I've been rereading "It's Bigger Than Hip Hop" by author, filmmaker, professor and more, MK Asante and this time, I've been reading word by word and sentence by sentence looking at the details and truly absorbing the information I've read. The information I read in the first two chapters spurred a line of thought, connecting the dots on how we got to the state of Black music and pop culture today.
Hip-Hop being born post-Civil Rights Movement gave a whole new generation a voice. A counterculture of mainstream America, Hip-Hop really captured the political and social essence of Black life. Black people making their own art is nothing new; and neither is the appropriation of it.
While one could argue that hip-hop itself was hardly intellectual, at least it was challenging. But what we have today seems to be garbage. Even the local rappers today might have a line on their mixtape talking about "Black-on-Black" crime. But anyone who actually studies intraracial violence in impoverished communities would actually know that violence isn't tied to skin color but to circumstance and environment.
Asante talks about how mass media has evolved hip hop. Industrialization, like it did in the greater United States as a whole, create two classes of music and artistry. Industrialization has also, like it did in the greater United States as a whole, took power and control out of the hands of the people and put it into the hands of boring-color collared executives whose life experiences look nothing like those of the consumer class.
In the same way the Republicans of Civil War Era aren't the same Republicans now, mainstream Hip Hop has morphed into some sad skeleton of what it used to be. "The Market" has turned our beloved medium into "Scramble-Coke-And-Smack-Crack-And-Pop" and "Dirty Sprite 24: The Spritiest Sprite Ever!". Thankfully, socially responsible artists use the medium to promote healthy behavior and challenge the status quo.
One could say that we do have hip hop today still, and I would say they're correct! We have production on Soundcloud, mixtapes all across the internet and more. But the general essence of hip hop- the funk and the fun - seems to have drawn away to the margins as the public eye turns towards to Billboard and other corporatized places to draw how rap/hip-hop gain success. But, one question could be, how do you measure success of music?
This post will be continued.