“Societies never know it, but the war of

an artist with his society is… to make freedom real.”

—James Baldwin[1]

Hip-Hop

should listen to Marco Polo & Torae more.[2] On “Crashing

Down,” a prophetic track off the duo’s latest LP, Double Barrel, the hook goes:

… Whatchu gon’

do when the walls come crashing down?/

How you feel?/

Ask me, I’m

doing fine/

I’m asking,

whatchu gon’ do when the walls come crashing down?/

This crashing

down they speak of is something record labels would rather not talk about,

rather not discuss, rather not address. But, as the 19th century

poet, Cullen Bryant, might inform, “truth crushed to earth shall rise again.”

This crashing down is the end and

death of record labels as we’ve known them. Total destruction. And this is no

time for melancholy. Indeed, it’s a time for celebration, a time for

jubilation, a time for exhilaration.   

There’s a reason Hip-Hop was conceived

in the belly of South Bronx streets, and not “midtown Manhattan skyscrapers/

Where former hustlers sign papers/ And do fu**ed-up capers/.”[3]

This reality, however, never really

mastered great impression on the minds of middle-age White executives, who, for

two decades, ran the Hip-Hop industry like a slave ship, holding artists

hostage; who, for two decades, ran the Hip-Hop industry like a plantation, dictating

to Black artists the conditions of freedom, and turning out once lyrical

masterminds into commercial cows for an uninformed public’s consumption.   

The artists were bound by deceptive contractual

obligations, forced to partake in activities that went against personal

principles. But they took the pain in silence. They carried the cross without

complaint, invested in hope of a day when their sacrifices would turn ripe the

fruits of freedom. Well, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, that day, that moment,

is upon us.  

Tennessee rapper Young Buck understands

this better than most others. On “Breach of Contract,” a recent mixtape single,

he raps: “We turn the cotton into marijuana fields/ Then work like slaves, just

to try to pay the bills/.”[4]

Rappers have, indeed, worked “like

slaves” to furnish the lavish lifestyles of record label executives. They tirelessly

tilled the grounds these suit-wearing plantation-owners reaped great harvest

from. 

But now, emancipation begins.   

To put food on the table, many

mainstream acts signed their names to record deals that insulted the dignity

they were raised with. They did it not because of a desire to spit on the Black

faces that supported their careers from day 1, but because they understood—or,

rather, thought they did—the game,

and how it had to be played. These rappers “poked out [their] a**es for a

chance to cash in,”[5]

and the “[shady] record company people”[6]

made good use of it. Very few of these slaves

to their labels owned their Masters.”[7]

Most were simply slaves. Period. 

These artists knew they had to put on the

Blackface—often the only available escape from a past mired in poverty. For those

brief moments, the Blackface became more than an opportunistic cosmetic

supplement—unlike Al Jolson in The Jazz

Singer (1927). It became a permanent feature.   

So, for some, songs like “Chain Hang

Low,” “Chicken Noodle Soup,” “Fry Dat Chicken,” and “Whip It Like A Slave,”[8]

didn’t invoke memories of shame and sadness—reminder of a time when Black

actors and actresses were forced to work like dogs for chicken change. Not at

all. Those memories had taken up a new form—reality.

The

New York Daily News

took note of this trend in 2006.[9]

Errol Louis, columnist for the paper, noted the similarity between some of the

time’s most popular songs, and 200-year-old minstrel hits. St. Louis rapper

Jibbs’ 2006 chart-topping single, “Chain Hang Low,” was revealed, first by a New York Times music critic, to have

borrowed inspiration from “Zip Coon”—a famous minstrel hit from the Blackface

era. 

In mention also was 50 Cent’s diamond-selling 2003 album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which, Louis

wrote, carried “an unmistakable echo of a hit minstrel song from 1856 called

‘Root Hog or Die’.” The lyrics of the song, he explained, bore frightening resemblance

to the themes explored in Get Rich or Die

Tryin’: “I’m right from old Virginny, with my pocket full of news/ I’m

worth twenty shillings right square in my shoes/ It doesn’t make a dif of

bitternance to neither you nor I/ Big pig or little pig root, hog or die.”

Louis continued: “It’s sad to see

musically untrained youngsters shucking and jiving for a bit of money and fame.

