Hip-hop artists dominate the charts. In Detroit, America’s first ‘hip-hop’ mayor has just celebrated winning a second term. Hip-hop historian Kevin Powell says hip-hop ‘has revolutionized the way America dresses, entertains, talks and thinks. It has changed the world, one attitude at a time.’
The impact of hip-hop culture has been widespread and universal. It has adherents in cities from Anchorage to Zanzibar. But what are the reasons for its success and how seriously should it be taken?
The term hip-hop encapsulates the culture that originated in New York City during the early 70s. Its constituent parts are DJing, Mcing/rapping, graffiti and break-dance. Hip-hop music started off as upbeat dance tunes incorporating samples of rock, jazz, blues, etc. with an MC rapping over the top. The pioneers of modern hip-hop were Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5. With the release of their hit single, ‘The Message’, in 1982, the group fused the new style of music with a powerful social and political message. It marked a turning point for hip-hop and the continuation of the cultural revolution begun decades earlier with the civil rights movement.
Today the biggest hip-hop artists, such as 50 Cent, Usher, Nelly, Outkast, Eminem and Jay-Z, are household names at the forefront of contemporary popular music. In 2004, hip-hop album sales accounted for 13% of music sold worldwide. What started out as the music and culture of poor urban black people has been adopted by mainstream culture. Its popularity has overcome boundaries of class, race, and normative values.
The mainstreaming of hip-hop has endowed its major proponents with incredible wealth and influence. Rappers enjoy lucrative contracts with corporations including Chrysler, and Adidas. Hip-hop was also a catalyst in getting young people to vote during the recent Presidential elections.
To its supporters hip-hop is the voice of a segment of society that has traditionally been ignored, it is a force for positive social change that builds bridges by connecting the mainstream with the experiences of those who grew up at the bottom of the social ladder. But, as always, there is another side to the coin.
Staunch Republican (black) professor, John H. McWhorter, insists that the quickest way to make it as a rapper is for artists to ‘big up’ their thug image. “The rise of nihilistic rap has mirrored the breakdown of community norms among inner-city youth over the last couple of decades.,” he says, “It was just as gangsta rap hit its stride that neighborhood elders began really to notice that they’d lost control of young black men, who were frequently drifting into lives of gang violence and drug dealing.”
McWhorter’s argument is that hip-hop has contributed to the decline in status and organization of black communities. Whilst this perspective is predictable from a right-wing commentator, it is a view that is shared by many across the board, including one of hip-hop earliest progenitors, legendary poet, Gil Scott-Heron. His recording ‘Message to the Messenger’ was intended as a reminder to contemporary mainstream rappers that they have a responsibility to produce work that will communicate values of decency to an impressionable and youthful audience – i.e. use lyrics that don’t promote misogynistic, bigoted and racist attitudes.
In 1999, Essence magazine convened several well-known hip-hop heads, including superstar rappers Naz and Q-Tip, and academic Kevin Powell, for behind-closed-doors discussion. The group exchanged views about the role and future direction of hip-hop in what they found to be a deeply meaningful exchange.
The need for serious debate about the influence, role and direction of hip-hop has been recognised worldwide. An international summit was recently held in South Africa to address these issues. Both the Essence debate and the South African summit emphasised the benefits of having greater ‘substance’ to rapper’s lyrics and hip-hop’s potential as a powerful force for social change. Outside America, both these ideals appear to be at the heart of commercial hip-hop.
In Cuba, it is the music of a societal revolution that aims to end poverty in the sanction-strung country. Throughout Africa, hip-hop speaks out against poverty, drug problems, HIV and reveals the mindset of disaffected youth. And back in the USA, the music and culture of non-mainstream hip-hop has far more in common with Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’ than the macho-posturing of 50 Cents, et al. In terms of assessing the genre’s contribution to global artistry and social politics, this is a point that should not be forgotten. The current pile of bestselling rappers appear to be playing the nihilistic thug game for all it’s worth. Just like white rock bands from the sixties onwards were encouraged to do by industry executives making a profit out of their notoriety and resultant increases in record sales.
Recording artists pumping up their image is nothing new. What is new is that it is black artists that are consistently dominating the top of the charts. And anyone at the top of their game knows that to stay there takes dedication and flagrant self-promotion. Bad rappers sell records. Would that as hip-hop matures this equation will change and the more socially conscious artists at the grass roots will get to spend more time rapping at the mike.
