Tough Talk About Hip Hop: Fireworks erupt during panel discussion

By Eyder Peralta
11/25/07

It was advertised as a panel discussion on whether hip-hop is “responsible for the destruction of the black community.”

Instead — with the topic too explosive or too controversial, perhaps — the panel devolved into all-out argument.

For the past year, since Seinfeld actor Michael Richards’ tirade and shock-jock Don Imus’ on-air controversy, hip-hop’s influence has been much discussed. Prominent leaders called for the burial of the n-word, and hip-hop moguls such as Russell Simmons argued that misogynistic words should be voluntarily removed from albums. CNN even aired a multipart, multiday program titled Hip-Hop: Is It Art or Poison?

The Houston Room, an auditorium on the University of Houston campus, was full for the recent event sponsored by Sankofa Pan-Afrikan Student Organization.

The event started quietly, a discussion of what song and the spoken word have meant to African-Americans, how hip-hop is “the CNN of the black community,” how Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was a subliminal hymn for Harriet Tubman.

Familiar accusations soon followed: Hip-hop is out of touch creatively and perpetuates violence and misogyny. Its persuasive power (think how many kids wear grilles) isn’t used in a positive way.

Slim Thug, a Houston rapper on a major label, defended his music as simply a representation of where he is from. Trae, another Houston rapper, described his music as the “voice of the streets,” and because of that it doesn’t make it on MTV.

Activist Quanell X said he got the idea for the discussion while watching an episode of Oprah on rap. Hip-hop delivers exactly what the distributors want, he said.

M-1, who considers himself a rapper with a social message, echoed the sentiment. Eighty percent of the music is bought by white kids, he said, and most of it is distributed and bankrolled by massive corporations. What you get, said M-1, is what the mostly middle-aged white men who run the corporations think will pad the bottom line.

Assata-Nicole Richards, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, jumped in.

“The critical point,” she said, “is whether or not your story gets told because it fits a profile.”

She brought up the thug myth of 50 Cent and the rash of such frivolous dance singles as Walk It Out and the superhit Soulja Boy. The thug, the misogynistic man, the materialistic ingénue are all part of a scheme to keep the status quo, she said.

The rappers punched back. Slim Thug said if people want him to stop saying bad words, Hollywood shouldalso. Lil O said he was tired of portraying African-Americans as victims.

“The real problem,” he said, “is that music doesn’t raise a race of people.”

Then professor Richards made perhaps the most significant point of the night: Hip-hop, for good or bad, has become intertwined with who African-Americans are, she said, and the only way African-Americans will overcome their challenges is by changing how they define themselves. “We need to define ourselves positively,” she said. And hip-hop, at least right now, isn’t doing that.

Source: Houston Chronicle