It Was All A Dream (chapter 18 of The Dream The Nightmare) Ray and Tone

The Video

"Juicy," stands as a landmark in the Hip-Hop generation's evolving self-concept."(p. 261)

Ross gives a little background on the song and video and then moves on to explains that the songs sample has a bit of nostalgia to it for the Hip-Hip heads. Juicy has a ranges to riches theme and Biggie keeps his flow simple and easy to understand. Ross says that the link that Pac and biggie shared is the ability to show their weaknesses in their music and use the mic as a "Confession Both". The chapter then explains how "juicy" the video helped cross the song over and convey BIG's version of the "American Dream", showcase his talents as an artist and imposing image, while at the same time showing Combs/Bad Boy's Vision of upward mobility for Hip-Hop. The video also shows a shift in Hip-Hops values moving from one that shuns egocentric/mainstream values, to embracing them as Biggie's lyrics and "Juicy" the video show.

Class Matters

In this section Ross explains that even though many Hip-Hop heads have a strong dislike for Puff, It's likely that we would have never heard of Biggie without Puff's eye for talent and his fashion and business savvy. Ross also explains that, love him or hate him, Combs has had a tremendous impact on Hip-Hop culture. It is also the soul work of Puff after BIG's death that keep him relevant to the mainstream. Biggie didn't leave much for Puff to build on after he passed, unlike Pac who left behind a ton of work. this part of the chapter goes on to explain Puff's background and how he became a bridge between to polar opposites in the mainstream world of Hip-Hop. Def Jam/Simmons had a harder raw sound representing ghetto , while Uptown/Harrell had a sleek, polished sound representing upward mobility. the Bad Boy's image was what Def Jam and Uptown would look like if they had fused.

Ross also talks about Blacks in the middle class living between two worlds, integration, acceptance (or lack of) by whites and poor blacks, and the disconnect of the Hop-Hop generation from the civil right movement. Puff came from a middle class, predominantly white area where he enjoyed a good life. Even with the luxuries black kids still felt a bit unwelcome and searched for acceptance some place where they felt more welcome. Hip-Hop gave them this opportunity. because of integration and small successes coupled with the media over looking the hood, the children that came up in the Hip-Hop generation didn't have the urgency for the struggle that was present in the civil rights movement. The Hip-Hop generation was more focused on individual gain. Ross moves on to some of the theories as to why BIG trusted puff to shape his image and this focus on individual gain is one of the given theories; Biggie may have wanted the cash "by any means necessary". The second is that BIG was a cynic and figured that he could either die in the hood or go along with the program and be a rich man. The third theory was that someone like Pac could not deny his heritage in America as a Black man, but BIG was raised by a Jamaican mother and therefore did not have the same since of community to African Americans because of his Jamaican heritage.

The Good Life

This section talks about how Hype Williams help shape Biggie's cross over appeal while single handily reshaping and legitimizing rap videos and havig an inpacton all music video in the mainstream. The stage opened up for Hype to do his thing due to MTV and to the huge success of "the Chronic" and "Doggystyle." Labels saw that Hip-Hop was bankable and realized the video was an important toll in selling an album. Labels started giving out big budgets to shoot rap videos. the chapter then explores some of the ingredients that lead to the attitude of the Hip-Hop gen in the segment "Sea Change." Much of the problem may be connected to the deterioration of black establishments and community along with the crack epidemic.

Gimme The Loot

In this part of the chapter Ross takes a look at studies that give reasons to the shift in Americans focus economically. Some of the reasons have to do with the adults in the 60's and 70's dealing with anxiety from economic deprivation and this causing a shift to the focus on making money. this, get the money way of life was handed down to the next generations.Ross Move on to discus the middle class black vs. the hood and how the media and America as a whole over looked the poor black community. Blacks that were, "living the dream" didn't want to rock the boat and whites felt everything was good because they saw blacks at levels never reached prior to that point in our history. The media helped perpetuate this image with shows like "The Cosby Show" as the new black American family. Ross then discusses the Hip-Hop communities infatuation with named brands. Much of the reason with our obsession being to show our worth and status through these brands even before corporate America understood the connection in Hip-Hop. All of these elements led up to Puff's version of Hip-Hop that mirrors black culture and mainstream culture