Most could never dream of succeeding in a serious artistic setting like a

church choir, dance ensemble or jazz band, places that require study,

discipline and hard work. Many would be swiftly laughed off the stage.”

It is true that many of these, for a

lack of a better word, artists have

no talent or skill worth the time and money record labels spend marketing them.

No question. It is also true, however, that the record label executives have

been consistent in selling to the fans manufactured noise as music, undaunted

by the truism that for every action there’s a reaction.  

* * *

In its three decade commercial history,

Hip-Hop has undergone a series of stages, morphing from a spiritual culture of

resistance into an on-demand pill big companies see fit to digest whenever in

need of cultural authenticity.[10]

But, besides the artists, the only victims in this tragic-comic tale, it seems,

are the fans of color. 

Black and Brown fans have been told to

shut up, sit quietly, and watch the wonders of executive-thinking unfold. True

enough, everything went according to plan, but the outcome was farthest from

ingenuity. 

In return, we witnessed young artists of

no recognizable skill get placed in line ahead of veterans and certified

lyricists. What took flesh, as a result, was a torrent of talentlessness that

made many question the validity of Hip-Hop as a critical art-form. 

This brand of label politics ensured

that highly-anticipated albums—albums Hip-Hop needed so badly—were placed on

the back burner—shelved and abandoned.[11]

No other example yields greater

timeliness than Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

II, which is scheduled for release tomorrow—after a mere 3-year wait. Since news broke in 2005 that Wu-legend Raekwon

was prepping a sequel to his 1995 classic, fans have waited impatiently, only

to be disappointed, year after year, by reports of postponement.   

Every Hip-Hop fan can, on demand,

recount similar experiences. From Q-Tip fans, to Papoose fans, to The Clipse

fans, to Saigon fans, the stories are no different.   

This happened primarily because the

stupid executives, unprepared for the technological tidal waves Napster and

Apple had ready for launch, expected fans to remain adherent—even in the face

of blatant disregard. But the tables soon turned, and with the new millennium

came an age of free downloading—an age of choice—an age of freedom.  

And the recording industry hasn’t been

the same ever since…  

In The

Long Tail, Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, details, amongst other things, the rise and fall of

giant record companies—crippled only by self-absorption. Anderson chronicles

the drop in CD sales from 2001 to 2005: “Sales fell 2.5 percent in 2001, 6.8

percent in 2002, and just kept dropping. By the end of 2005 (down another 7

percent), music sales in the United States had dwindled more than a quarter

from their peak. … Between 2001 and 2005, the music industry’s total sales fell

by a quarter. But the number of hit albums fell by nearly half.”[12]

Anderson suggests that the shifted

emphasis from substantive compositions to hit-singles had begun forming the

now-decomposed carcass major label executives try as best to turn their

attention away from.  

Watering down the music to appeal to

broader bases had less an impact than the labels aimed for, he concludes.

Instead of uniting diverse fan-bases, it fragmented them, creating a greater

need for genre/sound specificity. 

The consumers, Anderson writes, soon

found out that the “only way” to “maintain a consistently good enough signal…

is if the filters get increasingly powerful.” [13]

And so they began sending signals, but the rapacious executives pretended they

couldn’t receive it.

Before long, fans discovered the indifferent

intentions labels had in mind, and turned their backs against them forever,

creating, as replacement, informal sub-groups of peers that could recommend

great music to each other and benefit from shared passion. 

The consumers wanted music that catered

specifically to their taste, but the executives, stuck on stupidity, thought

the battle wouldn’t last long. Wrong! 

This turf war over the future of creativity

and substance began raging. The fans agreed with acclaimed writer S.H. Fernando

that “[t]he diversity of rap songs is matched only by the diversity of the

people making them.”[14]

Labels, disagreeing, unwisely hired

attorneys to police the internet and put to an end peer-to-peer file-sharing.[15]

The aim was to nip in the bud this budding revolution. Foolishly, they only

gave it more credibility, recruiting millions to the cause. The once-giant

labels thought a few casualties would intimidate their opponents. But it didn’t.

And now, the big four—Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Sony

BMG—are forced to tuck their tails between their legs and surrender to their

captives’ will, which tossed their way reparations (net sales) of $11.5 billion

in 2006, compared to more uplifting, and less contentious, times like 1996:

$14.5 billion.     

