Rise Up Hip Hop Nation From Deconstructing Racial Politics to Build.docx

Rise Up Hip Hop Nation: From Deconstructing Racial Politics
to Building Positive
Solution
s
Kristine Wright
Posted on April 16, 2011 by
sdonline
http://sdonline.org/36/rise-up-hip-hop-nation-from-
deconstructing-racial-politics-to-building-positive-solutions/
Life is your right
, so we can’t give up the fight.
—
Bob Marley
Defining Hip Hop
From society’s periphery, a generation created a cultural
medium,
hip hop
, that served as both an expression of and an alternative to urban
woes plaguing their lives, namely underemployment, poverty,
and racial discrimination. Rap music and the associated
fashion, language, and dance styles became hip hop’s modes of
expression. For many African American youth, hip hop has been

a part of their cultural identity since the 1970s (Rose 1994;
George 1998). Today, hip hop’s influence on popular culture is
undeniable. From its inception three decades ago, hip hop has
grown from an urban, predominantly black and Latino youth
culture into an international youth phenomenon transcending
racial and ethnic lines.
The term hip hop describes urban youth culture in America
(Smitherman 1997). Hazzard-Donald (1996) defines hip hop as
an expressive cultural genre originating among marginalized
African American youth. Forms of hip hop expression include
rapping and rap music, graffiti writing, dance styles (originating
with break-dancing), specific attire, and a specialized language
and vocabulary. According to Smitherman, hip hop grew out of
African oral tradition and other forms of black culture, as well
as a long history of interaction between black and Latino urban
culture, originating in the Bronx, New York (Guevara 1996).
George (1998) offers this succinct description:
At its most elemental level hip hop is a product of post-civil
rights era America, a set of cultural forms originally nurtured
by African American, Caribbean-American, and Latin American
youth in and around New York in the ’70s. Its most popular
vehicle of expression has been music, though dance, painting,
fashion, video, crime, and commerce are also its playing fields
(viii).
Hip hop culture transcends the commercialized product sold to

mainstream America through commercials and music videos. It
is more than the music, fashion, and style that is now so popular
among youth everywhere. Although these are its modes of
expression, hip hop as a culture is rooted in the day-to-day
experiences of millions of inner city teens. As Spiegler (1996)
describes it, hip hop is based on real life experiences, giving it
more permanence than earlier teen trends.
In the beginning, the expression of hip hop culture known as rap
was the voice of the urban youth underclass. According to
Smitherman, rap music was a response to conditions of poverty,
joblessness, and disempowerment, which still deeply affect the
lives of the majority of African American urban youth today.
Not only was rap music a black expressive cultural
phenomenon, it was also a discourse of resistance, a set of
communicative practices that constitute a text of resistance
against white America’s racism, and its Euro-centric cultural
dominance. “This music has become a—or, perhaps the—
principal medium for Black youth to express their views of the
world and to create a sense of order out of the turbulence and
chaos of their own, and our, lives” (Smitherman 1997: 6). In
other words, rap was the political voice of this sector of society.
Old barriers faced by previous generations were knocked down
during the Civil Rights movement, leading to a significant
growth in the black middle class. At the same time, hardships
associated with postindustrial society like unemployment,

poverty, crime, and drugs dramatically increased in the
predominantly African American urban centers around the
country, creating an even larger black lower class. Rap thus
began as a cultural response by black and Latino youth to the
“miseries of postindustrial urban America” (Baker 1995: 671).
Rose (1994) writes:
In the postindustrial urban context of dwindling low-income
housing, a trickle of meaningless jobs for young people,
mounting police brutality, and increasingly draconian depictions
of young inner city resident, hip hop is black urban renewal
(61).
Commodifying Black Rage
Over the last twenty years, aspects of hip hop culture have been
commodified, creating a multi-billion dollar culture industry
(Holsendolph 1999). The most commodified aspect of hip hop
culture is its music, rap. While African Americans constitute
the majority of hip hop artists (rappers, DJs, dancers), and a
significant proportion of its producers, white-dominated
corporate America is now its primary distributor, with white-
dominated mainstream media outlets its primary marketer (Neal,
1999).
Beginning as a cultural expression created to provide an outlet
for youth from destitute urban living, hip hop is now also the
extremely profitable packaging, marketing, and distributing
(commodification) of “black rage” for mainstream consumption

