The Many Faces of Manny Faces

So I was e-leafing through the hip-hop related blogs in my RSS favorites when I came across a posting on RealTalkNY regarding an entry written by FoxSports columnist, Jason Whitlock, that appeared to blame ‘hip-hop’ with the shooting and subsequent death of the NFL’s Sean Taylor. The responses were, as expected on a blog that targets hip-hop supporters, largely against Mr. Whitlock’s assessment. And for many years, I probably would have been in agreement. Maybe I’m getting old, but today was one of the first times, and it pained me to do so, that I had to agree with an opponent of hip-hop. But at the same time that it’s hip-hop’s fault, it’s not hip-hop’s fault.

See, hip-hop in 2007 is not the hip-hop that was in 1990. In the 90’s, it was easy to blame hip-hop music and subculture for the woes of the inner city. In actuality, it was probably crack-cocaine and IT’S subcultute that had the most impact on the African-American youth of our nation. But since hip-hop music was closely associated with that youth, it was too easy for the uneducated and ignorant politicians, newsmen, parents and racists, to blur the lines between the youth intricately involved in the crack epidemic, and those who just relayed the messages over a funky, James Brown-sampled, beat.

Enter 2007 and the tragedy that is/was Sean Tayor. (For the record, it does not matter what the circumstancs were behind this heinous act, it is a tragedy in every sense of the word. But the issue I am addressing is that of Mr. Whitlock and his blaming of hip-hop. The issue is that in 1990, he would have been wrong. In 2007, I truly hate to say this, but he is right.)

It is not that hip-hop itself is to blame however. This is the tricky part. As many of those reading this know, I am a producer, remixer, and part-time lyricist. I have been a hip-hopper since the 80s. I will not apologize for the fact that I now, in my ….. um.. late 20s/early 30s (roundabout, sheesh.. shutup!), continue to make beats, mix songs, and write rhymes. It is in my consciousness and will never leave my soul. I am a product of my looped-funk-and-R&B-over-hard-12-bit-drum-sounds roots and will be that until I die. But in 1990, hip-hop was a product of the culture of the youth. Today, it IS the culture of the youth. And in becoming so, is no longer what hip-hop originally was, or was intended to be.

When I see on YouTube, young white children in ballet class, “Supermanning” that proverbial hoe, there is no question that life has completely swallowed up art, and now, spits it back out as a cartoonish mockery of itself. Hip-hop has lost the exclusivity which made it so eccentric in the beginning. It is probably like the elite nightclubs or celebrity hot-spots of NY or LA. They begin, much more secretive, reclusive, hard-to-get-into. But once word gets out that a “celebrity-of-the-day” frequents the joint, the ‘regular people’ find their way down. By then, the star/starlet has moved on, eager to avoid having to mingle with the peons, and all of a sudden the hot-spot of the stars, ends up being just the lukewarm-spot of the wannabes.

So, when Mr. Whitlock blames ‘hip-hop’ for the problems of the youth, on the surface, it sounds like a back-in-the-day attack, when the uninformed critics would criticize hip-hop, because it sounded different, and sounded mean, and looked menacing, and was unknown. And the hip-hop fanatics and defenders are so used to being attacked for their beliefs, that we raise up when even the slightest suggestion is made that hip-hop (and by default this mean rap-music) is to blame for any ill. But actually, Mr. Whitlock is not swayed by any emotional attachment to hip-hop culture. He is not distracted by a love for the music that he met when he was 10 years old, and what he loved most was that she had so much soul. No, he is saying ‘hip-hop’… But he means ‘youth’. No longer is hip-hop a piece of the culture of youth. The culture of youth, is now simply called ‘hip-hop’.

So, I cannot attack the statement, “The ‘keepin’ it real’ mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution”, until I can accurately determine how the writer chooses to define hip-hop. If he is mindlessly equating black youth, crime, violence and hip-hop in one big melting pot of tragic circumstances, then no, I will not support his theories. But he seems smart enough on the surface to not fall into that trap, and instead, realizes that hip-hop today is not hip-hop of old, and that today, black, white, hispanic, asian and practically any race, creed or ethnicity that is young follows a twisted, perverted and different culture than the hip-hop purists would claim as their own. And unfortunately the culture of today’s youth does indeed draw from the roots of hip-hop, but the overall culture of today’s youth is that twisted, cartoonish hip-hop-ish mashup that was created when mainstream USA dug their claws into Golden Era hip-hop. The result has been an increase in buffoonery and self-denigration. A blind adoption of the original tenets of hip-hop, without the understanding or experience necessary to appreciate, understand and relate to them. An adaptation of hip-hop by mainstream popular culture that has become the culture of the popular mainstream.

In essence, the violence that fell on Sean Taylor was not due to hip-hop as I, or the authors of the comments of the aforementioned blog would define it. It was more likely the result of the twisted, mutated evolution of youthful society. A society which, across racial and economic boards, has cherry-picked the most extreme and egregious characteristics that hip-hop as a culture, and through its music in the past, has to offer, and followed with pseudo-religious abandon.

So Mr. Whitlock, while wrong, is kinda right. Defenders of hip-hop, defend out of habit, and defend because their defense of African-Americans particularly, is reflex, and for good reason. But today, hip-hop doesn’t equal hip-hop anymore. Realistically, this morphed version of hip-hop is now simply ‘popular culture’. And that popular culture could, by itself, be what is to blame for Sean Taylor’s tragic end. Hip-hop, at it’s core, was a form of expression. A vibe. A way of life that existed to give a voice to the voiceless. Not to give guns to the gunless. A reporting of the reality. Not the reality itself. What is called hip-hop today, is not the hip-hop we hold dear to our hearts. It is the radical Islam of hip-hop. A force that does not reflect the hip-hop that true hip-hoppers believe in. And therefore, many of us denounce today’s hip-hop, today’s popular culture, and any and all factors that could have contributed to the violence that Sean Taylor, or the thousands of young people today must endure, that are done in the name of hip-hop.

It is simply cultural heresy. Hip-hop, as Nas and I once knew it, is indeed dead. Perhaps, and hopefully, it is setting the stage for a rebirth. If so, long live hip-hop. If not, good, ’cause they ruined it anyway.