This is a question I have asked myself a lot over the years
in my short life on this planet. We all love the Music Industry to some extent.
It puts a smile on our faces or help guides us through some tuff times or even
help us express ourselves in varies ways. The Music Industry spreads love,
anger, hate, positivity, and gives people a voice that normally would not say
anything. These are just some of the
wonders of the Music Industry that demands so much of our personal world, but
there is a dark side. A very dark side of the Music Industry, I would go as far
as to call it an outlawed stepchild or political scapegoat. I am talking about
the culture of Hip Hop.
Now, it is not a secret what race dominates this genre of
music and made it what it is today, as we know it. If you do not know because
you were too busy doing great things, let me tell you, it is African-Americans.
Over the years in this country every time something major goes bad or
dramatically wrong involving African-Americans, Hip Hop culture and Rap music
gets under attack and is blamed for the majority of the problems.
Could this be an accurate assumption about Hip Hop and Rap?
Why the other genres of music do not come into question? Are they not to blame for the negative actions
or problems of its predominate listeners?
Let me point out a few differences in views or choice words
when talking about African-American music vs. Caucasian music. Bill O’Reilly
tends to blame Hip Hop and Rap music for almost everything that goes wrong in
this country, like the Decline in Christianity in America
is because of Hip Hop. Geraldo Rivera said Hip Hop has done more damage to
black and brown people than racism in the last 10 years. Here is a video of him
speaking with the Huffington
Post earlier this year. Then you have Dylann
Roof in recent news.
("Dylann Roof," Dylann Roof)
No musical genre was to blame in this nations most recent serial
shooting in Charleston, South Carolina by Dylann
Roof. His mental health came into question, but he is also Caucasian; Is it
really the music to blame or is there a different sub-conscience meaning to all
this? Please!!!!! Educate Me.
This is a great blog post. Such a free and honest look at Hip Hop and the issues that are associated with the art as a black person executing the art. The issue many others and myself have with hip hop and black culture is appropriation. Meaning, many people outside of the black race use hip hop for personal gains but do not use their voice in order to help the black race. Especially in the time we are in where the police are brutalizing and murdering at a criminal rate. I don't see Macklemore or Eminem speaking out about this. But they will use the art to make money and this is a sad fact.
ReplyDeleteHasn't appropriation always been the problem in music between blacks and whites? Nothing new here.
DeleteWith all the tragedies happening around the world, one would think that music industry would encourage their artist to create music that talks about these issues but they do not. Hip-Hop today is different from when I remember it in the 90s and to honest it would take a lot for Hip-Hop to return to its original form. In today’s Hip-Hop, is more about what makes money and what is trending. Although people can say hip-Hop is to blame for a number of tragic events, I would disagree because Hip-Hop is the scapegoat. Anyone that has been in the industry for the last decade can visibly see the issue in Hip-Hop. It is not the artist’s fault instead, it is the label executive’s fault for allowing Hip-Hop to get to this current state. The genre is filled with drug, violent and sexual content musically but one thing missing that was not in the 90’s is the educational side of the music. Artist would be more concerned about creating music that is in their heart and less worried about how much money they would make off each song but it is different now. The genre has been limited to just one style of music on a mainstream level. The last artist that really had education in their music was Eminem because he spoke about real life issues and not just about shooting, money, girls, cars and clothes. I would say that Hip-Hop artist do not understand the power they have because they are blinded by keeping up with what is popular and getting a big paycheck to the point they could careless about other peoples lives or life changes events.
ReplyDeleteHow is it not the artist fault when the artist is putting out that type of music? The educational side of music is missing because no one wants to speak on that. Speaking on that is not going to change their living situations so with music being a job and/or career you have to do what you need to, to advance in it. Just like you would at any other job/career. It's Business and Businesses that runs on a morale clock are usually non-profit. Other than that it's about making money to better ones life and I'm not talking just in music.
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