The fans demanded an end to the reign of

free-market fundamentalism in music production—especially Hip-Hop. The sheer

though that the market (radio,

television, print magazine, websites) could police itself never sat well with

them. They understood that the radio and TV stations were, to a great deal,

beholden to the record companies. They knew how loyal and unquestioning on-air

personalities had to be to A&R executives—job-preservation.[16] 

And now, just as with the global

economy, the fundamentals of the recording industry have been shaken-up,

exposed as frail and vulnerable.  The boom

and bust of revenue, brought by boisterous executives, are no longer hidden

from the public. The Bernard Madoffs of the music business can no longer shelter

their names, faces, and reputations.   

Like

the cymbals on Coltrane’s “Alabama” and Miles Davis’ “Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus),”

the walls will come crashing down.

Right on cue, the multi-millionaire

executives have begun blaming their artists, blaming the fans, blaming everyone

but themselves, for the outcome of this Ponzi scheme—which, might I add, they

created.

Their years of carelessness and

recklessness have nothing to do with the current state of affairs, they swear.

Their years of shunning artist-development and “cranking out these pop groups,”

as “Vinnie” described in last week’s editorial,[17]

isn’t in no way related to the disgruntlement fans presently express, they contend.

Dumping disposable artists on an intelligent audience didn’t create this

crisis, either, they say. But we know better.   

* * *

Every Black Hip-Hop artist who’s ever

sold more than 500,000 copies has a tale to tell, a story to share.[18]

Each has, once, or twice, or thrice throughout their career, been confronted by

a middle-age White male executive who reminded him/her who was boss, who

assured him/her how a bright future could be clicked off with the switch of a

button, who lectured him/her about how much more he knew the Black audience’s taste in music.[19]

Everyone. No exceptions.    

And such artist, at that moment, had to

muster up divine self-restraint to avoid being subsequently hit with attempted

murder charges. They restrained themselves because they believed that someday

soon, the empire’s endeavors would be exposed, that someday soon, the corporate

thugs who run the industry would be stripped naked of all supremacy.

These very artists, if they would be so

observant, would notice that their expectations are closer, nearer, and realer than they’ve ever been. 

Since last week’s publication,[20]

which featured an interview with a former marketing heavyweight, I’ve received

tons of e-mails from managers, independent executives, and artists, expressing

great joy in Vinnie’s prediction that if major record labels “don’t change

their ideology, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon, they’ll be gone in

5 years,” and that, in their space will surface artist-controlled

“Music/Entertainment Firms.”

These readers have seen it all and been

through it all. They don’t see major labels anymore as a relevant element in

the making of an artist. Their usefulness has passed.  

Mainstream Hip-Hop acts, still bound by

contractual obligations to record labels, should understand that the fans have

their back, that the fans are just as displeased with the politics of the

business as they are.

We’ve all suffered greatly from the greed

of the pigs at the trough.

At this junction, when the prospect of freedom is more tangible than ever

before, don’t be stupid. Don’t sign your life away to the same companies

responsible for the current meltdown. The labels have, long ago, absolved

themselves of all responsibility concerning artist-development, marketing, and

promotion. Nothing the labels can provide you today can’t be done independently—with

tenacity and temperance.

The rumors are not true: Fans don’t

discriminate against independent acts in favor of majors. Remember: These are the very fans whose rebellion brought

to their knees once omnipotent record companies.

Even if they don’t buy the CDs as often

as you’ll prefer, they show their support in other ways—merchandise and concert

tickets.  

The record labels never meant well for

Hip-Hop, and they’ve made that known, as best as possible, in the last two

decades. Even if it’s a young, handsome Black face sliding the contract across

the table, understand that the content is just as dangerous as it was when old,

not-so-handsome, White faces were pushing the poison.

We are an independent people. We can do

it ourselves. We don’t need no more tyranny. We can walk right into liberty. We

can free ourselves from the shackles and bondages the music industry has kept

us bound in for far too long. We can flip open a new page this moment, and fill

it with words of redemption, words of hope, words of freedom.  

The days of kowtowing before executives

are past. The present is truly a gift. And the future awaits with great

anticipation the rising up of a resilient people.     