ch 5 eric stewart

In Chapter Five of Hip Hop Wars Tricia Rose addresses some of the arguments about demeaning women. She explains that there are two arguments: (a) people who say that sexism in hip-hop perceives black deviance and inferiority and (b) those who support and appreciate hip hop music but work on behalf of black people, music, and culture. Those who argue option (a) rarely address the problem and don’t prevent discrimination against black people. Those who argue option (b) challenge sexism and misogyny and that the influence of mainstream hip-hop and its images might affect black community.
She also talks about how the mainstream hip-hop reflects the power of men and displays that women are inferior. The media, also in popular hip-hop, portrays that men should be in control of women. She says that she is happy to see ministers who are joining groups to speak out against and fight sexism in the world. Another problem she addresses are the female hip-hop artists who feel like they have to use sexuality as the basis for their image to sell records. Lil Kim admitted that she uses her identity as Lil Kim to sell records. Women artists feel like they have to embody forms of femininity empowered by masculinity, the very thing that should be avoided and solved, to express their power.
People who are speaking out against misogyny are getting discouraged because their views seem to get lost from the public and their discussion. I thought it was interesting that when Tricia Rose talked about how women who listened to early hip hop now feel betrayed with today’s hip hop. I also liked to point that she made about some people are questioning individual rappers to why they degrade women when they claim to represent black youth. I thought of this idea since the beginning of our discussions. Why is it that people blame hip hop when it doesn’t have to do with hip hop, it has to do with what the artist sings about and talks about and how she or he lives their life. They just chose hip-hop music. It isn’t hip hops fault of misogyny or sexism it is those who have chosen hip hop as their music and degrade women in their lyrics.
The end of the chapter sums up three points on how to solve some of the problems with degrading women: 1. To Develop and promote a serious, progressive attack on sexism in hip-hop without patriarchal, conservative religious or anti-black youth politics as its guide. 2. To encourage, promote and support those young black women and men who are embedded and invested in hip hop music but who also want to fundamentally challenge the sexism that defies the music. 3. To educate all youth, both boys and girls- especially those with the least access to ideas about gender equality- about sexism: how it works, why it works, and how to “keep it real” without it.

"every lady aint no hoe. and every bitch sho aint no queen" - j. cole

Hip Hop Is Not Responsible for Sexism [7] but There Are Bitches and Hoes [8]

Tricia Rose begins chapter seven of The Hip Hop Wars by numbering the top five songs on the radio on May 13, 2008: ‘Lollipop’ by Lil Wayne, ‘Love in this Club’ by Usher and Jeezy, ‘What You Got’ by Colbie O’Donis and Akon, ‘The Boss’ by Rick Ross and T-Pain, ‘Hypnotize’ by Gemini. Tricia Rose breaks down images, self centered, and materialistic. “This line up reflects a distortion of youths music’s long-standing and perfectly acceptable focus on sex and courtship into sexist and objectifying tales of male conquest.” It is criticized that these songs “do not distinguish between male and sexual desire and the sexual objectification of women” (150).

This argument is immediately followed by six of the top defenses used by some of hip hops top bitch sayers, “(1) society is sexist, (2) artists should be free to express themselves, (3) rappers are unfairly singled out, (4) we should be tackling the problem at the root, (5) listening to harsh realities gives us a road map, (6) and sexual insults are deleted from radio and video airplay. Each of these defenses evades the issue of sexism, none directly tackle the issue sexist content.” (151)

Rose brings up that we often single out rap music ignoring that sexism is a societal issue. If this was not true there would be no feminist. Sexism being a societal issue reaches back to the founding of this nation, which in many cases was built on prostitution or the exploitation of the whores and jezebels we demonize rap music for acknowledging. We talk about rap music as if it created sexism, but it is a driving force in popular culture today. Rap did not create Marilyn Monroe, neither did it create the phrase ‘sex, drugs, and rock n roll’. Society tries to portray the hip hop culture as hypersexual, forgetting that the first people to exploit black women sexually were slave owners.

