YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT HIP HOP!…But I Love You! by Wise Intelligent
Today I took a trip to our local Barnes & Noble book
seller. As I progressed towards the section for alternative medicine and home
remedies I passed what seemed to be an unending plethora of literature on
subjects ranging from War, Peace, Love, Hate, Horror, the Military, Serial
Killers, Arts and Crafts, and Travel and Leisure. There were books on the
history of Guns and Violence, Poverty and Hunger, Sickness and Disease, as well
as Prostitution, Pimping, Feminism, LBGTQ and every sort of religious book the
imagination could fathom. There were books on Capitalism, Communism, and
Fascism. Some books promoting and others opposing either of the three
ideological forms of government. They even had a well stocked children’s
section. I walked past everything from Politics to Poetry and Self Help to Sexuality.
Then there were books about music: Spirituals, Opera, Classical, Blues, Jazz,
Rock & Roll and even Hip Hop. There were Hip Hop books written by writers
of varying backgrounds, social statuses and ethnicities, including, but not
limited to Bakari Kitwana - one of my personal favorites.
Not only did each book have a different author, each author also had a
publisher, and each publisher was a company often owned or the subsidiary of
another larger parent company. Barnes & Noble, among other book retailers,
and the endless shelves of writers, publishers and publishing houses (both
independent and commercial; mainstream or underground, mom & pop or chain)
make up the world of LITERATURE!
Within this wonderful world of literature there exists the Literatures of
Freedom as well as the Literatures of exploitation, degradation, racism, sexism
and other forms of unabashed mind fuckery. However, that bookstore,
publisher and or publishing house carrying a book called “Pimp’s Up Ho’s
Down” by Don Magic Juan, or a book that glorifies strippers and stripping
at Diamond’s in Miami, does not make “LITERATURE” the
“abuser” of women. It makes those individual authors and those
particular books - what they are.
No one would go as far as to say that “to be in love with Literature”
is to “love your abuser.” I’ve never known anyone who made the
intellectual leap that since you can find the mass exploitation of women in the
pages of a book, magazine, and or periodical that books, magazines, and or
periodical’s themselves “abuse women” or “hate women” or
“exploit women”. To read is not to love your abuser. Is the
exploitation of women real, you damn right!!! Must the exploitation of women be
called out and confronted, hell yeah!!! But to say that to love Hip Hop in all
its diversity is to “love your abuser” takes this must needed and
important conversation in an unfortunate and sterile direction.
Hip Hop is like LITERATURE, it covers everything from politics,
religion, history, race, triumph, struggle, victory, defeat, melancholy, humor,
relationships, love, hate, sex, drugs, friendship, pimping, party,
intelligence, ignorance, and bullshit. And just like Literature - misogyny,
hyper masculinity, sex, money and murder make up a very small but hyper
marketed fraction of Hip Hop content.
To cast misogyny and hyper masculinity as what Hip Hop culture is all about in
its entirety without any thought be given to the fact that the 10 to 20
misogynistic lyric purveying rap acts you see and hear in corporate controlled
mainstream mediums represent a very particular brand of rap content selectively
sought out, financed, recorded, produced, packaged, marketed and distributed by
primarily but not exclusively NON-HIP HOP, rich white men over fifty (see Sony
BMG, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group) - is indicative of someone
who has a limited perspective and grasp about the culture of Hip Hop. If this
is what you’re doing, I have to honestly say that, YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT
HIP HOP!
HIP HOP is a culture wherein there exist elements of which rap music represents
only one. Rap represents only one-fifth of what Hip Hop culture is, and within
that single element there exists writers, producers and publishers of varying
brands of Hip Hop/rap content. Hip Hop/Rap can only be your “abuser”
if and when your perception of what Hip Hop is has been shaped by the major
record company owning, mainstream media controlling rich old white men who
DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT HIP HOP! and have chosen to ignore (and in some cases
block) the thousands of Hip Hop artists around the globe recording music that
consistently hold the people to a higher standard and in their proper esteem,
from the mediums you obviously receive your cultural ques from.
