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As an easy restarting point for this blog I decided to recycle a university assignment I wrote erlier this year, the title of the piece is 'Explore how gangsta culture can inform us of the plight of Mexican/African-American men in contemporary America'. It is almost certainly too formally written for a normal reading audience but nevertheless, see what you think.....
Like the slave songs and early blues before it, hip hop and gangsta rap (which can be seen as the point at which gangsta culture entered the mainstream public consciousness) began in protest against the disenfranchisement and second-class living which many blacks were faced to endure in the latter part of the twentieth century. Unlike the other forms of music chronicling the trials and tribulations of the African-American people, rap took a direct stance against this, angrily opposing the circumstances in which many blacks lived instead of merely describing or lamenting them. The genre became a huge success and bought those involved in its creation (such as Grandmaster Flash, NWA and Public Enemy) huge wealth and status, and as a result the genre has come to symbolise the empowerment of African-Americans and their renewed abilities to speak out against the trials faced in their daily life, and their dissatisfaction with the inequality still endemic in US society. Along with the music came gangsta culture, the films narrating life in the inner-city ghettos and housing projects and memoirs of those involved in the lifestyle which often chronicled a life of crime and violence. They took over from the militant African-American groups such as the Black Panthers as the voice of the young black generation and, in the public consciousness bought these pro-black sentiments into the mainstream through the vehicle of popular culture. They achieved this by combining America’s mainstream sensibilities with their ou
tspoken views on life for the average African-American citizen. In this essay I will use a number of different sources to explore the ways in which gangsta culture can inform us about the plight of minorities in America and, in particular that of African-Americans.
One of the ways in which gangsta culture (especially early-era hip hop made from the late 1980s until the mid 1990s) can be seen to educate us, the listener, about the struggle faced by African-Americans is its delivery. The majority of rap music has lyrics that are written in a first-person form, this is key as if you view rap as a chronicle of the rapper’s life or a commentary on the environment they are living in, then the rap song in a first person form becomes a diary or memoir set to music. Hip hop and rap are, like certain other key genres of music, not only products of the time but also significant accounts of the situation in a certain era, one which some argue cannot be captured by outside sources as accurately. This is very much the same approach as historians now have to the works of early artists in other genres such as Woody Guthrie, whose dust bowl ballads are now seen as important historical records of life in the time of the Great Depression. As much of early rap music was seen as a reaction to the disenfranchisement of minorities in America and the racism still prevalent in much of modern American society, it can also be viewed as protest music, again with common links to artists in other genres such as Pete Seeger, whose union ballads became a rally call for striking workers in the 1960s; like Seeger, artists such as N.W.A and Public Enemy call for action from the people and many of their lyrics contain visible anti-authority themes. Unlike many protest musicians before them however, early hip hop artists used violent and aggressive themes in their music to emphasise and underline their views.
As well as relating the struggle of African-Americans to the listener, many artists also hit back against authority and the indifference of America to their plight through calls for violence and retaliation; one example of this is in NWA’s authority-baiting Fuck Tha Police, in it Ice Cube delivers these lines: “A young nigga’ on a warpath, and when I'm finished, it's gonna’ be a bloodbath, of cops, dyin’ in LA, Yo Dre, I got somethin’ to say, fuck the police”¹. An outburst of aggression against the authorities such as this was a huge shock to mainstream American society and even more so when the album it was taken from (Straight Outta Compton, released in 1988) went platinum in the US. The success of the album and, in particular Fuck Tha Police, showed that there were many out there who identified with the statements and ideas the lyrics contained. This aggression however, shows the frustration with the conditions many African-Americans lived their lives in, and in some ways, counters the aggression and brutality of a police force in which racism was still ingrained. I believe this delivery of such subjects is, while shocking and possibly gratuitous in its violent imagery, one of the most emotive a
nd cannot be equalled by outside sources proclaiming the ills being suffered by African-Americans. For this reason gangsta rap is very important in a historical sense and, while not always factually accurate or particularly intellectual in its delivery, there is no doubting its representation of the sentiments of the previously-unheard voices of young black males growing up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and, as the sales of gangsta rap music shows, there are many who felt this music contained an important message.