There was a time when rap music talked about more politically charged events, that was because there was a politically movement going on in the neighborhoods. Twenty years later, the music brings in billions of dollars and there is an abundance of women who weren’t around before for the wrong reason….this is how the bitch and hoe got popularized in the music. Nelly, along with numerous other top paid rap artists had to come to the defense of the culture admitting they are just telling it how it is, the way that they see it. Former D-Block representative and Jay-Z both agree not all women are bitches and not all bitches deserve to be treated like women “Sisters get respect, bitches get what they deserve. Sisters work hard, bitches work your nerves….I love my sisters, I don’t love no bitch”- Jay Z performing Bitches and Sisters. (173)

Despite rappers insistence on keeping it real, there are lots of people within media that have a lot to say on the use of derogatory terms in hip culture including Russell Simmons, Oprah, and of course Don Imus. The Don Imus incident involving him calling a group of female basketball player’s nappy headed hoes sparked forums nationwide. Debate was fueled by people who felt that Imus had no right to call those women nappy headed hoes because he doesn’t live a life where hoes are outside his door (this was used the same way the n* word is used, you aren’t one so you can’t call anyone one). Generally, people were not upset at Imus because those women were not hoes, but because he said it. This point drives home the fact that there is a consensus that hoes exists within the hip hop community, one that often gets generalized to the black community.

The idea of hip hop being a strictly derogatory towards women is fictitious. Many who are not on the inside are quick to judge the actions of rappers ignoring some of the obvious outward extremities that make ‘womanizing’ so easy. There is a cry from public figures that demand for change in the way that women are represented, while inside figures actually encourage the behavior. The things that rappers talk about within their music are protected by freedom of speech, but the hoe image is something they put about themselves. When a video is shot for one of these mainstream songs the women show up in their most skin clad outfit and press themselves against the rappers, promising sexual favors for a chance to be in the spotlight. 50 Cent doesn’t ask women to suck his dick; women ask to suck his dick. So when a famous rapper speaks about the many women they have it isn’t something they are making up, it is a world that was created around them. Women like Kat Stacks and Super Head are the role models for numerous women. Even for the ones not actually doing the hoeing around, there is a pass amongst us as long as there is an understanding that not all women are hoes. Chris Rock mocks the culture in his ‘smack her with a dick’ sketch.

Jay-Z, TI, and many other forces in hip hop argue that there are many bigger issues that need addressed before we try to fix a few b’s and h’s in rap. We can make progressive steps within the music if the structure of the system was to change, but that is left up to the women who want and allow themselves to be hypersexualized. Fault is often found when too great a pressure is put on rap music or people try to interpret music that was not intended for them in a language they simply do not understand. There is a clear consensus that rappers recognize all women are not hoes, proof being in how any rappers are married and the growing number of songs made to empower the black woman; something Tupac accomplished numerous times and got little notoriety for. Ultimately, the music’s message gets as far as we allow it to get.

written by: Allante M. Chayla O.

The Hip Hop Wars: Chapter 5

Hip Hop Demeans Women

In chapter 5 Tricia Rose goes in depth about the debate in hip hop on sexism and women. She comments on the bigger issues about sexism as a whole not just an issue in hip hop and solutions to this issue as well as giving her personal opinions on this matter. She does this into three general sections, R.E.S.P.E.C.T- But Not the Kind Aretha Franklin Had in Mind, Explicit Isn't Always Exploitative, and "Free the Girls": Hip Hop's Betrayal of Black Women.

In the first section, R.E.S.P.E.C.T- But Not the Kind Aretha Franklin Had in Mind, she quotes George W. Bush's State of the Union Address on February 3, 2005, "Tonight I propose a three-year [faith-based] initiative to help organizations keep young people out of gangs, and show young men an ideal of manhood that respects women and rejects violence." Her rejection of this quote is basically the back-bone of this section of the chapter.(113)

This quote:

1. Relies on the fiction that American mainstream models of masculinity (the white middle class) are non-violent, "respect" women, and reflect a history of civility, honor, and justice. (118)

First of all, this implies that the mainstream model of masculinity in society has always honored and respected women throughout history and that hip hop brings sexism as a completely new idea.

