Since
the Imus controversy
recently erupted there has been a lot of
finger-pointing and blame-placing as to what the root of the problem really is.
Of course, we all know that racism and sexism existed before hip-hop -- that's a
given. But it's completely beside the point when our (black) culture is dictated
to us by white corporations. Follow me...
For the record, most folks in our
communities didn't even know Don Imus before he made headlines with his slurs
(and many still don't). For the most part, we remain oblivious to the tirades of
him, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and others who constantly malign us and foster
a climate of intolerance simply because these talking heads don't speak to US.
For Imus to blame black culture as being the reason for his ignorance is both
sad and backwards. He's a racist and a sexist, pure and simple, and he can't
blame an art form or a culture that I'm certain he has little knowledge of for
his actions. The fact that he named hip-hop "culture" as a culprit is telling,
however.
If you haven't noticed by now, life
imitates art -- it's not the other way around. There is no stronger cultural
influence on people now than popular media, and hip-hop is at the forefront. Ask
almost any child about the lyrics to a popular song or a scene from a video or
movie and more often then not they will know the details better than they know
their school lessons. Entertainers and the culture of celebrity that we find
ourselves living in often hold more weight with kids then parents, educators,
preachers politicians or even sports heroes. Can we blame some rappers for
selling completely out? Of course. Be we have to look at the entire picture.
The argument is often made by Russell
Simmons and others that rappers are poets who simply report on what we feel and
our surroundings, and that we shouldn't be censored. On that point we partially
agree -- we shouldn't be censored. But balance between the negative and positive
needs to be provided, and it currently isn't. Most artistic integrity is
questionable at best. My understanding is that artists are supposed to express
what they believe in at all costs (if not, there's work at the post office). But
most don't, and they mold their approaches to making music based on what they
perceive major labels wanting. If Def Jam or Interscope or any of these other
large culture-defining companies issued a blanket decree that they would only
support material and artists with positive messages then 99% of those making
music now would switch up to accommodate. That's real talk. I'm not saying these
labels should (or would), but if they did, gangstas would stop being gangstas and misogynists would stop being misogynists at the drop of a DIME. Many
artists are like children, and most will say and do what is expected of them in
order to benefit financially. And although there is definite self-examination
that needs to take place within the artist community, the lion's share of the
blame falls on the enablers who only empower voices of negativity. Record
labels and commercial radio often use the excuse that they are "responding to
the streets" and that they are "giving the people what they want." BULLSHIT.
They dictate the taste of the streets, and people can't miss what they never
knew. The fact is that there are conscious decisions made by the big business
and entertainment elite daily about what to present to the masses -- and it is
from those choices that we are allowed to decide what we do and do not
like. Who presents the music that callers are invited to "make or break" on the
radio? That callers are invited to "! vote on" on T.V.? Who decides on what
makes it to the store shelves o r the airwaves at all? Like I said, life
imitates art, and pseudo-black culture is determined by those other than us
every day. Walk into any rap label or urban radio station and you can count the
number of black employees on one hand.
The argument in response could be made
in defense of labels that if they don't respond to the streets then the music
will just go underground. Huh? WHAT underground? Do you know how much good
material is marginalized because it doesn't fit white cooperate America's ideals
of acceptability? Independents can't get radio or video play anymore, at least
not through commercial outlets, and most listeners don't acknowledge material
that they don't see or hear regularly on the radio or on T.V. Very few of us are
willing to actually seek out material and messages to identify with. As with
anything in our fast food culture, we want our entertainment choices fast and in
our collective face. For most listeners, all the rest need not apply.
What I want to know is, when did the
worst in us become normal and accepted? When did it become par for the corporate
course that "black man as thug" and "black woman as slut" be business as usual?
Major companies now line up to profit from the buffoonery of a few...at the
expense of us all. MTV, Viacom, Clear Channel, Boost Mobile, Amp mobile, Chevy,
all major record labels and most video games come readily to mind, but there are
many others.
I'm not a hater...although I do hate the
imbalance in the industry right now and the negativity it fosters. I'm not
calling for censorship. You can't lump me in with the Jesse Lee Petersons and
the Armstrong Williamses of the world...bourgeois self-hating black men who
demean other black people and profit at our expense. And nobody can say that I'm
unqualified to speak on it, since I've contributed to the sale of just under 4
million albums independently, still run my own successful counter-establishment
label (www.guerrillafunk.com)
and have been embracing messages of self-esteem and self-sufficiency for years.
