Hiphop has finally publicly sold-out to white kids. And you can quote me on that, but only if you give some kind of detail on my explanation.
Honestly, I wouldn't care if that didn't include some kind of bizarre disdain for the white people themselves. I've met a wealth of white kids who have a encyclopedic knowledge of Hiphop...the kind of depth of knowledge that inclines me to think that, if a rapper were pandering to them, Hiphop would be much better off than it is. But rappers aren't appealing to these proud examples of sonic integration--they're appealing to the kids they don't really like, the ones they want little to do with: the B*tches and the W*ggaz. Hiphop is appealing to the white kids whose only contact with black people involves sneaking off and watching Oz in the wee hours of the night or slumming on BET. They're appealing to the white kids who genuinely believe that there is a way to "act black" and that the two or three black kids at their school aren't really "black" enough to serve as examples of the "black experience" in America.
In short, rappers are stereotyping their audience as white-flight produced, suburban white kids--and forsaken me!
Thus far, I sound like I'm the only one doing the stereotyping, right? Not the rappers, they're doing what they do best: entertaining. Right?
Wrong! Consider one of my favorite rappers, Jay-Z, and his best album, "The Black Album." I'm not enough of a conspiracist to believe that the title was a conscious statement that this is an album made for his black audience--but it was the last album he ever made which consciously included the scrutinizing black audience which had once been the core of Hiphop.
"If you can't respect that, your whole perspective is whack, maybe you'll love me when I fade to black?"~ December 4th
Jay-Z more than frequently uses double and triple meaning in his lyrics and that line, after he returned to rap with "Kingdom Come," stood out to me. I wasn't sure how to take it. I realize that in context he's merely saying "don't judge me for my past" and that you have to respect his rise from the dirt. But the question is who is he speaking to? Who is the audience? And regardless of the audience, does that line gain some meaning upon his return?
My answer is yes. He did "fade to black" and many people do "love him" now that he has. He receives all of the same praise, but he's clearly downgraded his lyricism--the quality which the core audience cares the most about. But, I contend, the core audience is a transracial (as in transcendent of race--alternately post-racial) group. The core audience isn't just black, and it hasn't been since Run DMC "Rock[ed] This Way." But if we grant meaning to that particular line, and the title, and consider the quality of Jay-Z's work since then, it would seem that he's "fad[ed]" to his core "[honorary] black" audience.
Yeah, he has a right to expand his audience. Please do. I want to see Hiphop grow and evolve as much as any 'head, but not this way, Hov. Not this way.
I'm not done though. I'll give you another example of one of my favorites. Cee-lo.
How many people listened to Cee-lo before he became the bizarre lead singer of Gnarls Barkley? I did. How many Gnarls Barkley fans realize that Cee-lo is a member of the "Dungeon Family" which happens to be led by Outkast? How many Gnarls Barkley fans know that Cee-lo's career began with a group called Goodie Mob, in which he was the bizarre character--similar to Andre 3000 of Outkast? Probably quite a few know all that now, but it has probably become a bizarre bit of Gnarls Barkley trivia which is quickly becoming unfashionable to acknowledge.
Cee-lo's been weird. And I actually LOVE Gnarls Barkley. So my beef isn't with the lyrics as much as what Cee-lo has had to sacrifice to be on top--and who he sacrificed to get there.
