Black Popular Culture and Its Messages
Hip-hop is undoubtedly the black popular culture of the twenty-first century, having defined its own music, clothing, attitude, and way of life. The songs are played over the airwaves, the clothes and albums are sold in stores, and the lifestyle is suggested in song lyrics and in the media. Commodification, though, has complicated and confounded music’s meaning. Singing and performing is no longer about the message in the song at all, but about the amount of money that song will produce. Black artists and performers continually create caricatures and gross exaggerations of themselves in musical lyrics and videos; the spectacle carries over into movies and television as well.
Commodification has affected any meaning that black artists think they convey through their songs, and music instead becomes a means of self-oppression. Capitalism, in the face of racism, is such that black artists try to prove their competence through record sales and wealth, a proof that comes at the expense of further confining themselves within racism and harsh stereotypes. They both accept and reinforce blatant degradation in exchange for the almighty dollar. Black music has undergone a transformation from good to bad, which calls into question the usefulness of black popular culture as an “art” form. In October of 2003, black music has its moment in history, as it was the first time ever that all of the Billboard’s top ten singles were songs by black artists (Billboard, 2003). What was seen as a triumph to some, more appropriately represents the pinnacle of musical self-exploitation. On the whole, the songs are misogynistic, sexually suggestive, and confirming of the negative stereotypes about black people. There has always been a stigma surrounding black musical expression, and not much has changed since the 1860’s. Black music today is still not viewed positively in the general sense, and hip-hop seems to be little more than modern-day minstrelsy. If an assertion is made about a people through their music, what does hip-hop tell us about the role and status of black people in America now? Upon close examination, it seems to tell a rather sad, disheartening story.
Writer and educator Russell Potter (1995) focuses on the role of black history in the way that hip-hop and rap represents and expresses elements of black culture. Blackness has historically been a thing of spectacle, and was made a commodity from the beginning in the most damaging and contemptuous way. In slavery, people were sold and traded as property, and given great economic value in terms of white money. Hip-hop music seems to be a close reflection of this troubling past, although Potter depicts the black artist as an innocent victim of circumstance, an unwitting participant in the game of exploitation. He contends that black artists do not glamorize and advocate the conditions and lifestyles depicted in their lyrics, but that they instead use music to bridge the historical and societal forces that have shaped the role and status of African Americans in society. Commodification fuels, rather than prevents, the resistant elements of black music (Potter, 1995). It is hard, however, to see resistance in rapper 50 Cent’s claims to be “a mutha f*ckin’ P-I-M-P”, or in Nelly’s song that prompts women to “shake a tail feather”, a catchy euphemism for sexually provocative dance (Billboard, 2003). This musical contradiction is certainly not unique to hip-hop, and has its origin in much earlier times. Blues was considered for a long time the resistive musical form of African Americans, even though the lyrics were often patriarchal and sexist (Rose, 1994). The truth of the matter is that black music does not have to be stereotype affirming simply because of the history of black people in America. And the self-exploitation that is ever-present in black music should not be excused in light of enslavement, even though that painful history still has an irrefutable influence on the psyche of black Americans.
Potter (1995) also seeks to dismiss the idea that rappers are non-intellectual, and most would not deny rappers their intelligence, linguistic talent, or creativity. It is presumptuous, though, to claim that rappers, when they degrade women and exploit themselves, are doing so with society’s best interest in mind. There is little to be learned from songs about coming out of poverty, life in the ghetto, being a gangster, or the wide array of songs with sexually explicit lyrics. They may be trying to send out important messages, but meaning is lost in the face of capitalism. Instead, these songs put black people up for all to see and commodify the people and their culture. Simply put, hip-hop has become blackness for sale.
During times of minstrelsy, the African American was the object of humor and exploitation. White actors would darken their faces with burnt cork and play the part of the silly Negro dancing around and speaking in broken English, merely for entertainment’s sake. It even got to the point where African Americans themselves would appear in blackface, and make caricatures of themselves, as a means of making a living. Musical recordings of black songs were the very songs from minstrelsy; the coon songs that made a mockery of the African American. The late nineteenth century is full of painful images that portrayed the black person as docile, goofy, animal-like, and inferior, and these images appeared in music, advertising and even in cartoons. At the time, these were the rules by which black people had to play. Popular culture was not governed by black people, and minstrelsy was the white exploitation of the black image. And in analyzing the social conditions that produced music like jazz and blues, it becomes clear that this phenomenon of musical self-oppression is not a new idea (Bayles, 1996).
Now, however, musical blackface is the choice of many black artists, and they willingly play into the negative stereotypes, whether they realize it or not. Some would argue that blacks are still not in control of musical production, which would be a reasonable argument if it were not for the driving force of capitalism. Black artists can determine whether or not they participate in the musical exploitation that is hip-hop, and are not mere puppets on strings held by white music executives. The ugly truth is that hip-hop artists choose to participate simply because of the profit that the music industry brings.
Now the majority of black rappers and hip-hop artists would vehemently deny their participation in the exploitation of black people in their music. Most would want to claim their work as resistant to the misconceptions held about African Americans. Hip-hop wants to be viewed as a reactionary counter-culture that stands in contradiction to stereotype and prejudice, similar to times in the past in which black music had been progressive. The Fisk Jubilee Singers, for example, were the counterargument to the popular musical practice of minstrelsy. They were the embodiment of the notion that black people are capable of learning and of a more positive black image. Black people did not want to be judged by the messages given in coon songs, but by the positive images and messages they sent out that showed competency and moral integrity. One has to make a stretch to defend hip-hop music as having the same types of progressive goals. If music were truly about resistance to oppression, artists would have no need, and more importantly no desire to have their songs top the Billboard charts.