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Like I said, I'm not calling for
censorship, but I am calling for balance. I'm calling for more representation of
points of view other than gangsta rap and escapism. More revolutionary voices.
More voices of women. Where is the diversity? Music can only be kept
artificially young and artificially dumb for so long before an inevitable
backlash ensues, and that's what we're seeing take place now. Overall album
sales for the January 1-April 2 period are down 16.6% -- with a
20.5% decline in CD album sales since last year -- and an
even greater decline in hip-hop. Since LAST YEAR
(and it was already raggedy last year, believe me). We're seeing the industry
implode before our eyes. I heard somebody say recently that in this current era
of style over substance Stevie Wonder, Parliament/Funkadelic, Earth, Wind &
Fire, Curtis Mayfield and others would never have been signed. Let tha! t
sink in for a second. They would never have been signed. Some of the very
architects of black music as we know it would have been sidelined too, just as
countless others are now, because they wouldn't have fit into white corporate
America's cookie-cutter feel-good box of acceptable black behavior and
appearance. Same goes for me, Public Enemy (they'll take the Flav, but not the
Chuck), Kam, X-Clan, BDP, Wise Intelligent, dead prez, Zion-I, Mos Def, Talib
Kweli, The Roots, Blackalicious, Immortal Technique, The Coup, T-K.A.S.H.,
Michael Franti and a host of others.
So how many half-naked women sipping
Cris draped in blood diamonds poolside will it take before we collectively agree
that shit is tired now? How many backward-ass coons with tats and plated grills
and pimp cups etc. in the strip club before we all agree that enough is enough
and that we need balance? When did the bar get set so low? When will we demand
more? And as for Simmons' argument that "rappers are reporting what they see"
etc, how are cocaine-kingpin rhymes or poolside pimp-nigga fantasies anyone's
reality? Miss me with that bullshit argument. Yes, there should be room for all
voices to be heard, but we have to be treated and presented equally. Now we have
bitches and hos, players and pimps, gangstas and dealers -- but no kings and
queens, no revolutionaries, no dissent, no political commentary and no anger
-- how is that? In an era where EVERYTHING is political and people are more
disgusted with the way things are more than ever? It's no mistake. Yes! I can
say that we have failed, that we have allowed black culture to once again be
co-opted, diluted and prostituted. Commercial rap culture is now to hip-hop is
what disco was to funk. No wonder Nas is saying it's dead.
And who's to blame? Definitely not
artists like the ones mentioned above. Not most artists at all, actually,
because we don't control whether or not we're seen and heard by the masses. No,
the blame needs to squarely sit on the shoulders of those who run the labels,
the commercial radio stations, the television studios and the large corporate
sponsors who reward only the worst in us and seem hell-bent on pursuing (with
little success) the most fleeting, fickle demographic of all -- 12-16 year old
adolescent females. You know, the demo that's the most impressionable, with the
least amount of loyalty or disposable income. Brilliant.
Know that it's okay to call shit like it
is and quit being cowards worrying about who we'll offend. It's okay to blame
Simmons, Lyor Cohen, Jimmy Iovine, Kevin Liles, Bob Johnson, Debra Lee, Michael
Martin and others of their ilk because the blood is on their hands. They are the
gatekeepers of popular culture and they are the ones who determine what you see
and hear. They can't say that their decisions are based on economics when they
exclude voices of reason because there are literally hundreds of millions of
people globally who feel the same way. What about that consumer base? I
guess that money is no good, huh? Fuck outta here... Remember, part of the
strategy of mind control is to fool the public into thinking that they have
choice. We do, but the playing field is so skewed in the favor of mega-corps
that the contributions of the alternatives are often viewed by most as
insignificant.
So yes, there is a problem, but the fake
"Kumbaya" moment on Oprah recently won't solve it. Are we really going to look
to those individuals who have made a killing off of pushing poison to us to fix
the problem? We shouldn't. Instead, we should vote with our dollars and continue
the campaign of public shame until we see some concrete change. The music
industry as we know it is on its death bed. People are now more tired than ever
of 'music business as usual' and style over substance.
Imus was an insignificant part of a much
greater problem. Sure, his incident open up national discourse regarding issues
of race and sex. And yes, it is now more apparent than ever that whites have a
hard time acknowledging racist and sexist behavior in other whites as being
solely their fault. Most black artists are not to blame, as we often can't been
seen or heard without white help. But it's important to note that many of us can
and should know better when saying and doing the things we say and do.
It's easy to despise the indefensible, and media outlets like Fox News have made
good money demonizing those with little real power.
But will we champion the good among us?