and enjoyment. Lusane (1993) offers a succinct description of
rap music’s duality:
On the one hand, rap is the voice of alienated, frustrated, and
rebellious black youth who recognize their vulnerability and
marginality in post-industrial America. On the other hand, rap is
the packaging and marketing of social discontent by some of the
most skilled ad agencies and largest record producers in the
world. It’s this duality that has made rap and rappers an
explosive issue in the politics of power (381).
By participating in hip hop’s commodification, young African
Americans receive jobs, financial stability, and a medium to
express themselves to an ever-growing audience. However,
corporate America’s control of hip hop’s production, marketing
and distribution, subsequently translates into control of its
image and voice.
With its commodification, the social structure that produced
black rage, namely the “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”
(hooks 1994: 115), became its chief controller and profiteer.
Once seen as a threat to the status quo, black rage is now
ironically appropriated and controlled by the very power
structure that produced it. In an industry in which African
Americans are well represented, racial inequality exists because
of society’s (and congruently the music industry’s) racially
defined infrastructure. So, also, perceptions of race persist
through media-manipulated imagery. In this social climate, even

a “black” cultural expression can reinforce the racialized power
structure.
Gray (1995) argues that cultural matters are matters of power
and politics. Cultural practices are significant only in relation
to “the political power, economic positions, social conditions,
and lived experiences of people” (6). He adds that culture is
“deeply contradictory”(7), possessing both hegemonic and
counter-hegemonic potentials. I contend that black culture in
mainstream white America suffers the same paradoxical fate.
This essay hopes to provide necessary support for this argument
as well as offer possible mechanisms to overcome this paradox.
Commodification Effects: The Macro-Level
Although the appropriation and commodification of black music
is nothing new, the nature of rap music creates a unique result.
As Shocklee asserts (Samuels 1991), rap songs can create,
through words, complete characters that R&B formulas can’t
support. Through rap lyrics, images of black rap artists come
alive. As rap has become more commodified, distinct shifts in
themes can be observed. Although rap crossovers to
mainstream audiences existed already, the introduction of the
gangsta genre in late 1980s and early 1990s transformed rap
into a mainstream staple, with the “gangsta” image representing
the “real” black urban experience. Some rap artists highlight the
music industry’s role in socializing rap artists into profitable
“gangsta” or “Mafia” images. Chuck D of Public Enemy (1997)

offers this insight:
Many in the world of hip hop believe that the only way to blow
up and become mega-stars is by representing themselves in a
negative light. The two recently slain hip hop artists Tupac and
Notorious B.I.G. as well as other rap artists who have come
under some criticism like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, or
whoever you want to name, talk positivity in some of their
records, but those records have to be picked by the industry
executives and program directors to be magnified.
That’s what I feel happened with Tupac. Tupac had a loyalty to
black people without a doubt. His early albums sound like a
combination of Public Enemy and NWA. He was raw. Tupac
found that when he said things that were pro-black and militant,
people were not paying any attention to what he was saying so
he decided to go more and more into the side of darkness, like
Bishop the character he played in Juice
.… The more he played the bad boy or rude boy image, the
bigger and bigger he got.
A number of underground artists address the issue of rap’s
commodification in their lyrics (Ogbar 1999). In an interview,
Franti, a member of the underground group, the Disposable
Heroes of Hiphoprisy, addresses the image that young black
rappers adopt to become commercially successful. He states:
Through the commercialization of today’s music, there is a lot
of pressure for young black men to conform to very specific

roles, and I try to just through my music let people know that
those roles are not the only roles you have to play…. In order to
be “real,” we don’t all have to be the same, and that there are as
many black experiences as there are black people.
I gained insight into working in the industry from my interview
with a radio personality who hosts an internationally syndicated
hip hop program. Discussing the impact the music industry has
on artists and others who work in it, he states:
You kind of like have to be a certain way to keep your job. You
kind of got to act, walk, talk, and like the guys that hired you,
and you kind of adapt their mentality. It’s a shame. I don’t
blame them, but they feel they kind of have to do that;
otherwise they might not be able to maintain this position that
they established.
He sums up rap’s dilemma this way:
The rap game man is good and bad, it’s good and bad. It’s
created a lot of jobs for a lot of people that otherwise probably
wouldn’t have jobs, but at the same time, man, it’s like mo’
money, mo’ problems
[referring to rap song by the late Notorious B.I.G.].
Rap’s commodification promotes some of its forms, while
making other forms, which are often more “positive,”
unprofitable. So although artists have a choice, if they want to
experience commercial success, they must stick to industry-
endorsed formulas.

