Critical Analysis Of Articles Black Music That Isn’t Either And Black Empires, White Desires: The Spatial Politics of Identity in the Age of Hip-Hop

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Thought paper

Rap has always been characterized as music for African Americans. Although it was started in the Bronx, with a primarily black audience, it quickly spread across the country gaining interest from all races. The culture of hip-hop led to negative stereotypes of African Americans living in urban neighborhoods. The media portrayed rap as strictly music for black people, but as hip-hop spread throughout the country it increased a large white and Latino audience. The two readings that stuck out to me the most are, The Rap on Rap: The “Black Music that Isn’t Either” by David Samuels and “Black Empires, White Desires: The Spatial Politics of Identity in the Age of Hip-Hop” by Davarian L. Baldwin.

In “Black Empires, White Desires: The Spatial Politics of Identity in the Age of Hip-Hop” it discusses the often negative reputation that hip hop music gets. The title kind of gives it away, Black empires and White desires reflects how White people in positions of power try to control the Black empires which are frequently the rappers. Often the White outsiders that are not part of the hip hop culture try to impose their beliefs on how hip hop should be and what should be produced. The outsiders critique from the outside looking in. While Jay-Z is rapping about the inequality that many Black people face the outsiders are unable to comprehend. Jay-Z’s “It’s a Hard Knock Life” is a song for that the outsider may not understand. For instance, “These lyrics might easily seem to promote illegality, self-indulgence, misogyny, and crudely hedonistic tendencies; however they also provide a critique of the socio-economic structure that prevents many African Americans access to decent wage labor” ( 169-170). He suggests that the meaning of the lyrics is often misinterpreted. The White outsiders try to change hip hop without understanding the true meaning of hip hop and its culture.

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While the authoritative White figure attempts to alter and blame hip hop they must understand that many of the issues that are linked to hip hop do not often originate from the genre of music. Hip hop is often blamed for violence that occurs, but what one must understand is that violence predates rap. It seems in fact that hip hop is simply easier to blame for the negative impact it has on younger children. Baldwin says, “More over, hip hop can’t be seen as all that is wrong with American life. The cultural oscillations of hip hop and the current gangsta trends bear witness to our national history. This music cannot be divorced from the numerous American-dream stories of this nation” ( 174). While hip hop may be blamed for all the problems, it is not the main reason of what is wrong with American life. Hip hop creates dreams and leads to the idea of meritocracy where if you work hard you will achieve. With more Black people in positions of power this blame will fade and will be less about the White desires and more about the Black empires.

In the article, Samuels explained that the main consumers of rap music are white, suburban teenagers because rap is saturated with sex, violence, drugs and other aspects of crime, all of which are exotic to suburban whites and have no place in white society. Samuels also explores the history of rap music, from its insignificant beginnings called “toasting” in Jamaica, to the omnipresent hybrid form it has today due to the influences of white America (Samuels). “The Rap on Rap” is a fairly well written article and although Samuels believes that white consumers have imposed a high degree of influence on rap music, white consumers have only slightly affected rap music.

One of his viewpoints is that rap appeals to whites because it is foreign, sexually charged and quite violent. One example of this is his views on violence in rap. Samuels says that violence is one reason why rap is popular, especially among suburban whites. He then quotes lyrics from N.W.A. and Ice Cube, like “A young nigger on the warpath and when I’m finished, it’s gonna be a bloodbath of cops, dying in L.A.” (276) and “Point blank, on a Caucasian. Cock the hammer and crack a smile. . .” (277). Samuels states, “Rap’s new mass audience was in large part the brainchild of Rick Rubin, a Jewish punk rocker. . .who founded Def Jam Records. . .” (274) (Rubin is Jewish, not black). Also, Samuels mentions the hit television show “Yo! MTV Raps” and a magazine devoted to rap music called The Source, which was founded by an upper-middle-class white man, as further evidence of white influence.

He describes how hip-hop became entrenched into American culture throughout all races. Rap music was originally publicized on the first rap television show called “Yo! MTV Raps” on MTV. The show increased the size of the hip-hop audience and “rap became for the first time the music of choice in the white suburbs of middle America” (Samuels 152). The people that watched the show the most were white males that lived in the suburban area which lead to the success of the show. As the article explains, the rappers of the era were rapping about the street life and this leads to negative stereotypes for African Americans. Suburban white kids could learn about the streets of New York simply by listening to a record, and it is argued that this instills negative values into these kids.

In my opinion, both of the articles provide valid evidence about how raps do their lyrics can influence the youth culture in a negative way. The issue is that all demographics are hearing the music from a similar perspective. These gangsta rappers come from similar backgrounds but their music reaches people of all backgrounds. This is dangerous because it glorifies the life of a gangster and influences kids that wouldn’t be exposed to this without rap music.

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