What do you want to be when you grow up? A question kids ask each other, a question adults ask kids, a question adults ask themselves. What kinds of answers do we hear from children? An artist, a plumber, a professor? An actor, a president, a general? For too many African American youth in this country, those options seem out of reach. Ask any teacher who works in a school where students come from poverty and he or she will tell you that the more common answer to the question of what do you want to be when you grow up is a basketball player or a rapper. And how many people make it as athletes and rappers? Only a handful. And what about those who don't? Which piece of the American pie do they hold on to then?
At its heart, rap music and hip hop culture speak to and, in some cases, from those in our country who do not have much access to the pie. It speaks to and from younger generations who by nature feel disempowered by the larger society and at the same time look to define themselves ? in a way that is distinct from the larger society. Paying attention to hip hop is like overhearing a conversation among people whose life circumstances many of us do not share, but that all of us should know about. Personally hip hop touches me. It reaches my heart with its messages and my body with its beat.
(Play Good Morning)
Good morning On this day we become legendary Everything we dreamed of I'm like a fly Malcolm X Buy any jeans necessary Detroit wear cleaned up From the streets of the league From an eighth to a key But you graduate when you make it up outta the streets From the moments of pain Look how far we done came Haters sayin' ya changed Now ya doin' ya thang Good morning (4x)
That was Good Morning from Kanye West. Don't feel anxious, please, if you did not understand all of the words. You aren't supposed to. Let the beat carry you and let your body respond to it. Some of the words will become clear.
Rap music and hip hop are more than styles of music, more than passing fads, more than the violent and misogynistic lyrics in some of them. They are a culture that speaks for a generation of young people, especially young men. What does it say?
Hip Hop culture as such began in the Bronx, coming into bloom in the 1970's. With the construction of highways bisecting the borough and disrupting stable neighborhoods, and the construction of Co-op City as a middle-class enclave in the northern part of the Bronx, white flight occurred rapidly, leaving the Bronx with deteriorating and poverty filled neighborhoods. This coincided, not surprisingly, with the rise of street gangs. Hip Hop culture arose out of this urban, disenfranchised environment. The culture manifested itself, as cultures do, in language, dress, values, but it is best known for three things: rap music, graffiti, and break dancing. While humans have, seemingly, always left their graffiti mark, even in ancient Egyptian times, hip hop graffiti began as a way for gangs to mark territory and promote themselves. It quickly evolved into a kind of impermanent street art, created with spray paint and magic markers. At first graffiti was scorned as a nuisance and the New York City Transit Authority spent vast sums of money to get it off the subways. The graffiti artists moved to handball courts and building walls. Gradually the art world began to see graffiti as a form of art. Now we have it in museums as well as on the streets. Here are some examples of graffiti in New York City which I took a year or so ago. (Show the photos.)
Break dancing was a style of dance that accompanied rap music. It's pretty amazing to have seen because the moves are dangerous. Dancers would spin their bodies while pivoting on their elbows, or one hand, or their heads. Originality and style counted for a lot, but break dancing fell out of style, to be replaced by electric boogie moves: snappings and twitches and moon walking a la Michael Jackson. That dance too gave way to what is now a free style, in which everyone improvises his/her own moves.
Rap music is rhythmic vocals spoken/sung over pre-recorded sounds rather than with a live band or instrumental accompaniment. The beat of the music determines the rhythm of the rap. Over time and with the complexity of sound technology, the beats were able to be manipulated with greater precision and recombined in different ways. Rap, at its inception, was probably influenced by African American poets of the 60's and African American DJ's from the 40's as well as Jamaican toasting music, in which the DJ's spoke over the music. The subject of rap music is life, often from a disenfranchised point of view. The main themes are relationships, the gansta lifestyle of the inner city and political and social comment. Rap and hip hop artists are commentators, teachers and spokespersons for their people in a tradition that goes back to the griots of West Africa, who have been around for a thousand years. Griots are masters of story and music and they hold the memory of their people and pass it along through the oral tradition of song, to this day.
