| August 17th, 2005 09:48 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Is rap tomorrow's jazz?
Thaddeus Russell | Special to the Los Angeles Times
A leading African- American newspaper published a series of articles assailing black musicians for holding back the race. The music "is killing some people," the paper claimed. "Some are going insane; others are losing their religion." The artists under attack were not rappers such as 50 Cent or Ludacris but Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. "The young girls and boys who constantly take jazz every day and night are absolutely becoming bad, and some criminals," the (New York) Amsterdam News wrote in 1925.
There is a long but little-known history of African-American leaders denouncing black popular music as self-destructive and an impediment to integration, a history that continues in the current campaign against rap. This is unfortunate because rap, like older forms of black popular music now considered to be "America's classical music," is distinctive and important because it differs from the norms of "respectable" culture.
Last month, when Lil' Kim was sentenced to prison for lying to a grand jury about a shooting, her raps were also indicted as an obstacle to black progress. "Her music is laced with lyrics that glorify promiscuous sex and gratuitous violence," wrote DeWayne Wickham, a nationally syndicated columnist and former president of the National Association of Black Journalists. "She is a Pied Piper of the worst kind -- a diva of smut."
The criticisms of Lil' Kim were launched amid an anti-rap movement that began in March, soon after shots were fired by the rival entourages of 50 Cent and the Game outside a New York radio station. Al Sharpton demanded that the Federal Communications Commission ban violent rappers from radio and television, and he launched a boycott against Universal Music Group, which he accused of "peddling racist and misogynistic black stereotypes" through rap music. Sharpton expressed special concern about white perceptions of African-Americans. Rappers and their corporate supporters "make it easy for black culture to be dismissed by the majority," he said, and the large white fan base "has learned through rap images to identify black male culture with a culture of violence."
Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition signed on to the boycott, as did Princeton professor Cornel West, who issued a statement claiming that music companies and rappers made it easy for whites to "view black bodies and black souls as less moral, oversexed and less intelligent."
These critics argue that the "damaging" images of African-Americans in rap discourage whites from opening the door to full citizenship. Yet a consideration of the troubled relationship between civil-rights leaders and black popular music in the past might give pause to the opponents of contemporary rap, and, for that matter, to the proponents of integration. In fact, blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues were all denounced by advocates for racial integration, and for the same reasons rap is now under attack.
In the 1920s, several civil-rights leaders were so concerned about the sexual and violent content of popular blues and jazz songs that they established a record company to "undertake the job of elevating the musical taste of the race." Promoted by W.E.B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph, two of the most important civil-rights leaders of the 20th century, Black Swan Records pledged to distribute "the Better Class of Records by Colored Artists," which meant recordings of "respectable" European classical music.
Civil-rights leaders similarly opposed the next creations of African-American musicians: rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues. In the 1950s, Martin Luther King Jr. told African-Americans to shun the new music, which, he said, "plunges men's minds into degrading and immoral depths." Likewise, Randolph's Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which produced a great portion of the civil-rights leadership, condemned rock and R&B for their overt sexuality and their "degrading portrayal of Negro womanhood."
This history suggests that the cause of integration has always been at odds with what is now widely hailed as America's most important contribution to world culture. Many scholars argue that the creators of jazz, blues, rock and R&B were great because of their willingness and ability to work outside European cultural forms and to speak about elements of the human condition that white artists would not, such as sex and violence.
Those who attack the latest form of black popular music for the sake of racial unity and "respectability" might stop to consider which side, in the history that will be written of this time, they wish to be on.
Thaddeus Russell is a professor of history and American studies at Barnard College. He wrote this commentary for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.
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| August 17th, 2005 10:08 PM |
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| corgi37 |
Or, is rap merely crap? |
| August 18th, 2005 12:29 AM |
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| Taptrick |
urban nursery rhymes
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| August 18th, 2005 01:37 AM |
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| Brainbell Jangler |
Great article; an insightful examination of the tension between assimilation and cultural identity. Of course, Keith also had a point when he noted that one difference between R&B and rap is that in the Sixties, the Temptations weren't trying to kill the Four Tops.
On the other hand, the whole "rap is crap" kneejerk reaction is difficult to logically distinguish from Dean Martin's attitude toward the Stones on Hollywood Palace. But I suppose each generation must hate its children's music. As Grandpa Simpson said, "I used to be 'with it.' Then they changed what 'it' was. Now, what I'm with isn't 'it,' and what's 'it' seems weird and scary. . . .It'll happen to you!"
It has happened to some of us, hasn't it? |
| August 18th, 2005 02:20 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
those rappers are fucking zero...when I saw them posing I d like to shit liquid on my Tv screen...
