Are hip hop listeners desensitized to ideas of crime?

Posting on behalf of Alan Carty... 

Courtesy of London Wheeler

    “The biggest difference between us and white folks is that we know when we are playing” - Alberta Roberts, quoted in John Langston Gwaltney, Drylongso

ABSTRACT   

As a member of the “Black” community, the Hip Hop community, it is very disappointing when other groups of people categorize our culture as one singular entity, exoticizing it in a way that makes them comfortable. Being raised in these “walls” makes me aware of how diverse we are, and how biased the narrative of our people may actually be. I am an Afro-Latino Senior in City College raised by a both parents, who did marry before I was conceived, majoring in Sociology, minoring in Theatre, I’ve never committed a crime in my life, I stay away drug and gang cultures in my neighborhoods, but I still manage to play 50 Cent’s “coldblooded gravitas” of his first album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (Christian Hoard, Rolling Stone), where spoke of getting shot, shooting people, smoking marijuana, pimping women, and dealing cocaine. Why? How can a tale so cruel and distant from my life resonate so true with me? Or is it just the musical aesthetic that is alluring? Are we desensitized to ideas of crime in Hip Hop?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

    According to Robin Kelley, most interpreters of the “underclass” treat behavior as not only a synonym for culture but also a determinant of class-not their income, their poverty, or kind of work they do. Though scholars like William Julius Wilson tried to summarize it using a more spatial definition focusing on the underclass, what he determined was there are a wider range of attitudes and behaviors than he expected. (That’s the Joint Murray Forman & Mark Anthony Neal, 136) Those who stayed away were identified as “urban dwellers,” as scholars tried to label the Negroes that were young, jobless, and indulging in a constant cycle of drugs and crime to be the “Real Negroes.”( Kelley, Neal, 138) According to Kelley, we have internalized even or our own identity as Negroes, and have accepted them as “cultural norms.” (Kelley, 139)

In December 2014, we saw police apprehend Brooklyn rapper, Bobby Shmurda and 14 associates for conspiracy to commit murder, reckless endangerment, possession of drugs and guns, murder, attempted murder, assault, and drug dealing. He signed a multiple album deal off the strength of his single “Hot Nigga” and viral clip of his “Shmoney Dance” just that very summer (The Healing Power of Hip Hop, Raphael Travis Jr, 30). Prosecutors cited lyrics of his single like, “I’ve been selling crack since like the fifth grade” and “Mitch caught a body about a week ago,” which describe activities of murder and drug dealing, two things Bobby and his friends were associated with in the charge. That summer, however, the single “Hot Nigga” went to sell over 1 million copies and was certified platinum by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and was number-one on Billboard’s Rap charts. People of all ages, including myself, were dancing to the song, and singing the incriminating lyrics without a care in the world. The catchiness to the tune and appeal to make us dance was enough to remove us from the lyrics themselves.

HYPOTHESIS

    Since so much of Hip Hop is rooted in authenticity, I can understand why many listeners don’t shame or avoid the artists with the darker content. 50 Cent, for example, uses his music as vehicle to speak on the life he “lived for 27 years(Breakfast Club, Radio interview, 2013).” Since then, he’s funded charities fighting domestic illiteracy and global hunger. Even with his positive influences, should his music of his life be scrutinized?

You don't want me to be your kid's role model

I'll teach them how to buck them 380's and load up them hollows

Have shorty fresh off the stoop ready to shoot

Big blunt in his mouth, deuce-deuce in his boot

Sit in the crib sipping Guinness watching Menace

Then oh Lord, have a young nigga bucking shit like he O-Dog (“High All the Time”, 2003)

The fact that an artist’s music comes from a real place gives it credibility. According to Hip Hop pioneer and graffiti artist, Fab 5 Freddy, Hip Hop is was not meant to be folk art, which is “cultural expression whose authenticity needed to be preserved”, rather “fine art”, a form that evolved constantly (Jeff Chang, Neal, 38). The Hip Hop narrative does tell tales of all walks of life. Today, the past 5 rap songs to reach number-one on the Billboard charts haven’t had any content about drugs or gang culture. We are diverse, and I see all forms of the genre the artist’s individual story. The stories are different.