Doggeystyle hit the nail on the head with the middle classness of Damon Dash. He and His cousin, Darren Dash (Who is frat) founded roc-a-fella records while they were attending the University of Southern California in the early 1990's. Darren Dash spoke to the youth at a Youth leadrship conference my chapter sponsored about 2 years ago. Darren is also the CEO and founder of a internet company that has contracted with several government agencies to help close the digital divide in the inner cities. He coined the phrase "digital divide" and met with Bill Clinton to get the nation to look at the issues behind it. Anyway, Damon is just another Black man blinded by the money afforded to anyone in our commnity that is willing to entertain white America with our pain.
Think about it, when "Amos and Andy" were big, the NAACP protested the show, when "Birth of a Nation" debuted in the 1920's, the NAACP protested that as well. Black people have always been critical of the community's popular image, and rightfully so. When we live in a white supremacist, capitalist society, the popular image of any minority plays a big role in the opportunities that will be afforded to them. Right now I am in a program with the local school district here where I teach social studies to 9th graders who are deemed special ed (read bad black boys) due to in a not so small part the image that many of their (white women) teachers had of black boys from what they saw in the media. Of course this is unfair and shouldn't be the sole responsibility of popular artists, but this is just the reality. White people (due to segregation) associate minorities with the images that they see in the media. If the image a teacher has of black people is that of violent, undisciplined, and ignorant people, then what types of expectations will she have for young Tyrone when he walks into her class? I have talked to teachers who pretty much believe that black kids have too many social problems to learn in a normal school environment. There are programs here that specifically try to get the few high achieving black students in the high schools to try to show the majority of the black students here that reading, writing, an arithmatic are not things that only "white kids " do
(I have actually had conversations with classrooms full of black boys who have voiced this sentiment, just 2 months ago, amazing
). Of course, the image of hip-hop is not solely to blame for this, but I think that it has a major role in the perpetuation of the image of "authentic blackness" (if there is such a thing) as being inarticulate, hedonistic, and mysogynistic.
Speaking of reality, I wonder what reality is Dash talking about being portrayed in the lyrics of songs like "Excuse Me Miss" where Jay Z talks about buying "Crystal" and "yellow ice" for this woman? I wonder what reality is being portrayed by the whole "state property" thing? Sure, there are disproportionate numbers of our black men in prison, but to glorify it as a rite of passage so to speak is definately a perception that appeals to the fetishistic gazes of the 80% white audience that makes Roc-a-fella records most of their money anyway. White audiences are uncomfortable with black empowerment, just as with the minstrel shows in the 1800's, black destrution reminds them of their superior status in society. I have visited family members, friends, and just youth in general in prison and one thing that becomes apparent after a few months locked up is that prison is a dumb place to end up, and we should be working towards making the prisons empty, not filling them up. One friend (a former gang banger) told me specifially to tell kids to " be wise and use your time to develop your self-image and self discipline because when you occupy your time with foolish aspirations of being rich at all cost (or the easy way by 'hustlin' '), your judgement becomes cloudy and you end up making destructive choices". This was coming from a man that bragged about being in a gang, similar to many of the young people I work with now, because he saw the gang image as cool and "authentically black" from watching videos and movies. The sad thing about it is he attended a private high school and Howard University for a year with a bright future ahead of him and thought he wasn't "being real" if he wasn't trying to "hustle"
.
To be critical of these images is not "hatin' ", but in a longline of community accoutability, it is holdin' you accountable to the community from which you first learned of and honed your skills in the crafts of rapping and hip-hop.
Blackwatch!!!!!!