“Black Culture” and Hip Hop Culture
Hip Hop culture is poisonous and promotes failure, immorality and being stupid. These days, so does “black culture”. It is hard to tell where hip hop culture ends and “black culture” begins.
Over the past three decades black culture has grown so conflated with hip-hop culture that for most Americans under the age of 45, hip-hop culture is black culture. Except that it’s not.
During the controversy over Don Imus’s comments this spring, the radio host was pilloried for using the same sexist language that is condoned, if not celebrated, in hip-hop music and culture. As the scandal evolved, some critics, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and the NAACP, shifted their attention to the rap industry. Indeed, every couple of years, it seems, we ask ourselves: Is hip-hop poisonous? Is it misogynistic, violent and nihilistic? What kind of message is it sending?
But what critics consistently fail to emphasize in these sporadic storms of opprobrium, as most did during the Imus affair, is that the stakes transcend hip-hop: Black culture itself is in trouble.
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Despite 40 years of progress since the civil rights movement, in the hip-hop era — from the late 1970s onward — black America, uniquely, began receiving its values, aesthetic sensibility and self-image almost entirely from the street up.
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The historian Paul Fussell notes that for most Americans, it is difficult to “class sink.” Try to imagine the Chinese American son of oncologists — living in, say, a New York suburb such as Westchester, attending private school — who feels subconsciously compelled to model his life, even if only superficially, on that of a Chinese mafioso dealing heroin on the Lower East Side. The cultural pressure for a middle-class Chinese American to walk, talk and act like a lower-class thug from Chinatown is nil. The same can be said of Jews, or of any other ethnic group.
But in black America the folly is so commonplace it fails to attract serious attention. Like neurotics obsessed with amputating their own healthy limbs, middle-class blacks concerned with “keeping it real” are engaging in gratuitously self-destructive and violently masochistic behavior.
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Until black culture as a whole is effectively disentangled from the python-grip of hip-hop, and by extension the street, we are not going to see any real progress. [More...]
And sadly, inner city black Muslim youth are having the exact same issues as their non-Muslim counterparts
Filed under: Black American Muslims, Children's Issues, Convert Issues
Not quite the same thing, but there is the temptation/opportunity for jews to become hassidic or hyperorthodox and muslims to go in for one of odder interpretations of islam.
There’s commercial Hip Hop and there’s real hip hop that is far more varied. I’d point out that popular cultural products (like music, magazines, and television) has far more influence on public morality and family structures than relativist intellectuals (sitting in Ivory towers writing unintelligible books). Our cultural production is really going down hill. But I know HIp Hop artists who seek to rectify that but they don’t have pretty packaging, financing, or distribution to get their uplifting cultural productions out there.
People just keep trying to justify their immorality and vices under the cover of ‘culture’. I have always hated how much ’street cred’ has been pushed as a determiner of what makes a person ‘black’. It’s just worse in the under 45 crowd because it also includes ‘bling’, and overt misogyny. Yet don’t fool yourself. It is the over 45 crowd that is really running the show i.e. Russell Simmons and others who can now openly advocate, produce and promote stuff that they couldn’t quite get away with when they were young. Whether it’s getting that full xxx sex scene they wished for when they watched ‘Shaft’ as teenagers, or getting to see Batman or Spiderman for real as they can now, or having easy access to what was exclusively ‘cable-fare’ on every TV, it’s an extension of the same thing. Real Hip-Hop versus commercial Hip-Hop? Please! It’s just like real Jazz versus commercial Jazz, real Gospel versus that ‘unsanctified’ commercial Gospel. Give us a break. From another perspective it’s all the same while for those into that stuff are the ones concerned with these nuances. Almost like we Muslims who see clear differences between us while those on that outside see every Muslim as one and the same. All dangerous, all a threat, unless they gie up on that crazy religion.
Margari,
The entire mainstream music industry these days is trash (Brittany Spears?) but hip hop is particularly bad because they glorify not “snitching”, violence, misogyny, materialism, illicit sex, and lude behavior to a people that need to hear an uplifting message. The hip hop artists that seek to rectify can only sell a hand full of CDs and in the end some of them even sell out and go commercial. I can’t name for you a single redeeming quality about this trash.
I suppose it is considered to be “acting black” because the vast majority of hip hop “artists” are black
What ever happened to parenting????
All of this is learned behaviour?
What ever happened to the statement ” we don’t do this in our family”????
Interesting post. I think it is also sad how this kind of culture has manifested itself amongst Muslim youth in general. We have seen the influence of hip-hop on Muslims in the forms of the group Outlandish (a strange Muslim boy-band) and the site http://www.muslimhiphop.com …
The sister, of a former student of mine, is mentioned on this site (muslimhiphop) and she continues to rap in NYC and write rhymes for well known rappers.
As-salaamu ‘alaykum.