Hip hop is a music form that is criticized and analysed almost daily on the news, as people try and blame the culture surrounding it for creating and glamorising the troubled situations it commentates on, however many rappers believe that those outside the ghettos cannot comment on the music which takes its inspiration from the struggle of growing up and living there. In response to this debate, former NWA member Ice Cube wrote the 2008 hit Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It in which he pokes fun at the notion that gangsta rap is to blame for the vices of society, in the closing section of the same song he states “for all ya niggas that don't do gangsta rap, don't get on TV talkin' about gangsta rap, ‘cause 9 times out of 10 you don't know the fuck you're talkin' about”². This sentiment is echoed in the lyrics of many other rap songs and shows that those who grew up in the inner-city ghettos feel that they are the only ones who can talk with authority on the lifestyle they experienced and the plight of those living in such areas. This is again backed up by the use of the first person narrative I previously mentioned.
Another important aspect of black society that gangsta culture reveals is the emergence of the voices of the previously marginalised black youth. Before the surfacing of gangsta culture as a mainstream cultural phenomenon, young blacks were disenfranchised and their views were somewhat unheard in popular culture; Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip Hop Generation underlines the lack of young black voices in the mainstream: “It is difficult now to imagine Black youth as a nearly invisible entity in American popular culture. But in those days [pre 1908s] that was the case. When young blacks were visible, it was mostly during the six o’clock evening news reports of crime in urban America”.³ However gangsta culture went some lengths to changing this as hip hop artists and other exponents of gangsta ideals made their own opportunities to express their opinions on a range of topic that affected them, including the conservative white mindset which branded the majority of young black men criminals and, in some cases, second-class citizens. As well as documenting the lives many young black males lead in American inner-city ghettos, many outlets of gangsta culture offer explanations for aspects of these neighbourhoods.
Seminal ‘hood movie’ Menace II Society (1993) shows the inescapable culture of violence and crime that surrounds many disadvantaged black youths through the protagonist Caine’s struggle to resist becoming part of the violence endemic in the world he inhabits. The film was marketed as a very shocking account of life as it really is in the ghettos of Los Angeles; as the film’s tagline “This is the truth. This is what’s real.”⁴ emphasises. The film’s aim was to accurately portray the day to day struggle faced by young black Americans in districts such as the Watts district of LA and draw people’s attention to many of the troubles faced by those who live in these areas in real life. The brutal reality was shocking to many at the time the film was released. The final scene of the film in which Caine is killed in a drive by shooting in retaliation for an attack he perpetrates earlier in the film, comments on the futility of striving for peace in such environments, and in some respects allays the blame of violence among young African-Americans as a product of the society they are raised in.
Hip hop too deals with this aspect and goes some ways to offering explanations for the causes of unrest in black ghettos and the problems many would have associated with young black males through mainstream news coverage. In Tupac Shakur’s lament to modern society, Changes, he says “I'
m tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black, my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch”.⁵ this particular lyric captures a previously unheard viewpoint on an issue that many would already have been aware of. This shows another way in which the outlets of gangsta culture can help to better inform mainstream America of the troubles faced by African-Americans as it allows them to tell their own side of story and so people are no longer compelled to judge after hearing only one theory on the causes of problems (in this case violence and crime) in black districts.
Like the Menace II Society’s aforementioned proclamation that its depiction of ghetto lifestyle was ‘the truth’, many hip hop artists have also claimed their representation of the struggles faced by young black men and the reasons behind such trials are also the truth, and they discredit the mainstream views of black predisposition to violence and crime. Former NWA member and group leader Eazy-E explains: “We’re telling the real story of what it’s like living in places like Compton. We’re giving [the fans] reality. We’re like reporters. We give them the truth. People who we come from hear so many lies that the truth stands out like a sore thumb”.⁶
This claim is disputed as some claim hip hop artists and other exponents of gangsta culture sensationalise and fictionalise their experiences and economic gain. It is clear that since gangsta culture’s emergence into America’s mainstream consciousness it has been under much scrutiny from sections of American society, perhaps most of all by black activists who, in the beginning felt it backed up many of their sentiments. Many see it unsuitable merely for its lyrical content, and with much modern hip hop and gangsta cinema mainly concerned with feeding the ego of those producing it (50 Cent’s film and game franchise being the perfect example) or discrediting other rappers on the scene, it is clear the motivations behind hip hop and other areas of gangsta culture are changing. Chris Rock speaks about this transition in his stand up routine “In the old days it was easy to defend rap music, it was easy to defend it on an intellectual level, you could break it down intellectually why Grandmaster Flash was art, why Run DMC was art...but its hard to defend I’ve Got Hoes in Different Area Codes, its hard to defend Move Bitch, Get Out the Way”⁷. Although Rock uses this for comedic effect, the point raised is still valid: has rap lost the ability to comment socially and intellectually on issues relating to young black males in America? I believe the answer to this is no, although the amount of songs that contain lyrics that can be taken as accurate representations of the lives of normal African-Americans have significantly declined in recent years.