John Forté would agree: “It’s a new day

running/ And it ain’t coming/ ‘Cuz it’s here for the taking/ It’s been years in

the making/.”[21]

The GZA would concur: “No time for

backwards thinking/ Let’s think ahead/.”[22]

It’s time: Let’s think, act, and move

ahead into a future fueled by self-determination!

Tolu

Olorunda is a columnist for BlackCommentator.com

and a cultural critic. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Tolu’s Column will return in October 2009.

 

[1] Baldwin, James.

“The Creative

Process.” The National Culture Center, Creative

America. New York: Ridge Press, 1962.

[2] http://store.duckdown.com/marcopoloandtoraedoublebarrelalbum.aspx

[3] Reference from Philadelphia

slam poet Black Ice’s “Truth Is” performance on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7pM8k8moY

[4] https://allhiphop.com/stories/multimedia__music/archive/2009/08/12/21892003.aspx

[5] Reference from:

Mos Def, “The Rape Over,”

The New Danger, 2004.

[6] Reference from:

A Tribe Called Quest, “Check

The Rhime,” The Low End Theory,

1991.

[7] Reference from:

Pharoahe Monch, “Desire,”

Desire, 2007.

[8] https://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2009/08/03/21872635.aspx

[9] http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/opinions/2006/10/22/2006-10-22_all_rhyme__no_reason_for_rap.html

[10] http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-hiphopcommercial27nov27,0,7791207.story

[11] https://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2009/07/13/21780187.aspx

[12] Anderson,

Chris. The

Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. New

York: Hyperion, 2006, p. 32.

[13] Ibid. p. 119.

[14] Fernando, S.H. The New

Beats: Exploring the Music, Culture, and Attitudes of Hip-Hop. New

York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1994, p. 266.

[15] http://www.wiretapmag.org/arts/44460/

[16] https://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2009/07/06/21748874.aspx

[17] https://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2009/08/31/21918231.aspx

[18] Bay Area legend

JT the Bigga Figga shares some of his experiences: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q9z1WzB0nU&feature=channel

[19] http://www.rapbasement.com/busta-rhymes/070708-busta-rhymes-fueds-with-label.html

[20] https://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2009/08/31/21918231.aspx

[21] Reference from:

John Forté, “Breaking

of a Man,” StyleFREE, 2009.

[22] Reference from:

The GZA, “7 Pounds,” Pro Tools, 2008.

 

Hip-Hip, as a cultural phenomenon, is older than 30 years now.

Some of the most commercially relevant and talented rappers are pushing 40 years old (see: Jay-Z and Raekwon) with fans that are young enough to be their children. On the other side, you have older fans that are 40 and up, that witnessed Hip-Hop’s growth spurt firsthand, and now compare and contrast their favorites with acts like Lil Wayne, Drake, Kid Cudi and others.

With the demographic widening, is the Hip-Hop generation at odds with itself because of the differences in age? Simply put, that which appeals to a 40-year-old is not likely to appeal to a 17-year-old even though the genre is the same. Hip-Hop has always prided itself on being a unanimous tool for unity, but the paradigm shift may have occurred recently.

AllHipHop’s Social Lounge will discuss this testy topic with some of the brightest minds in Hip-Hop and community. The AllHipHop.com Social Lounge is an opportunity to engage the Hip Hop community in an offline capacity. Hosted and moderated by AllHipHop.com co-founder Chuck Creekmur, this insightful panel discussion will address this “generational gap” and other matters. Panelists will include Immortal Technique, Killer Mike, Raekwon, Ras Baraka, and Saigon. The evening will also include a Q&A session and a closing performance (performer TBA). This event takes place at NJPAC in Newark, NJ on October 17, 2008. Click here to purchase tickets and for additional information.

Now, do you think there is an inter-generational gap that is adversely affecting Hip-Hop music?

DiscussionsView Results

Saigon

Killer Mike

Ras Baraka

Immortal Technique

“Sometimes, I think it’s

just genocide. Watching all of your people die.”  

                                                      “Closed Eyes”- Marcus

Cox, NC artist  

  

I just peeped the new movie

called “The Final Destination” about this woe- is -me type

dude warning his homies about their impending demises and their frantic

attempts to beat the grim reaper. I’m not  sure why I spent $6.25 to

see the flick when, as a Black man, I get that every night on the evening

news for free…  

 

The gloom and doom forecast

for Black life started out in the 16th century with the misinterpretation

of scripture that condemned people of African descent to the curse of

being “hewers of wood and drawers of water.” It’s been pretty

much downhill every since.  