2. Hip hop does not break from the fundamental logic of mainstream msculinity so much as convey it with excess, bravado, an extra insult.(119)

Basically, the demeaning of women is not a new idea, but has existed in mainstrean society in many forms. Hip hop culture takes it to the extreme and magnifies what is already occuring. Pointing the finger at hip hop ignores the overall issue of sexism in society and that doesn't solve anything. There are polite forms of sexism as well that are reflected in religious, moral, social, and political ways. Religious leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have jumped on the "respect" black-women bandwagon but do not include any specifics on how black women are discriminated against nor does it often include a black feminist analysis of the issues.

In the second section, Explicit Isn't Always Exploitative, Rose points out that being explicit does not always equal being degrading. The argument now is to get rid of all sexually explicit lyrics in hip hop, but in doing that society is also taking black womens ability to express their sexual freedom. There are songs that can be sexually empowering such as "Your Revolution" by Sarah Jones. On the contrary artist such as Trina, Lil' Kim, and Foxy Brown use sexually explicit lyrics to exploit themselves.

The last section, "Free the Girls": Hip Hop's Betrayal of Black Women, talks about the movements in place to combate sexism in hip hop such as, Take Back the Music and Black Girls Rock. Rose says, "Too often in our public debates the whole thing turns into a "blame or explain" festival. One side attacks and blames, and the other side explains." When in actuality more young women should be joining these groups to get their voices heard and learn more about what is going on. Furthermore, social critics should hold artist more accountable because speaking out against sexism but showing support for these same artist is self-defeating.

Overall, according to Rose on page 131, the challenge is threefold:
1. To develop and promote a serious, progressive attack on sexism in hip hop without patriarchal, conservative religious, or anti-black youth politics as is guide.
2. To encourage, promote, and support those young black women and men who are embedded and invested in hip hop music but who also want to fundamentally challenge the sexism that defines the music.
3. To educate all youth, both boys and girls - especially those with the least access to ideas about gender equality - about sexism: how it works, why it works, and how to "keep it real" without it.

Georden Burton and Shayna Watts

GURU

Dr. Houston talked about this in class a little!

http://illroots.com/2010/04/21/dj-premier-speaks-on-gurus-death/

Hip-Hop Lessons: The Key of Awesome

The Hip Hop Wars Chapter Two

Hip Hop Reflects Black Dysfunctional ghetto Culture

Chapter two discusses how critics view hip hop as the contemporary promoter of dysfunctional culture. Rose states that “Criticism of this so-called culture of dysfunction revolves around the notion that poor urban black people have themselves created and perpetuated a “culture” of violence (which includes crime and prison culture), sexual deviance/excess, and illiteracy. (Rose 62) This statement is explaining the fact that hip hop is “proof” in some people’s eyes of black underclass dysfunction.

Rose later goes on to examine the four factors that contribute to the idea of black people as culturally dysfunctional.

1. Black Cultural Dysfunction as an Argument Against Black People

2. Black Culture seen as a Threat

3. Fictitiously Self-Generating Cultural Patterns

4. Undermining of the Value of Black Cultural Expressions

-In her discussion about Black Cultural Dysfunction as an Argument Against Black People, Rose points out the fact that critics cite programs like affirmative action for being the cause of the dysfunctional state but whites were the main users of welfare decades before. This is an example of reused ideas to support new circumstances.

-When explaining that Black Culture is seen as a Threat, Rose goes into detail on how any new black cultural expression is seen as a threat to society especially when it affects white middle-class people. She states “ Fears that the music would lure middle-class whites into unsanctioned sexual and other behaviors deemed a threat to acceptable society helped justify many efforts to limit, contain, and police “jungle music”. Now jazz and blues are cornerstones for African American musical culture.