Rappers such as Common and Ice Cube are still producing material with a series message relating to the plight of young black males in modern day America. This is perhaps less the case with films, as the majority of new releases such as 50 Cent’s biopic Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) use themes of poverty and disadvantage merely as fuel for the star vehicle rags to riches story. Despite its lack of relevance to the plight of African-American males, I feel the new wave of gangsta culture is still able to educate us on aspirations and dreams of many young blacks.
Overall I believe that there are a number of different ways in which gangsta culture has helped to inform us (outsiders to African-American culture and society) about the plight of African/American males and other minorities in the US. One of the key aspects it brings with it is the ability to give young black males a voice. Before gangsta culture many were disenfranchised and unrepresented in both popular culture and the American social consciousness. However the mainstream success of many products of gangsta culture (such as hip hop or hood films) mean that the views and experiences of young black males are now much more noticed in society. As previously mentioned hip hop is also important as it documents the experiences of a generation, that otherwise may not have been able to record such aspects of their lives and again the mainstream success of the culture helps to broaden the awareness of a lifestyle and culture than mainstream American society may not otherwise have known. A by-product of giving African-American’s a voice in the consciousness of America is their new ability to identify the problems they face and publicly voice their dissatisfactions, enabling those removed from their particular society to understand the causes of things they may before have passed judgement on, despite being ignorant of the facts. Although there are some criti
cisms directed towards modern gangsta culture especially, as it can be seen to have lost the serious message of early hip hop. However the continued popularity of this new brand of gangsta culture, with its self-promotion, gratuitous violence and womanising shows the changing psych of the new young black generation. I believe all of these aspects contribute to one major function of gangsta music and that is education. From City of Quartz and Boys N the Hood to Bitches Ain’t Shit, every product of gangsta culture helps to show the many complex aspects of the lives of young black males in America and through this we can better see their troubles and successes, aspirations and fears. As Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip Hop Generation writes: “Collectively, hip-hop-generation writers, artists, filmmakers, activists, and scholars... laid the foundation for understanding of our generation’s worldview”. ³
¹N.W.A. (Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy-E), “Fuck Tha Police”, Straight Outta Compton (Priority/Ruthless, 1988)
²Ice Cube, “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It”, Raw Footage, (Lench Mob, 2008)
³Bakari Kitwana, The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture, (Civitas, New York, 2002) p. 196
⁴Anon, “Menace II Society”, The Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107554/ (13 May 2009, PM)
⁵Tupac Shakur (Tupac Shakur, Bruce Hornsby), “Changes”, Greatest Hits (Death Row, 1998)
⁶Eazy-E (quote found in) Mike Davis, City of Quartz, (Random House, New York, 1990) p. 86
⁷Chris Rock, Never Scared (Warner, 2005)
tspoken views on life for the average African-American citizen. In this essay I will use a number of different sources to explore the ways in which gangsta culture can inform us about the plight of minorities in America and, in particular that of African-Americans.One of the ways in which gangsta culture (especially early-era hip hop made from the late 1980s until the mid 1990s) can be seen to educate us, the listener, about the struggle faced by African-Americans is its delivery. The majority of rap music has lyrics that are written in a first-person form, this is key as if you view rap as a chronicle of the rapper’s life or a commentary on the environment they are living in, then the rap song in a first person form becomes a diary or memoir set to music. Hip hop and rap are, like certain other key genres of music, not only products of the time but also significant accounts of the situation in a certain era, one which some argue cannot be captured by outside sources as accurately. This is very much the same approach as historians now have to the works of early artists in other genres such as Woody Guthrie, whose dust bowl ballads are now seen as important historical records of life in the time of the Great Depression. As much of early rap music was seen as a reaction to the disenfranchisement of minorities in America and the racism still prevalent in much of modern American society, it can also be viewed as protest music, again with common links to artists in other genres such as Pete Seeger, whose union ballads became a rally call for striking workers in the 1960s; like Seeger, artists such as N.W.A and Public Enemy call for action from the people and many of their lyrics contain visible anti-authority themes. Unlike many protest musicians before them however, early hip hop artists used violent and aggressive themes in their music to emphasise and underline their views.