"Their god's only a graphic, the sky's computer blue/ There is a moral malfunction, what will the machine do to you/ They maliciously monopolize the mass/ Niggas sleep rap and fuck they surprise you last/ when you sell them your soul they supply you cash/ But you can die for all they care, with your expendable ass/ Because they know a new nigga, a brand new nigga/ Will jump right in them tap shoes even if his feet bigger/ Ain't shit sweet nigga, it's deeper than the street nigga/ You and I just a virus they gonna delete nigga/ Some people say go on and join what you can't beat nigga/ I won't take the mark so I can't eat nigga/ Holla if I'm talking to ya, (AH!)"~ Microhard from "Pefrect Imperfections"
Or better yet, consider this one:
http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)">"Let's get started shall we, cause you know it's time gone/ Every time these niggaz rhyme wrong/ So uhh, lights, camera, action I'm on/ I'll have them standing in line to get their mind blown/ I'm selling soul/ Rapping and singing and screaming and yelling soul/ Manufacturing, marketing, pricing, packaging, and e-mailing soul/ With no rehearsal, this one verse'll whole hearse you/ Now a commercial, but what I must first do/ is make my presentation a bit more personal/ Everything must go - for a small price you can have the heart of me/ There is no part of me that can't be calculated into a commodity/ My musings amount to a milestone a million miles above monotony...But isn't it amazing, how the antenna ain't nothing but a sinner...And I give it to you at God-speed, but yet it's gentle/ And when I rhyme I make reading fundamentals/ or even black and white/ My lyric is live in living color/ my flow is fluorescent/ Like scripture highlighted in bright yellow/And all this for $9.99, shit that's wonderful/ And the great thing about it is, if you disagree you're money's refundable/ But there's always something rewarding, about every Cee-Lo Green recording/ Cuz even after all your expenses people still aspire affording/ It's incredible how convincing I can be with a camera pointed at me/ But really sometimes rapping feel like tapping to make a cracker happy/ But when the ??? play and the beat get bumping like adolescent acne/ It's kinda sad but it's SHOWTIME/ my sentiment exactly/ So don't get mad, everybody's doing it/ You know you wouldn't mind a commercial with your own tennis shoe in it/ Whether you're selling a dream, selling a scheme, or playing a role/ Like it or not we're selling soul"~ I am Selling Soul from "Cee-lo Green's the Soul Machine"
This is coming from the album that begins with Cee-lo saying he's literally the "soul machine" and that you should push his button to "start him up." Cee-lo makes it more than abundantly clear where he is being pushed for economic success. The following album wasn't a solo album, it was Gnarls Barkley. This is not to say that he has completely downgraded his talents, but merely shifted gears. His songs have become more obtuse and radio friendly. If you haven't noticed, when Gnarls Barkley dresses up for photo shoots, Cee-lo, more often than not, dresses up as some white guy from pop culture. He's actively chosen to minstrel for the hoards of white kids who don't want to hear the true depth of his music.
Or as Andre 3000 said: "You don't want to hear me/ You just wanna dance!"
What it amounts to, to my white readers, is that rappers know you're out there. They are making music "for you." Or at least they think they are. I would like to think that you are all smarter than that. In fact, I know that a lot of you are--because a lot of the Hiphop audience left for Indie Rock; it's gotta mean something, right? It implies that they don't think very highly of you. They hate you--in a way. But they'll take your money. Just like black entertainers always have when they have no other choice to survive in their field. If they want to continue making music, they have to pander to you. And really, it's not entirely the artists--though in the case of Jay-Z and Cee-lo, I think it is--but also the labels and their "market research." They've turned you into a mindless-horde demographic. They assume that you'll buy anything that makes you move, without ever questioning where it comes from or what it means. And far too many of us have. We all share the blame somehow. But anymore, the power rests in the hands of that cinematic stereotypical crowd: 3-4 white kids and the token. When you all turn your backs on the insults lodged at you from the music industry, Hiphop will be resurrected.
Or you'll bury it for all eternity...like ragtime or something.
And so it was.
As exemplified by these two titans of Hiphop, rappers had to downgrade their talents in order to succeed. They had to appeal no longer to their core perceived-black audience, but to the bubblegum popping, colorblind-by-ignorance, "speak so well" suburban white young adult audience. (If you'll pardon my malice and vitriol.)
I've watched in anger as Jay-Z, Cee-lo, Common, and many of my favorite rappers gave way to 50 Cent (who measures the greatest rapper by profits), Kanye West ("pop is a good thing. you're popular!), Soulja Boy (OMG!), and now Flo Rida (have you seen that video! does that sh*t make ANY sense?).
And so, what I think has happened, is that Hiphop--my beloved genre--has transitioned into its creative dark age (linguisitic irony! pun not intended). It has become Glam-hop. It will someday be remembered as an embarrassment to the genre, much like hairbands are to rock fans today. I hope that real Hiphop heads will partition this phenomenon out of our minds.
(I realize I'm a little all over the place here. I'm placing the blame in a lot of places. I'm really not blaming "white people"--it's just that "white kids" are the demographic I feel certain the labels are speaking to anymore. What else could explain the creation of Flo Rida's "Right Round"? Which means the problem/solution lies in the source of that perception. I imagine there's a grain of truth in there somewhere, so how can we as fans answer that?)
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