The Fear of Being Conscious
I like to think I keep pretty current with hip-hop/rap, but I'll admit to missing things sometime. To some extent its because I don't really touch the radio and the club scene in Starkville (no matter how many teenagers call this place "Starkvegas") leaves much to be desired. And then in general I tend to avoid ignorant shit when it pops up, so when some hip-hop related fuckery rears its head I usually miss it since it tends to be a fad and all fads fade.
But lately, something new has been appearing involving rappers I actually respect, and I can't quite figure it out: a fear of being labeled a 'conscious' rapper, and worse yet a nasty, anti-intellectual undertone from fans and artists alike about people who ARE labeled as conscious rappers.
If you were unaware of the term before now, conscious rap refers to music that discusses social issues. You might have thought of it before now as "rap with a message", if you'd heard of it at all. Once you think about it for a second you can probably think of several rappers who fit the bill. But if you need visual/aural aids:
That song was by hip-hop artist Talib Kweli and soul singing legend Mary J. Blige. Personally, I think it's an amazing song and the radio could use more songs like it instead of some of the other garbage that makes it onto my local hip-hop station. But (and this is no slight against the artist at all), the aforementioned creator of the song is apparently so tired of being "labeled" a conscious rapper his next album is entitled "Prisoner of Conscious". Now admittedly, it doesn't really sound like he's changing his sound or style for the album and it's more an open profession of his desire for hip-hop fans to stop trying to box him into a certain style.
And that's cool. I can understand artists not wanting to be told what kind of music they should and shouldn't be able to make. Music is supposed to be an expression of one's inner self, one of the truest examples of freedom possible. You can't make it without your fans, but even they shouldn't be allowed to impede and direct your creative energies.
...But that said, somewhere along the way I think we forgot that there's a difference between "not a conscious rapper" and "just plain whack". A huge difference, in fact. You can still be clever and talented on the mic without having to discuss the socioeconomic repercussions of the "99%" concept. Case in point:
Little Brother can easily be labeled as "conscious" or "backpack" or whatever, but this is a song with a club beat talking about the trouble the two NC rappers go through to cop fly clothes. That's as shallow as it gets, but it's still got a good flow and dope lyrics with a banging beat. THAT'S hip-hop.
On the other hand?
I DARE you to listen to that song with your eyes closed or your back turned to the screen. You can't, because that shit's whack.
Even JiH favorite, Childish Gambino, doesn't rap about much of anything other than women and his struggle to be accepted because he was raised different from his black peers. But he's GOOD at the shit. His flow and his wordplay are solid. As far as I'm concerned, you don't necessarily have to rap about jack so long as you've proven to me that you CAN rap.
And you know what? "Beez in the Trap" is whatever, as a club song. There's a Phonte line that goes something to the effect of "I ain't mad at the radio, 'cause I don't know what's on it", and that's how I feel about most pop. rap. I don't hate the song because I won't ever hear it enough to hate it. But I'm gonna need people to quit trying to attack people that can actually rap, and their fans, just because we say this kind of stuff isn't hip-hop. Because this isn't. Don't get me wrong, you're welcome to play it until you chuck the CD out your window, but accept that you're doing something completely different from hip-hop, which has rhyme schemes just slightly more complicated than something your six year old cousin could think up.
Basically? Get the fuck over it, Peter Rosenberg was right. And that other cat too. YMCMB? You're Making Children's Music, Bro.
But what's more worrying to me is that black people are actually starting to find this anti-intellectual stance acceptable. Uhm, hell no. Do you have any idea how hard our ancestors worked to get us to the point where we could HAVE the rights that we have? There was a time when we weren't even considered fucking PEOPLE. We couldn't own property, because we WERE property. We've come far enough now to have a black President, but we're nowhere near a "post-racial society". (We'll only be that when society doesn't feel they have to use that term.) And technically, you DO have the right to stupidity (it's not really ignorance when you're choosing it)...but why on Earth would you want to fight for that?
We are rapidly approaching a point where other races don't like us because of our (often televised) ignorance. When it was "just white people", we had stuff to hide behind. "Old grudges", we could call it. "They still couldn't accept that we were actual people. They're just mad that we have a black President now, and other platitudes." But what about when people in other races develop a dislike for black people, purely off our behavior that we've shown post-Civil Rights Movement? George Zimmerman wasn't white, no matter how many black people think otherwise. He saw a black teenager in a hoodie, he thought criminal. (This is less about my feelings on that trial--which is that it's pretty much an embarrassment and that he should be in jail--and more about how perceptions got to be that way.) Or try this. What's the excuse there. What are we hiding behind with that? Don't get me wrong. No matter what you do, when you're different people are going to hate you just for not being the same as them. And that's not cool, nor is it acceptable. But do we really need to GIVE people a reason to dislike us?