Hiphop died in the ’90s. Emcees had to sell out to make it large. Personally, abandoning Hip-hop was one of my greatest endeavours. It’s a great pastime, a real waste of time. It’s entertainment. But for many youth, it is a religion and complete way of life. Millions of impressionable minds absorb the jargon of Tupac as if it’s the invaluable wisdom of Gandhi or Buddha. They escape into the fantasy and imitate the talk, walk, and all the ignoble traits of ghetto life. They put on a costume, listen to a CD, and act. Many haven’t even touched vinyl or know what Hip-hop is. Rap, turntablism, breakdancing, graffiti, and beatboxing. The only worthwhile element of Hip-hop today is graffiti or areosol art. The other elements haven’t progressed. Hip-hop graffiti today has kept it real, staying true to it’s principles and has gone worldwide without going commercial.
What this article discusses isn’t Hip-hop but Black culture. Many are not prepared for a revolution. Those incarcerated and uneducated street thugs who can rhyme methodically are today’s shamans, notin the eyes but in the ears of millions. But don’t forget, America was once the wild wild West. The content of Country and Rap are the same. What we’re witnessing is a society building itself, as the article says, “entirely from the street up.” But the “ghetto” Elvis Presley sung about wasn’t like Compton or Bushwick. Perhaps only a new religion can save Black America now.
Frankly, we shouldn’t call this rap stuff hip-hop, it would be an insult to my man KRS-1 (if I were single I’d be stalking that man, I just love a man who stimulates me on an intellectual level)…this brother was dropping deep knowledge. I play his stuff all the time for my boys…pay close attention to what he says in “The Racist Lyrics.”
We all knew what the old timers were talking about when they were “stroking” and “bang bang banging the headboard,” today the youth say the same, the difference they are explicit and raunchy… “Girl, are we f* tonight or what.”
I’ve been thinking about the state of music, regardless of the genre it’s awful. If Beyoncé wasn’t so good at shaking her butt, she’d be broke because she can’t sing. She’s reminds me of the children and folks who sing Gospel on Showtime at the Apollo, regardless of how terrible they sound we can’t boo them or bring out the sandman. Sex sells, Violence sells.
Gone are days when a man cried his heart out to a woman – “Girl, you know I love you, no matter what you do…baby, I’m thinking of you, trying to be more of a man for you.” “I’ll take good care of you, that’s what a man is supposed to do, and I’ll be there for you all the time”
Yeah, we had a young one brother who said, “Damn the money, diamond and pearls, what about the hard day she had with the baby, all she’s needs is for me to love her…”
Where are the real men, who sit with their boys and say, “Tariq, maybe you’ve never been in love, like I’ve been in love… Maybe you never felt the things I’ve felt…”
We all know abu Sinan drives home singing, “It’s so good loving somebody and that somebody loves you back… To be loved and be loved in return, It’s the only thing that my heart desires
Just appreciate the little things I do, Oh, you’re the one who’s got me inspired, Keep on liftin’, liftin’ me higher.”
I won’t tell you what Umar Lee hums as he’s driving around the Big Apple, no it’s not brick house LOL
Seriously, we’re headed straight down the path of self annihilation. Blacks will wipe out blacks, and Muslims will wipe out Muslims.
Bint Will….
I am not sure I know that song! LOL! I sing all sorts of stuff, but only when alone. See, my voice would make the “American Idiol” idiots look good.
I sing Arabic stuff, German stuff, French, and I love opera. Imagine me singing along with Pavarotti.
But hey, I can do NWA as well. When I was a teen, pre-Islam days, I lived with my girlfriend, her mother and brother. They were white, but her brother was into rap, back in the mid to late 1980s. I used to wake up to songs about “taking niggers out with a barrier of buck-shot”. I think that lyric is trom “Straight out of Compton”.
I cannot say, however, that I have any CDs like that now.
“I got a shotgun, and heres the plot
Takin niggaz out with a flurry of buckshots”.
Reminds me of 6 am as a teen waking up to this banging the walls of our room.
Was that SWITCH? I call your name?
@ Abdul Quddus
“Personally, abandoning Hip-hop was one of my greatest endeavours.”
– Same here, akhi…
@ Bint Will…
“if I were single I’d be stalking that man…”
LOL! I know it sounds wrong…but I would actually like to see that…
Sorry abu Sinan I wasn’t into rap like that - heard though it since we used to hang on the strip drag racing motorcycles and cars, some of us would come home with some serious dough becaue of those races, especially my oldest brother Eddie (RIP, we knew that fool would die riding his bike, he was crazy) - Sniff, I miss New York -back in the day it was strictly Heavy Metal and Reggae (the real stuff before it became commercialized…Beyonce doesn’t realize her booty shaking is nothing but fast ticking we used to do to REAL school reggae and dancehall (yes, I was a JaFakin’ white girl), and old school conscious hip hop - my folks were snootty wanna be panthers LOL Oh yeah, my girlfriend’s father broke his ankle trying to break dance…yes, that fool is still trying to hang with young folks and recently threw his back out trying to do the harlem shake when it was en vogue (that’s a spinoff off the the pepperseed…a dancehall thang)
I couldn’t get with that east coast rap stuff… Every time I looked at NWA I fell out. California is too darn hot for jheri curls and short (RIP Easy E) men trying to be hard, SMH, a joke. On the other hand I did like one rap from Ice Cube… cant’ recall the title, all I remember is him calling someone a little maggot (used that for months, may have to bring it back in style, tired of chump and punk).
