Notes and Quotes

Online articles/links

Why do we tolerate misogyny in music?

The French rapper OrelSan is in trouble over lyrics that demean women – but he is far from being the only guilty musician- http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/31/music-orelsan-rap-misogyny

"Women are described only as "bitches" or "hoes"; violence is a valid response to infidelity; and – most importantly – there is an imperative not to take the lyrics seriously."

"That hitting women is the benchmark of misogyny – words alone fall short of the standard."

"Over the past decade, both rap and hip-hop have raised concerns about misogynistic, homophobic and violent lyrics and demeaning videos."

"It is no surprise that OrelSan is being compared to the king of these debates, the man George Bush once referred to as "the most dangerous threat to American children since polio" – Eminem."

"In Eminem's songs Kim and '97 Bonnie and Clyde, he fantasises about killing his estranged wife Kim in front of their daughter, Hailie. In Kill You, the narrator threatens, "Slut, you think I won't choke no whore / 'Til the vocal chords don't work in her throat no more?!". In the final three seconds of the song, he laughs and says "I'm just playing, ladies. You know I love you", as if to suggest that the whole song has been ironic."

 "Plan B's 2006 album contains songs told from the perspective of murderers, rapists and other violent characters. Citing films such as Irreversible and Baise-Moi (in his lyrics too Sick To Def), Plan B argues that he should be treated in the same way as those films' directors and writers – as a storyteller and narrator of disturbing events, not as a confessing criminal"

"His point is an obvious one: talking is not the same as doing. And of course, we can no more extrapolate a confession of rape and murder from a song by a rapper than we can conclude that all country artists have seen their dogs shot, had their partners cheat on them, and finally become alcoholics."

"The hypocrisy in the discussions is rarely raised. Outrage about violence and misogyny in music is almost always confined to rap and hip-hop, despite there being much to engage with elsewhere."

"Surely we should object either to none of it, or to all of it"

My hip-hop love affair: 'its art, you fool'

My opponent in a hip-hop debate says it glorifies prison culture, but listen to the words – rappers are poets of our time - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/26/hip-hop-love-affair-debate

'As Tupac Shakur once put it, I see no changes – even with a black president.'

"Hip-hop began as party and club music "that once gave us great joy and/or offered us inspiration". Now it's degenerated into celebration of what he calls "prison culture". He names: "Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Snoop Dog have perverted the American dream for black youth."

"Namely that African Americans are often more likely to get their higher education in jails than in college."

"By glamorising prison and violence the new hip-hop, Whitlock argues, makes incarceration a rite of passage into true black manhood"

"Whitlock declares himself a one-time lover of the music and evidently values those early (let's call them "classic") rap songs which are, typically, laments, not glorifications, of the destiny of young black males. One of the founding texts of rap, Grandmaster Flash's The Message, for instance, glamorises nothing. It's a bitter protest song – as potent as Billie Holiday's protest against lynching in Strange Fruit"

Example lyric - Broken glass everywhere 

People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care 

I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise 

Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice 

Rats in the front room, roaches in the back 

Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat 

I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far 

Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car

"The fact that young African Americans shoot each other is a social problem – not a by-product of any music."

"Hip-hop features rap with cheap, readily available and easily mastered electronic systems for its musical accompaniment. Its core, however, remains the archetypal drum and pre-eminently the voice – "slanging" and "rhyming" and "flow"."

"And those words (I would particularly point to those composed – often spontaneously) by Shakur, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg – can legitimately take their place in what we regard as poetry, not music. The antics of the some of the performers may disgust us (but no more than, say, Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson) but it's a voice, and words, that should be listened to before easy conclusions are drawn"

 

Why hip-hop must take its share of blame for spread of violence among teenagers - http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jan/06/arts.politics

“Guns have been part of the baggage of hip-hop since 1988, when Los Angeles's NWA released what was arguably the first gangsta-rap album, Straight Outta Compton.”

“Its robust depiction of violence turned what had been a party genre on its head - and opened it up to slackerly white teenagers who had until then seen it as a black thing.”

“Two threads emerged from the ensuing debate, generating the clichés that persist to this day. On one hand, NWA claimed their songs amounted to simple reportage - the "we're just reflecting real life" defence. Others, from the FBI to the black rights organisation NAACP, detected a shocking amorality.”

