A HISTORY OF US CULTURE: In the Perspective of Rap Music

The U.S. has gone through a long rich history - a history inclusive of a number of government changes, and even a series of transformations in the peopling of the Americas. We all learn this from our textbooks, but did you know that if we all try to look a little closer out there we will see this history of culture change in action? That is what rap music does - reach out to share their cultural histories enfolding day-by-day. Yet why do they do it? - the "gangsta" "ghetto superstars"? So loud with their performances, catching all of our attentions with "break dancing, graffiti art... slang, fashion... " ("Hip-Hop Music," 2007, para.5) - all that epitomizes the "hip hop culture".

Rap Music as an Example of Critical Culture

One answer is regular-street personal expression. Yet for those rappers who have already earned the fortune and the right to be recognized, the nature of their music could be seen as a "critical culture". Let us take Public Enemy or PE as one example. The group's lead rapper Chuck D initially came up with the idea of turning themselves into "a literally revolutionary hip-hop group - one that would be driven by sonically extreme productions and socially revolutionary politics... [rapping] about all kinds of social problems, particularly those plaguing the black community, often condoning revolutionary tactics and social activism... directing hip-hop toward an explicitly self-aware, pro-black consciousness" (Erlewine, 2007, para.4 and 1). Their second album "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" was hailed as "hip-hop had suddenly became a force for social change" (2007, para.5).

Already their album title (and lyrics) was so forceful, yet Chuck D himself would not let controversy hold him down. He personally had already started making such noteworthy public statements as claiming that rap music is "the black CNN," expressing that the media could never relay the news the same way as the insiders involved in the story would (2007, para.6). Until in 1998, Chuck D pushed the limit turning himself into ‘a black CNN' with his book Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality. "An insider's view on Hip-Hop culture," Chuck D made news "on Hollywood, race, the music industry, the murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., drugs, and the three E's--education, economics and enforcement" ("Fight the Power - About this book," 2007, para.2 and 1). But are the likes of rappers as Chuck D indeed qualified to speak on these issues?

Rap Music Controversies

Rap music and its players had been both acclaimed and criticized - criticized for bringing "sometimes egotistic attitudes often portrayed [by] certain hip hop artists... Often these personas [not all] incite anti-social behavior such as peer harassment, neglect towards education, rejection of authority, and petty crimes such as vandalism" ("Hip-Hop Music," 2007, para.7). PE's member Flavor Flav [among other more controversial rap icons] is said to have also been repeatedly in trouble with the law and with drug-use (Erlewine, 2007, para.7 and 8). In addition, content of rap music is also commonly characterized by gender, racial (religious), and class distinctions, which is sometimes taken as a prejudice against women, whites, and the well-to-do ("Rapping," 2007, para.24-31). And also recently, the 1990's "bling-bling" lifestyle of the rap culture (as popularized by P.Diddy) is negatively viewed as of a materialistic attitude ("Hip-Hop Music," 2007, para.6).

Nonetheless, rap culture, throughout its history, has been in a continuous transformation with its efforts to keep the rap genre viable. Rap had been attempting to converge with the white (and global) audience, and to empathize with, acknowledge, and include into the mainstream rap those talented individuals whether rich or not, female artists, or other nationalities or mixes - all the while maintaining a sense of brotherhood spirit-modern convergence. All these positively inclined changes within the rap culture would not have been possible if not guarded by both the fans and critics of rap music.

Society's Influence over Rap Music and the Impact of Rap Music on our Society

Although rap music is commonly considered as one of those genres that push limits, in truth, rap music only functions as a reflection of society in general. More appropriately - it presents the truth. The flaw though of rap music though is when it presents the truth in a way that it seems to be promoting - sex, scandal, gang war, profanity, drugs, notoriety, power-plays - things they have gotten used to living with (which is why it all just seems so natural for them to rap and rant about while others find it almost taboo).

On the other hand, as rap music reveals socially (and politically) sensitive issues (and are often castigated for that matter), rap culture also serves as eye-openers prompting for better social conditions, or sentinels on guard against worse scenarios. Yet again, why do they do these?

The Rap Culture Group and Their Voice

The answer - they are the marginalized culture of the U.S. society, representing all mixtures of race and class. And they are the ‘first line of defense' - deprived, discriminated, defiant.

(This marginalized sector has always been in the history of U.S. - but rap music only came in the 70's.)

And as revolutionary hip-hop artists like the Black Eyed Peas in this age, are "[challenged] to make feel-good albums with substance, but not come off like... preaching" (will.i.am quoted by Ali, 2005, p.51), the likes of Public Enemy and Chuck D continue to be remembered.

(The New York Times included (all the angst of) the music of Public Enemy in their "25 Most Significant Albums of the Last Century" ("Power to the People and the Beats - Public Enemy's Greatest Hits," 2006, para.7), and reviews incessantly recommend Chuck D's "Fight the Power" as a must read for all U.S. races.)

If "Freedom Writers" had their journals, ‘freedom rappers' have their lyrics, their music, their voice.

~Ae Dechavez

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References

Hip Hop Music (2007). Wikipedia-the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2007). Public Enemy Bio. All Music Guide-ArtistDirect.com. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2007 from artistdirect.com

Rapping (2007). Wikipedia-the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping

Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality - Random House About this Book (2007). Random House, Inc. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2007 from http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385318730

Ali, Lorraine (2005, May 30). Like Peas in a Pod. Newsweek-Int'l., 50-51.

Power to the People and the Beats - Public Enemy's Greatest Hits (2006). ILikeMusic.com. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2007 from http://www.ilikemusic.com/hiphop/Public_Enemy-1486

More videos at the Public Enemy Official Website