Hip Hop vs. America — How About America vs. Opression?
“It’s the easiest thing to place blame on.” T.I. exclaimed while falling back into his chair onstage. “Its like hip-hop is taking the blame for all of America’s problems,” Nelly added to his argument. This is what you would have heard if you were in the audience during the taping of BET’s three – part series, “Hip-Hop vs. America”.
The series aired on BET September 25th – 26th with the final part of the series made available online. I checked out all three and some things I agreed with, while others I was not completely sold. However, it was a debate and debates often go that way.
The panelists ranged from Mike Jones to Master P and Chuck D to Cornell West. Each of the individuals on the panel made valid points here and there, but the overall theme of the debate seemed to have been whether or not hip-hop should be blamed for America’s ills. Should it?
It’s hard for me to believe that people actually think that 50 Cent albums and replays of Nelly’s infamous “Tip Drill” video are the reason prisons are overcrowded with black men. Violence in our inner-cities is not out of control because Pimp C and Bun B rap about the dope game in the south. Be serious. When did the parenting of today’s generation get so weak that it allows society to blame a genre of music for America’s short comings?
Let’s say we kill hip-hop. No more Jay-Z. No more Lil’ Wayne. No more T.I. When I sit in my old room at my mom’s house, am I not going to hear gunshots coming off Six Mile and Hoover? Hell no. If you take every hip-hop CD off of shelves and leave them off from now on, people from the inner-cities will still be hearing gunfire and seeing drug transactions outside their doors.
Instead of marching in front of record companies trying to stop rappers from saying “bitches” and “hoes”, lets march in front of the board of education that is trying to shut down 30 schools in the inner-city. Instead of burying the “N” word, lets bury the “O” word. Oppressed. That’s what is really going on in our communities.
Hip-hop is a survey of our society and culture. Its comparable to looking outside your bedroom window and writing down what you see. If you did that, could you be blamed if a fight breaks out after you’ve written about your view out of the window. No, that wouldn’t make sense. The same can be said for blaming hip-hop for societies failures. One thing T.I. said hit the nail on the head and summed up my position on this debate.
“If you don’t change what’s going on in these neighborhoods, you ain’t gonna change what’s going on in this music.”
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Click here to view all three portions of the series.