Popular culture exploded in the twentieth century due to the many changes in technology, such as telephone, television, radio, movies, and automobiles. These new advances made it possible to spread cultural expressions both broadly and quickly, and it allowed different musical forms to come into contact with, and thereby influence, one another. Similarly, music and other art forms progressed from tradition to modernity in the face of new technological and cultural advancements. Art production for art’s sake gradually became the perversity that is popular culture today. Art and musical expression became increasingly radical and shocking. Musical lyrics became more extreme and the media became more lenient as to what passed as appropriate. The unifying elements in the dissemination of this new brand of culture were, and still are, commodification and consumption. Those who buy into popular culture directly influence what comes to be produced. Mass media has been given undeniable power in that society allows the media to largely dictate how one should think and act (hooks, 1994). Hip-hop may not have become what it is if it were looked at with a more critical eye.
In her book Hole in Our Soul, Martha Bayles provides some insight into hip-hop culture and how it all began. Hip-hop began in the mid-1970’s as a genuine response to the repetitive robotic sounds of disco music (Bayles, 1996). As it evolved as the disco alternative, hip-hop music then began to be shaped by changing social conditions. Black culture has always seemed to pride itself on identity and the dignity of remaining unique despite being forced to exist in close proximity with people who consider themselves superior. There was a cultural intrusion on black musical expression by white artists seeking to imitate the hip-hop sounds that were becoming increasingly popular. This meant that blackness had to be redefined (Bayles, 1996). This redefinition, though, began to lead black music down a slippery slope towards the self-oppression that is the hip-hop music of today. Gangsta rap and sexual explicitness came heavily into the hip-hop picture in the early 1980’s (Bayles, 1996). Black artists saw their music as part of the struggle against white racism, and as resistant and rebellious to the white intrusion of black musical form. The separation that black music created, though, caused blackness to lose its dignified uniqueness. In contemporary popular culture, African Americans are rarely portrayed in ways that demonstrate integrity. Hip-hop music ended up confirming rather than challenging anything in the way of social or political circumstance (hooks, 1994).
Writer and educator Tricia Rose (1994), in her book Black Noise, explores the complex relationship between rap and hip-hop culture and the social conditions within which they are produced. The emergence of hip-hop culture came about as the result of cultural exchange and larger social and political conditions of black alienation and disillusionment (Rose, 1994). The African American, particularly the black youth, sought identity and a way to stake a claim in his own culture. Hip-hop became that means, and a new system of values developed that allowed the African American an outlet for self-expression and creativity. Rap is such an interesting venue because it is fundamentally linked to the social constructions of black culture. On the one hand, it can is the internal threat to American culture and social order, but on the other, more realistic hand, it is the reaffirmation of stereotypical black ideals. Much of rap music was reactionary at first, but hip-hop has always been haunted by material obsession and violent and sexual lyricism. It becomes questionable as to how effective rap was, and currently is, at getting its revolutionary messages across through the shroud of obscenity and degradation.
The difficulty is that hip-hop music relies heavily on cloaked speech and cultural code to comment on and challenge social power inequalities. The slang and terminology that set rap apart are also the very speech that prevents rap’s messages from being realized. Not only that, but the audience for black music is not typically comprised of the people for whom the real messages are intended anyway. Black audiences obviously relate to the strife and oppression against which black music lashes out, and are aware of the falsity of the stereotypes that are cast upon them (hooks, 1994). And resistance becomes further subject to invalidation because of the taint of commerce, as music is not about the music anymore. It becomes unclear as to an artists true aim in releasing a video with scathing lyrics and scantily clad women. Focus is drawn away from meaning, and drawn to the perverse visual aesthetic that has become the signature of black popular musical expression and the ticket to wealth and fame. Commodification renders much of popular culture ineffective.
Many would agree that the fascination with African American culture is not a new phenomenon. And the question remains as to whether hip-hop should be interpreted as a good or bad thing. The problem is that it can be, and sometimes is, both; the argument thus becomes infinitely regressive. Hip-hop has been a means of social mobility. This is, after all, the great appeal that rap and hip-hop has to so many young people. It is actually scary to realize that so many children seriously set their dreams on becoming rappers, when just decades ago, it would have been more common to hear childhood dreams of going to college or becoming a doctor. In providing material access to higher economic status for many black artists and performers, hip-hop has also been a means of further perpetuating racist attitudes and negative stereotypes concerning black people. Hip-hop culture has the potential to drag African Americans further down into the pit of racism, but it also has to potential to uplift and empower a community. At the same time, black popular culture affirms the self-loathing and lack of self-worth found in many African American communities and fosters creativity and hope among the black youth.
It is unquestionable that hip-hop has far crossed the lines of hypocrisy, obscenity, and perversity. But when is it that this contradiction becomes a problem, if it is a problem at all? Hip-hop may in fact turn out to be harmless entertainment, although it is difficult to see harmlessness in an art form that is so widespread and so unknowingly influential. Black popular culture is hypocritical and damaging in a society in which prejudice and racist stereotypes still exist. Black music is still exploitation of the black image; both blacks and whites are now doing the exploiting though. There is the need for great social transformation, and motivations need to seriously be evaluated. There need to be nurturing social and political contexts in which black people can have an honest, genuine voice and a sincere mode of expression and creativity. The argument is not that commodification is a detriment, but as the saying goes, the love of money is the root of all evil. There needs to be serious reevaluation of the music industry and an assessment of the damage that popular culture has and can continue to cause. Consumers need to be wary and conscious of the negativity they may be helping to perpetuate. Society needs to be ever-critical of its musical expressions, and black musical expression especially needs to be mindful of the social dynamics within which it operates and the strong influence it has on American youth. The future of hip-hop is unknown, but is what is certain is that it cannot continue on in its current state.
