by Alisia Midgett

Rap Music Controversy

Since slavery music has played an important role in the lives of African Americans. They sang songs to maintain their spirits and speak of secret escapes to the North. During the Harlem Renaissance, when they played Jazz music for their white patrons, it was still music that appealed to an entire generation of African Americans. It spoke to them in a way that no music before had even began to do. Yet it was greatly criticized by the mass population of Whites. Some say that �Jazz served in several ways as a precursor to fifties� be-bop, and rock and roll, eighties pop and nineties rap.

Since music is constantly evolving and changing it makes sense how a new generation feels the need to call something their own and be able to relate. They see rap music as their musical voice much like jazz was the music outlet of the youth during the Harlem renaissance. What makes this genre of music so controversial and so influential in today�s youth both black and white? In order to understand this phenomenon it is important to see where rap music originated and those critics who are against rap music and those who are in support of it.

Rap music first had its roots in the urban culture of Northern ghettos particallary �New York�s South Bronx and Harlem are credited as its birthplace� It was made popular by a group called the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979. Like in the early days of the jazz age, rap music has its share of criticism both positive and negative. The major difference between the criticism on jazz and that of rap music is based on the timing of the musical movement. Jazz critics were �motivated by political and racial concerns, many jazz critics during the Harlem Renaissance publicized their dislikes of jazz music in order to express their dislike of African Americans�. Most of the criticism of rap is based on the content and their messages. One important thing to remember is that �Often the terms �rap music,� and �hip-hop, and �gangsta rap� are used synonymously, while closely related, each has a distinct meaning�. Hip-hop refers to a cultural movement among African American youth that has influenced styles of clothing, music and other forms of entertainment 6. Rap music has its roots in African tradition of speaking rhymically to a beat generally supplied by background music. While, gangsta rap followed �in its predecessor�s tradition because many songs protested police brutality and highlighted the realities of the violence commonplace in the communities of the artists�. When speaking about music in this context it is necessary to clarify the differences of terms that are related.

Many of the topics that are discussed in rap music include deprivation, unequal opportunity, distrust, hopelessness, early death, poverty, low income, police brutality, drug abuse, educational inequality, high dropout rates, and violence. Most artists feel that �a sense of powerlessness to change conditions in complex social, political, and economic issues� led them to seek ways to express their discontent. I believe Smitherman said it best �rap music has become a way for you to voice their dissatisfaction with society employing the heritage of the black oral tradition.�

There are many people who do not feel that rap music is suitable for today�s youth. One of the most notable of these critics is Senator Carol Moseley Braun who openly opposes rap music and presided over the gangsta rap hearings in 1994. One of the criticisms made was placed in a Washington Post article; it read �Gangsta rap is evil. The bastard child of the vibrant art form hip-hop, gangsta and its mostly black and male practitioners celebrate and encourage hatred, substance abuse, brutality and misogyny�. This is an opinion held by most of the critics of rap music. They feel that it should be censored and kept away from their children.

According to the Children�s� Defense Fund, �one young life is lost every 2 � hours due to violence.� There have been over 30 Congressional hearings since 1954 related to youth violence and the entertainment industry. However, responsibility has been placed on rap music as well as other forms of violent media. One thing that people do not realize is that violence in music is not only limited to rap or gangsta rap music because folk and country music also contain references to murder, killing of police and domestic violence. For example, Eric Clapton�s song �I shot the sheriff� and John Cash�s �Folson Prison Blues�. However, folk and country artists and are rarely blamed for escalating murder and domestic violence.

Those who support rap music argue a very different point of view. They say that �without critical dialogue with the creators of rap music and its genre it is difficult if not impossible for outsiders who are in many cases non-African American and/or not economically disadvantaged, to place lyrics in the intended context.� One of the themes that greatly appeals to this generation�s teenagers is the rise in broken families and emotionally damaged youth. They are searching for role models and they find them in the appealing figures of rap artists who seem to understand their struggle and their pain because the artists also went through similar situations.

One artist who was heavily criticized for his music being vulgar and perpetuating physical and sexual violence as well as sexism was Tupac Shakur. According to Fried most religious and political groups did not �recognize any positive influence of rap music and have focused solely on the violent content�and on the negative and harmful influence these lyrics may have�. The critics were unable to see what so many of Tupac�s fans saw. They saw him as a sensitive and progressive person who was more acknowledgeable than most people gave him credit for. A lot of the music that Tupac wrote actually did not advocate violence but asked why violence had to occur especially in his community. He tried to appeal to other people of his generation growing up without a father and in a single income family. Like many urban youth he was left to his own devices and got caught up in the urban life but still managed to understand that things did not have to be the way that people made them out to be. There are other artist who share this sentiment and are just trying to voice their opinions and perceptions of the world around them.