I ony like a few rap albums like Beastie boys, method man, wu tang clan ... but nowadays it's so boring and predictable!! |
| August 18th, 2005 02:32 AM |
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| Poplar |
If a white supremacist truly wanted to craft the downfall of Black America (say, back in the 1980s) he could well have come up with the following idea:
"Let's create a musical genre that will glorify Black on Black violence and the gang mentality; contribute the deterioriation of society in urban areas by leaving many - if not most - children without anything resembling a family; espouse the virtues of 40's, Glocks, and Ho's; all while promoting the abuse of crack, the worthlessness of education, and the beauty of 'bling' vanity. Then, we'll call it 'art' and make kids pay to listen to it, while they worship and emulate the people that create and promote it."
Wouldn't that be a great plan for destroying Black America?
Shame on those who pushed this shit on children for all these years.
Props to those working to discredit it (Russle Simmons, Cosby, etc.)
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| August 18th, 2005 03:55 AM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
what brainbell jangler said |
| August 18th, 2005 04:54 AM |
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| pdog |
quote:
Poplar wrote:
"Let's create a musical genre that will glorify Black on Black violence and the gang mentality; contribute the deterioriation of society in urban areas by leaving many - if not most - children without anything resembling a family; espouse the virtues of 40's, Glocks, and Ho's; all while promoting the abuse of crack, the worthlessness of education, and the beauty of 'bling' vanity. Then, we'll call it 'art' and make kids pay to listen to it, while they worship and emulate the people that create and promote it."
It's a kind of revenge for urban flight, slavery and just all around oppression. It's the greatest "get back" ever in the history of mankind! White people have been trying to hide their kids from black people, their music and culture for so long, so the black folks went and turned the white kids into pimps and ho's...
Fucking brilliant!!!
BUT!!! The Stones did it when it wasn't trendy or cool, making them the coolest fuckers to ever walk the planet. |
| August 18th, 2005 05:19 AM |
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| Lord Homosex |
Don't think rap can ever become white the way Rock'n roll did. I mean the essence, the definition of rap is being black. It's the ultimate musicform that blacks came up with that copuld not be taken over and stolen by the white. Forget the few posers, they are as dismissible as those white kids going around calling each other "my nigga". So, no, I do not think rap is today's jazz. But I do see how Sharpton, Jackson and Cosby see it undermining balck values and celebrating stereotypes.
Like all things B&W it is a deep deep endless debate. |
| August 18th, 2005 05:24 AM |
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| Poplar |
quote:
pdog wrote:
It's the greatest "get back" ever in the history of mankind! White people have been trying to hide their kids from black people, their music and culture for so long, so the black folks went and turned the white kids into pimps and ho's...
Fucking brilliant!!!
actualy, my point was that blacks are the ones that have suffereed because of rap. While people merely experienced it as a novelty.
[Edited by Poplar] |
| August 18th, 2005 05:44 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
quote:
Poplar wrote:
actualy, my point was that blacks are the ones that have suffereed because of rap. While people merely experienced it as a novelty.
[Edited by Poplar]
Good point Poplar..those rappers have turn the blacks into a big cliché... |
| August 18th, 2005 05:49 AM |
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| Poplar |
c'est dommage - mais, c'est vrai.
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| August 18th, 2005 06:24 AM |
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| egon |
run dmc - raising hell.
fantastic! |
| August 18th, 2005 07:04 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
quote:
egon wrote:
run dmc - raising hell.
fantastic!
they wear cool adidas 
and at least they don 't dance like this wanker 50 cent (what a good name!!) |
| August 18th, 2005 03:43 PM |
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| Gimme Shelter |
quote:
corgi37 wrote:
Or, is rap merely crap?
Right on! |
| August 18th, 2005 04:14 PM |
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
Poplar wrote:
If a white supremacist truly wanted to craft the downfall of Black America (say, back in the 1980s) he could well have come up with the following idea:
"Let's create a musical genre that will glorify Black on Black violence and the gang mentality; contribute the deterioriation of society in urban areas by leaving many - if not most - children without anything resembling a family; espouse the virtues of 40's, Glocks, and Ho's; all while promoting the abuse of crack, the worthlessness of education, and the beauty of 'bling' vanity. Then, we'll call it 'art' and make kids pay to listen to it, while they worship and emulate the people that create and promote it."
Wouldn't that be a great plan for destroying Black America?
Shame on those who pushed this shit on children for all these years.
Props to those working to discredit it (Russle Simmons, Cosby, etc.)
Change a few of those buzz words and you have many people's description of the Stones from back in the day - hell even today, check out my main man John Gibson.
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Public Enemy - Nation of Millions
Cube - Predator & Amerikkka's Most Wanted
Snoop - Doggy Style
Beatsie Boys - all of them
Rap has gone down hill, like punk rock, there is only so much you can do, but there were so damn fine albums made during the heyday of this inventive and, at the time, refreshing genre of music. |
| August 18th, 2005 08:35 PM |
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| Brainbell Jangler |
What sirmoonie said. |
| August 19th, 2005 04:09 PM |
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| Jair |
De La Soul & all those names Sirmonie said are too good!
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