The themes in rap songs are homogeneous because certain
formulas have proven to be profitable, and are therefore
imitated exhaustively. While rap images of black rage were
controversial at one time, after twenty years, they are now
normalized, validating mainstream stereotypes of young African
Americans. In truth, hip-hop culture’s transition into
mainstream America offers important insights on popular
culture as mass culture, and popular culture as site of ideology
construction and negotiation. Because they are socially
constructed, popular culture and media representations are not
independent of the power dynamics that inform popular
culture’s production. We must not only examine the content of
popular culture and media representations, we must also
examine the media industry’s role in the creation process to
better understand its influence.
The commodification of hip hop culture leaves the revolutionary
aspect of the culture to be witnessed by only its most ardent
supporters, once again, creating a “preaching to the choir”
situation. As Gray asserts, cultural matters are, in fact, matters
of power and politics. Through its commodification, hip hop
culture’s political representative becomes the corporate
controlled, almighty dollar.
While mainstream media and record companies promote hip hop
that’s violent, misogynistic, materialistic, and individualistic,
this depiction is really more of hip hop as commodity, a product

of corporate America, and a reflection of mainstream America’s
appetite for reified black images. Black rage is now
entertainment. Unfortunately, the cost is more than the $17.99
price tag on a CD. The real cost is an innovative and multi-
dimensional culture that becomes essentialized, a revolutionary
culture that’s too often under-valued within its own community,
and a collective identity that’s too easily prejudged and
misrepresented… while the
whole world
watches.
1
Commodification Effects: The Micro-Level
My analysis of micro-level commodification effects stems from
experiences teaching in two
very
different environments: 1) a lower-income neighborhood in
Compton, California that (dis)serves
only
African American and Latino students and 2) a university in an
upper middle class suburb of Orange County, California, whose
student population, although multicultural, includes almost
no
black and brown people. African Americans constitute less than
4% of the undergraduate population. One stark difference is
that in the former setting, hip hop becomes an identity of

necessity, whereas in the latter, it becomes an identity of
choice.
2
At this university, I teach a class that uses hip hop culture as a
lens to view society, specifically social inequality. The course
focuses on the racialized power structure of society, and the
power of media framing and hegemony that in many ways shape
our reality. We examine the institutional structures and racial
politics that keep people of color in this country (and around
the world) oppressed. We highlight how the structure of the hip
hop industry parallels that of society in general. The game is
the same as since the dawn of colonialism. Exploit people of
color, their labor, and their culture while benefiting financially
and gaining more power over them through hegemonic
ideologies. As importantly, however, the course highlights how
hip hop is also about resistance, protest, and perseverance in
many ways the political voice of inner city youth.
Over the years, I have taught more than 700 students of various
backgrounds (the majority of Asian descent), many of who
embrace a hip hop identity. This experience has highlighted
some micro-level repercussions of hip hop’s commodification
and the racial politics behind it. In many ways, the micro-level
effects of commodification are most difficult to recognize and,
possibly, most dangerous to racial progress. It shows in a
number of ways, from non-African Americans embracing the n-

word as a part of their vernacular, to the latest racialized
perspectives on ghettopoly.
3
I find most students only identify black in terms of skin color,
and not culture, and for that reason, take offense to my labeling
hip hop
black
. We need to be re-taught what race in this country actually
stands for, and that is
power
and
privilege
. Instead of race, many social theorists choose to discuss the
idea of
racialization
and a
racialized
system to show how “race” has been used to determine one’s
position in society. This understanding brings in the class
aspect of racialization, showing it is no accident that the
majority of black and brown citizens are socially and
economically disadvantaged (Omi & Winant 1994).
When we look at the hip hop nation and the multiculturalism we
find, we get a false understanding of racial solidarity. Hip Hop
transcends racial barriers, if we define these in terms of