- Rose states “All culture is both created and reinforced by environmental and social contexts”. This statement hits upon the fact that an overwhelming number of black children grow up with one parent, a mother who is responsible for moral development. (Rose 68) So this is seen as perpetuating black dysfunctional culture.

-When Rose speaks about Undermining the Value of Black Cultural Expressions she hits on the fact that “Calling black culture “dysfunctional” overshadows a vibrant tradition of revealing the cultural contributions of African-Americans”. (Rose 69)

By Chanae Reed and Craig Reck

The Hip Hop Wars Chapter Three

Hip Hop Hurts Black People

Tricia Rose breaks down the argument that hip hop hurts black people into three sections. Unfair generalizations, a tone of disdain, and omitted / ignored reasonings compromise the faulty argument that hip hop hurts black people.

The most obvious is unfair generalizations. Critics tend to group every aspect of hip hop into one giant cluster. They make no distinction between the commercial hip hop played on corporate radio and the progressive hip hop spread by local emcees. The gangster-pimp-ho trio is the only image in heavy rotation in the media, so it appears that hip hop has only one image (Rose 78).

These critics tend to use hip hop as a scapegoat for problems that are created by other institutions. They blame hip hop's "cool pose" for keeping the youth from valuing education (79). Though Rose does admit that hip hop does create a "cool pose," she argues that this blame game overlooks real concerns like school improvement, job training and rehabilitation over punishment. Because these aspects of black education are suffering, Rose believes that the "cool pose" could be a response to such a harsh and racist environment. She supports this idea with a study that proved those who do focus on school and excel academically are only half as likely to be hired for the same job as a white man (80). These are the types of problems where Rose says we should focus our efforts. Instead of alienating our youth, we need to love and invest in them.

Rose then shifts focus to those critics who speak out against hip hop with a disdainful tongue. She deems criticism appropriate, but not when it's done in a degrading sense. She specifically mentions Bill Cosby, who is known for being outspoken against the younger generation. In one speech, Cosby called black kids leaving school for the day as dirty laundry (82). Rose says, and rightly so, that this is no way to address a problem. She also writes about a situation that occurred at a KFC. John McWhorter, another hip hop critic, vehemently chastised a couple of loud, obnoxious teens (83). This wouldn't have been a problem had McWhorter not considered the teens to be an accurate sample of the hip hop community. Both of these cases tie into the aforementioned unfair generalizations.

Rose then touches on the critical information that is commonly left out of hip hop criticism. First and foremost, she acknowledges that commercialized hip hop is distributed mainly to a white audience. Corporations sell stereotypical gansta-pimp-ho images to white consumers who do not question them (85).

Adding to the commercial rap flood is the fact that many record labels also own radio stations. This ensures the major singles constant circulation and a practical monopoly of the airwaves for rappers like Lil' This and Young That (86). Rose mentions that no one considers this corporate control as damaging as the "cool pose." Even worse, no one seems to discuss the structural racism with housing projects and a lack of child care (89).

Rose concludes saying that those who publicly attack the most vulnerables in society, while ignoring the institutional racism previously mentioned, are serving a larger agenda. Profit is more of a concern than people (92). We as citizens need to make the changes because the bottom-line corporations won't.

By Craig Reck and Chanae Reed

The Hip Hop Wars Chapter One

In the first chapter of The Hip Hop Wars, Tricia Rose addresses the contention against hip hop that it “glorifies, encourages, and thus causes violence,” a claim which Rose argues is problematic because it is the result of the perception that “black kids are the source of violence” which ignores the “extraordinary violence done to them” (34, 52). Rose maintains that violence in hip hop is a real concern, but argues that in order for the concern to be addressed, we must first address the larger problems which create violence in the communities within which hip hop emerged.

Rose lists five situations which lead to increased violence in urban communities, all of which must be understood in order to come to terms with the “social responsibility for creating and fostering these contexts” (51).

