The Problem With Hiphop
In 1998 I interviewed Wycleff Jean, Canibus and Jean Forte for Towson University's Black Student Union magazine Black Voices. A year prior Jean had released his first solo album, The Carnival, to much acclaim. It was the first interview of any sort that I conducted so needless to say I was very excited and even more nervous. The first question I asked Wycleff was "What's the current state of Hiphop?" The question was met with raucous laughter from all three interviewees and left me feeling confused and embarrassed. Wycleff explained that they meant no disrespect but that he gets asked that question at every interview.
In 1998 my cause celebre was the elimination of sucka emcees, spurred by the recent release of Missy Elliot's Supa Dupa Fly which at the time to me was Supa Dupa wack. It was a travesty that in 1997 anyone who called themselves an emcee should be allowed to rhyme:
I feel the wind
Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Begin, I sit on Hill's like Lauryn
Until the rain starts, comin down, pourin
I felt Hiphop had reached a new low; it was bad enough that Bad Boy seemed to run the airwaves with glittery tales of hyper materialism. But despite their Cristal drinking and Versace wearing aesthetic, they still adhered to the traditional format of dope beats and cuts. Biggie was undeniably talented. But this time someone had killed the gatekeepers and something evil creeped in. It felt regressive and disrespectful to my purist sentimentalities.
I asked Wycleff about the phenomena of the popularity of Missy Elliot, Timbaland et al and if he felt (like I did) that it was ruining the culture. He said that to people like me who take this Hiphop shit seriously Missy was wack, but that Missy was just having fun; she didn't really consider herself an emcee. His statement did little to ease my suffering. I felt something had to happen. Afrika Bambaataa needed to summon the Zulu warriors and forcibly remove Missy from the public eye. I was upset.
And rightfully so as "seemingly new" Hiphop emergents gave cause for concern. At that time, although Hiphop's underground was going strong and gaining more visibility with releases by Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli), Outkast (Aquemini), Gang Starr (Moment of Truth), The Coup (Steal This Album), Killah Priest (Heavy Mental), Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1 and Mix Master Mike (Anti Theft Device), mainstream media outlets began to be saturated with the sounds of Cash Money Records (Hot Boyz: Lil Wayne, Turk, B.G. and Juvenille) and No Limit Recording artists Master P, Mystikal, Mia X and Kane and Abel. The New Orleans flavored Hiphop missed me completely. I was sure that these new rappers were missing a chromosome or two. The tracks were completely devoid of samples and scratching, sounding as if they were made on a keyboard. The lyrics seemed over simplified and lacked any depth of content or complexity. The messages often promoted violence, misogyny, drug use and drug dealing. Surely these abominations were what was ruining Hiphop music. Surprisingly, people loved it.
In 1998, Cash Money Records agreed to a $30 million pressing and distribution contract with Universal Records. This led to releases such as 400 Degreez by Juvenile, which was certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA. The Hot Boys made numerous appearances on many of the albums' tracks such as, "Back That Azz Up" featuring Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh, and "Ha", where the Hot Boys were featured in the music video. The album also contained a remix of "Ha" featuring the Hot Boys. The Hot Boys appeared on both Lil Wayne and B.G.'s albums in 1999, Tha Block Is Hot, by Lil Wayne, and, Chopper City In The Ghetto, by B.G.. Both albums were certified Platinum. The group also released singles such as, "Bling Bling" and "Cash Money Is An Army" by B.G., "Tha Block Is Hot" and "Respect Us" by Lil Wayne, and "U Understand" and "I Got That Fire" by Juvenile.
On July 27, 1999, The Hot Boys released their second studio album entitled, Guerrilla Warfare, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 5 on the Billboard 200. It featured two charting singles, "We On Fire" and "I Need A Hot Girl". "I Need a Hot Girl" peaked at No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100. Guerrilla Warfare went platinum just within a few months. The album also had contributions from the Big Tymers, Baby and Mannie Fresh. Just like the group's previous album, Mannie Fresh produced every track.
