Part 1: Music and African-Americans: The Beat Goes On

Part 1: Music and African-Americans: The Beat Goes On

It is no secret that music has always been the cornerstones of the African-American experience. Hip-hop and R&B currently fulfill the role of telling the black perspective.

Throughout the history of black people in America, music has been the outcry of joyous expression, and painful despair. From the Negro spirituals of slaves, to rock and roll, blues, jazz, and on into hip-hop, music has been an outlet for the African-American expression.

It was something the country had never experienced before, a genre of music with fast-paced lyrics and story-telling in a method that hadn’t been used before.

Born from this music was a culture, a hip-hop culture. The early form of hip-hop almost directly reflected the black experience and the state of black America.

Now with the extreme fiscal success of hip-hop in the music industry, the relationship between the actual black experience and what is being heard in hip-hop is becoming more and more blurred.

“The lucrativeness of hip-hop has likely played a large factor in its separation from black culture as a whole. This is because hip-hop stems from jazz and blues, both of which are genres which specifically catered to appeal to black people’s state of second-class citizenship,” said rapper Kashif Moncrief, sophomore chemistry major at Jackson State from Atlanta.

He added: “Now it has mostly evolved into a means of making money and boasting one’s own status on a mere personal level. It is a selfish ideal that plays a large role in the music that now represents black culture in America, and I believe it represents little truth in what makes black culture truly rich.

According to billboard.com, for the week of Feb. 7, the top ten rap songs re: “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj, “Feeling Myself” by Nicki Minaj andBeyoncé, “Try Me” by Dej Loaf, “Hot Boy” by Bobby Shmurda, “G.D.F.R” by Flo Rida, “CoCo” by O.T Genasis, “No Type” Rae Sremmurd, “Time of Our Lives” by Pitbull and Ne-Yo, “Only” by Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lil Wayne, and Chris Brown, and “I Don’t F**k With You” by Big Sean and E-40.

Paris Cooper, a sophomore biology major from East St. Louis, Ill. said, “I feel like … our feelings aren’t involved. For I.D.F.W.U to be no. 1, that says a lot about our generation and how we think now.”

The billboard music charts are indicative of what music is popular. Because hip-hop was created as an art form of expression, these songs are supposedly indicative of what black America feels at this point in time. Some may argue that most of those songs do not indicate the current black experience. A reason behind this argument is that black people don’t even control what is being put out on the radio.

In an interview with Hard Knock TV, Scarface, a legend in the hip-hop community, and president of Def Jam South voiced his opinion on the state of hip-hop. “The people that are in control of what hip-hop does is so white … until (they don’t care) about what the culture and the craft really is about,” Scarface says. He further expressed his frustration with people in the powerful positions to dictate what the black community listens to. Scarface went on to say that these people “brainwash” a generation of hip-hop listeners with “crud” that makes black people look stupid.

It’s hardly debatable that there are lyrics that can be viewed as destructive in hip-hop music. But, where the subjectivity comes in, is what lyrics are considered destructive.

Kendrick Lamar, who is one of the most popular hip-hop artists today, said in an interview with 24/7 Hip Hop, “I can respect the fact that you’re telling your story from where you come from and you want to put your realities in your music. But at the same time when it’s over promoted, and its starts to seem like it’s not reality, when you’re just abusing it just to sell a record that’s when I have a problem with it.”

It would be hard to base all of these opinions on hard factual evidence. But what seems to ring true is that hip-hop is notorious for misogynistic and materialistic lyrics, performed by artists who are not original or genuine and may be “selling out” for money.

And ultimately, that can and will, hurt a culture.