This or That
Posted Mar 13 2006
Recent releases by popular artists such as Jadakiss, Master P, Kanye West, David Banner, and Jay-Z have dealt with issues such as police harassment, terrorism, religion, materialism, and dead beat dads. All of these artists have publicly expressed that as they’ve grown as people, their lyrics reflect as much. In Jay-Z’s video “99 Problems” there’s a shot of him getting assassinated, which he says is a metaphor for the death of his old persona. In addition to the aforementioned artists, “Murder Mase” has returned, but on a totally positive vibe and he has renounced his past lifestyle. Are we looking at a new phase of conscious hip hop in the mainstream?Mind you, conscious hip hop never disappeared and even “gangsta” rappers such as W.C. and Mobb Deep have always been more complex than their radio hits appear. But as noted above, the corporate record labels respond to demand so they’ll focus on whatever they think will sell. Their ultimate goal is to make money so consumers have more power than we realize.
During hip hop’s last positive phase, it was easy to find people who wore African medallions but thought Africa was a country or couldn’t tell you anything about Malcolm X except how to spell his last name. A few artists such as Paris, Pubic Enemy, and Queen Latifah moved beyond music and dealt with financial advising, technology, and management. Current artists such as T.I., Nelly, and David Banner are known for their work fixing up houses, registering bone marrow donors, and supporting higher education, respectively. They understand the power of being celebrities, but they’ll ultimately respond to the market. Dr. Dre remarked many times that he’s tried to make positive records but the only thing that makes him money is gangsta rap. Image definitely sells so artists will often be as negative or positive as we allow them to be.
While very few would be against a positive trend in music, we also have to be mindful of what are the benefits of this trend beyond filling the pockets of record company executives. How do we move beyond rhetoric and clever lyrics to really make changes? While we may not have the same power as these artists, we can definitely play an active role in hip hop’s development, as well as the development of our community. That discussion, of course, is worthy of several writings, well beyond the scope of this one. But in the meantime, we can let our wallets do the talking and remind the corporations and artists that we as fans dictate trends, and not the other way around. We just have to know what exactly it is that we want.
This is an insightful take the state of hip hop music both past and present. I think that it is very true that at times the public craves deeper music, something that makes us think. You pointed out that an equilibrium occurs with hip hop. There is a balance of the meaningful and the fleeting. However,I notice that most of the time the scale is not equal and it tips toward music that is just for the here and now. There are people constantly in support of creating meaningful music that can affect change. Unfortunately, it seems that every decade there is a period when people become disillusioned about the state of affairs and turn to an outlet of music that is less intense, something that is easy and helps them forget about hard times. In that respect it serves as a tranquilizer. So the question is will we ever reach a point when people will learn to explore their circumstances and try to effectively change society for the better, rather than supporting a part of the music industry that causes us to subdue motivation to become involved?