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