1. Unemployment (43)
Rose notes that in the late 1980’s, unemployment for black teens was somewhere between 50 and 70 percent, while the rate for white teens was somewhere around 13 percent. These high rates of joblessness for teens leads to the understanding that the “traditional avenues for working-class job stability were becoming closed to them.” This results in both economic crisis as well as instability in the family and community, which in turn leads to increased violence.

2. Loss of affordable housing (45)
Rose refers to this “widespread destruction of housing” as “root shock,” the process by which the stable community in which urban dwellers turned “segregation into congregation” is destroyed, resulting in “social disarray” and further, increased violence.

3. Drug Trade (46)
Accessibility of cheap drugs, namely, crack, which destroyed individual lives and families, influenced the sex trade, and contributed to the spread of aids, all of which result in violence.

4. Automatic Weapons (48)
Automatic weapons emerge as a way to protect business in the drug trade.

5. Police and Law Enforcement Response (48-50)
Rose states that “the ‘war on drugs’ was really a war on the communities which bore the brunt of the drug crisis” (48). The response to the drug trade “turned communities into war zones” and “failed to address the roots” of the trade. Additionally, the sentencing policies initiated privileged white drug users over black drug users, instating less severe sentences for possession of coke, used primarily by whites, than the mandatory minimums instated for possession of crack. The drug sentencing rate for blacks was 49% higher than for blacks, who have become 40% of the prison population.

The perception of hip hop as more violent than other spheres of culture is exacerbated by several factors, including the misinterpretation of hip hop lyrics as literal depiction's of violent acts, which are often pure fabrications or exaggerations of real situations, as well as the perception of rappers as “outside, negative, aggressive influences” which is based on the presentation of rappers in popular culture (37-39). Rose also contends that extra attention is given to violent imagery in hip hop community than in other spheres of media, a double standard which, although relevant, is not, according to Rose, the most valid confrontation of the issue of violence in hip hop.

Rose concludes her chapter with three imperatives by which she hopes to resolve, or at least diffuse, the debate concerning violence in hip hop. The first determination is that the hip hop industry must “stop making violence sexy” and stop allowing the commercial industry to profit from the “exploitation of black suffering” (58, 57). She cites 50 Cent as an example, whose “promotional campaign relied on the fact that he sold crack, that his mother was a crack use, that he was shot nine times” (58). Instead, she states that efforts must be made to support and rebuild the black communities which have been destroyed. We must pay attention to black youth, and the real harms that have been inflicted on them. Finally, we must no longer hold hypocritical standards about violence, viewing it simultaneously as a social problem and a source of entertainment.

Cara Miller and Breanna Wagner

The Nightmare and The Dream, Chapters 14 and 15

Chapter 14: Ice Cube’s Nightmare

The author starts out talking about Ice Cube’s transformation as a part of NWA on the west coast to a young black man just waking up to the oppression he is facing and trying to understand the anger he feels about it. This is showed by the conflicting views that he expresses in his lyrics, especially in Amerikkkas Most Wanted. He taps into issues that go past simply being angry at the police, but criticizing the systems that put the police in power (Ross 205). It seems sometimes that he doesn’t quite know where to direct his anger, on page 211, Ross says, “Ice Cube’s attacks on Korean shopkeepers, gays, Jews, white men, middle-class blacks and black women all stemmed from the same source; resentment and rage.”

This leads to a big contradiction in his music, showing some of the confusion he felt. He consistently calls middle class black people and black people that made it out of the ghetto “sell-outs”, so this begs the question, where does he want them to go? If the goal is to improve the living situation of black people, but getting out of the ghetto is selling-out, then what is the solution? Another interesting point the author brings up is that on Cube’s “Givin’ up the nappy dugout”, he was “reminding black folks that 1)the problem isn’t the ghetto nigga, but the ‘nigga mentality,’ and 2) just because one moves out of the ghetto doesn’t mean one is ‘better’ than those left behind” (Ross, 210).

Overall, throughout his two early albums, “Amerikkas Most Wanted” and “Death Certificate”, he points out and critiques many of the issues and situations that are oppressing black people. The success of both of his albums forced people to pay attention to the issues. “Because he was holding up a mirror on America as a whole, Cube made people, even fans uncomfortable … He said things that people felt but didn’t have the courage or platform to say” (Ross, 210).

