LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Misti Franklin

Rap versus capitalism.

We are all aware of the fight the black community has been fighting for the past two hundred years but something that stuck out for me was the contrast between the positive and negative paths that black people have taken to accomplish the goals of the cause. Not having come from this community, I have never had to fight this fight for myself. Although I am empathetic to those who have fought, physically or otherwise, but if I was black, I think I would be very angry about some of the things that the black community has done to contradict the headway already made. The invention of rap music for example was a very original forum for the community which gave them a voice to make an impact with in modern society. However after this musical outlet became popular its message was destroyed. I wanted to know if other people were feeling the same way I did so I researched the topic and this is what came up.

The first place I generated some ideas from was a former student’s research paper from 2005. This student helped put the problem into perspective by writing about how rap at it best “is able to stand alone lyrically while bearing a strong resemblance to poetry” and “flows in verse like Malcolm or Martin did behind a microphone” but at its worst “centers on the prevalence of obscenity and profanity” and focuses on “sex, drugs, gaudy jewelry, superfluous consumerism, and violence”. This student goes on to say that the majority of rap seems to lean toward the latter description and “demeans” the work of those who message is important and meaningful (some of the positive examples she uses is Tupac’s Shakur’s “Keep Ya Head Up” and Kweli’s “Respiration”). The black community invented an entirely unique art form and forum for advancing the cause, then, destroyed it.

When I presented this topic via the web highlights many opinions and ideas were generated by my classmates but one that to keep coming up was the idea that it was American democracy that had caused the destruction of rap music. My classmates seem to agree that had rap not been exposed to capitalism this change would not have happened. We discussed why the youth of America would want to listen to rap and rebellion came up as a possibility. I felt this was a good thing because this was the back bone of rap to begin with, but capitalism, according to some of my classmates, have made the message about money and power. They felt that rap was a part of a long list of things that the dominant culture had capitalized on, and in doing so ruined.

Then I went online to see what other people around the world thought about this subject. Jason Swieso from California State University in Long Beach wrote an article for the college’s newspaper on this subject and he agrees with the former student by writing, “In the beginning, rap raised the consciousness of people and addressed the need for social change in America” but now it “has recently changed to glorifying materialism”. He also agrees with my current classmates when he mentions that record executives are forcing this change in rap I order to make more money for them but he adds a new aspect. He says artists just aren’t “putting forth the effort” to make sure this doesn’t happen. This opinion puts the blame back onto the black community since most rappers in America are black.

Lastly, an article posted in “The Nation” in 2003 puts the blame right back on the capitalists. Kweli, a rapper, is interviewed in this article and says that record producers have “closed the ears” of the public to the message he would rather be sending. The author of this article says the political ideas once expressed by rap were replaced by the message to be “ghetto cool - with all of the products but none of the risk or rage” after the political statement made in rap songs threatened the dominant cultures hold on control in American society.

There is a growing desire to bring back the original message and purpose of rap music and hopefully, like so many times before, the community will be able to fight back against the things standing in the way of this and reach this goal.

References

Students in American Minority Literature taught by Craig White. (2007). Spring Semester. “Hip Hop and Rap: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly”. (2005).

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/hsh/whitec/litr/4332/models/2005/finals/f05jc.htm

Jason Swieso. “Rap music lost original purpose, materialistic”. (2005).

Daily Forty-Niner. Dec. 12

http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/archives/2005/fall/opinion/volLVno193-rap.shtml

Jeff Chang. “'Stakes Is High': Conscious Rap, Neosoul and the Hip-Hop Generation” (2002) Dec. 23. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030113/chang/2