Hip hop has failed Black America

[A Real Human Bean]

There's so much wrong with how you're approaching the issue that I don't know where to start. First off, young black people do not all exclusively enjoy/listen to hip hop. That's simply not reality. You may know some people that don't like the music that you like but that doesn't mean that they only like and listen to hip hop music.

You go on to claim that "hip hop has gone from a genre that held all of black America's hopes, loves, vices, grievances, and aspirations in one genre to one that placates a mundane and canned narrative". This is also not true. The most critically acclaimed albums from last year and 2014 have dealt with the former in one way or another.

Then you take some time to talk about how much better you think rock music is than hip hop and make some highly questionable claims. You state "hip hop, despite being a more lyrical genre, has yet to top even the best of rock content-wise." and imply that the difference between good rock music and good hip hop is that good rock music "communicates a range of diverse topics that tell you a story or do something to make you think"...which is a pretty ridiculous notion for anyone even mildly knowledgeable in hip hop music, so I won't state the obvious here.

Your final paragraph displays the most ignorance.

"These days, music-wise, we are mostly representated by rap and r&b thugs like Chris Brown" We? You should say you. I don't feel like I'm represented musically by Chris Brown, and there's no reason I should.

"Where's someone that I can relate to, that talks about normal human topics and the black experience in America?" I don't know. What is your experience in the United States? It doesn't sound like you're too familiar with the black experience from what you've typed in this thread.

"Black music used to play its own instruments, from guitar to flute to piano, whatever. And due to hip hop, we've lost that." Another statement that's simply untrue. Firstly, black artists didn't always play instruments and secondly, do you honestly think there is no black music in 2014 that uses live instruments? You may just need to expand the pool of music you're exposed to.

"By selling out our music, we have thrust a single narrative about our people through the guise of hip hop. It's one of our only means of communicating our experience, and when they can stifle our music, they stifle us and our message." I don't think this is the case. "We" haven't sold out our music and I don't believe black music in 2014 promotes a single narrative about black people. For a long time, popular music (whether it's black music or not) has always dealt with a very small range of topics. Music is an art but it is also very, very much a business. The music that gets the most play will almost always be the music that sells the best. It's just the nature of the business. There's absolutely no reason why popular music should be ultimately representative of black people and the black experience.

I get the sense that you're unhappy that the music you like isn't the music that some artists make. That's fine and it's a commonly expressed sentiment about much of the popular music today (not just black music). But you don't need to indict black people and hip hop as a whole in order to express that.

 

[The Electric Lady]

people just want to hear a beat...no one gives a fukk about the lyrics...

I dont need some civil rights lesson everytime I hear a rap song....

Who said anything about civil rights?

 

[The Electric Lady]

There's so much wrong with how you're approaching the issue that I don't know where to start. First off, young black people do not all exclusively enjoy/listen to hip hop. That's simply not reality. You may know some people that don't like the music that you like but that doesn't mean that they only like and listen to hip hop music.

You go on to claim that "hip hop has gone from a genre that held all of black America's hopes, loves, vices, grievances, and aspirations in one genre to one that placates a mundane and canned narrative". This is also not true. The most critically acclaimed albums from last year and 2014 have dealt with the former in one way or another.

Then you take some time to talk about how much better you think rock music is than hip hop and make some highly questionable claims. You state "hip hop, despite being a more lyrical genre, has yet to top even the best of rock content-wise." and imply that the difference between good rock music and good hip hop is that good rock music "communicates a range of diverse topics that tell you a story or do something to make you think"...which is a pretty ridiculous notion for anyone even mildly knowledgeable in hip hop music, so I won't state the obvious here.

Your final paragraph displays the most ignorance.

"These days, music-wise, we are mostly representated by rap and r&b thugs like Chris Brown" We? You should say you. I don't feel like I'm represented musically by Chris Brown, and there's no reason I should.

"Where's someone that I can relate to, that talks about normal human topics and the black experience in America?" I don't know. What is your experience in the United States? It doesn't sound like you're too familiar with the black experience from what you've typed in this thread.