By the mid 1980's rap music found itself increasingly in the mainstream. Artists like LL Cool J and Run-DMC were popular with white audiences. White artists like Debbie Harry began to rap. Today, while rap is proportionally more popular among blacks, the largest audience for rap is white and lives in the suburbs. If you have teenagers in your household, I'm sure you have heard it. Some rappers themselves come from the middle class and were raised in the suburbs, like Run-DMC. Why the appeal to white, suburban kids? Every generation speaks in its own idiom and hip hop is one of the idioms of generation X and those that come after it. Partly it's the music itself, the beat, the dancing. Partly it's the whole style. Partly it's because it is not the music of their parents' generation and many adults dismiss hip hop out of hand.
But hip hop is here, and it has made its mark on this country and on the world. And despite having gone world-wide , hip hop still represents, on an important level, the empowerment of the disenfranchised and the invitation to the American dream.
Here is Kanye West again, singing Champion. (Read the lyrics and play Champion)
When it feel like livin's harder than dyin' For me givin' up's way harder than tryin' Lauryn Hill say her heart was in Zion I wish her heart still was in rhymin' 'Cause who the kids gon' listen to? Huh? I guess me if it isn't you Last week I paid a visit to the institute They got the crop out keepin' kids in the school I guess I'll clean up my act like Prince'll do If not for the pleasure, least for the principle They got the CD then got to see me drop gems Like I dropped out of P.E. They used to feel invisible Now they know they invincible
Kanye West
I wanted to focus on Kanye West today because to me he represents much of the culture and the contradictions of hip hop. Kanye West is able to see himself within hip hop and at the same time see himself and hip hop from a larger perspective and comment, not only on society as a whole, but on hip hop's place in it as well as his own. That makes him a spokesperson for hip hop, both for those within its culture and to those outside of it. What he says is important for us to hear.
West is a rap artist and a hip hop producer with his own record label. He has engineered a particular sound and on May 16, 2008, Kanye West was crowned by MTV as the year's #1 "Hottest MC In The Game.
He was raised in an upper middle class family in Chicago. His father is Ray West, a former Black Panther who was one of the first black photojournalists at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and is now a Christian counselor. West's late mother, Dr. Donda West, who died in 2007, was a Professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, and the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University before retiring to serve as West's manager. There's a poignancy in his obvious love for his mother. From his song Hey Mama:
Forrest Gump mama said, life is like a box of chocolates My mama told me go to school, get your doctorate Somethin to fall back on, you could profit with But still supported me when I did the opposite Now I feel like it's things I gotta get Things I gotta do, just to prove to you You was getting through, can the choir please Give me a verse of "You, Are So Beautiful To Me" Can't you see, you're like a book of poetry Maya Angelou, Nicky Giovanni, turn one page and there's my mommy Come on mommy just dance wit me, let the whole world see your dancing feet Now when I say Hey, yall say Mama, now everybody answer me (Hey Mama)
Thus he does not come from an urban ghetto. He always knew material comfort, but he's still able to understand the seduction of the money that rap brings him, mock himself for it and warn of its dangers, it's ultimate emptiness.
You Can't tell me Nothin' (read the lyrics and play the song)
I had a dream I can buy my way to heaven When I awoke, I spent that on a necklace. I told God I'd be back in a second, Man It's so hard not to act reckless. To whom much is given much is tested. Get arrested, got some chili, get the message. I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny, And What I do? Act more stupidly. Bought More Jewelry, More Louis V, My momma couldn't get through to me. The drama, people suing me, I'm on T.V. talking like it's just you and me. I'm just saying how I feel man, I ain't one of the Cosby's I ain't go to Hill man I guess the money should've changed20him, I guess I should've forgot where I came From. [Chorus:] Excuse Me, is you saying something? Uh, uh, you can't tell me nothing. . . . Let the champagne splash, let that man get cash, Let that man get past. You don't needa stop to get gas, If he can move through the rumors, he can drive off the fumes cuzz How he move in a room full of nose? How he stay faithful in a room full of h**s? Must be the pharaohs, he in tune with his soul, So when he buried in a tomb full of gold. Treasure. What's you pleasure? Life is a, uh, depending how you dress her. So if the devil wear Prada, Adam Eve wear Nada, I'm in between, but way more fresher. But way less effort, cause when you try hard, That's when you die hard. Ya homies looking like "Why God?" When they reminisce over you, my god.
