| Much to my father's dismay, I've always been a radio | | | | " I was dumb glad, this **** didn't fit in one bag " |
| hog. Even since my younger years, barely old enough | | | | -Big L |
| to see over the snow-covered dashboard, the second | | | | "Why are they calling each other the N word but they |
| that seatbelt clicked in and we pulled out onto icy I-95 | | | | get mad when someone else says it?", my father |
| for the drive home- I was in control. | | | | would ask. And believe me when I tell you, the |
| It was the 90's- The Golden Era of Rap- And I couldn't | | | | reasoning goes much deeper than one word ending in |
| have been more hooked. While my father couldn't | | | | 'a' and the other in 'er'. |
| have been more disgusted. | | | | Artists have been successful at converting their |
| " 9 to 5 is how you survive, I'm not tryna survive, I'm | | | | negative experiences into positive ones for decades. |
| tryna live it to the limit and love it a lot. " | | | | Artists such as Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common & |
| - Jay Z | | | | Lupe Fiasco spin musical tales of overcomming the |
| Lyrics like that filled my head with dreams of pursuing | | | | worst of circumstances. |
| your passion and succeeding despite all odds, while the | | | | Of course, not all artists in the genre wanted to end it |
| center console in the car served as the midpoint of 2 | | | | at turning their negative experiences into positive ones. |
| complete opposite ends of a spectrum- My father's | | | | Others wanted to show you exactly what you, as |
| thought process and my own- Neither right nor wrong, | | | | their oppressor, had created. It was a big middle finger |
| just stemming from a different base experience of the | | | | to the America that had forced them into such a |
| human existence. | | | | dismal existance. |
| "Do you really like listening to a guy putting down | | | | Enter Gangster Rap |
| people like me and your mom who work regular jobs | | | | Artists such as NWA popularized a violent musical |
| to keep food on the table and clothes on your back? | | | | culture that would take the world by storm. There is a |
| This guy's on the radio bragging about how much | | | | reason 90% of news stories are about negative |
| more he has than you- Do you really find that | | | | events. It attracts attention. And this is exactly what |
| interesting to listen to?". | | | | gangster rap did as middle-class Americans all over |
| I did. | | | | the country couldn't turn away as a life they had never |
| I related to Jay-Z not because I came from the same | | | | even dreamed of unfolded in front of their eyes in |
| struggle as him. I was raised a prime example of | | | | every form of creation the senses could take in- |
| middle-class: Well fed, well clothed, I had the best | | | | Audio, Video, Literature, etc. |
| childhood anyone could ask for. | | | | This would eventually culminate in the assassination of |
| But like Jay-Z, I always wanted more. It didn't matter if | | | | 2 of the gangster rap genre's biggest and most |
| our starting points were different, because our | | | | influential stars- Tupac Shakur & Christopher |
| destination goals were the same. I had a desire to | | | | "Notorious BIG" Wallace, 2 former friends caught up in |
| achieve greatness. | | | | a partly media-influenced East Coast-West Coast |
| Now I have to admit, my hip hop obsession back then | | | | rivalry that would eventually claim both their lives in the |
| was a bit of a blind following of the "In" thing at the | | | | late 90's. |
| moment. I gave every artist in the genre a pass no | | | | The music industry, like any other, requires money and |
| matter what they were saying, frankly because it | | | | financial backing to run, and the front page of the |
| sounded too cool to doubt. | | | | Boston Globe returns a lot more on their investment |
| However, as I grew and matured, and the music | | | | than an article in the obituary column, and thus began |
| seemed to go in the opposite direction, I began to feel | | | | the slow decline of the original, free speech music of |
| less and less of a connection to it as what had | | | | Hip Hop. It hadn't been perfect to this point, but it was |
| attracted me in the first place seemed to slip away | | | | original. |
| more and more and be less prevalent in songs- | | | | The Southern Takeover |
| Originality. | | | | It wouldn't be long until the "Party Anthem" and "Club |
| It is the realization that this music is on it's last leg that | | | | Banger" era arrived in the early 2000's, ushered in |
| forces me to have to explain how it got this way. It is | | | | primarily from artists in the southern regions of the |
| a wounded dog limping between the legs of it's unsure | | | | country. It was at this point rap became more and |
| master, shotgun in hand. Current day Hip Hop doesn't | | | | more characterized- Archetypes of the gangster, pimp |
| stand a chance to the fan who goes into it with an | | | | & loose female. |
| unobjective opinion, giving it the benefit of the doubt to | | | | Characterization makes marketing simpler for the |
| see what it can offer. | | | | record companies, who now get rich off an image that |
| Hip Hop has become a portrayal of character | | | | deteriorates an entire community. There's no more |
| archetypes. But it wasn't always this way... | | | | free speech, there's just similar character types of the |
| The Beginning | | | | individuals that once did really speak their mind before |
| Hip Hop is a culture that sprouts forth from seeds | | | | labels stepped in and forced them to "dumb it down". |
| planted in slavery. From a people who have been told | | | | Hip Hop has now become exactly what my father |
| since their birth that they are lazy, sick, worthless, | | | | had previously thought it was, and I find myself with |
| inferior & stupid. New words such as the N word | | | | less and less ground to stand on as I have to quote |
| have even been created for the sole purpose of | | | | time periods now nearly a decade old to prove my |
| defining their inferiority. | | | | points, even losing my own connection to it as time |
| Positively outnumbered and unsuccesful in the "No I'm | | | | progresses forward. |
| not", "Yes you are" merry go-round, Hip Hop did an | | | | Will I end up like my own father, constantly quoting the |
| interesting thing. Instead of fighting it, it flipped the tables | | | | music of my "glory days" while trying to convince my |
| and turned the negatives into positives. | | | | son why my music's better than his generations? |
| If they were the N word, then that was a positive thing. | | | | Maybe... |
| If they were dumb, then that was as well. | | | | |