It was an invasion. A declaration of war. In my mind it was simple; get rid of any rap that didn't adhere to the underground aesthetic and Hiphop would be as it should be, pure. But why was it cool in 1993 for me to enjoy Onyx's Baccdafucup and "Throw My Guns in The Air" (mind you, the 16 year old suburbanite "me" had no guns to throw in the air) but not the Hot Boyz? My personal truth was that Onyx and the Hot Boyz were on two different levels of Hiphop. In fact the Hot Boyz were just rappers to me; not even Hiphop. But wasn't the violence they both espoused the same no matter the package it came in? Weren't they both unintelligible at times? Weren't they both representing their borough/ward?
What was the real truth (beyond my feelings) concerning Onyx and the Hot Boyz? What were their truths?
In 2000 I read Ken Wilber's book, "The Essential Ken Wilber" and was introduced to the phrase, "No one is smart enough to be 100% wrong all the time." The phrase confounded me for a long time. How is that possible? No one is completely wrong all the time? Wilber explains what he means in 2003:
An integral approach is based on one basic idea: no human mind can be 100% wrong. Or, we might say, nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time. And that means, when it comes to deciding which approaches, methodologies, epistemologies, or ways or knowing are "correct," the answer can only be, "All of them." That is, all of the numerous practices or paradigms of human inquiry — including physics, chemistry, hermeneutics, collaborative inquiry, meditation, neuroscience, vision quest, phenomenology, structuralism, subtle energy research, systems theory, shamanic voyaging, chaos theory, developmental psychology—all of those modes of inquiry have an important piece of the overall puzzle of a total existence that includes, among other many things, health and illness, doctors and patients, sickness and healing. - Ken Wilber, Forward to Integral Medicine: A Noetic Reader (2003)
With a different lens I now see multiple truths.
The truth is that the Hot Boyz were not as behaviorally skilled as emcees as Onyx.
The truth is that Onyx and the Hot Boyz were psychologically and culturally operating at the same level.
The truth is that socially the Hot Boyz were more organized and developed as a machine and an institution.
The truth is that mainstream media put more money into Cash Money Records and Hot Boys than Onyx.
But Hiphop isn't just music.
(Hiphop Anniversary, Rocksteady Anniversary, Zulu Nation, Temple of Hiphop?, DMC, ITF, Graf?, politics?....)
Common Hiphop Problems
- language, that artists aren't forcibly removed/destroyed, misogyny, violence, wack emcees, the market being flooded with music that only supports messages of violence, materialism, fatalism, Whites participating in the art and/or owning the means of distribution, Blacks not owning the industry, the lack of female artists, the lack of unity of perspectives.
Hiphop has no problems.
Why? Because Hiphop is not a thing. Only things, objectively existing objects have problems. People, animals, insects, places, essentially all nouns have problems. Hiphop is none of those things. So Hiphop doesn't have a problem. When people say Hiphop has a problem they usually mean those involved in creating it as well as the cultural values they adhere to, not the feeling or experience of Hiphop.
So then the question may be better phrased "what are the personal and cultural problems of those that practice Hiphop?" The answer is, the same personal and cultural problems that we all face on our walk as humans. If we begin to take an honest look at what we call problems, we begin to see a common thread. Somewhere in our development we learned to think and behave in ways that were unhealthy for us. Often times our thoughts and behaviors were an intelligent response to situations that we didn't know how to cope with. Intelligent or not, our learned responses to life events cause us to to do damage to the things that we care about the most; our bodies and minds as well as our family, friends and society.
If we wish to speak about Hiphop then we must take into account that like all events Hiphop first begins inside of us. Like most of the things that we think feel or do, Hiphop begins in our 1st person; our psychospiritual dimension. If we don't take the time to understand and experience the aspects of ourselves said to bring well being, peace, harmony, balance and stability I.e. what we consider to be our ego/self, subtle energies sometimes called qi/chi, prana, soul and more fundamental realities sometimes called spirit, God, Buddha Nature then we diminish our capacity to achieve peace, balance, harmony and stability in our lives. We also diminish our capacity to experience those same qualities in Hiphop.
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