hip hop baby

one of the things I always like to ruminate on is the current state and history of hip hop culture. Most of my friends are now agreed that at this point, things are at an all time low. Turn on the radio, and what you hear is product for mass-consumption. The polished, temporary, disposable club-bangers that form a commercial industry, not a cultural movement. There is a finite amount of live artistic expression, and where it does exist, it is overshadowed and enveloped by the insatiable greed of corporate profit.
I was watching a documenary about New York city this evening. It is a trip to see the social and economic context out of which hip hop arose--- the urban blight and devestation of post-war Bronx........a city that literally burned up in the economic downfall precipitated by the Vietnam War and the destructive forces of 'urban renewal' in the 1950s and 1960s. It was here that African American and Puerto Rican youth initiated a surge, a subterranean battle against anonymity, hopelessness, the cold ugliness of federal housing projects, the flight of capital and resources from the inner city and ...injustice.
Now, hip hop (albeit in a much altered and bloated form) is a multi billion dollar global industry and a common cultural language for people all over the world.

We must know its context. We must know how White corporate America has perpetrated a monumental pillaging and plunder of Black culture......it is ironic that hip hop can now be a road to wealth for some African American men, but that the pathway to that wealth--- from the content of the music to the manufacturing of the artist's image--is controlled by massive multi-media conglomerates. CEOs and exectutives recognized that they could become rich by selling and sensationalizing an image of Black masculinity-- it is a masulinity defined by bravado, materialism, violence, aggression, misogyny........the very things that have defined America's rise to world power. These are also the ways that mainstream White America want to believe about Black males. The image of the hip hop thug is a ubiquitous and powerful one. It is an image of Black masculinity that white youth and their families will be comfortable consuming (parents may rail against it becasue it is loud, offensive, suggestive, but fundamentally, they are comfortable with the perpetuation and consumption of images and product that portray Blacks in the stereotypical ways they are comfortable with) The fashion of the 'hood' has become mainstream, and with it, an implied solidification of the status quo. Whatever Black people in their neighborhoods can come up with that is marketable, we will capitalize on.

How often do you hear on the radio or in the club music that portrays Black men as conscious, articulate, spiritual, critical of the status quo? It would not be marketable, because White America--the largest consumers of hip hop culture-- will by and large consume only images of Black people that do not suggest a threat to the status quo or challenge the racial hierarchy.

these are just some theories. it is much more complicated than this. There are exceptions to the rule, where mainstream America has allowed and embraced alternative voices.

Where are there grassroots hip hop movements in America? All over the place. In Albuquerque, local youth led the way in a Renaissance of sorts in the late 1990s with a suge of graffitti, DJing and breakdancing all united by the appeal to 'take it back to the old school.' A sizeable population of mostly Latino, but many White, Native American, Black and a few Asian youth sought to learn the roots of hip hop culture and bring it back to its pure form. This was the era of Puff Daddy and Co., larger than life icons that were far removed from the needs, desires and experiences of these kids in a mid-sized Southwestern city. Breakdancing spoke to them...they mixed it with Capoiera, a Brazillian martial arts form, and started crews all over the state. Grafitti came up, and began to thrive in an atmosphere of friendly competition and open artistic exchange and critique. DJs focused on 'digging' -- the exploration and discovery of the old funk and disco jems that formed the backbone of primordial Hip Hop. Artists, activists, and cultural figures came out of the woodwork and joined forces, exploring the links between New Mexico's indignous culture and Hip Hop, working with small time graffitti heads on non-profit funded public mural projects and collaborating with universities, schools, prisons, and youth centers.
For a while there, it almost looked like we would start 'doing it in the park,' tapping power from the streetlights for the DJs to rock a party all night long.

things done changed. It is different now, tha many people have moved on. Some still Dj, some still dance. Some went to prison. My brother joined the Army. Others got white collar jobs, or had babies. Some moved away.
it was good while it lasted.