Chapter 12 (Hip Hop Wars)

In Chapter 12, Tricia Rose explores Progressive Voices, Energies, and Visions. Part of the chapter is dedicated to speaking about “conscious rap” in which she describes as: “rap that avoids pandering to the worst images of young black people, favors more socially conscious content, and is not nearly as heavily promoted as that of artists who rely on the gangsta-pimp-ho trinity” (Rose, 2008, p. 241).

This rap is heavily fueled by artists who have politically aggressive content in their lyrics. Thus, they are labeled differently than the bling rapping artists who most often rap about street life. It is often in the underground realm rather than the commercial realm because of people’s habits of listening to music that is most accessible and highly promoted (244). These lyrics deal with social consciousness and avoid taking part in the “voyeuristic consumption of black stereotypes” (242) that commercial rap most often does. Rose uses the term commercial as one who is concerned about the way in which Black people are represented in hip hop and to show the significant role that corporate as well as mainstream American culture has on shaping the direction and content of what is most visible and highly promoted in hip hop for profit (242). Thus, this conscious rap is most often marginalized, though there are some who have contracts with major record level, such as COMMON!!!!!!, Nas, and Mos Def. Other artists operate in the Do It Yourself networks and remain underground. It seems as people are not attracted to this music because it does not give them what they are used to or give them something to dance to. So, it is looked at as an alternative to commercial rap.

Rose says, “The conventional split between commercial and politically conscious rap creates a narrow ‘alternative’ to the commercial options that saturate hip hop” (243). She describes it as narrow because just categorizing hip hop in only those two ways makes it seem as if rap that is overtly political is the direct opposite of the trinity rap (gangsta, pimps, and hoes).

Additionally, she notes it as rigid and one dimensional set of options that does not help the establishing of a progressive vision of hip hop. In other words, looking at hip in just these two ways neverminds the fact and desire that hip hop is fluid and complex. Up and coming artists have to choose where they fit in, either in the explicitly political category or the trinity category. Additionally, it causes artist to remain in these categories and never venture out. Rose says that this labeling is detrimental, particularly to artists who are labeled as “socially conscious”. She notes that it is “almost a commercial death sentence for artist visibility and everyday fan appreciation. From this sober perspective on consciousness, gangstas appear to be the only ones having fun” (243). And everyone wants to have fun, right?! No matter how great they are at rhymes or how great their beats are, they are still pushed to the margins because no one wants to listen to social consciousness. As mentioned before, we gravitate toward the most popular and that happens to be the trinity rap that promotes “keeping it real” when talking about street life. Rose notes this as something that needs to be done away with in order for progressive music to become popular.

What are your thoughts?!

What is Popular Music?

Rose describes popular music as something that must be “dynamic, playful, exciting, and cutting edge” (244). So, if conscious rap aspires to be popular, then it must possess these characteristics. It can involve politically conscious content, but surely cannot as well and not always. “A crucial aspect of a progressive reclaiming of the soul of hip hop is the refusal to limit the scope of progressive art to the narrow application of ‘social-consciousness’—oriented topics, as has sometimes been the case” (244). In other words, progressive artist should consider stepping outside of that political agenda a bit. It does not mean that they have to feed into the gangsta, pimp, hoe scene, but they should be versatile and be able to talk about anything, such as street culture. An example is A Tribe Called Quest who said, “ We noticed that the world was kind of negative and a lot of people in hip hop talked about their love of jewelry, and money and love of cars. We wanted to discuss the love of humanity, loving yourself, loving the real emotion that’s relevant to life.” They have songs, , such as “Bonita Applebaum” that have expanded their use of hip hop. Other artists include COMMON!!!!, Lauryn Hill, Saul Williams, Wyclef Jean, The Roots...

Their versatility gives them a chance to be popular. Rose mentions that the distinction between gangsta rap and socially conscious rap is not just about the story that artists tell in their lyrics, but about how OFTEN. She encourages artists to switch it up a little.

A Tribe Called Quest and COMMON!!!! are amongst bloggers, journalists, filmmakers, social workers, etc. that are “all working to broaden the creative and intellectual grounds for progressive hip hop. Their work suggests that there is a diverse, invested, and significant group of people who are part of hip hop, but willing to challenge and re-envision it” (246).



Solutions:
1. Challenge commercial culture!! Quote on page 243 by Andre C. Willis

2. Expand our visions
3. Get to know progressive artists and organizations!! Pages 247-260

What do you define as progress after reading the chapter?!