Fear of a Rap Planet
The Unappreciated Artistry and Politics Hip Hop Music
Andrew Garib, Turn Left It seems universally accepted that since the 1980’s what mainstream America calls ‘rap’ is the cheap urban parody of proper, progressive and artistically-driven music. Hip hop culture is to the world what is often seen on television or heard on your local mix radio station: an excuse for the creation of simplistic club beats and the propagation of degenerative social mores. And since the average consumer is bombarded by what hip- hop scholars would consider the least progressive and most unimpressive forms of the culture and music, the larger world of hip hop, one of the most diverse and important facets of North American culture, remains hidden from the hearts and minds of most people. Even worse is the ignorance of artistic and musical critics, the gurus of culture, who have for thirty years neglected the artistry and importance hip hop music.
Since the 1980’s, hip hop has become a medium for progressive, revolutionary music with a highly politicized and usually left-leaning lyricism. Public Enemy, NWA, and Boogie Down Productions are all examples of progressive-minded rap groups active in the late 80’s and early 90’s and led by the demagogues of pop afro-centric thought. Today, hip hop has evolved into not only a forum for political debate, but also a source of intensely personal, introspective and emotional poetry, coupled with cutting-edge backbeat production and led not only by black pioneers of the music, but also up and coming artists of many other ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Hip hop’s backbone, the art of Disc Jockeying, provides for the most dynamic production in all of music, drawing from human history’s library of samples and exemplifying post-modern art. DJing is by far the most important and influential aspect of the music, even above hip hop’s unique blend of lyricism and poetry.
And of course there are the lyrics. Simple rhyme schemes and petty similes have given way to what can now honesty be described as poetry. Lyrical masters such as Chicago’s soulful Common, Philadelphia’s innovative Talib Kweli and the thought- provoking Pharoahe Monch are all examples of near-mainstream acts who have pushed the limits of hip hop lyricism. Nevertheless, the non-mainstream, or ‘underground’ acts have made the most headway, making hip hop the most lyrically intensive music out there. Subterraneous masters such as Manhattan’s Aesop Rock, El Producto, Maine’s Sole and Minnesota’s Slug of Atmosphere have turned lyrics into works of art, using complex and beautiful imagery, diffuse or even non-existent rhyme schemes, and allusions and politicism that go beyond the urban black experience. In fact, these last four artists mentioned above represent white, usually suburban and middle class backgrounds.
Despite the existence of more progressive underground hip hop, the stereotypes persist. Kelly Frances Cook, columnist for the Cornell Daily Sun, implies in her writing a concrete and obvious connection between the more embarrassing portrayals of black culture in BET and other such media, and hip hop culture in general. Not only does Ms Cook ignore the more progressive strains of hip hop culture and music, but also the fact that hip hop culture is now a pan-racial and -continental movement of both urban and suburban youth, exhibiting displays of artistry unique to the sub-culture, and it has influenced almost all other strains of popular music. The point is, hip hop is no longer exclusively an urban black experience, but since the late 90’s has become the mode of expression of some of the most interesting and influential popular artists in the past decade regardless of the artists’ background.
This is the irony of hip hop: While mainstream culture still finds humour in the idea of a white rapper like Eminem dominating music charts, it is often white suburbanite rappers who are forging new trails in the wilderness of contemporary music. Non-black musicians, it can be argued, have no grounding or reference in black culture to be able to be an important part of the development of hip hop music. Yet in reality, it’s hip hop’s universality that has given it impact in the lives of a variety of people around the world, hence its influence in so many other forms of music. It doesn’t take a musicologist to appreciate the fact that the music stereotypical of white suburban America – our ’Nsync, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears – takes queues from three decades of hip hop’s influence on popular culture.
Hip hop thus is a very powerful tool in the hands of intelligent, thoughtful artists who, generally leaning left, can affect the hearts and minds of the masses. We have seen how the mainstream tripe that is often served on BET and MTV lends its flavour and mores to popular culture and values. It would be a pity if prominent left-wing artists in, for example, the punk rock world, were deprived of their voice in mainstream media. Rage Against The Machine and System of a Down, for example, have had worldwide success espousing various left wing values and supporting left wing initiatives. Why not Aesop Rock, or Company Flow, or Eyedea of the hip hop world?
