andave_ya
11-27-2007, 08:19 PM
Next column; due to be published on Monday.
To my surprise, my library skills class at Chabot College had more than just books to it. It was about learning library skills through researching themes in rap and hip hop music. I was shocked and a bit disappointed; for me the library means Tolkien, Byron, Yeats and other classics. Rap was not anywhere in the picture.
At the first class, we watched the documentary Beyond Beats and Rhymes by African-American filmmaker Byron Hurt. Analyzing rap videos, the filmmaker realized that they showed basically the same thing: barely dressed women dancing for men who threw money at the camera. Violence, sex, drugs, and bad language were rampant. Curious, Hurt went around for more than a year asking hip hop and rap artists, scholars, ministers, producers why those themes were so big in their music.
Guess why?
Mainly to show masculinity. Being “Cool” is supremely important to our culture, especially for African-American males. Hurt says that African-American men have to “earn” their masculinity; that they are not given the privileges that white men have from birth.
My question is this: if the Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal and that they are endowed, by their creator, with certain unalienable rights, then why after two hundred and thirty-one years have we gone from freedom to acceptance to doubting masculinity?! This is the 21st century. Masculinity should not be an issue!
Rappers wearing drooping pants, chains, pillowy jackets and slurring profanities do not make them masculine. Is it any wonder that people shy away from them?
Rap historians’ explanation for the clothes is that one’s body is the only thing one has sole access to, so rappers dress in drooping pants, chains, t-shirts, and pillowy jackets to maintain their image.
There are scores of individuals who are far and away more dignified and intelligent than, say, Akon singing “Smack that till you’re sore.” The sad thing is that that’s what people pay for. One man Hurt interviewed at a rap fling said that people aren't interested when rappers try to "talk righteous." People are paying to hear them sing sexist, masochistic music riddled with bad language, so rappers don't bother singing anything else.
But big rappers aren't exactly trying to push images of cleanliness anywhere. Rapper Jadakiss was either drunk or high on drugs while interviewed by Hurt -- he slurred his words preposterously and wobbled in a manner worthy of Jack Sparrow himself. Not to mention, the majority of my rap lyric searches on the internet turned out to be songs with four letter words in them.
As I researched rap lyrics further, a lot of my ideas about it changed. Kanye West may sing about “Drunk and Hot Girls” but other rappers like Common, Talib Kweli, and Kwame actually sing about real issues ranging from surviving the week to the thrill of making music for the world to enjoy. As Aldous Huxley said, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
Although I dropped the class because I had a problem in dealing with the lyrics, the class was an eye opener for me. Rap is a powerful tool that the world will listen to. So, use it! Creating music is an undeniable talent, but please leave out the crudity, violence, and self-degradation. Clothes and language do not make a man – it’s the heart, intellect, and spirit that do.
To my surprise, my library skills class at Chabot College had more than just books to it. It was about learning library skills through researching themes in rap and hip hop music. I was shocked and a bit disappointed; for me the library means Tolkien, Byron, Yeats and other classics. Rap was not anywhere in the picture.
At the first class, we watched the documentary Beyond Beats and Rhymes by African-American filmmaker Byron Hurt. Analyzing rap videos, the filmmaker realized that they showed basically the same thing: barely dressed women dancing for men who threw money at the camera. Violence, sex, drugs, and bad language were rampant. Curious, Hurt went around for more than a year asking hip hop and rap artists, scholars, ministers, producers why those themes were so big in their music.
Guess why?
Mainly to show masculinity. Being “Cool” is supremely important to our culture, especially for African-American males. Hurt says that African-American men have to “earn” their masculinity; that they are not given the privileges that white men have from birth.
My question is this: if the Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal and that they are endowed, by their creator, with certain unalienable rights, then why after two hundred and thirty-one years have we gone from freedom to acceptance to doubting masculinity?! This is the 21st century. Masculinity should not be an issue!
Rappers wearing drooping pants, chains, pillowy jackets and slurring profanities do not make them masculine. Is it any wonder that people shy away from them?
Rap historians’ explanation for the clothes is that one’s body is the only thing one has sole access to, so rappers dress in drooping pants, chains, t-shirts, and pillowy jackets to maintain their image.
There are scores of individuals who are far and away more dignified and intelligent than, say, Akon singing “Smack that till you’re sore.” The sad thing is that that’s what people pay for. One man Hurt interviewed at a rap fling said that people aren't interested when rappers try to "talk righteous." People are paying to hear them sing sexist, masochistic music riddled with bad language, so rappers don't bother singing anything else.
But big rappers aren't exactly trying to push images of cleanliness anywhere. Rapper Jadakiss was either drunk or high on drugs while interviewed by Hurt -- he slurred his words preposterously and wobbled in a manner worthy of Jack Sparrow himself. Not to mention, the majority of my rap lyric searches on the internet turned out to be songs with four letter words in them.
As I researched rap lyrics further, a lot of my ideas about it changed. Kanye West may sing about “Drunk and Hot Girls” but other rappers like Common, Talib Kweli, and Kwame actually sing about real issues ranging from surviving the week to the thrill of making music for the world to enjoy. As Aldous Huxley said, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
Although I dropped the class because I had a problem in dealing with the lyrics, the class was an eye opener for me. Rap is a powerful tool that the world will listen to. So, use it! Creating music is an undeniable talent, but please leave out the crudity, violence, and self-degradation. Clothes and language do not make a man – it’s the heart, intellect, and spirit that do.