Maybe, just maybe, let some of this swirl about in your head the next time you fight for your right to listen to ignorant music, push anti-intellectualist "ideals" and insult people making conscious music. When all is said and done, the dictionary just defines "conscious" as being aware of one's surroundings. It wouldn't hurt if we tried that, now and again.
But lately, something new has been appearing involving rappers I actually respect, and I can't quite figure it out: a fear of being labeled a 'conscious' rapper, and worse yet a nasty, anti-intellectual undertone from fans and artists alike about people who ARE labeled as conscious rappers.
If you were unaware of the term before now, conscious rap refers to music that discusses social issues. You might have thought of it before now as "rap with a message", if you'd heard of it at all. Once you think about it for a second you can probably think of several rappers who fit the bill. But if you need visual/aural aids:
That song was by hip-hop artist Talib Kweli and soul singing legend Mary J. Blige. Personally, I think it's an amazing song and the radio could use more songs like it instead of some of the other garbage that makes it onto my local hip-hop station. But (and this is no slight against the artist at all), the aforementioned creator of the song is apparently so tired of being "labeled" a conscious rapper his next album is entitled "Prisoner of Conscious". Now admittedly, it doesn't really sound like he's changing his sound or style for the album and it's more an open profession of his desire for hip-hop fans to stop trying to box him into a certain style.
And that's cool. I can understand artists not wanting to be told what kind of music they should and shouldn't be able to make. Music is supposed to be an expression of one's inner self, one of the truest examples of freedom possible. You can't make it without your fans, but even they shouldn't be allowed to impede and direct your creative energies.
...But that said, somewhere along the way I think we forgot that there's a difference between "not a conscious rapper" and "just plain whack". A huge difference, in fact. You can still be clever and talented on the mic without having to discuss the socioeconomic repercussions of the "99%" concept. Case in point:
Little Brother can easily be labeled as "conscious" or "backpack" or whatever, but this is a song with a club beat talking about the trouble the two NC rappers go through to cop fly clothes. That's as shallow as it gets, but it's still got a good flow and dope lyrics with a banging beat. THAT'S hip-hop.
On the other hand?
I DARE you to listen to that song with your eyes closed or your back turned to the screen. You can't, because that shit's whack.
Even JiH favorite, Childish Gambino, doesn't rap about much of anything other than women and his struggle to be accepted because he was raised different from his black peers. But he's GOOD at the shit. His flow and his wordplay are solid. As far as I'm concerned, you don't necessarily have to rap about jack so long as you've proven to me that you CAN rap.
And you know what? "Beez in the Trap" is whatever, as a club song. There's a Phonte line that goes something to the effect of "I ain't mad at the radio, 'cause I don't know what's on it", and that's how I feel about most pop. rap. I don't hate the song because I won't ever hear it enough to hate it. But I'm gonna need people to quit trying to attack people that can actually rap, and their fans, just because we say this kind of stuff isn't hip-hop. Because this isn't. Don't get me wrong, you're welcome to play it until you chuck the CD out your window, but accept that you're doing something completely different from hip-hop, which has rhyme schemes just slightly more complicated than something your six year old cousin could think up.
Basically? Get the fuck over it, Peter Rosenberg was right. And that other cat too. YMCMB? You're Making Children's Music, Bro.
But what's more worrying to me is that black people are actually starting to find this anti-intellectual stance acceptable. Uhm, hell no. Do you have any idea how hard our ancestors worked to get us to the point where we could HAVE the rights that we have? There was a time when we weren't even considered fucking PEOPLE. We couldn't own property, because we WERE property. We've come far enough now to have a black President, but we're nowhere near a "post-racial society". (We'll only be that when society doesn't feel they have to use that term.) And technically, you DO have the right to stupidity (it's not really ignorance when you're choosing it)...but why on Earth would you want to fight for that?
We are rapidly approaching a point where other races don't like us because of our (often televised) ignorance. When it was "just white people", we had stuff to hide behind. "Old grudges", we could call it. "They still couldn't accept that we were actual people. They're just mad that we have a black President now, and other platitudes." But what about when people in other races develop a dislike for black people, purely off our behavior that we've shown post-Civil Rights Movement? George Zimmerman wasn't white, no matter how many black people think otherwise. He saw a black teenager in a hoodie, he thought criminal. (This is less about my feelings on that trial--which is that it's pretty much an embarrassment and that he should be in jail--and more about how perceptions got to be that way.) Or try this. What's the excuse there. What are we hiding behind with that? Don't get me wrong. No matter what you do, when you're different people are going to hate you just for not being the same as them. And that's not cool, nor is it acceptable. But do we really need to GIVE people a reason to dislike us?
Maybe, just maybe, let some of this swirl about in your head the next time you fight for your right to listen to ignorant music, push anti-intellectualist "ideals" and insult people making conscious music. When all is said and done, the dictionary just defines "conscious" as being aware of one's surroundings. It wouldn't hurt if we tried that, now and again.
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