"Black music used to play its own instruments, from guitar to flute to piano, whatever. And due to hip hop, we've lost that." Another statement that's simply untrue. Firstly, black artists didn't always play instruments and secondly, do you honestly think there is no black music in 2014 that uses live instruments? You may just need to expand the pool of music you're exposed to.

"By selling out our music, we have thrust a single narrative about our people through the guise of hip hop. It's one of our only means of communicating our experience, and when they can stifle our music, they stifle us and our message." I don't think this is the case. "We" haven't sold out our music and I don't believe black music in 2014 promotes a single narrative about black people. For a long time, popular music (whether it's black music or not) has always dealt with a very small range of topics. Music is an art but it is also very, very much a business. The music that gets the most play will almost always be the music that sells the best. It's just the nature of the business. There's absolutely no reason why popular music should be ultimately representative of black people and the black experience.

I get the sense that you're unhappy that the music you like isn't the music that some artists make. That's fine and it's a commonly expressed sentiment about much of the popular music today (not just black music). But you don't need to indict black people and hip hop as a whole in order to express that.

Your post is full of assumptions.

1. I never said hip hop is the only reason for the failings of society. This is unrealistic and stupid.

2. I never said that modern black musicians don't play their own instruments. I clearly named my favorite modern artist, janelle monae, for instance in my original post. She has a band with multiple black musicians playing the music. John legend can play, Esperanza Spalding, Alicia keys and more. However, these are rarities. Most black musicians from jazz all the way down to funk played their own instruments. Hip hop and its popularity have made guitar, an instrument blacks have been jamming on for ages, seen as a white instrument. Instruments in general get little play in today's modern black musical culture, and I have a problem with this given our musical roots. tradition. and identity.

3. I never said young black people only listen to rap. I am a young black person and *I* don't listen to only rap. But to deny that most people DO seem to only fukk with rap/rnb is pretty damn hard to deny. Thankfully we are starting to branch out lately with things like afropunk. Bless them.

4. Tell me how hip hop has more range than rock. It doesn't. At all. In Queen's Prophets Song, they take the story of Noah and turn it into a ballad. In Pink Floyd's Time, they take the element of time and show how so many people waste it, not fulfilling their dreams, and dying unfulfilled lives. Point to me a rap song that takes a spiritual story and makes it into a song, or a song that examines how people waste their lives, and by the time it's too late, it's almost time to die? That doesn't get into the every day stuff too. Rock has a pretty balanced history and content. Saying hip hop does is incredibly delusional given that many on this very forum have a problem with Drake catering to different audiences and not gang bangers. It sucks because I thought we were turning it around when Kanye dropped College Dropout. That entire album is everything I've wanted in hip hop. I can relate to nearly every song. I wanted more of that in the mainstream, and I wanted more people to emulate him and Common.


5. I never denied that there isn't good hip hop out there. I listen to a lot of it. Hip hop is the best it's been since the 90s. But most of it is content is repeated from the 90s. It's repetitive. There's hardly anything original in it that reflects life that I can relate to. Not every black person relates living in the streets, and not every black person wants to HEAR only about the streets. What about things like love, happiness, family, death, life? Back in the 60s and 70s they were living amongst social upheaval, and they certainly didn't only sing about the struggle. They also sang about the fruits of life and things that made them happy. Hip hop doesn't communicate the full black experience because it concentrates on a partial part of it. There's nothing wrong with those things. I like music likes that, but why the fukk can't hip hop talk about common, everyday things too? Hip hop used to cover these things, and instead it has regressed. It doesn't help there's barely any noteworthy female rappers out there anymore.

6. It's not so much that the music I like isn't made anymore, because it is. It's more like, I've been waiting for hip hop to evolve as a genre. But again, it feels like it is stuck in a cultural vacuum where they only harp on things touched on in the past, rather than focusing on the present. How many rappers talked about Ferguson on twitter? That's all the proof you need. They are not worried about or communicating about current events at all.