SO, WHAT I SUGGEST is that you turn your dial passed the “Put Ya Titties
On Da Glass” and “These Ho’s Ain’t Loyal” songs that many women
love to dance and sing along to in the club, just as you would walk passed the
Don Magic Juan diamond studded, pimp-cup decorated book signing table and
proceed to the section that has the brand of Literature (or Hip Hop content)
you desire.
THAT “NIGGA” RAPPIN about you swallowing his babies and jizzing on your babies car seat is largely supported by the same female buying audience that decries it only after they’ve left the club and their car! A portion of this conversation must address that fact that women actively BUY that small but heavily marketed misogynistic and hyper masculine music. Those emcee’s rhyming about “This Iz Love”, the “Black Goddess” and the “Laws of Maat” are commercially and financially ignored at the point of purchase by too many of the same women who desperately need to hear and internalize their message of love, wisdom, strength and beauty. Those emcee’s rapping about raising his babies and loving his wife, woman and queen, is not in your mainstream playlist, neither your nightclub playlist or your Smartphone playlist. That shit you love does not define HIP HOP CULTURE or what it is.
I am NOT going in the direction of blaming the victim or trying to undermine the point that the exploitation of women in mainstream pop culture is a serious cancer that must be dealt with openly and honestly, but I am saying that suggesting that to love Hip Hop as a culture is to “love your abuser” is completely wrong. The shit that you’re callin Hip Hop “culture” represents a manufactured, dumbed down, hyper marketed, hyper masculine rapper who makes up less than a speck of dust within the mosaic of rap music and even less in the constellation of Hip Hop CULTURE! So sadly, You don’t know shit about Hip Hop!…but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOU!!!
Wise Intelligent @wiseintelligent #UDon'tKnowShitAboutHipHop
And P.S
Here goes a small list of the MC’s and Rappers who seem to be always “forgotten” when this discussion comes up. In other words these are the Hip Hop artists that they won’t play on your misogynic and hyper masculine media platforms and don’t get brought up when talking about loving Hip Hop is like loving your abuser!
Jasiri X
Yasiin Bey
Talib
Kweli
Public Enemy
David
Banner
Sa-Roc the MC
Common
Lupe Fiasco
Wise Intelligent
Blackalicious
Dilated Peoples
K'naan
Paris
KRS-One
Apani B Fly Mc
Bahamadia
Mr.Lif
Masta Ace
Killer Mike
Run
the Jewels
Brother Ali
Fashawn
Joey Bada$$
Chance the Rapper
Self Scientific
Murs
Jean Grae
Hakim Green
Cee Knowledge & The Cosmic Funk Orchestra
Kam
Mystic
Rebel Diaz
Narubi Selah
Georgia Ann Mulrow
Zion I
Jurassic 5
J-Live
J
Rawls
Gangstarr
Jeru Tha Damaja
Outkast
Mike Flo
NYOIL
AKIR
Dead
Prez
Sage Francis
Aesop Rock
Q-Tip
Pharohe Monch
Killah Priest
Hell/Heaven Razah
Black Market Militia
Prince Poetry
Blu
Rasheed Chappell
Magnum O
Stacey Epps
Divine
RBG
Immortal Technique
Rakim
Arrested
Development
Brand Nubian
X-Clan
MC Lyte
The
Hieroglyphics
Souls of Mischief
Riders Against The Storm (RAS)
John Robinson
Kush
The Coup
Street
Sweeper Social Club
Living Legends
Saul Williams
Michael Farnti
M.I.A.
K-OS
staHHr
Joie Kathos
Super Nova Slom
Tiye Phoenix
Rah Digga
Kalik Scientific
Truth Universal
Cannibal Ox
C-Rayz Walz
Tarica June
The Roots
The Reminders
X-Vandals
Natural Bliss
Njeri Earth
Binkis
Yamin
Black Collar Biz
Blueprint
…and so, so many more