Rap Music and Deviance in American Culture
Rap music started in 1979 with Rapper’s Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. Ever since, it has been criticized, praised, and censored. Rap music can be defined as the style of rhythm-spoken words across a musical terrain (Chuck, 1999). It was originally part of the African American culture, which refers to the man’s purpose of winning the sexual affections of a woman (Smitherman, 1997).
Hip-hop emerged from rap music. It is the term for urban-based creativity and expression of culture (Chuck, 1999). It is the backing music for rap, which is often composed of a collage of “samples” from other songs (Farley, 1999). Hip-hop sampling is a way to revisit Black musical tradition. It may sound like imitation, but it is really just reworking earlier music. The sampling of rappers represents an artistic continuity and connection to Black cultural roots (Smitherman 1997). Hip-hop proved its staying power by reaching into and affecting every corner of society. Rap’s exemption to geographic and economic boundaries has made it rich. But with the strength that comes from diversity also comes disunity. The Hip-Hop Nation has become like its mother country: widespread with decision. Suddenly too complex to move as one, hip-hop is discovering the dilemma of power.
Rap is seen as an icon of resentment to the white status quo. As in any situation where an icon such as rap or hip-hop is attacked, there is always the potential that the attention will grant the music even further symbolic power, and increase the number of listeners.
The music represents black urban youth, but more white teens purchase it. The music may be in white ‘s homes, but the violence is in black ‘s neighborhoods (Chideya, 1997). Rap music energizes kids, but their parents are offended. Parents, along with politicians, have accused the music of being harmful to society and its youth for twenty years. It is believed that the music creates legions of misogynists who pose a danger to women, particularly because rap music depicts rape and other brutality (Binder, 1993).
C. DeLores Tucker has been battling record companies of rap groups since 1993. She is a member of the National Political Congress of Black Women. She has been arrested for blocking access to music stores that sold rappers’ albums that contain demeaning lyrics (Dunham, 1995). Rap lyrics tend to have a high frequency of offensive themes and hard swear words, like “fuck” and “shit” (Binder, 1993). In 1995, she focused on gangsta rap lyrics on the Time Warner label. Today’s rap lyrics are still being protested for evoking sex and violence. The lyrics include abusing women, dealing drugs, and killing cops. “They’re pimping pornography to children for the almighty dollar,” says Tucker (Dunham, 1995).
The power and promise of rap music rests in the hands of urban ; and environment where black males will be killed by violent crimes, where black children grow up in poverty. Years of corruption, welfare handouts, institutional racism, and discrimination have created a community where little hope, low self-esteem and frequent failure translate into drugs, teen pregnancy, and gang violence.
Rap music began by expressing the emergence of guns, violence, misogyny, and poverty. Now, it voices its resistance against White America’s racism and its Eurocentric cultural dominance (Smitherman, 1997). Some protesters claim that the sole purpose of some songs are to degrade women, celebrate promiscuity, and encourage Black-on-Black violence (Chappell, 1995). The discourse surrounding censorship is rarely based on research about the negative impact of rap music. It is founded primarily on observations of rap’s harmful effects on others. Research on the third-person effect suggests that individuals who advocate censorship believe in powerful effects on others but not necessarily on themselves (McLeod, 1997). Many people believe that they are able to resist negative media effects but that others are less capable to do so and must be protected by censorship (McLeod et al., 1997). People do overestimate the effects of media content on others.
Rap music is constantly testing the boundaries of commercialism, sexism, and feminism. A growing concern over the music’s rudeness for typical boundaries keeps it on the cutting edge. Despite, or maybe because of, the controversies, groups such as 2 Live Crew, NWA, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Salt ‘N Pepa, Tone Loc, and Queen Latifah have reached mainstream popularity, and each success urges the rap genre into new directions.
2 Live Crew appeared in the public eye in 1986 with their first album, The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are. Their most successful hit, which is now considered tame, was entitled, “Hey, We Want Some Pussy.” It sold half a million copies without the backing of a major record company. The Crew’s next album took sexual rap to a new level. Move Something sold more than a million copies and included songs like, “Head,” “Booty and Cock,” and “Me So Horny.”
One of the groups most publicized when exploring violence is NWA (Niggas with Attitude). NWA consists of five L.A. rappers whose controversial lyrics include topics like gang banging, drive-by shootings, and police confrontations. MTV refused to air their video, “Straight Outta Compton,” because they said it praised violence.