As well as relating the struggle of African-Americans to the listener, many artists also hit back against authority and the indifference of America to their plight through calls for violence and retaliation; one example of this is in NWA’s authority-baiting Fuck Tha Police, in it Ice Cube delivers these lines: “A young nigga’ on a warpath, and when I'm finished, it's gonna’ be a bloodbath, of cops, dyin’ in LA, Yo Dre, I got somethin’ to say, fuck the police”¹. An outburst of aggression against the authorities such as this was a huge shock to mainstream American society and even more so when the album it was taken from (Straight Outta Compton, released in 1988) went platinum in the US. The success of the album and, in particular Fuck Tha Police, showed that there were many out there who identified with the statements and ideas the lyrics contained. This aggression however, shows the frustration with the conditions many African-Americans lived their lives in, and in some ways, counters the aggression and brutality of a police force in which racism was still ingrained. I believe this delivery of such subjects is, while shocking and possibly gratuitous in its violent imagery, one of the most emotive a
nd cannot be equalled by outside sources proclaiming the ills being suffered by African-Americans. For this reason gangsta rap is very important in a historical sense and, while not always factually accurate or particularly intellectual in its delivery, there is no doubting its representation of the sentiments of the previously-unheard voices of young black males growing up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and, as the sales of gangsta rap music shows, there are many who felt this music contained an important message.Hip hop is a music form that is criticized and analysed almost daily on the news, as people try and blame the culture surrounding it for creating and glamorising the troubled situations it commentates on, however many rappers believe that those outside the ghettos cannot comment on the music which takes its inspiration from the struggle of growing up and living there. In response to this debate, former NWA member Ice Cube wrote the 2008 hit Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It in which he pokes fun at the notion that gangsta rap is to blame for the vices of society, in the closing section of the same song he states “for all ya niggas that don't do gangsta rap, don't get on TV talkin' about gangsta rap, ‘cause 9 times out of 10 you don't know the fuck you're talkin' about”². This sentiment is echoed in the lyrics of many other rap songs and shows that those who grew up in the inner-city ghettos feel that they are the only ones who can talk with authority on the lifestyle they experienced and the plight of those living in such areas. This is again backed up by the use of the first person narrative I previously mentioned.
Another important aspect of black society that gangsta culture reveals is the emergence of the voices of the previously marginalised black youth. Before the surfacing of gangsta culture as a mainstream cultural phenomenon, young blacks were disenfranchised and their views were somewhat unheard in popular culture; Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip Hop Generation underlines the lack of young black voices in the mainstream: “It is difficult now to imagine Black youth as a nearly invisible entity in American popular culture. But in those days [pre 1908s] that was the case. When young blacks were visible, it was mostly during the six o’clock evening news reports of crime in urban America”.³ However gangsta culture went some lengths to changing this as hip hop artists and other exponents of gangsta ideals made their own opportunities to express their opinions on a range of topic that affected them, including the conservative white mindset which branded the majority of young black men criminals and, in some cases, second-class citizens. As well as documenting the lives many young black males lead in American inner-city ghettos, many outlets of gangsta culture offer explanations for aspects of these neighbourhoods.
Seminal ‘hood movie’ Menace II Society (1993) shows the inescapable culture of violence and crime that surrounds many disadvantaged black youths through the protagonist Caine’s struggle to resist becoming part of the violence endemic in the world he inhabits. The film was marketed as a very shocking account of life as it really is in the ghettos of Los Angeles; as the film’s tagline “This is the truth. This is what’s real.”⁴ emphasises. The film’s aim was to accurately portray the day to day struggle faced by young black Americans in districts such as the Watts district of LA and draw people’s attention to many of the troubles faced by those who live in these areas in real life. The brutal reality was shocking to many at the time the film was released. The final scene of the film in which Caine is killed in a drive by shooting in retaliation for an attack he perpetrates earlier in the film, comments on the futility of striving for peace in such environments, and in some respects allays the blame of violence among young African-Americans as a product of the society they are raised in.
