Hip Hop: Poison or Art?

[StarFish106]

In reading this post it made me re-read an interview done with Wynton Marsalis in the Sunday Inquirer regarding his newest work From the Plantation to the Penitentiary. Although he has no love for Hip-hop, there is a part of the interview that actually makes sense in today's music world.

an excerpt:

"Q: The title song on From the Plantation to the Penitentiary paints a grim picture. "From the yassuh boss to the ghetto minstrelsy... from the stock in slaves, to the booming prison trade." Do you think that American culture - and black culture - is at a crisis point?

A: Yes. But if you asked me that in 1985, when we recorded Black Codes (From the Underground), I would have said yeah then, too.
I can remember being on the bandstand with my brother [Branford] when I was 15 and he was 16, playing some song like "Shake Your Booty," or "Play That Funky Music." And I said to him, "This is the dumbest [stuff] ever. I don't think it can get any stupider than this!"
He looked at me, and deadpanned: "It can, and it will." He was like: "This [stuff] is nothing. You only think this is dumb. Just wait." I'll never forget how he told me that. Ha!
If you asked anybody who was black in the 1970s that was listening to Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, if there was going to be a type of music coming along that calls people n*****s - we would never have believed it. No way. After the Civil Rights movement? C'mon! So what he said was truly prophetic. We saw it happen.

Q: Why do you think it happened?

A: I think there are a myriad of reasons. First, there's a belief in the generation gap. Second is the exploitation of kids. When you're exploiting people, and exploiting their sexuality, you have to find new ways to continue to do that...
The third thing is the traditional American relationship with the minstrel show. Black people acting the fool. Always, there's some money to be made off of that. It's comfortable to the national psyche. And also black people's enjoyment of that - for taking what is serious and reducing it to entertainment, which is the same thing that happened with religious music. And it starts with the whole belief in youth music, and the separation of the 14-year-old from their parents."

I grew up listening to Stevie and Marvin and can understand what he meant by this statement. Even though it is reflective of today's culture to say these things rap music nowadays seems to have no point/purpose. Artists want to get paid and this mess that is on the radio is what sells nowadays. Big labels don't want to promote the positive rap (a la De La, Common, etc). They don't care. Now that they have finally seen the the #'s and the influence that rap has, it's about making as much out of it as possible. So the alternative rap artists remain somewhat 'underground' if you will.

In watching the Independent Lens show a few weeks ago there was a group of men outside the Hip Hop Summit in NY freestyling. One of them did 18 bars and it wasn't about killing, booty shaking or any of what is out there. It was good but even he knew that is not what folks want to hear and what sells.

There are still small pockets of resistance (as I call them) and I do try to listen to their music more (if it's good). But I do listen to Jazz, classical and other genres of music more nowadays. I am getting older so my tastes are changing and that is a good thing because it means I am growing within myself. But I look at lot of today's music as disposable-it won't last for the long haul.

I wouldn't call all of it poison just as i wouldn't call it all art either. Most of it is nonsense and I just choose not to waste my money or time on it.

Long Live the Kane!