I was wrestling with my thoughts with a while about this, this is a great read, thank u.
A few questions tho:
1 - are we going to bring in gay, trans and non binary rappers into the political arena of rap, or just keep ignoring them? There’s a pretty large group of those artists and I think u could make a really good unpacking of those works.
2 - is implicit political music more popular than explicit political music because it’s more respectful of its audience?
3 - did the high profile prosecutions of Ice T, NWA and Tupac put a kibosh in explicit political rap in the mainstream, or was that a wave that created and fell naturally?
4 - Where is the love for Rasheeda? Rasheeda had joints.
thank you for reading! to answer what i can, yes, i definitely think LGBTQia rappers are a huge part of this conversation. perhaps in the near future i will cover some of them.
"popular" is relative, but i do think that more incendiary works are often misrepresented in the mainstream media &can come with serious consequences for artists. its also hard to expect corporations to condemn themselves by greenlighting music that condemns them.
I guess my question is if every rap song has political value then how is it possible to put any value judgment on it? Is "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" worthy of praise or criticism irrespective of its proximity to whiteness? Or "Snow on tha Bluff" for that matter? If Kendrick and Lil Baby deserve the same kind of praise then is that praise meaningful in any way?
"With every artist respected equally for their projection of Blackness, there would no more elitist pedestals, no protective stan culture, and no conflation of musical content with social agency or intelligence."
My aim was to poke a hole in the notion that certain artists are the "only ones" making "conscious" or "political" music." Art being of politics is a fact of life. So it shouldn't be a factor in a "value judgement" of a song. I'm not sure if I answered your question but I think we should fundamentally reevaluate how we engage with music.
Hi!
Thanks for a very interesting read! I have been pondering on the same questions as long as i've been listening to hip-hop (approx. 20+ years or so).
I quoted you in one of my blog posts on my movie blog:
https://donteventhinkitslater.blogspot.com/2020/11/wolves-2014.html
Greetings
Mr. A
P.S.
This is probably old news to many, but i think this book discusses some of the same themes that are discussed in your article:
Chamber Music: About the Wu-Tang (in 36 Pieces) by Will Ashon
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/28/chamber-music-about-wu-tang-36-pieces-ashon-review
:)
A
From a different vantage point though, i have to add.
I was wrestling with my thoughts with a while about this, this is a great read, thank u.
A few questions tho:
1 - are we going to bring in gay, trans and non binary rappers into the political arena of rap, or just keep ignoring them? There’s a pretty large group of those artists and I think u could make a really good unpacking of those works.
2 - is implicit political music more popular than explicit political music because it’s more respectful of its audience?
3 - did the high profile prosecutions of Ice T, NWA and Tupac put a kibosh in explicit political rap in the mainstream, or was that a wave that created and fell naturally?
4 - Where is the love for Rasheeda? Rasheeda had joints.
5 - you listened to the new Kur EP, Young 79?
thank you for reading! to answer what i can, yes, i definitely think LGBTQia rappers are a huge part of this conversation. perhaps in the near future i will cover some of them.
"popular" is relative, but i do think that more incendiary works are often misrepresented in the mainstream media &can come with serious consequences for artists. its also hard to expect corporations to condemn themselves by greenlighting music that condemns them.
I guess my question is if every rap song has political value then how is it possible to put any value judgment on it? Is "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" worthy of praise or criticism irrespective of its proximity to whiteness? Or "Snow on tha Bluff" for that matter? If Kendrick and Lil Baby deserve the same kind of praise then is that praise meaningful in any way?
"With every artist respected equally for their projection of Blackness, there would no more elitist pedestals, no protective stan culture, and no conflation of musical content with social agency or intelligence."
My aim was to poke a hole in the notion that certain artists are the "only ones" making "conscious" or "political" music." Art being of politics is a fact of life. So it shouldn't be a factor in a "value judgement" of a song. I'm not sure if I answered your question but I think we should fundamentally reevaluate how we engage with music.