Hip-Hop: Black Fades to White

The hip-hop industry as a whole has undergone an almost complete reversal of what it stands for in the last 25 years. The pioneers of the industry, Grandmaster Flash, Sugarhill Gang, and Run DMC to name a few, concentrated on a much less violent and degrading style of music and rhymes. Today, many consider gangster rap to be the most violent yet most popular form of rap, with the middle-class white male making up a large part of its fan base.

The pioneers of hip-hop mostly intended the music category to be for blacks by blacks, and viewed it as a way to express their concerns and dissatisfaction with the dominant white society. Byron Hurt’s video, “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” brings up the idea that hip-hop was created to bring the community of Brooklyn, New York together after white developers constructed a bypass over the city, cutting off much needed economic resources. Over the following couple of decades, hip-hop grew to be a national phenomenon, with groups such as Afrika Bambaata and A Tribe Called Quest contributing to the rising Afrocentric movement. This movement, which originated in the 19^th century, emphasized the importance of African people. The hip-hop community used this view to empower African American’s during a time of severe injustice from the dominant white society and provided a voice for the millions of Blacks who wanted to stand up to the white oppressive system. With the rise of gangster-style rap and the commercialization of the hip-hop industry during the 1990’s, the Afrocentric oriented view of hip-hop gave way to a less meaningful style of manhood and female degradation.

Hip-hop artists such as N.W.A., Dr. Dre, and the Notorious B.I.G. brought a more violent and commercially appealing sound to industry. Rap lyrics and music videos started to reflect a more violent culture, focusing on guns, killing other men, and objectifying women. Around this same time, big name record companies began signing numerous hip-hop artists to their labels. People interviewed in Hurt’s video, as well as myself, believe this violent form of hip-hop was the result of the commercialization of the industry. The middle-class white male customer base continues to be, for the most part, not interested in the politics of black culture and the oppressive society blacks are required to deal with. Instead, white males want to listen to a form of hip-hop that confirms their prejudices and racial theories. The majority of the record companies who represent black hip-hop artists know this and will only sell what is appealing to the mass market. This interaction creates a perceived model for young blacks that being violent, killing each other, and objectifying women is socially acceptable behavior.

Many hip-hop artists today glamorize the industry through music videos featuring expensive cars, designer clothes, diamond jewelry, and beautiful women, while simultaneously showing guns and violent activities. This contributes to the cycle of young black teenagers turning to a life of violence and crime as a way out of poverty and a way to fight the injustice being poor brings with it. Without a change in the message of hip-hop songs and music videos, violence will continue to be a way of life for many young African Americans. Also, without a change in the white middle-class male obsession with this same style of hip-hop, there will be no reason for record companies and artists to change the message.