How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back

City-Journal.org ^ | Summer, 2003 | John H. McWhorter

[bedolido]

Not long ago, I was having lunch in a KFC in Harlem, sitting near eight African-American boys, aged about 14. Since 1) it was 1:30 on a school day, 2) they were carrying book bags, and 3) they seemed to be in no hurry, I assumed they were skipping school. They were extremely loud and unruly, tossing food at one another and leaving it on the floor.

Black people ran the restaurant and made up the bulk of the customers, but it was hard to see much healthy “black community” here. After repeatedly warning the boys to stop throwing food and keep quiet, the manager finally told them to leave. The kids ignored her. Only after she called a male security guard did they start slowly making their way out, tauntingly circling the restaurant before ambling off. These teens clearly weren’t monsters, but they seemed to consider themselves exempt from public norms of behavior—as if they had begun to check out of mainstream society.

What struck me most, though, was how fully the boys’ music—hard-edged rap, preaching bone-deep dislike of authority—provided them with a continuing soundtrack to their antisocial behavior. So completely was rap ingrained in their consciousness that every so often, one or another of them would break into cocky, expletive-laden rap lyrics, accompanied by the angular, bellicose gestures typical of rap performance. A couple of his buddies would then join him. Rap was a running decoration in their conversation.

Many writers and thinkers see a kind of informed political engagement, even a revolutionary potential, in rap and hip-hop. They couldn’t be more wrong. By reinforcing the stereotypes that long hindered blacks, and by teaching young blacks that a thuggish adversarial stance is the properly “authentic” response to a presumptively racist society, rap retards black success.

The venom that suffuses rap had little place in black popular culture—indeed, in black attitudes—before the 1960s. The hip-hop ethos can trace its genealogy to the emergence in that decade of a black ideology that equated black strength and authentic black identity with a militantly adversarial stance toward American society. In the angry new mood, captured by Malcolm X’s upraised fist, many blacks (and many more white liberals) began to view black crime and violence as perfectly natural, even appropriate, responses to the supposed dehumanization and poverty inflicted by a racist society. Briefly, this militant spirit, embodied above all in the Black Panthers, infused black popular culture, from the plays of LeRoi Jones to “blaxploitation” movies, like Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, which celebrated the black criminal rebel as a hero.

But blaxploitation and similar genres burned out fast. The memory of whites blatantly stereotyping blacks was too recent for the typecasting in something like Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song not to offend many blacks. Observed black historian Lerone Bennett: “There is a certain grim white humor in the fact that the black marches and demonstrations of the 1960s reached artistic fulfillment” with “provocative and ultimately insidious reincarnations of all the Sapphires and Studds of yesteryear.”

Early rap mostly steered clear of the Sapphires and Studds, beginning not as a growl from below but as happy party music. The first big rap hit, the Sugar Hill Gang’s 1978 “Rapper’s Delight,” featured a catchy bass groove that drove the music forward, as the jolly rapper celebrated himself as a ladies’ man and a great dancer. Soon, kids across America were rapping along with the nonsense chorus:

I said a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie,
to the hip-hip hop, ah you don’t stop
the rock it to the bang bang boogie, say
up jump the boogie,
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.

A string of ebullient raps ensued in the months ahead. At the time, I assumed it was a harmless craze, certain to run out of steam soon.

But rap took a dark turn in the early 1980s, as this “bubble gum” music gave way to a “gangsta” style that picked up where blaxploitation left off. Now top rappers began to write edgy lyrics celebrating street warfare or drugs and promiscuity. Grandmaster Flash’s ominous 1982 hit, “The Message,” with its chorus, “It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under,” marked the change in sensibility. It depicted ghetto life as profoundly desolate:

You grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate.
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way.
You’ll admire all the numberbook takers,
Thugs, pimps and pushers, and the big money makers.

[dfwgator]

Go to any rap concert and the audience will be predominantly white.

[ken5050]

Then of course, there was the great joke from the 1980 presidential campaign:

Q: What's Reagan's program to cure poverty?