On page 214, the author brings up the idea of Ghettocentrism. The author says that “Death Certificate” and Farrakhan’s leadership efforts play a large role in the creation of this idea. However, we believe that there were also many other factors that lead to the confusion creating ghettocentrism, including other artists as well as the social, racial, and economic situations of the Black Americans in general all played a role in this confusion. This idea had the potential to be very dangerous, especially to young black people. It twisted the idea of what it meant to be black, glamorizing life in the ghetto, “granted the social outlaw immunity” (Ross, 214), and promoted ideas of homophobia, sexism, and racism. “In turn, Gansta rap that came out of ghettocentrism enabled corporate America to appropriate authentic or “real nigga” style without having to deal with the political baggage that came with the Black Power era” (Ross, 215). In short, it allowed corporate America to give people these “authentic” gangsta heroes without having to deal with the issues that Black Power rap brought up and made mainstream.

“Ice Cube’s awakening reflected the awakening of a generation: from total ignorance to partial knowledge; from shame to pride. For so long we’d been bumping around in the dark without knowing the lights were off. Now that the light was on we couldn’t help but be angry. Cube was at the necessary but temporary stage of righteous indignation. Death Certificate tapped into that wellspring of unarticulated resentment, channeling it outward, predicting, inciting and warning” (Ross, 212). Overall, Ice Cube was an important and temporary voice for hip hop, marking the start and end of an important era of black power rap in the early 1990’s. Although he chose to take the Hollywood route after releasing Death Certificate, his album will remain an important part of hip hop history.



Chapter 15: The “G” Thang

This chapter touches on some of the issues that arise after this huge explosion of Black Power rap. Although many conscious rappers still exist and have a following, the rap that is supported by corporate America changed. This started with Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. Dre and Snoop change the idea of what the Model Negro is supposed to be (page 221). “No longer was the Model Negro a means of uplifting the masses and spreading mainstream values, but a way to use black bodies to tap into the black consumer dollar. This worked on three levels. First, it quelled the social discontent that created the nationalist climate in the first place. Second, it strengthened the economic stranglehold corporate America had over that dollar. Third, it gutted the music of its political voice” (Ross, 220). Basically, it’s turning Dre and Snoop into celebrities, and since they rap about smoking weed and chilling out rather than taking action and trying to change the system, they are perfect models for corporate America to throw on TV and the radio. They satisfy the need to have Black people play a role in pop culture and they don’t bring up the issues that corporate America wants to ignore.

They also change the way that the gangster is defined. Unlike Ice Cube’s portrayal of the angry scary gangster, Snoop and Dre created mellow, laid back gangsters that were happy just smoking weed in the ghetto. It no longer challenged the system. They were still rebels, but “didn’t care about anything or anyone beyond the services they could provide” (Ross, 218).

The author also brings up the idea that Black people in that time weren’t really afraid of or fighting against the system itself, but against being left out of it. The system is concerned not so much with the protest itself but with the problem of how to absorb the protest without too much trouble. This somewhat mirrors what happens with hip hop and the introduction of Dre and Snoop. They are the perfect way for the white system to “‘absorb’ hip hop’s Black Power energy”. They were talented and easily marketed to a huge audience of white and black people. (Ross, 219)

Despite the message of The Chronic, the growing popularity of hip hop in mainstream music resulted in the election of Bill Clinton, who supported many issues that were critical to poor black (82% of the black vote went his way because of this). It also led to a growth in the number of black people who were elected and appointed to the presidential cabinet, the US Senate and the House of Representatives. (Ross, 222).

“As difficult as the previous decade has been, an undeniably positive spirit was swelling in black America. The Dream was alive and well. There was reason for hope and hope for a reason. The critical and commercial success of The Chronic , despite its homages to death, tapped into and drew upon the romance of the moment” (Ross, 222).

By Ally McCarley and Jovan Joiner