The fact is hip hop is just as artistically driven and politicized as punk music, with which it shares musical roots. In underground hip hop, topics of discussion range from the superficiality of, and the role of ego in the record industry (Sole’s “Year of the $exxx $ymbol”), to the war on terrorism (Mr. Lif’s “Home of the Brave”), to poverty (Aesop Rock’s “Nickel-Plated Pockets”), to domestic issues (The Arsonists’ “His Hate, Her Love” or El-P’s “Stepfather Factory”). Hip hop has proven itself to be a meaningful means of social and governmental criticism, drawing from history, politics, science, mysticism, sociology, literature, poetry, and of course hip hop’s own rich history. Take for example Canadian rapper Josh Martinez’ ten minute musical tome, “Deny”, which describes the Holocaust in eerily emotional verses, and criticizes the Canadian government for its giving refuge to ex-Nazis while turning away Jews who escaped Europe during the Second World War.
Moreover, contemporary hip hop artists represent a strong strain of leftist sentiment, ranging from the liberal to the revolutionary: The now famous duo Blackstar fosters positive self-image within the black and hip hop communities at large with their “Theives in the Night”, inspired by the writings of Toni Morrison; New York based Company Flow serves up harsh criticism of American foreign policy in “Patriotism”, which they performed at a Ralph Nader rally during the 1999 presidential election campaign (CoFlow was introduced on stage by none other than Phil Donahue); Mr. Lif’s “Home of the Brave” is a damning criticism of the Bush administration and the war on terrorism; and the incredibly imaginative, verb-twisting “predicate burner” Aesop Rock comments on the plight of the average American worker, using nursery-rhyme like parables and his own impressive arsenal of personal metaphors and imagery, in the stunning and frank “9-5ers Anthem”.
So why is hip hop not a force to be reckoned with in the world of politics and intellectual discourse? It’s because mainstream rap sells more and appears more on MTV and BET than any legitimate hip hop. It’s because the stigma of hip hop as an unintelligent reflection of what’s wrong with black culture in America remains in the minds and hearts of people like Kelly Cook. It’s because DJing has never been taken as a real art form in the same way classical composition or even punk is respected for its artistic value. It’s because hip hop lyricism can never be considered legitimate poetry by those who still think all hip hop is as simplistic as “Rapper’s Delight”. (For proof otherwise, check out the link below.)
If you don’t believe that hip hop is as developed an art form as I have presented it, you’ll have to see for yourself. For hip hop is perhaps the most diverse form of popular music, drawing from innumerable inspirations, samples, lyrics, styles, and musical queues. Nevertheless one cannot ignore the power of the medium, its universality and its influence on pop culture. Hip hop may be the cure for what many complain is the apathy of the general public towards politics. If we North Americans wish to get our youth involved in the political process, and indeed make our democracies work to their greatest potential as the media of progressive general will, we must take politics to the youth, and speak to them on their own terms. Hip hop, with its universality and depth of content, may open a new world of left politics for the youth of America, where a phat beat is no longer just a beat, and a hype rhyme is no longer just a rhyme.
Kelly Cook articles @ The Cornell Daily Sun
http://www.cornellsun.com/articles/5952/
http://www.cornellsun.com/articles/6212/
Lyrical Comparison: 1979 (Sugar Hill Gang) to 2001(Aesop Rock)
http://www.ibelgique.ifrance.com/bestlyrics/sugarhill.html
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/aesoprck/labordys/95anthem.rck.txt
This was my first article for Turn Left, Cornell’s leading liberal newspaper at the time. I would go on to become editor for more than two years and continued to work with the paper well into senior year.
Published 02.10.21 20:25:44 -0500 GMT
Posted by Andrew Garib on 02.10.01 
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