A: 100,000 new teams in the NBA

[anniegetyourgun]

Yep - the only good quote from this piece are these two words: "rap retards"......

[Alberta's Child]

If a white supremacist from the Ku Klux Klan was asked to come up with the most insulting, degrading caricature of a black man that he could think of, he'd probably describe something remarkably similar to what is accepted these days as a "rap artist."

[Pikamax]

"But rap took a dark turn in the early 1980s, as this “bubble gum” music gave way to a “gangsta” style that picked up where blaxploitation left off. Now top rappers began to write edgy lyrics celebrating street warfare or drugs and promiscuity. Grandmaster Flash’s ominous 1982 hit, “The Message,” with its chorus, “It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under,” marked the change in sensibility. It depicted ghetto life as profoundly desolate: "


1) What was Flash supposed to depict the slums as? Heaven?

2) the "dark turn" didn't come about till the late 80's, early 90's with groups like N.W.A, when all of a sudden everyone was a former or still gangsta! Now most of it is just top 40 junk appealing to goofball teens and young people.

[dfwgator]

Is this writer implying that "The Message" was Gangsta Rap? If he is, than he is even dumber than the rappers are.

[Mr. Jeeves]

At 2 AM on the New York subway not long ago, I saw another scene—more dispiriting than my KFC encounter with the rowdy rapping teens—that captures the essence of rap’s destructiveness. A young black man entered the car and began to rap loudly—profanely, arrogantly—with the usual wild gestures. This went on for five irritating minutes. When no one paid attention, he moved on to another car, all the while spouting his doggerel. This was what this young black man presented as his message to the world—his oratory, if you will.

There was a time, not long ago, where NO ONE would have dared do something like this without fear of reprisal from five or ten large gentlemen in the train car, who would have not so politely surrounded the miscreant and advised him that if he didn't shut up he would be leaving the train at the next stop - face first. The biggest cause of decline in civility in America has been because the average man is now afraid to do his part to enforce "the code".

[HELLRAISER II]

While I don't agree that the majority will be white, I do agree that a good portion of their audience is white.

[HairOfTheDog]

Old Fogie alert! Fearing what is foreign to him.

What he saw was a group of teenagers who don't look like him behaving badly. He thinks it is that foreign music he hears that causes it.

I am no longer a fan of teenage rebellion music..... but I dug it when I was in high school..... Our rebellion music was sung by grungy lookin' white guys with long hair.... My parents and the other old folks found that threatening too.... when they could understand the words.

[r9etb]

Lest we get too far thinking that Mr. McWhorter is merely another complaining white guy:

[HairOfTheDog]

Hmmm..... I guess I will have to retract all but the "fogie alert" from my assumption above..... I think he is just aging fast...

[glorgau]

The biggest cause of decline in civility in America has been because the average man is now afraid to do his part to enforce "the code".

That is because you'll get tossed in jail if you do. This is a "Great Leap Forward" for society.

[FroedrickVonFreepenstein]

I disagre with you. It goes past simply a style difference. Much of rap is truly evil. For example, here is what we were listening to when I was a teen (yeah I'm pushin' 40):

Carry On Wayward Son
KANSAS

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher
But I flew too high
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I can hear the voices when I'm dreaming
I can hear them say
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man
It surely means that I don't know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune
But I hear the voices say
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
No!
Carry on
You will always remember
Carry on
Nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Here is what teens today are listening to:

50 Cent Lyrics: Rotten Apple

[50 Cent]
I'm on parole, I used to be on probaaaaaation
I'm with my gun I get full coporaaaaaation
I tell you "take it off" no hesitaaaaaation
Nigga you play around, I lay you down
That's how it's goin' down
Don't play wit' me, I don't have patieeeeeents
My headachin', and I need my medicaaaaaaation
Niggaz be hatin', they don't know what they faaaaaacin'
Nigga you play around, I lay you down
That's how it's goin' down
I be in court throwin' signs like I'm a maaaaaason
Nigga witness against me, I'ma eraaaaaase 'em
If they try an runaway, I'ma chaaaaaaase 'em
Now with the pound, and I'm a lay 'em down
That's how it's goin' down