Negative images of rap have been dominant in the news. In June 1990, a U.S. District Court judge in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida found the 2 Live Crew album As Nasty as They Wanna Be to be obscene in three counties in his jurisdiction (Binder, 1993). Two members of the group were taken into custody when they performed material from the album at an adults-only show in the area (Binder, 1993). In New York, a charity basketball game by rap artists resulted in nine kids being trampled to death. The music of defiant rap groups like NWA have been considered radical and extremist. They made history as the first musical group to receive a warning from the FBI about the negative content of their song “Fuck tha Police,” which encourages a lack of respect for the system. Violence has also been reported at movies where rap themes are outstanding, like Boyz ‘n the Hood and Menace II Society.
In 1996, Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting. Six months later, the Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace) was also killed in a drive-by shooting. The two were well-known gangsta rappers. Shakur represented the West Coast with Death Row Records, headed by Suge Knight. Wallace was with the East Coast’s Bad Boy Entertainment, headed by Sean “Puffy” Combs. After the shootings, the police say the murders were linked to the Crips and Bloods, but there are no suspects (Farley, 1997). There has been a history of violence between the East Coast and West Coast rappers for years, but all is diminishing. In 1997, Combs released “I’ll Be Missing You” in memory of The Notorious B.I.G. The single featured Wallace’s wife, Faith Evans, singing the chorus. The single outsold every other single that year except Elton John’s tribute to Princess Diana, “Candle in the Wind” (Thigpen, 1999).
Males dominate rap. In the beginning, the few women who were successful in rap and hip-hop were less aggressive than their male counterparts. Controversial female rappers, such as Bytches wit’ Problems and Hoes wit’ Attitude, felt they could say what they want just like men do. Today, artists like Li’l Kim and Foxy Brown prove that they are as hardcore as any man is. Several women rappers, like Lauryn Hill and TLC, have taken a more assertive stand on social, particularly feminist, issues. It remains to be seen how young African-American women use hip-hop and rap.
Queen Latifah is one of the most positive black female rappers. Her albums are enriched with African cultural ideology and images as she dresses in African fashion and tells kids that all black men and women are kings and queens. Queen Latifah accepts that the only way to fight bigotry is to teach black children their history.
Cultural rap is often connected with such negative images of the black underclass. Pictures of pimps, drug dealers, and gang members riding around with rap music blasting loudly are predominant in the media. Concerns emerged in the mainstream media about the impact of each group’s form of cultural expression (Binder, 1993).
The positive efforts of black rappers to eliminate violence in their music and neighborhoods have not received as much publicity as the negative. Rappers are supposed to be positive role models for young black listeners (Binder, 1993). Various rap stars from the West Coast such as NWA, Hammer, Young MC, and Digital Underground came together to record a single entitled “We’re All in the Same Gang.” It was a rap song that spoke out against senseless violence of gangs. The East Coast’s “Stop the Violence” campaign raised more than $300,000 for youth-oriented community programs in
New York. More than a dozen rappers, like Ice T, Tone Loc, and King Tee participated in the “Self Destruction” record and video which addressed the need to end black-on-black crime.
Kids are forced to learn from the rhythm of life around them. Rap songs often include graphic images of drug dealers. The dealer is a very real personality in low-income neighborhoods. There is an obvious struggle going on in kids’ lives that links them to the conflict-oriented nature of cultural rap. The violent urban environment that is a prominent theme in rap music is also a prominent reality for some.
In “Wild Wild West,” Kool Moe Dee raps about how he and his friends stop others from coming into their neighborhoods and terrorizing people. He talks about taking control of his environment in the Old West fashion. Several kids have come to understand and change the negatives through their own songs. The four young ladies in The Get It Girl Crew rapped a testimony of their spirit and hope for the future.
Many rappers are reviving the word of black leaders like Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan. They call the white society devils and snakes, and advocating a new black unity. Racism is sometimes characteristic to the Afrocentric voice-the pro-black attitude.
