why it is no coincidence that the sterotypes of inarticulateness, sluggish posture, poor grooming, the instatiable desire to sing and dance all the time, bugged eyes, and sex obsession no longer infuriate us as they did in films like Birth of a nation. Instead we embracee them as our own cinema displaying our self-hate for the world.
So where does the necromaniacal, misogynistic criminal-idolizing of mainstream hiphop lead? The answer really depends on who is doing the asking.
For white teens it probably means they feel they have a connection to or "understand" Black people better after being invited into the virtual reality ghettos for years, but at the end of the day it is just a fad for them. White kids are not investing all their energy into making a way of life based on what they hear off of these records as their black and Latino counterparts are. White people who choose to remain on the periphery of American society and participate in any "subculture" alwayts have the option of being welcomed back after a haircut and shave as demonstrated by all those long-haired hippies of the sixties turned conservatives by the eighties. Thus, their freedom to choose will always separate them from being able to fully identify of "be down" For most, the phase will conclude and become a much laughed at section in the family photo album.
Unfortunately this will not be the case with many men of color who thing the thug persona is the only way to earn respect they so desperately crave. They know they will never be treated on equal footing as a man by society at large because of racism, so maintaining "street cred" becomes the paramount importance in order to not feel completely worthless. This has always been the case, but because the criterion for gaining street credibility is so one-dimensonal, there is no room for individual growth and exploration as there was in hip-hop's past
Hence the creation of thousands of thugs-in-training who will try and relive the colorful tales told by their heroes to escape rampant poverty and unemployment.
Presently, the black per capita income is approximately three-fifths that of whites, a frightening statistic considering Africans were considered three- fifths of a human being prior to the revision of the United states Constitution. Thousands of blacks and latino men and boys are ending up in early graves crowding the prisons trying to even the scales in the only way they know how. The glamorization of dope dealing is leading them straight into the trap set for them by the racist "War on Drugs" -- a policyy that targets minorities in inner cities despite the fact that the average illicit drug dealer is white and middle class. Yet still, African Americans and Latinos comprise approximately 70 percent of those convicted for drug felonies and have longer sentences imposed on tthem.
Making matters worse as the definition of "Terrorism" becomes increasingly broader after 9/11, there have been pushes by some politicians to include members of street gangs under antiterrorism laws. The domino effect of this is more broken families and an increased incapability to find gainful employment upon release leading to the necessity to return to criminal activity to survive creating a vicious cycle that ultimately may lad to life imprisonment. Even more tragic is the fact that it cost approximately $25,000 a year to maintain a single prisoner, money that could have been spent to improve the conditions that led most of them to "hustling" in the first place.
America presently holds the highest record for imprisoning its own citizens and its unimaginable how the numbers will skyrocket even more once the money starts rolling in. In addition the probability of corruption increases significantly to attain more prisoners or "clients" The Black community must put down a collective foot and demand more variation in the music that our children are exposed to and bring back some of the intellectualism of the past. This may be difficult to do initially because a lot of rap music is consumed by the whites in suburbia, and neither artist nor record companies will stop production unless the cash flow ceases. However, This will be a non issue once everyone learns Black people consider the prolifeation of this particular genre of rap music as "played out"
Studio Pimps,Players and Legacy of BlacK female Degradation The other casualty of thug and pimp mania is the image of the Black woman as an accessory instead of a human being. Like the big cars and pit bills, Their oily bodies shaking in submission has become yet another symbolic penis extender. The presentation of the Black female in today's rap music videos has negatively affected the self esteem of young black girls who are subliminally taught that all they are useful for is sex.
As the Beat Goes On After close examination it is clear for all to see that all the archetypes of slave personalities are still intact, including those from the few tribes that initially sold their people for personal enrichment. The only difference now is that black people themselves are keeping the archetypes alive via their African or tradition. The proliferation of rappers that exchange their soul for baubles and gadgets reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies, Shaka Zulu, starring the brilliant actor Henry Cele, In a scene toward the end when Shaka is reflecting infront of a crackling fire on how he allowed his kingdom to be taken away from him by the British, who Zulus nicknamed "swallows", he begins a devastating dialogue with the victorious English lieutenant who is sitting nearby. Having discovered the answer himself of how the takeover was possible by remembering an old hunting technique for trapping monkeys, he asks his conqueror to say to him.
He asks the solemn-faced lieutenant, "How do you trap a monkey?"
The lieutenant quietly replies, "With an object, something shiny".
Shaka smiles at his own stupidity and quietly asks him what new shiny object he had brought for him today. The conversation confirmed that Shaka had exchanged everything his ancestors worked for in exchange for gifts and technology that proved useless in comparison.
Although the story takes place two hundred years ago, It is a sad fact that Black people today are trading in the words of conscious hip-hop of the past for the shiny, shiny bling.
** Support Black business and buy Tyayannah Lee McQuillar's "When Rap Music Had a Conscience" here **
http://www.amazon.com/When-Rap-Music-Conscience-Organizations/dp/1560259191/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9784147-9023252?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178684477&sr=8-1