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| Spike Lee and I Chriaq viweing, Taken by Nicole Carter |
December 18th,
2015, I was seated in a crowded theater at a viewing of Spike Lee’s new movie “Chiraq”,
anticipating asking a question to one of my cinematic idols. The movie a hip
hop adaptation of the Greek play Lysistrata, set in current day Chicago,
grapples with the rampant epidemic of gun violence plaguing the city to the
point that it has unofficially adopted the moniker “Chiraq”, a combining of
Chicago and Iraq, Symbolizing it’s a war zone. Many controversies surrounded “Chiraq”
movie, including, many Chicago rappers, charging Spike with exploiting the
violent situation in Chicago for movie sake, pointing out among other things
his choice of casting Nick Cannon, as the lead role, as oppose to a real “Chiraq
Savage” such as Chief Keef. Authenticity
in Hip Hop, or films is nothing new, but a newer phenomenon is the extent of
which up and coming Chicago artists “utilize gang affiliation as a resource,
employing it strategically to advance their music careers” (Harkness, 2013). The concentrated poverty conditions in
current day Chicago and rampant gang culture in many ways mirrors those of the
early days of hip hop. Which youth culture, aggression, and violence gave birth
to a new form of music in hip hop, today a spawn of that child would be Chicago’s
heavily gang influenced “Drill Music”.
Hip Hop’s has a long
connection with the hood, “The sustained connection between hip-hop and urban
identity stems in part from the origins of hip-hop culture in post-industrial
American cities during the late twentieth century. “ (Jeffries,
2014)
Many factors that contributed to the Bronx in the 1970’s socioeconomic
condition, contribute to the current situation in Chicago, high unemployment
rates, proliferation of guns, and drugs. With all these the music being made
reflects the atmosphere many of the youth embody. Chief Keef the break out star
of “Drill Music” brags on his smash hit “Don’t like”, “Fake True’s that’s that
Sh*t, I don’t like, fake shoe’s”. Highlighting
the contrast of living in poverty coveting the American dream of consumerism,
establishing a socioeconomic hierarchy within the “hood. These differences go beyond
“real Jordan’s” and “Knock offs’ in diss records, the music being made instead
serves almost as a soundtrack to the real life violent “Chiraq” movie being
played out in the streets. Drill music
in Chicago is routinely ground zero for talking about “gang affiliates using
social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to trade insults or
make violence threats that lead homicide or victimization.” (Patton, 2013)
Chuck D once described
Hip Hop’s CNN, yet now with worldstarthiphop and homemade music videos
uploading directly to YouTube, the question then becomes are these new rappers
simply reporting or participating? Chicago’s
own rapper Ryhmefest, criticize Chief Keef for being “a spokesman for the
Prison Industrial Complex.” (Ryon, 2012), seeing the embracing of the “savage lifestyle” as just another incarnation of America’s infatuation
with dangerous culture that ultimately leads to the perpetuation of the mass incarceration
of minority youths. Keeping true to Lysistrata’s
storyline, in which the women of the community refuse sexual relations with
their male partners until peace is agreed upon. Yet nothing was highlighted
about what lead to the rise of gangs and guns. No talks of poor education, lack
of employment or most disturbing violence towards women. Mr. Lee became increasingly angry with the
tone of questioning he was receiving, I had one question, which a young woman in
front of asked “why did the movie not discuss rape?”, to which Spike Lee had no
decisive answer. The complexities of
Chicago’s poverty and violence are larger than a movie, or lyrics. So in the
end I opted for a pic with my cinematic hero, and one of the reasons I rock
real Jordan’s. Cause fake shoes...
Works Cited
Harkness, G. (2013). Gangs and gangsta rap in
Chicago: A microscenes perspective. Poetics, 151-176.
Jeffries, M. P. (2014). Hip-hop Urbanism Old and New.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 706-715.
Patton, E. B. (2013). Internet banging: New trends in
social media, gang violence, masculinity and hip hop. Computers in Human
Behavior, Pages A54–A59.
Ryon, S. (2012, June 27). www.hiphopdx.com.
Retrieved from www.hiphopdx.com:
http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.20246/title.rhymefest-blasts-chief-keef-interscope-over-promoting-violent-music
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