 

It seems that any news dealing

with Black folks is, overwhelmingly, negative except for the occasional

story of some lucky kid who “made it out the ghetto despite the

million- to- one odds.”  

 

Whether it’s stories about

unemployment or high drop out rates, Black on black violence or some

new disease that for some strange reason only attacks Black folks, news

from the ‘hood is, definitely, not all good.  

 

The sad thing about it is that

most of us have become so accustomed to our pitiful prognosis that we

have accepted the revelations, wholeheartedly, without even asking

why.  

 

And those of us who do try

to challenge the statistics are faced with the unenviable task of constantly

trying to decipher fact from fiction.  

 

Is the Black community, inherently,

doomed to the pathologies that plague us or do our own actions determine

our fate? Do we have the ability to develop strategies to relieve our

burdens or will even our best made plans be sabotaged by those who have

a vested interest in “keepin’ the Black man down?”  

 

People like Bill Cosby have

argued that if only Black boys would pull up their pants and stop listening

to gangsta rap then all would be right with the world. This is not much

different than WEB Du Bois’ argument in his 1897 essay, “The Conversation

of Races” that the greatest step to solving the “Negro problem

lies in the correction of the immortality, crime and laziness of the

Negroes themselves, which still remains an argument since slavery.”

 

 

Others have argued, quite convincingly,

that the condition of African Americans is not the result of Divine

Providence nor an accidental universal catastrophe but is a well designed

attempt to remove people with high levels of melanin from the face of

the planet.  

 

While this may be dismissed

by some as paranoia, as the character from the 80’s sitcom, WKRP in

Cincinnati, Dr. Johnny Fever, once said, “when everyone’s out to

get you, being paranoid is just a smart way of thinking.”  

 

After all the evidence is there.

 

 

As Malcolm X said at a Harlem

rally in 1964, known as his ‘By Any Means Necessary Speech,” When

you let the Black man in America know where he once was and what he

once had, why, he only needs to look at himself now to realize something

criminal was done to him to bring him down to the low condition that

he’s in today.”  

 

It is foolish to deny the fact

that segments in this country have offered ways to get rid of Black

undesirables over the years; whether it be lynchings, burnings, the

Tuskegee Experiment, COINTELPRO, crack and guns in the hood or the Hurricane

Katrina aftermath, the list goes on.  

 

While many of these incidents

may be chalked up to urban legends, the affect of rumors was taken very

seriously by the government.  In her book, “Heard it Through the

Grapevine,” Professor Patricia Turner writes that the Feds set

up “rumor clinics” during WWII to “prevent potentially

adverse hearsay of all sorts from gaining credibility.” Also, in

1968, the Kerner Report recorded the operation of  “Rumor Central

” operations to combat urban racial disorders.  

 

What is most troubling is that

many young African Americans have embraced their fate and adopted the

old Star Trek Borg mantra that “resistance is futile.”  

 

This is especially evident

in Hip Hop as rappers have developed a bizarre type of necrophilia.

There are hundreds of songs with the common theme of “just kill

me, already, and get it over with.”  

 

The posthumous success of rappers

Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG, both of whom seemed to predict their

deaths in their lyrics, are perhaps the best examples.  

 

This is not to suggest that

the entertainment industry’s exploitation of Black agony started with

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5’s, “The Message.” From

the blues to the the situation comedies /tragedies of 70’s shows such

as Good Times, the industry has painted a less than rosy picture of Black life. However, with changing technological advances, Hip-Hop allowed Black suffering to be embraced, globally.  

 

Regardless, of the cause of

our dilemma, our challenge is to find ways to restore the confidence

of this younger generation that they do not have to accept their prewritten

obituaries but they posses the innate ability to change their environment.

 

 

Maybe, we will find out that

Earth, Wind and Fire were right when they sang, “in our hearts

lie all the answers to the truth you can’t run from.”  

 

Until then, just like  in the

movie, being Black in America is  a constant, everyday struggle to cheat

death.  

  

 

Paul Scott writes for No Warning

Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at  [email protected]