"Y'all know why they got these weird posters everywhere?"
It was my freshman year, and I walked into my new dorm confused by the choice of decoration. My hallmates were confused by my question since apparently, everyone and their mom have already seen or heard of the Hamilton Musical. I was quickly convinced that I was missing out on something, so we watched. I didn't hate it, but I couldn't say I liked it for some reason. Was confused...offended...uncomfortable?
I had made the mistaken assumption that if Lin-Manuel Miranda purposely sought out Black performers and used their music in his score, then logically, there must be some mention of Black stories, maybe some unknown piece of history.
I was wrong. Hiphop was used to tell a white colonial story for the entertainment of predominantly white audiences.
I wondered if anyone felt the same, so I researched, but the reviews were overwhelmingly glowing. He was being praised for his recasting of hip-hop techniques for the Broadway stage. It often seemed people were looking for an opportunity to denounce the lyricism and influence of rap rather than praise his use of the medium. They never stop and reflect on the cultural appropriation taking place to make their chosen entertainment possible.
Hip Hop culture is truly born from the margins. It began as an underground and localized community of young Black people and derived from the social realities of inner-city ghettos. The earliest music of the genre was set in a patriarchal, capitalistic society and told stories of racial marginalization (Hooks, 2004). It was an effort to reconcile continued discrimination and subjugation, depict the conditions that Black Americans were surviving in but pointedly critiqued and condemned society.
In the early '80s the commercial success of "Rapper's Delight" meant rap had now been "discovered" by the music industry. A new generation of entrepreneurs emerged, who were Black like the original businessman of the Soul music era. The late 80's/early90's were the golden age of hip-hop and bread ingenuity -the genre was influenced by political lyricism, Afrocentrism and even comedy. During this time, rap gained considerable popularity and cultural influence. The industrial changes that began after were due to major record labels vying for control over the market by integrating with independent hip-hop record labels. The influential Def jam label was bought in 1988 by the CBS/Columbia conglomerate, and by the early '90s record distribution was controlled by six major companies.
HipHop as a sound, culture and fashion were groundbreaking, it was a sight for raising the political consciousness. In the '90s this set the stage for women emcees and, as The Crunk Feminist Collection (2017) describes, the “Modern Era” of hip hop "links us to a set of generational concerns and a community of women, locally, nationally, and globally.”(p. xx). However, this didn’t carry to the “Industrial Era”. The commercial pressure to maintain a hypermasculine image of hiphop, pushed lyricsm away from the political consciousness. Due to commercialization, commodification and mainstream assimilation, hip-hop struggled to negotiate and maintain its cultural identity.
The perceived authenticity and cultural potency of rap is in its depiction of the Black experience which is necessarily oppositional and counter-hegemonic (Smith, 1997). As a result, Blackness as an identity became problematized when rap was forced into the mainstream. There was little room left for a personal and cultural identity independent of industry-reinforced stereotypes of postmodern Blackness. When describing the emphasis on gangsta/hypermasculine hustler culture that followed the 70's Bell Hooks (2004) suggests that post-civil rights the materialism and consumerism of American capitalism became inescapable for Black men.
So, what happened next? Suburban white boys happened. The show Yo! MTV Raps pushed hip-hop into mainstream markets, and the general public was now shaping the creative climate of rap. By the time rap became one of the most popular genres, white teenage consumers heavily supported it. Once it was realized how marketable Blackness was to this base, the most profitable image of Blackness was now subject to the opinions of white suburban teens (Rose, 1994). The production, distribution and effectively the content and direction of popular music was now guarded by the remaining media conglomerates. With big record companies more concerned with finance than social and economic interests, commercially inclined music is solely prioritized. Artists are given no option but to constantly mediate aesthetic integrity and the financial priorities of their labels. According to Adorno and Horkheimer (1944), in the culture industry, products may look like art but are designed for profit and subject to money and power, as a commodified product art cannot be autonomous (p. 7). Where previous artists have created art forms that embrace honesty and sincerity in the face of political realities they now are stopped within the boundaries of capitalist commodity and for the purpose of mass reproduction, Blackness is appropriated and stereotyped (p. 4).
Where does this leave a genre shaped by the social, political, cultural, and economic conditions of Black people in their relationship with white-hegemonic society?
Rap as a cultural expression is a vital means of articulating the Black identity, and once was a site for emancipatory politics and political consciousness.The co-opting of production and distribution displaced Black musicians from positions of influence and power in their communities and splintered the genre ideologically. The record industry and their economic interests have had a significant effect on the way hiphop is consumed, the content of its lyrics, but further has reshaped the representation of Blackness in popular culture so that the Black experience can be made for mass consumption.
References
Adorno, T.W., & Horkheimer, M. (1944). Dialect of Enlightenment. Verso Books
Crunk Feminist Collective. (2017). Hip hop generation feminism: A manifesto. In Crunk Feminist Collection.
Hooks, B. (2004). We real cool: Black men and masculinity. Psychology Press.
Rose, T. (1994). Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Wesleyan University Press Pubs.
Smith, C. H. (1997). Method in the madness: Exploring the boundaries of identity in hip-hop performativity. Social identities, 3(3), 345-374.
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