I don’t think this needs much additional commentary. Let the deconstruction of guns-cashmoney-bitches hip-hop continue …
This isn’t just an African-American issue. There is ZERO cultural difference between “gangsta” culture and Wall Street/U.S. consumer capitalism culture, exemplified by the following:
- crass materialism
- end justifies the means
- objectification/hypersexualization of young women, other women ignored/marginalized
- masculinity concept reduced to violence and spending power
- glorification/iconization of corporate brands (“Sugarwater”)
- 100% cynicism, complete rejection of any kind of human ideal or hope (environmentalism? long-term thinking? justice? freedom? forget about it!)
I guess I couldn’t help myself from commenting further. It’s fascinating to see hip-hop getting fed up with its own false, bloated image. Lupe Fiasco and Hopsin are the T-cells that are attacking the cultural cancer that has invaded not just African-American popular culture, but also U.S. and all Westernized cultures.
Great post and an astute observation that this is not specific to hip-hop (though the general conversation tends to marginalize it as such). I know you keep the “scene” at an arm’s length but would be curious to hear some of your thoughts on if and how this plays out in the dance music sphere.
Thanks Mark! I guess Nicki Minaj is considered “dance music” and that’s definitely who the video is aimed at … so yes much wider than just hip-hop. Hip-hop and dance seem to overlap in terms of pop/Top 40. In terms of the underground, I don’t see everyone marching in lock-step in terms of styles and attitudes and philosophies — it’s a pretty huge range. I can’t really think of any “blackface” aspects to any underground dance scene. Instead, there are interesting conversations, like this track:
What do you think?
Yeah, I was asking more about the underground – mainstream dance like Minaj I just consider to be pop (not as a value judgment, rather that the label “dance” becomes too broad to be useful there).
I agree about there being a wide range of attitudes in the electronic underground. One trend I’ve noticed over the past few years is the emergence amongst certain circles of what feels like a more explicit focus on lifestyle branding than the actual musical product or emotional experience. Your bullet-point about “glorification/iconization of corporate brands” struck a chord with me.
I don’t know that any of this approaches something like blackface but one piece of that trend that irks me is the relationship between hedonism and cynicism. At the right level, I think the fun frivolity of dance music culture can be a powerful, healthy antidote to cynicism – a way to escape and recharge in the face of real stresses. But there is a certain streak that sometimes seems to value only the escapism itself, showing disdain for actually caring about anything and rejecting any criticism as “taking things too seriously.” Which bugs me because I don’t think serious art and fun are at odds.
Thankfully one piece I’ve still seen just about none of in the underground dance world is glorification of violence.
Big fan of Kevin and Marc’s work, a fine example of the opposite.
Yep — I know the tension you’re talking about. I think us Bay Area folk might be in the minority in equating dance music with any kind of spirituality/evolutionary impulse/deeper emotional experience — most of the world (at least most of Europe) seems to equate dance music with big-room clubbing, drinking, drugs, and escapism. I wish it wasn’t so, and I’ll keep trying to make dance music that speaks to both groove and heart.
Worth mentioning Immortal Technique over in the states and Lowkey here in UK who are working against the corporate/gangster tide.
“I’m not anti-America, America is anti-me!” – Lowkey
Brilliant take on something (hip hop) I’m only really aware of as a parent.
Left to my own devices I’m a jazz and improvised music fan.
But I am keenly aware of this cultural cancer you refer to. Do you think it’s a slow gradual descent or will we reach a tipping point where some silent majority says ‘enough!’ – I ask myself that a lot.
Thanks for the read…
I’ll go with tipping point, or at least “slow gradual descent until we hit a tipping point.” Maybe, on a global economic level, we can move from the dominance of crass materialism to something closer to “realistic interdependence” (both in terms of popular attitudes and policy). Long-term I’m an optimist and I believe in progress (see the Pinker post below) but over the next few decades? Who knows how the global economic debt/severe income inequality situation will unwind. It could be peaceful and gradual, or it could be fast and ugly (or it could even both both/regional).
http://jdmoyer.com/2012/10/17/steven-pinker-violence-is-down-but-what-about-oakland/