ethnicity and skin tones. But that we are all dancing to the same
beat does
little
to change the real social and economic conditions of those
oppressed. The last twenty years offers substantial evidence for
this. You need only do some research and look at the statistics,
or better yet, visit your local hood. When a college student in
my class claims to be hip hop and takes offense to hip hop as
black
, but does not recognize his/her privilege by looking around the
class and seeing
few to no
African Americans or Latinos, racial inequality solidifies.
Although my students in Compton were as bright as many I find
at this high ranked public university, it is a fact that most will
have fewer opportunities than their middle class hip hop
counterparts. This is why I cannot join the club of
hip hop started as a voice of oppressed black and brown youth
but now it’s worldwide…
because for these oppressed black and brown youth, little has
changed and hip hop is still
their
voice. Hip Hop should be defined as black when we define it
in terms of culture, oppression, racialization, victimization and,
of course, resistance.

Most of my college students recognize the macro-level effects
of commodification, whether it be the black stereotypes
highlighted in music videos, or the corporate control of hip hop
culture homogenizing its image. What many students do not
recognize, however, is their roles in the process, constructing
their hip hop identity via mass mediated imagery. Using the
example of the n-word, many will defend their use of it by
either claiming to be “hip hop” or indicting rappers for
normalizing the word, thus claiming a
“double standard”
by African Americans. They ignore context in their analysis,
where the word’s 400-year place in black vernacular becomes
synonymous with the 10-year use by some that listen to rap
records. They also ignore the consequences of hip hop that are
often racialized. While non-blacks may embrace the n-word,
their African American counterparts face the consequences of
its use, within and outside of the community. For some, the
word is just a word, but for others, it is a legacy of racism and,
possibly, internalized oppression.
Another micro-level effect of hip hop’s commodification can be
seen in the varying reactions to ghettopoly [a “ghetto” version
of the game Monopoly]. The fact that there is a market for
ghettopoly underlies the racial politics in hip hop. Reactions to
the controversy over ghettopoly were highly racialized in my
class, with the line drawn between African American students

and the majority of non-black students in the class. African
Americans students took great offense to their culture being
equated to “gangster, criminal, and drugs.” They also took
offense to seeing ghetto living and its structurally based
miseries exploited in satire for profit (from game: “you get your
whole neighborhood addicted to crack, collect $100″). For
those that have lived ghetto experiences, crack is nothing to
joke about.
Many of the non-black students found the game funny and “just
entertainment.” And those that were non-black but saw the
game as offensive, were quick to defend its creator because
“black rap artists do the same every day in song and video.” A
recurring claim was an indictment of the African American
community for “protesting David Chang (the game’s creator),
but not black rappers as vehemently.” The problem with this
argument is that many who indict African Americans are not in
tune with the black community, black media and black activism
for many of the same reasons that residential segregation did
not end with civil rights legislation. Those who are in tune,
know that black media and thinkers often criticize African
Americans’ roles in the racial degradation process, while
highlighting the larger social context that limits options.
4
A final micro-level effect that becomes racialized is the
growing divide between mainstream rap and its counterparts

(read
black and lower class
) and the underground scene and its followers (read
white and middle class
). The hip hop underground movement must be applauded for its
preservation of hip hop’s original elements and its revolutionary
spirit. Unfortunately in this movement, the debate over what is
“real” hip hop has become racialized. Hip Hop literature often
highlights hip hop’s appropriation by corporate America, but is
only beginning to examine how middle class hip hop followers
appropriate hip hop, and possible repercussions in the racial
politics debate. To say that mainstream music, especially from
African Americans, is not “real” hip hop is a lie and elitist, and
it misrepresents hip hop, which they often indict mainstream
media outlets for doing. At its essence, hip hop is making a way
from no way, and in the case of mainstream hip hop, it has been
a legal hustle for many youth from ghettos who would not have
had many other opportunities.
Underground “conscious” hip hop is not any more real if only
privileged persons hear it. Having access to underground
websites and buying every CD that drops implies some level of
middle class. Those on a college campus are better off than 90%
of the world’s population; this needs to be recognized in order
to justly analyze one’s context in hip hop.
The underground scene often romanticizes revolution, but rarely