Oh I love KRS-1, he’s the one who brought me back to reality and made me love being black, my black african features, skin…. whew now that he has locs…, subhanallah i pray my husband never reads these words. If he does…I didn’t take my medication baby…er wasn’t me! some ought to bottle intelligence…the things it does to woman. How could he pick Ms. Melody over Bint Will!? Aint I too old to be a groupie LOL aah, there are exceptions to the rule and this case warrants an exception
btw abu Sinan, I had to pick on you. You are always find a way to mention your wife, which is admirable. That song always pops into my head when you do…you’re the new Barry White, that man was in some serious love… if anyone know her secret, CALL ME…that’s how I need my man to be.
I always tease my girlfriend, when we worked together she’d always make us lose about 15 minutes of lunch moving like molasses. When 4:55 came around, she was gone, moved like lighting running home to that man.
Umm Adam,
That’s Charlene by Anthony Hamilton. I don’t care much for his voice, he whines like Keith Sweat - one is enough, though I’m happy he’s not telling some child, “you may be young but you’re ready…” Sounds like the pedophiles anthem *SHM*
What’s lacking in the “Black culture” is guidance, especially from our elders. I’m Black and not “down” with the “hip hop culture.” But no one would/could see pass that because of stereotypes. Ones that Black folks tend to do now a-day anyways. The line between black culture and percieved Black culture is so thin that even most Black people don’t know what “side” they are on. I find it hard to even fanthom the role that “hip hop” has in the Black culture. It defines not one attribute that I can attest to be truly positive. Seems as if we have a lost generation, and only more to follow, because of bright lights and misconceptions.
Tariq, namaste.
It was great meeting you the other day. I tend to agree with Margari. Hip hop is varied, and it seems unfair to me to condemn all of hip hop culture for what some, albeit high-profile, artists do. Also, one can make the argument that hip hop culture is indeed black culture, or an aspect of it anyway.
Firstly, several scholars have traced a direct connection between elements within hip hop culture and elements within West African culture. In West African culture there are the 1) dancers, 2) artists, 3) Griots, and 4) drummers. This corresponds in hip hop culture to the 1) break dancers, 2) graffiti taggers, 3) MC’s/rappers, and 4) DJ’s.
Second, hip hop comes out of the same experience of black oppression that gave birth to gospel, soul, jazz, and the blues. Early hip hop artists like Run DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, and Blint’s favorite, KRS-1, were social commentators. Some of the lyrics were raw because their experiences were raw, but it was nothing like the glorification of materialism, violence and misogyny that we see today. Original hip hop music was protest music. And some of it still is. It’s just that the music of substance doesn’t get produced or played by the record companies and radio stations.
Interestingly, one can trace the increase in violent and misogynistic lyrics to the increase in record sales to the white, suburban community. What passes as hip hop today is a fantasy of black gangsta life being sold to white america. A fantasy with very real, detrimental consequences in black america.
I don’t mean to pin this all on the record execs and let the rappers off the hook. We are all accountable for our actions. I just mean that there are other, larger forces that are driving hip hop in the direction that it’s taken.
In other parts of the world, hip hop is the medium of social protest for disenfranchised youth. A documentary called East of Havana talks about what hip hop means to Cuban youth, and it’s not about Cristal and bling. I’ve heard Chinese hip hop in China with my own ears. And here in the States, this is still the music that most speaks to our youth, black, white, latino, and asian… Hip hop allows our society to talk about race in ways that no other medium can. Rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, I suggest a better approach would be to try to redirect hip hop back to its noble roots by supporting/lifting up socially responsible artists.
The Urban Leadership Institute in Baltimore tries to do just that.
And there is a growing community of hip hop scholars.
Thanks boys9df7573dc4de0e147fd50522da173436
Although I listen to all types of music( especially Jazz), I liked listening to The Sugar Hill Gang, A Tribe Called Quest and Newcleus. They rapped without ever being violent or vulgar with their music. Now you turn on your radio and you just want to throw it out of the window .Today’s rappers are so vulgar that it’s not even funny. I dread listening to some the hip-hop music coming from some of the guys on my block. Not only is it unpleasant to hear, but they play it so loudly that it would bust out the window of their cars and your home.
I just don’t get it. Why is that some rappers feel compelled to put trash in their lyrics? They’ll blame on their hostile environments. Here is the problem with that:Some of these same gangster rappers DID not grow up there and there are may people who lives in housing projects and never acted as the people that most of these hip-hop rappers portray them to be.
People have a right to express themselves. Though I’m not against rap , I’am not crazy about hip-hop music. I don’t see the beauty in it. To say that it is vital to use disrespectful, violent and sexist lyrics in your music is an excuses for them to get their paychecks. Hip hop is not Black culture, it is a personal lifestyle that one choose for themselves. If hip hop is supposed to be “Black” culture, how about 70’s to 80’s people when hip hop did not exist? Real Black culture is what people African-Americans like Martin Luther King, Mme CJ Walker and Paul Dunbar created for us.