One quote that I found particularly interesting refers to the critics of rap music:

�And therein lies a painful truth about an advantage that many teenagers of yesterday enjoyed but their own children often do not. Baby boomers and their music rebelled against parents because they were parents - nurturing, attentive, and overly present (as those teenagers often saw it) authority figures. Today's teenagers and their music rebel against parents because they are not parents - not nurturing, not attentive, and often not even there. This difference in generational experience may not lend itself to statistical measure, but it is as real as the platinum and gold records that continue to capture it. What those records show compared to yesteryear's rock is emotional downward mobility. Surely if some of the current generation of teenagers and young adults had been better taken care of, then the likes of Kurt Cobain, Eminem, Tupac Shakur, and certain other parental nightmares would have been mere footnotes to recent music history rather than rulers of it.�

This quote summarizes a cold truth that many people fail to realize about the phenomenon that is rap music. It was not created overnight to corrupt the minds of youth but was born out of a frustration that had no other outlet of expression but through the art of rap music. Rap music will continue to have an impact and influence on the current generation because they feel that no one better understands them like the rap artists who know and sing about their stories.

These articles seem to always miss the point. They are not talking about music at all. They are talking about lyrical content and the lives of some of the prominant practitioners of Rap. I have yet to hear a well thought out and relevant article on the music form itself.

This qoute sums up the complete misunderstanding :

'There are many people who do not feel that rap music is suitable for today�s youth. One of the most notable of these critics is Senator Carol Moseley Braun who openly opposes rap music and presided over the gangsta rap hearings in 1994. One of the criticisms made was placed in a Washington Post article; it read �Gangsta rap is evil. The bastard child of the vibrant art form hip-hop, gangsta and its mostly black and male practitioners celebrate and encourage hatred, substance abuse, brutality and misogyny�. This is an opinion held by most of the critics of rap music. They feel that it should be censored and kept away from their children.'

Had nothing to do with the music but in fact the content of the songs. There are numerous spoken word artists who use hiphop/rap music to communicate positive, enobling and conscious themes to uplift people. The art form is as valid as any other .

I KNOW there are plenty of members here that remember the 'hearings' about 'rock and roll'....

That was the 'devil's music' also, 'race' music not fit for white consumption... Nowadays, a president plays it on his saxophone..!

If you can't recognize reactionary bullsh*t when you hear it, perhaps you HAVE gotten too old...

Funny, seems like the Johnny Cash song they tried to mention as promoting violence was just the opposite. If memory serves me correctly, He was spending his life in prison for what he'd done. And not only that, can finding one scattered example here and there compare to pretty much a whole genre?

I wanna hold your Ha'a'aa'aa'a'and, isn't quite as vulgar as much of the crap coming out of the hiphop rap scene. Face it.

Black people can call themselves niggas and ho's and everything else, but if some white guy dares say Senator Thurmond would have made a good president, "off with his head!"

Is there anything at all, anything, that could be said in hiphop/rap music, that couldn't be defended as "art"?

I had what I thought was a well-reasoned response, but then I thought, that post says it all, not only about the social attitudes that (sadly) still permeate parts of American culture, but also the intellect (or lack thereof) of the poster.

chas

Giles, I totally agree with your sentiments about
"the social attitudes that (sadly) still permeate
parts of American culture"

which is why I have such disdain for some of the so-called "artists" who do their best to keep such attitudes alive with the kind of music they perform.

Sadly, 'art' and popular music have always been a REFLECTION of the society they comment on. As much as we wish it would, no song or musical genre has ever changed society - for the good OR bad. They simply comment on the way things ARE.

So blaming a song or a musical genre for the way things are is as absurd as blaming a reporter for the news he reports.

But, hey, FAEbGBD, electing a cracker white supremacist Senator to the Presidency would sure make it all better, wouldn't it? At least, for YOU, and who cares about all the 'mud people' anyway...

Oh, so you are trying to make it personally about me now? Way to go off topic.

And, if the songs are only a reflection of the culture, then maybe Bill Cosby has the right idea when he says that maybe certain people are a bit responsible for their own problems. I shouldn't have to defend myself by saying that there are many black people I have huge amounts of respect for; some of whom I've worked with professionally. For all I know, you may be black. It's not the race, it's the attitude. And I refuse to believe that it is only people on my side of the argument who have an attitude.

As much as I admire Taike and what he brings to the table, I think this particular topic can serve no good purpose on this board. It will only expose some members attitudes about race and that is bound to alienate some and encourage others.

It's sad that such a beautiful and spiritual thing as music is still not enough to overcome long-held attitudes and predudices, even among it's practicianers (sp). Still, it's hard for me to believe that Rap gets SO much air play in SOUTH DAKOTA that it threatens the HUGE population of Black youth that live there.

chas

Actually, many of the young native American people around here listen to rap music. Because that situation is my fault too, and will be my descendants' fault for all time.

[This message has been edited by FAEbGBD (edited 08-05-2007).]