Hip-Hop Controversies

Tricia Rose. The Hip-Hop Wars.

I was very interested in what Tricia Rose had to say in this article interview and NPR interview. What I was hoping would be talked about it was the 'Then and Now' type of thing. When hip-hop originated from vs. where it is now. Tricia Rose explains that hip-hop "wasn't primarly an economic industry, where people got involved more for money than for creativity." She talked about its origins being community based and having the power to cross generations. She also talked about the beginning of hip-hop as being political and "education and learning more about your history and asking questions and making better choices and trying to change society for the better." So, how did we go from this to what hip-hop is now? Now it seemingly is filled with money, power, sexism, and homophobia. At what point did we go from politics, education, and challenging listeners to think to what it has become?

Something I appreciated was the question: "There seems to be the tendency, when people complain about what they hear on the radio, for artists to say, "Well, if you don't like it, just turn it off." There's that shift in responsibility from artist to fan. Is that a disingenuous defense?"
I think this is a great question because people so often say if you don't like that music, then don't listen to it. Just because we are not listening to it, does not change the fact that the messages they are saying are still being put out there and people are still hearing them. They are still putting out messages of severe sexism, homophobia, and everything else...
I worked for an organization (Youth Pride) and the program I ran was doing homophobia 101 gigs in the state at schools. I would ask students what language they use and hear that one may consider homophobic. It seemed like each time I went out, someone had a new phrase that was being said and one day, someone said to me, "No homo." This means that if a guy is giving another guy a compliment, it is either started or ended by them saying 'no homo.' -- ya know, just for clarification purposes. It is the same for girls giving other girls compliments but I found it mostly said by the boys. Naturally I was very angry and upset about this because they are saying this not realizing the weight of the phrase. What I found in my research of this phrase is that it originated in rap songs. More recently, it is used in lil' wayne songs where he says it in a few of his tracks. That's what these kids and teenagers are listening to. If they are idolizing lil' wayne and he's saying it, then they should say it too. That's what they think. We are not explaining and inforcing the importance of critically thinking about these issues, whether it is homphobia or any of the other issues that are brought up in the music.