[Chorus]
Better watch how you talk
Better watch where you walk
On the streets of New York
That's how we get down
22's on the jeep
Somthin' deep in the seat
When we creep wit the heat
That's how we get down

[50 Cent]
Wise men listen and laugh while fools talk
Stick up kids don't live long in New York
Fuck around and catch the wrong jukes on the street
Get caught slippin', then get hit wit' like three
In every hood in the US, I'm that nigga they feelin'
Rap full of good guys, 50 Cent is the villan
I play the bar with 8 bottles all night gettin' right
Teachin' the hoodrats what Cristal taste like
I put 60 on wrist, 12 on my fist, 100 on my neck
We in the hood nigga schemin', what you expect?
My S on 22's leave ya hos confuuuuuused
On the track ready to choose, like "Daddy we want you"
My love live ain't change, the shorties still hug me
Bullet wound in my face, and bitches still love me
Now Nelly told you how them country boys talk
I came to teach you how we put it down in New York
That's how we get down

[Chorus]
Better watch how you talk
Better watch where you walk
On the streets of New York
That's how we get down
22's on the jeep
Somthin' deep in the seat
When we creep wit the heat
That's how we get down

[50 Cent]
In the city, a young buck'll tell you how the mac spit
O.G. give 'em the word, you gonna get yo' ass hit
I don't know why niggaz like to talk bad about me
I'm the richest nigga they know without a G.E.D.
Man it could be the money, it could be the ice
It could be they'd like to be me and can't live my life
You should here they be sayin' man "50 be flippin'"
"Shot my man over 7 grams, that nigga be trippin'"
I know death is promised, I don't fear gettin' murked
It's when a nigga half-way killa ya homie, it hurts
Now we can hit the club and get it crunked
Or you could start some shit, and I could hit you with
the pump, you can have it how you want
But I know you like my style (Uh-Huh)
Ya like how I break it down, wanna get rich?
I'll show you how, take this pack, pump these pieces
That's how we get down

[Chorus]
Better watch how you talk
Better watch where you walk
On the streets of New York
That's how we get down
22's on the jeep
Somthin' deep in the seat
When we creep wit the heat
That's how we get down

[Hank Rearden]

What he saw was a group of teenagers who don't look like him behaving badly.

I refer you to post #11. If you're not familiar with McWhorter's writings, you should be. He's very good.

[moodyskeptic]

It's a thoughtful examination of hip hop by, I believe, a black man. He laments the passing of the smooth Motown-style music of old, and I agree. In the sixties and seventies, black music was the best in America.

Now?

[reegs]

There's lots of good stuff in this article. It's sad, though that this message will be buried by the entertainment industry who continue to "pimp" out these thugs.

[bedolido]

In the sixties and seventies, black music was the best in America.

If it hadn't been for the Four Tops, Temptations, James Brown, War, Jimmi Hendrix, Commodores,etc. The 60's and 70's would've been terrible decades for music. Just like the 80's and 90's were with RAP.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, I could pick "Kansas" as an example too, but popular when I was a teen was "Black Sabbath" "Iron Maiden" "Judas Priest" "Ozzy Ozborne" Their lyrics ain't Kansas.


And, the guy's point is not lost on me, I don't think that raunchy coarse language in music is a good thing, but in my moment of feeling hip above, I thought "It really isn't any worse than what I grew up with".... and I grew out of it. We liked it ~because~ it was upsetting and offensive. It said stuff that we couldn't say.

For most kids, the appeal to repel and rebel gets old after awhile, when they grow up and have the independence they crave. Then, bit by little bit, they start to act like their parents.

[bedolido]

I've often wondered what 30 year reunion concerts would be like for RAP singers... those that live that long, that is. Who would wanna hear "Baby Got Back" and the like? Music from my youth, though out-dated for today, would at least be fun again. Rap music takes an attitude to listen to it. By then, the old fans won't care that much.