L. Cool J. into box-office stars. Like rock and roll in the 1950s, hip-hop has become the great cultural bridge in these times" ("Hip Hop: The history," Independence, 2006.). However, in some of its manifestations, the original intent of hip-hop music to parody and critique mainstream culture has been corrupted by materialism. There is a distinct contrast with the original voices and visions of artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and Kurtis Blow with Kei$ha. Bambaataa, a Black Spades gang member and DJ said he wanted "to combine his love of music" and "enhance community life (Watkins 22). But while all music that originated in the African-American community has 'crossed over' at some point, no crossover has been characterized by such materialism and dilution as hip-hop. Instead of a critique of materialism, the commercialized version of hip-hop often merely celebrates excess. Ignorant of the real circumstances behind the movement, artists like Kei$ha (what can only be called 'bad artists') coming from conventional backgrounds sing about aspiring to live the life of hard-drinking hipsters from the streets in their music. Once, hip-hop artists dreamed living the American Dream and leaving the ghetto: now, people who have the money and comforts these artists coveted desire to "brush their teeth with a bottle of Jack."
Instead of decrying the injustice perpetrated against black men, commercialized hip-hop today makes money and success look easy, as easy as slipping fake gold jewelry and singing songs about glamorized violence [Simile]. "The unprecedented influence by Black youth" to increase awareness about black anger have achieved through hip-hop is meaningless, if it is not used for advancing the movement's original values (Kitwana xxi). "The Afro-Americanization of white youth has been more a male than a female affair given the prominence of male athletes and the cultural weight of male pop artists. This process results in white youth -- male and female -- imitating and emulating black male styles of walking, talking, dressing, and gesticulating in relation to others" like Kei$ha (Kitwana 10).
Today,...
Hip-hop continues to be innovative as an art form: The Black Eyed Peas have created a new, 21st century vision of hip-hop that is multiracial, still embraces new musical technology, but is highly politicized enough in their uncompromising vision to use one of Barak Obama's campaign speeches in a song. The Black Eyed Peas are examples of why hip-hop can and should remain meaningful: the message and the art are constantly related to listener's lives and constantly innovated to suit the times. For hip-hop to flourish creatively and remain relevant, artists must have a message and a vision, lest this appropriative, postmodern art form becomes re-appropriated by the culture it was designed to parody. "Tick tock:" the clock of history is ticking away [Metaphor], to see how hip-hop artists will cope with the pressures to make money and to make this satirical, highly verbal form of music still interesting to critical listeners.
Works Cited
Farley, Christopher John, Melissa August, Leslie Everton Brice, Laird Harrison Todd
Murphy & David E. Thigpen. "Music: Hip-Hop Nation." Time Magazine.
February 8, 1999. May 18, 2010. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,990164,00.html#ixzz0oHgi6quC
"Hip Hop: The history." Independence. 2006. May 18, 2010.
http://www.independance.co.uk/hhc_history.htm
"I'll be missing you' by Puff Daddy." Song Facts. 1997.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1074
Kitwana, Bakari. The hip-hop generation: Young blacks and the crisis in African-American culture. Basic, 2003.
Powell, Kevin. "Hip-Hop Is the Most Important Youth Culture on the Planet." Time Magazine.
September 22, 2000. May 18, 2010.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,55624,00.html#ixzz0oHhSP7yj
Watkins, Samuel Craig. Hip Hop Matters. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.