“Kim Howells accuses "hateful lyrics" of inciting violence, while the biggest British rap/garage act, So Solid Crew, argue that gun culture is the by-product of escalating poverty, and they can't be blamed if they are caught up in it on their south London estates.”

“Does anyone detect a get-out clause along the same lines as the National Rifle Association slogan "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"?”

“The situation is more complex than it was in the days of NWA and Snoop Dogg (the former spiff-smoking scourge who has evolved into a thirtysomething businessman with his own clothing range).”

“Some insist that envious "haters" make guns a necessity.”

“What it boils down to is that teenage boys are impressionable and always will be. Just reflect that the Sex Pistols once persuaded fans that spitting at each other was fantastically cool.”

“It takes several leaps of the imagination to apply the same logic to guns, but it happens. So no, hip-hop can't claim to be entirely innocent here.”

Chicago hip-hop feud deepens after death of Joseph 'Lil Jojo' Coleman

Bitter Chicago hip-hop feud deepens with launch of remix warning of reprisals over death of young rapper - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/13/chicago-hip-hop-feud-joseph-lil-jojo-coleman

“A bitter feud between two Chicago hip-hop stars and their affiliates has deepened with the launch of a new remix that warns of bloody reprisals over the murder of one of the rappers.”

“The release has provoked concerns of further bloodshed on the city's streets”

“The feud has led to fierce debate over Chicago's new breed of "gansta rap" stars and calls for record labels which distribute their material to drop those who advocate violence.”

“City’s police are struggling with a 38% spike in homicides this year, which they say is caused by gang violence”

“Cozart's version of the track, which has been viewed 14 million times on YouTube, features frames of the rapper with a gun in his hand.”

"When the record companies come in and say they want to do a record deal with these rappers, they want to create that aura of violence. The record labels are feeding on that.”

"Social media is very powerful. What makes it even more powerful is when the major record labels and the radio stations are pushing that violence."

Bradley praised Jay Z and Chicago-born Kanye West's track, "Murder to Excellence" for decrying violence, but added: "Radio stations don't play it. But they need to do all they can to prevent the senseless violence and killing."

“There have been other calls for more restraint from the music industry over who it chooses to promote.”

In July, the Chicago Tribune described Cozart’s as the "prince of violent Chicago rap". It noted that he had been on house arrest for a gun charge earlier this year and quoted a South Side record label director as saying that the Cozart's gun charge added to his "authenticity" in the music industry.”

50 cent waded into the debate to defend the rapper. He said the presence of guns in videos was indicative of the culture being portrayed but did not necessarily indicate criminal activity.

Macklemore is being used to paint the rest of hip-hop as 'uncivil'

If Macklemore wins Best Rap Grammy, it will only bolster the crowd using his image to demonize the rest of the rap community http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/15/macklemore-grammys-hip-hop-rap-stigma

Thanks to anti-hip-hop posturing and shallow-minded generalizations, Macklemore is being used as an example of ground-breaking "civility" for rap. A pseudo-gentrification that undermines decades of artistry hip-hop culture has provided.

We're all familiar with the stigma surrounding rap music: misogyny, homophobia, violence and drugs. Young African-American men perpetuating the violent communities they grew up in by leading other African-American men to commit crimes they hear in lyrics. And, naturally, there is always a sector of the genre that offers nothing remotely positive to society, but hip-hop is a vast genre.

For every Chief Keef promising to raise the murder rate with his new album, there's a thoughtful artist like Dee-1 donating his video budget to feed the homeless.

What if someone like Macklemore had hit it big 25 years ago? Would hip-hop have still become a genre marked by homophobia, violence and a mind-numbing obsession with weed, booze and bling? Probably.

Macklemore is the first non-homophobic, non-violent rapper in the same way that Elvis was a ground-breaking initiator of the Blues.

Some mainstream rap has veered to the materialistic and misogynistic, there have always been successful rappers who have rallied against the vapid. Believe it or not, Kanye West's ultra-successful debut album featured songs like "Jesus Walks" and "All Falls Down," which spoke out against materialism.

He’s being used as a sign post to paint the rest of hip-hop as a wholly negative influence on society.