Kanye West, as many rappers, has had his share of controversy. In January 2006, he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in the image of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns. Inthe same year he told Playboy, "I throw up historical subjects in a way that makes kids want to learn about them," West claimed, "[I'm] definitely in the history books already." Such is probably the reason Spin magazine reviewed his album Late Registration with the comment, "As ornate and bloated as West's ego." (wikipedia.com/kanye west)
He also takes on social problems though. At a benefit for relief people displaced by Hurricane Katrina he went off script and claimed that George Bush doesn't care about black people. He also said this: "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it [the media] says, 'they're looting'. You see a white family, it says, 'they're looking for food'. And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV, because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what's, what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was, if I was down there, and those are, those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help ” with the set up, the way America is set up to help, the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, this is, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way” and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!"
What I like about Kanye West is that he shows himself as human. He unites the personal and the political and he says where he falls short, what he can learn, and how he wants to do better.
Homophobia=occurs often in rap music. I think this is less about hip hop per se than the perceived reality of many LGBTQ people that minority communities in general, especially those not well off economically, are less safe places for gay people to be fully open. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kanye West said, "In the black community, someone could label you gay and bring your career down. "On . . . (a) 2005, . . . MTV special All Eyes On Kanye West, . . . (he) spoke out against homophobia in hip-hop. He claimed that hip-hop has always been about "speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers, but everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people.' He then reflected on a personal experience. He said that he had a "turning point' when he realized one of his cousins was gay. He said regarding this experience: "This is my cousin. I love him and I've been discriminating against gays.'" (www.wikipedia.com/Kanye West)
Likewise hip hop's treatment of women has long been a source of criticism. Rap artists, in the beginning, were overwhelmingly male and some of the gansta rap lyrics are misogynistic and violent, not only regarding women but also regarding the police and other authority figures. But with the success of the female group Salt "N' Pepa, women rappers came into play. Queen Latifah rapped about women having pride in themselves and BWP's raps dealt with date rape, male egos and police brutality.
At a 2007 Congressional hearing, lawmakers claimed that rap artists and company executives exploited violence and sex for profit. While the executives did not want to censor their artists, most agreed that something should be done to address the effects such ideas in rap have on young people. One rap artist, David Banner, claimed that rap reflects American society, so if there are problems in rap music it results from problems in society at large. Other rappers hold a different view and take responsibility for the potential effects of rap lyrics on young people, even if it does reflect society. (New York Times 9/25/07)
Kanye West has a song called Apologize in which he says:
There must be more good women than men percentage wise So her chance of having a husband just minimize That's why a lot of girls claim they ain't into guys And mess with other girls part time to improvise . . . We fill your lives With nothing but lies And I would like to Apologize But you can't stand right here And tell me everything is going to be alright 'Cause until the day a real man stands up I'm going to have to improvise No I'm trying to call..one ring...two rings...seven rings...eight rings Her mother picked up the phone Like she in school and she don't stay here no more I guess there's more good women than men percentage wise So her chance of having a husband just minimize I guess that's why she says she ain't into guys And focus on school full-time to improvise
Paying attention to Kanye West and hip hop culture in general is overhearing a conversation among youth who feel disenfranchised generationally and youth who are disenfranchised due to class and race. It is hearing about their rage and their pain, their awareness of social realities and what they do or do not do to empower themselves. It is hearing about what they acknowledge as their responsibility for changing the state of the world. Paying attention to this culture lets us in on the stories of people I might not know otherwise. As such it increases my own empathy and broadens my understanding and enables me to be a better worker for justice in our country.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A rapper? And if that doesn't happen, what then?
Everything I am (read the lyrics and play the song)
I Know People Wouldn't Usually Rap This But I Got The Facts To Bag This Just Last Year Chicago Had Over Sixhunderd Caskets... Man, Killers And Wack S**t . . . I Need To Talk To Somebody Pastor The Church Want Time, So I Can't Afford To Pay But Slip On My Dogg Cuz I Can't Afford To Stay My 50 Seconds Up But I Got More To Say Thats Enough Mister West No More Today Damn... Here We Go Again... Everybody Saying Whats Not For Him But Everything I'm Not Made Me Everything I Am
Closing words by Paul Robeson
I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of despair and fear. May it be so.