Hip hop too deals with this aspect and goes some ways to offering explanations for the causes of unrest in black ghettos and the problems many would have associated with young black males through mainstream news coverage. In Tupac Shakur’s lament to modern society, Changes, he says “I'
m tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black, my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch”.⁵ this particular lyric captures a previously unheard viewpoint on an issue that many would already have been aware of. This shows another way in which the outlets of gangsta culture can help to better inform mainstream America of the troubles faced by African-Americans as it allows them to tell their own side of story and so people are no longer compelled to judge after hearing only one theory on the causes of problems (in this case violence and crime) in black districts.Like the Menace II Society’s aforementioned proclamation that its depiction of ghetto lifestyle was ‘the truth’, many hip hop artists have also claimed their representation of the struggles faced by young black men and the reasons behind such trials are also the truth, and they discredit the mainstream views of black predisposition to violence and crime. Former NWA member and group leader Eazy-E explains: “We’re telling the real story of what it’s like living in places like Compton. We’re giving [the fans] reality. We’re like reporters. We give them the truth. People who we come from hear so many lies that the truth stands out like a sore thumb”.⁶
This claim is disputed as some claim hip hop artists and other exponents of gangsta culture sensationalise and fictionalise their experiences and economic gain. It is clear that since gangsta culture’s emergence into America’s mainstream consciousness it has been under much scrutiny from sections of American society, perhaps most of all by black activists who, in the beginning felt it backed up many of their sentiments. Many see it unsuitable merely for its lyrical content, and with much modern hip hop and gangsta cinema mainly concerned with feeding the ego of those producing it (50 Cent’s film and game franchise being the perfect example) or discrediting other rappers on the scene, it is clear the motivations behind hip hop and other areas of gangsta culture are changing. Chris Rock speaks about this transition in his stand up routine “In the old days it was easy to defend rap music, it was easy to defend it on an intellectual level, you could break it down intellectually why Grandmaster Flash was art, why Run DMC was art...but its hard to defend I’ve Got Hoes in Different Area Codes, its hard to defend Move Bitch, Get Out the Way”⁷. Although Rock uses this for comedic effect, the point raised is still valid: has rap lost the ability to comment socially and intellectually on issues relating to young black males in America? I believe the answer to this is no, although the amount of songs that contain lyrics that can be taken as accurate representations of the lives of normal African-Americans have significantly declined in recent years.
Rappers such as Common and Ice Cube are still producing material with a series message relating to the plight of young black males in modern day America. This is perhaps less the case with films, as the majority of new releases such as 50 Cent’s biopic Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) use themes of poverty and disadvantage merely as fuel for the star vehicle rags to riches story. Despite its lack of relevance to the plight of African-American males, I feel the new wave of gangsta culture is still able to educate us on aspirations and dreams of many young blacks.
Overall I believe that there are a number of different ways in which gangsta culture has helped to inform us (outsiders to African-American culture and society) about the plight of African/American males and other minorities in the US. One of the key aspects it brings with it is the ability to give young black males a voice. Before gangsta culture many were disenfranchised and unrepresented in both popular culture and the American social consciousness. However the mainstream success of many products of gangsta culture (such as hip hop or hood films) mean that the views and experiences of young black males are now much more noticed in society. As previously mentioned hip hop is also important as it documents the experiences of a generation, that otherwise may not have been able to record such aspects of their lives and again the mainstream success of the culture helps to broaden the awareness of a lifestyle and culture than mainstream American society may not otherwise have known. A by-product of giving African-American’s a voice in the consciousness of America is their new ability to identify the problems they face and publicly voice their dissatisfactions, enabling those removed from their particular society to understand the causes of things they may before have passed judgement on, despite being ignorant of the facts. Although there are some criti
cisms directed towards modern gangsta culture especially, as it can be seen to have lost the serious message of early hip hop. However the continued popularity of this new brand of gangsta culture, with its self-promotion, gratuitous violence and womanising shows the changing psych of the new young black generation. I believe all of these aspects contribute to one major function of gangsta music and that is education. From City of Quartz and Boys N the Hood to Bitches Ain’t Shit, every product of gangsta culture helps to show the many complex aspects of the lives of young black males in America and through this we can better see their troubles and successes, aspirations and fears. As Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip Hop Generation writes: “Collectively, hip-hop-generation writers, artists, filmmakers, activists, and scholars... laid the foundation for understanding of our generation’s worldview”. ³¹N.W.A. (Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy-E), “Fuck Tha Police”, Straight Outta Compton (Priority/Ruthless, 1988)
²Ice Cube, “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It”, Raw Footage, (Lench Mob, 2008)
³Bakari Kitwana, The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture, (Civitas, New York, 2002) p. 196
⁴Anon, “Menace II Society”, The Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107554/ (13 May 2009, PM)
⁵Tupac Shakur (Tupac Shakur, Bruce Hornsby), “Changes”, Greatest Hits (Death Row, 1998)
⁶Eazy-E (quote found in) Mike Davis, City of Quartz, (Random House, New York, 1990) p. 86
⁷Chris Rock, Never Scared (Warner, 2005)