Public Enemy has been the rap group who seemed to be in the middle of the racist controversy, until member Chuck D. (1990) made statements such as “a black person is better off dealing with a Klansman than a liberal.” Public Enemy emerged into the headlines as racist when and ex-member, Professor Griff, made several statements that were considered anti-Semitic in a speech. After firing Professor Griff, Chuck D. responded to his comments. “We aren’t anti-Jewish. We’re pro-black,” he said. “We’re pro culture, we’re pro-human race. You can’t talk about attacking racism and be a racist” (Newman, 1989). The issue of race in is not a silent one. Ideologies of black power and white supremacy divide the nation. Rap often sounds like a young black man shouting out how angry he is and how he’s going to hurt people. Ice Cube, ex-leader of NWA, was labeled racist because of several controversial songs on his hit album, Death Certificate. He calls Koreans “Oriental one-penny motherfuckers,” and says of NWA’s Jewish manager, “Get rid of that devil, real simple, put a bullet in his temple, ’cause you can’t be the nigger for the life crew, with a white Jew telling you what to do.”
KRS-One (Knowledge Reigns Supreme over Nearly Everyone) was a homeless runaway sleeping on steaming
New York City sidewalk grates. Now, he is a popular, positive rap star and educator. He denounces gang violence, poor educational systems, and drug use, but his attack on the “white system” has been called racially encouraged.
In an industry managed by African-Americans, whites and Latinos become the minorities. Artists such as Cypress Hill, Insane Clown Posse, and Eminem have made an impact on rap music. Eminem can reel off internal rhymes with the same lyrical agility as the late Notorious B.I.G., to whom he is being compared. He comes to the major-label rap game with underground credibility few rappers can claim. NWA’s Dr. Dre took note and signed Eminem to his label. Dre’s partners didn’t like the fact that he signed a white rapper, but Eminem’s Slim Shady LP became the most promising hip-hop debut of 1999. He’s out there to prove that hip-hop is now more about being lower-class than it is about being black.
From spirituals to rap, black music style is a communicative process intertwined within the black American experience. The spiritual served as an underground form of communication and a mechanism for emotional release. Natural words and phrases had secret meanings for slave communities. Racism is primarily economic in nature, and it was imbedded in the music industry. Blacks were underrepresented in the music industry, particularly in upper-managerial positions. They were paid less than their white counterparts. Black promoters, radio stations, and retail outlets were frequently overlooked in the promotion of more well-known black artists. The struggle over the purpose of African-American music has found its strongest connection in a genre of popular music alternately dubbed hip-hop or rap. Today’s rap music style reflects the distinct experience of urban black culture. Ebonics (ebony phonics), street attitude, and fashion are reflected in powerful spoken song. The heavy beat, incessant scratching, aggressive delivery, and lyrical storyline present a message of anger from an urban existence. Name brand tennis shoes, sweatsuits, and an extravagant display of gold chains and rings create a sense of reserved success.
What’s the ultimate goal? A significant number of rap stars make a point of acquiring and flaunting the material goodies that symbolize the American dream. In view of the history of Africans in , such an act can hardly be viewed as anything but a triumph. But there’s an older dream, and a tradition even deeper and more real than slavery. It involves a path of knowledge and of devotion. To rank music and ideas above money and acceptance is almost to guarantee oneself a hard life.
The history of black music is a history of adaptation, rebellion, and transformation. An important part of rap music rests in black experience. Rap music has always been a communicative response to the burdens and challenges within black American society. Within popular culture, rap music has increased the sense of awareness outside urban black . It has interrupted normal flow of the economic process. Cultural music, such as rap and hip-hop, often get caught in a repetitive cycle of adaptation. They are gradually absorbed into the pop mode. But, in opposition to pop-crossover rap, cultural rap has somehow managed to maintain elements that lie outside of social control.
Rap music offers itself up as a unique and cohesive element of urban black culture and is a positive struggle for black meaning within a popular culture. While there remain conflicts between good and bad, positive and negative, right and wrong, the rap dynamic is an explicit means of cultural communication promoting an awareness of a rebirth of urban reality.
The cultural rap music experience exists within the region of specific contexts. For the black urban adolescent, the environment expresses itself through their most popular music choices: rap and hip-hop. As they listen, they create both shared and personal realities. Rappers rise as empowering storytellers. Their oral wit and unique street style create a useful presence for inner-city beliefs. Rap music has become the champion of an otherwise ignored and forgotten reality. Through critical spoken song, rappers are forcing cultural realities into the public arena. Rap music not only reflects a doubtful community, but also provides lawfulness and hope.
For everything from young people’s clothes and language to their opinions about the relationship between art and commerce or about the ways racial minorities will conform to the American mainstream, rap and hip-hop set the tones. The question is no longer if breakbeat-and-graf style will take over the culture, but where it’s going to take us now that it has.
