Has social responsibility fallen on def ears?

In Bakari Kitwana's essay "The Challenge of Rap Music" we are faced with the juxtaposition of the new voice of the urban black male in the form of hip-hop, with the former voice of empowerment, which was the civil rights movement of their parents. Kitwana analyzes the change in mind set between these generations of black men, especially in the context of its influence on popular culture.
At the beginning of his essay Kitwana poses a few questions: "What was the price of this remarkable breakthrough in the visibility of young Blacks in the mainstream culture?" Kitwana further asks, "... had the growing visibility of young Black entertainers further marginalized young Black intellectuals and writers, who have remained nearly invisible?" These questions are posed because it's widely known that hip-hop and rap music continues to portray the young black urban male in a light that is more criminal than upstanding. Although the mediums of hip-hop and rap gives the young black male a place to be heard in the popular culture Kitwana asks us at what price does this recognition come? As the civil rights movement tried to create the image that black men and women are equals to all races, we see that hip-hop and rap furthered an image that was challenging social norms at best and down right criminal at worse. Has hip-hop and rap then created a positive or negative forum for the black community?
A focus of the essay was the Hip-Hop Summit of 2001 hosted by Russell Simmons. Kitwana speaks of the summit as a plea for social responsibility within the black community. As hip-hop and rap became more mainstream and commercialized it was recognized that black leaders, such as Simmons, needed to guide hip-hop in a direction that recognized the struggle of the urban black male, but at the same time, used their forum to bring the community up from its oppression ie the surge in incarceration of black youth and the poverty within the community. Kitwana critiques the summit as being an invitation only affair. In the end the people that profited from the commercial success of hip-hop argued for a stance that allowed hip-hop to be able to continue 'business as usual'.
Although this sounds like a bleak end to the black leaderships attempt to change hip-hop into a vehicle of social stewardship, it must also be noted that from within the ranks of commercially successful hip-hop artists came efforts to take issue with social injustices that the black community faced. Their were benefit concerts held for a variety of issues, and lyrics written to bring specific events viewed as an affront to the black community to light (Mumia Abu-Jamal).
In the end we need to look at the reality of why hip-hop even has a voice in the mainstream media. They provide a product, that being urban black music. This product has to be in step with what the consumer expects and desires. As the plight of the urban black male gained more media attention, it was acceptable to incorporate this message into the music. It became a message that many consumers wanted to hear and expected from their artists. In the end, it wasn't Simmons summit that enacted change in hip-hop. It was the artists as individuals becoming engaged with a socially responsible world view that echoed black culture at the street level. As artists like KRS-One and Arrested Development brought the message to the masses, the idea of being socially responsible snowballed to being a voice that was not only contrary to the voice of the criminal black urban male, but indeed, challenged it commercially. In the end, it seems, this is what's most important. After all, what good is a message if it falls on def ears?

Looptroop "The Struggle Continues"
lyrics

Arrested Development "Tennessee"
lyrics

What is Hip Hop? A musing on where Hip Hop was and where its been from an outsiders perspective.

As the first blog on the subject of hip hop, I thought it would be good to define what I think hip hop is and where its been.

What is hip hop?

Never really stopped to think about it. Its music right? Something that sounds like rap but without the gangsta themes. Its urban music that samples other music, changes the beat and lyrics around a bit and tries to pass itself off as something new.

Well, come to find out, its more than that. A lot more.

We can't just keep hip hop relegated to the music can we? Its more than that. Its a collection of art that spans music, painting, dance and partying? Yes, it seems it was all done to kick the boredom that was the Bronx NY in the 1970's. Music that was perfected to keep the party hopping, dance moves that would impress anyone, and graffiti just because it looks cool.

I'll get to the dancing and painting in another post. Today I'll just drop some thoughts on the music.

What I've learned so far about the history of hip hop goes something like this:

The first practitioners were trying to make some money throwing parties and needed to out perform the other guys in the neighborhood. The partiers love the bass, so buy a huge sound system. Turn down the treble, jack up the bass. But what about the music itself? How about just listening to that one part of the song that everyone wants to hear? We'll call it the 'break'. Heck why not put it on a loop and listen to it over and over? Now, that sounds good and all, but what about the words? A song this catchy needs some lyrics to round it out. Something with its own cadence, and tight rhymes that'll complement the beat. We can call that rapping. Wait a second... did we just invent a new genre of music?

By only using the best parts of the music, they created something that was more to the point. It was the first time anyone had thought of doing anything like that with music. And I would argue that it wasn't just a beginning of a new genre of music. It was a new way to look at music

Now lets talk about how those ideas changed the face of modern music. Forget hip hop and rap for a second. What about techno music? Same themes; more bass, breaks put on a loop and lots of record scratching. Modern pop music? Think about how much Brittney Spears or Kesha use beat sampling and lyrical motifs similar to rapping. Modern rock? Forget about it! Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, Slipknot and almost everyone else in the genre use bass, rapping, and sampling.

The ideas introduced by hip hop have evolved and permeated almost all modern music, but hip hop itself has managed to stick around and stay relevant. We hear hip hop music on the radio. We also hear it in commercials, in movies and on television. Next time you see a TV commercial listen to the background music and tell me what you hear.

Does this mean that hip hop has sold out? Not really. We still have Common, Snoop, RZA and others that keep the art of hip hop alive. But what 'selling out' does say is that its become such a mainstream art form that its almost universally accepted. So much so, people want hip hops musical motifs attached to their products.

Well thats all I can think of saying right now. I might go back to the books and the stereo and see if I'm inspired to blog about other things hip hop. For now I'll leave with a few things that I find interesting and hope you'll check out.

Banksy. One of the best graffiti artists in the world today. This is a link to his website, but you'd do yourself a favor to google his name as well.

The reverse graffiti project. When graffiti isn't vandalism.

This video explanes the history of the worlds most important 6 second drum loop