To prove my point, hip hop isn't popular with people older than 40. Can you imagine what black folks older than 40 have to listen to? Music must be a wasteland for them, and yet rap as a genre doesn't cater to them at all. You've got 40 year old nikkas catering to teens and 20 year olds. If hip hop accurately told the black experience, it would be something people older than 40 could listen to. All this exposes is hip hops limitation as a genre, that we sold our culture out to conglomerates.

 

[A Real Human Bean]

First point: I don't know what you're responding to here.

Second: Instrumentation has evolved and it continues to play a large part in black music today. You claim to be a fan of hip hop so you should be familiar with the practice of sampling. Either way, whether instruments are produced live or digitally it doesn't have a significant bearing on the quality of the music.

Third: You state in the OP "Why can't young black people fukk with jazz and souls and blues like I do?". Which implies that you believe young black people don't enjoy that type of music which is wrong as I stated. And no, it doesn't seem to me that black people only enjoy rap and R&B. Such a claim simply has no basis in reality, but maybe you can present some information to me that would suggest the opposite.

Fourth: First, there is no monolithic entity of "rock". As any fan of music should know "rock" is broken up into many genres. You have punk rock, alternative, psych, metal etc. So there are more officially recognized categories of rock than there are of hip hop. This doesn't actually imply that rock is a genre with more "range", in terms of topics to cover musically. Then you ask "point to me a rap song that takes a spiritual story and makes it into a song, or a song that examines how people waste their lives, and by the time it's too late, it's almost time to die?". This actually makes me seriously question your status as a fan of hip hop because the list of songs dealing with these topics are more than plentiful. I won't bother to list any and you can take that as proof that there is no hip hop dealing with those topics if you wish, but concerning these two specific topics take a look into the catalog of this guy called Nas.

Fifth: "What about things like love, happiness, family, death, life?" Just during the last couple years there have been plenty of songs dealing with these topics, and over the life of hip hop there have been thousands. Again I won't bother to list them.

Sixth: Hip hop has evolved many times over. You may want to try actually listening to hip hop.

I imagine people over 40 years old listen to hip hop they like or the wealth of other music they enjoy that isn't hip hop. Hip hop has never been a genre that catered to 40 year old people, and neither has punk rock or metal. Maybe it will be in the future but it has generally been a genre made for and by younger individuals.

 

[Poitier]

Hip hop has helped Blacks at times and hurt at others. It isn't monolithic and fixed.

Also Punk/Hardcore, Heavy Metal, Country genres have content as worse, if not more, than any gangsta rap song.

 

[The Electric Lady]

Hip hop has helped Blacks at times and hurt at others. It isn't monolithic and fixed.

Also Punk/Hardcore, Heavy Metal, Country genres have content as worse, if not more, than any gangsta rap song.

I agree with this. If hip hop didn't have such a monopoly on black music, perception would probably be different.

 

[MR. SNIFLES]

Its not really blacks fault that its come to this. The music business basically focuses on being a business now, and they will capitalize on what ever sells the most to get their cash. That's why only techno, house, club/gangster rap is played on the radio so much. Not only that but young white kids still buy the majority of rap music and in effect the executives are gonna push rap artists that cater to that segment of the population the most hence the lack of mainstream black rappers catering to the black plight. Rap blogs do the same thing. The gangster rap/real nikka persona is basically the new punk image to white kids and they use it more as a safe way to rebel against the old generation in a nutshell. I really dont think most of the topics talked about in mainstream rap are what black people as a whole are interested in.

There's still plenty of black rappers, jazz, r&b funk etc musicians who still cater to blacks (and plenty of blacks who still fukk with that music) but if your expecting them to appear on the radio its not gonna happen because the money isn't there. I will say that the greed of the music business has taken its toll on all music genres just as much. I don't think there will be another beatles or funkadelic any time soon.

YES IT IS OUR FAULT. WE TRADED INTEGRITY FOR MONEY. THEN WE ALLOWED THE THE SILENCING OF THE ARTISTS WITH INTEGRITY.

 

[Crakface]

WHen you let white supremacist cacs get a hold of hiphop thats whats going to happen. Nothings stopping people from listening to local artists but local artists arent interested inmaking art. They're trying to get out of poverty and many of the ones who are interested in art and the political spectrum, are wack.