reaches out to those most oppressed. Revolutions may start in
lyrics but they must end in action.
It’s bigger than hip hop,
5
and it should be. Although I’ve noticed more hip hop activism,
I’m fearful that the growing division in hip hop will undermine
progress. It is like the activists are underground but those that
need it are the mainstream masses. No progress can come from
this equation; so
systemically
, little has changed. Without the masses, there can be no
movement.
6
People of color are still victims of oppressive social systems
that lock us up and out of self-determination, the only
real
solution. To achieve self-determination, we need a catalyst.
The Civil Rights movement had the church as its catalyst. We
now have hip hop.
Realizing Our Power
Given these micro and macro-level processes, we face deep
institutional warfare to overcome, and our understanding of
these processes offers a starting point for building solutions.
When imperialist ideas and individualistic philosophies oppress
the world as they do today, we often lose sight of the power

we
possess; we lose sight of where real power comes from. Real
power comes from
us
…the people. As a collective, we are power.
It is easy to doubt our power when
white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist
ideologies (bell hooks) seem to have a stranglehold on the
world. We see it in the peaking statistics of African Americans
living in extreme poverty. We see it in famine and AIDS
epidemics in Africa. We see it in the invasion of Iraq and the
hawkish warmongers in the white house and department of
defense who would like to export war to a long list of other
countries. We see it in the education and social program cuts in
states across the country. We see it in the incarceration of our
youth of color courtesy of our so-called judicial system. We see
it in the Patriot Act. We see it in the blacklisting of anti-war,
peace proponents. We see it in water cooler French-bashing.
We see it in the ever-increasing polarization of global
resources. We see it in corporate greed. We see it in a
patriotism that never questions but proudly displays the U.S.
flag in cars as a symbol of superiority. We see it in the
popularity of Bill O’Reilly. We see it in racial profiling of
people of color, including now Arab Americans. We see it in the
framing and minstrelsy of media and its increasing corporate

concentration thanks now to the FCC. And yes, we see it in hip
hop.
In many ways, hip hop may try to
keep it real
, but that voice is often silenced because oppressors control hip
hop’s
image
. Those in power get to reap the larger benefits of artists’ labor,
while simultaneously controlling their image and teaching the
youth values that reinforce the same old nihilism. They get to
make money, villainize the black man, and prostitute the black
woman all at the same time. For them, it’s a win-win situation.
For the hip hop community, it becomes a trap we fall into
because we believe money gets us power. Right now what
money gets us is bought.
Hip hop today seems to be searching for meaning, while
simultaneously spinning its wheels in battles and beefs;
formulas and stereotypes. In a system that gives us so few
options, we have made choices that have benefited us while
hurting us simultaneously. For example, artists find they can
sell more records by degrading life, others, and themselves.
And for that realization, they have achieved unparalleled
monetary gains. But these gains have come with a high cost.
One cost has been progress. The very things helping some are
hurting many others. Our youth learn that the gangsta, pimp,

and drug dealer lifestyles will help them make the money they
so desperately need to survive this cold system, but it is these
same elements that kill our youth before they have even lived.
Our seeds have learned from society that they are not valued.
Then through choices we’ve made as a culture, we reinforce the
lie by becoming a part of the problem through flip lyrics and
risky behavior.
The power of hip hop is not in record deals or celebrity. It is
not in money or world hype, and it is definitely not in its
hypocrisy. Hip Hop must decide
now
whether it wants to make the same mistakes others before it
have made… by gaining the world (at least as its audience)…
but losing its soul. So where does hip hop’s power come from,
if not the world stage and bottomless money pits?
Hip Hop’s power is realized in truth and self-determination
through community activism. Community activism in inner
cities across the country is taking on a hip hop sensibility and
offering real alternatives for youth at community levels. This
activism has recently experienced national level successes, with
Russell Simmons’s
Hip Hop Action Network
(HHAN). It has been responsible for organizing hip hop
summits bringing artists, activists, spiritual leaders, and
politicians to the same table for change. Most recently, the

HHAN joined forces with New York educators and students to
protest budget cuts in education, and, due in part to these
efforts, achieved retribution. The HHAN is also organizing a
major voter drive targeting voters of the hip hop generation. Hip
Hop’s power is realized simply in its ability to
move the crowd
7
as a collective, challenging hegemonic power and building
solutions as a community. Power to the People!

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