There is a difference between authentic Hip Hop artists whom I would associate more with the constructive aspect of Hip Hip, and the ones which adopt the name (Hip Hop) yet do not represent the essence. How have both sides influenced the youth?
Hip Hop culture began in the South Bronx, NYC in the early 1970’s. The climate was that of rampant poverty, lawlessness, and youth corruption. Hip hop culture was established as an attempt to resolve the issue of the street gang culture of the South Bronx. Africa Bambaataa, founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, speaks on the era: “There was a lot of street gangs at the time…Little wars could start if you just looked at another person or woman wrong…Or even if you said certain words that another group didn’t like—that could have led into a full-fledged war, and violence could have sprung up all over the Bronx”(Ahearn & Fricke, 2002). Bambaataa created (what ultimately became known as) the Universal Zulu Nation in response to the climate of violence. The intent was to unite all of the street gangs under one common name and objective—-Love, Peace, Unity and Having Fun.
In the 1980’s, violence and crime continued to plague many urban communities of youth in America. As drug and gang wars became a nationwide phenomenon, it was addressed in rap music. As Hip Hop Emcee, KRS-ONE, of BDP (Boogie Down Productions) expresses in the song 9mm Goes Bang, “Meh knew a crack dealer by the name of Peter, had to buck ‘im down wit’ my nine millimeter” (B-Boy Records, 1987). Conservative interest were critical of the usage of such unfiltered narrative in Hip Hop music and began to deem them offensive and indecent.
As violence began to manifest itself in Hip Hop concerts, the critics began to accuse Hip Hop artist of promoting or glorifying the violence of which they spoke in the music. In response to this criticism, a collective of Hip Hop artists united to record a song. Self Destruction was a song recorded by a collective of Hip Hop artists in an attempt to constructively address the violence amongst the youth culture. Hip Hop artist, KRS-ONE, confirms the objective of the song as he states, “Today’s topic: Self Destruction, it really ain’t rap audiences buggin’; It’s one or two suckas, ignorant brothers, trying to rob and steal from one another; You get caught in the mid’, so to crush this stereotype—here’s what we did” (Priority Records, 1989). All sales of the single, Self Destruction, went to the National Urban League.
In the 1990’s, commercial interests began to invest more freely into the elements of Hip Hop culture; namely emceein’ and deejayin’—the two main components of rap music. For the next three years, some of the most creative and diverse artistry was produced. As the mid-90’s began to close-in, commercial interests felt the more controversial music content had a tendency to carry a more universal appeal. And by the late-90’s and early 2000’s, the appeal of monetary success, from both the artist and the business side, began to dominate priorities and manifest itself within the content of the music—-drug promotion, explicit sexuality and more violence.
As a young lady coming of age in the early 21st century, my earliest exposure to, what was referred to as, Hip Hop music, was during this latest era. I recall feeling “If this is Hip Hop, I want nothing to do with it.” I have learned, since, that there were times-past when Hip Hop was represented much more realistically, and with more consciousness. My hope is that more artists will realize how their artistic expressions have such profound effects on the young and impressionable and hopefully the realization will influence a return to the essence—-Love Peace,Unity and Safely Havin’ Fun.
Art Credit goes to Lisa Kim lay, under the direction and vision of Therese Nieves
Ahearn, Charlie & Fricke, Jim (2002) Yes, Yes, Y’all: Oral History of Hip-hop’s First Decade, 5.
Discography
Boogie Down Poductions (BDP). “9mm. Goes Bang”. Criminal Minded. B-Boy Records, 1987.
Stop The Violence Movement. “Self-Destruction”. Self Destruction. Priority Records,1989.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVgvL-M3Aro
Gregory Cortorreal
ReplyDeleteWomen’s Contributions to the Female Narrative in Hip Hop
It goes without saying that Hip Hop music is laden with glaring patriarchy, machismo, misogyny and sexism. However, to be fair, this is only a partial description of the gender dynamics reflected in Hip Hop. In this male dominated genre there is some positivity towards women reflected in songs promoting messages of loyalty, respect and appreciation towards. Yet even when positively addressed women are only superficially recognized as equals. The ideals of virtue and being a ‘ride or die’ implied in songs like Outcast’s Jazzy Belle or Jay Z’s 03 Bonnie and Clyde celebrate women as upstanding equals while ironically subjecting them to unfair moral double standards around sexuality, or inherently subservient roles in which they magnanimously amplify men. This is only the male representation of women. Although a minority in Hip Hop, women also play their own roles in perpetuating both positive and negative female narratives and stereotypes. The varying nature of women’s contributions to their narratives in Hip Hop have created contention over the characteristics of their role as either complicit in unfair portrayals or empowering via the art as a platform. Interestingly the arguments of either side are premised by differing attributions of agency onto women.
Take for instance Oneka La Bennet’s (2009) observation of Latina women using Hip Hop as tool of entitlement and self-determinism whereby the embracement of the culture is an overt simultaneous embracement of Black identity running opposite to hegemonic ideals of Eurocentric beauty. In this telling, women are empowered by Hip Hop to embrace themselves and their female perspectives by making space for themselves in the art. There is a need to recognize that women are limited to “self-destructive and spiritually under nourishing” roles while simultaneously conforming to “misogynistic masculinity” (Dyson & Hurst, 2012). The feminist rhetoric of a victimization binary often ignores complicity (Morgan, 2012). When Margaret Hunter (2011) implies women’s passivity in the reduction of their contemporary roles to sexualized video dancers she is taking agency away from women and surrendering it to men. Her work ultimately presents men as the sole perpetrators in the promotion of material and sexual consumption. Contrast this rhetoric on contemporary roles with Cheryl Keyes talk of empowerment through identity and space making in the listener perceived female rapper categories of the early 90’s (Keyes, 2012).
Is this difference in the way scholars address women’s roles in Hip Hop indicative of any objective changes in the industry over the last two decades of women’s access to representation in Hip Hop? Anecdotally speaking contemporary acts like Dej Loaf, Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azelia, Remy Ma and Lil Kim suggest women can still be content producers. The question becomes: what barriers exist and how do they compare to the 90s female golden age of rap? Furthermore, how do these real barriers justify scholarly attribution of agency towards women in Hip Hop? As Robin Kelley would agree social scientists tend to distorts ideas of the subjects studied based on preconceptions (Kelley, 2012). It would be interesting to study how this holds true in the context of women’s roles in female narrative creation within Hip Hop as they relate to any real or imagined agency.