I’ve often heard people, with their nose held up high and the inside of their nostrils clearly visible, describe hip-hop with disgust and ignorance. Sometimes it is even blamed for violence and sexism, even though these claims seem to be never accompanied by any evidence (age of sexual encounter has mostly been stable while crime has been on the decrease; hip hop, on the other hand, has been on the rise). Sometimes it’s just said to be bad music (if these snobs deem it to be worthy of being called “music”).

Which brings me to the song that prompted this post:

Critics and cynics complain that it’s a fallacy
Claiming rap music has a lack of musicality
But in reality none of the critics can rap
So they don’t know the facts but they’re always on the attack see
Rhythm and poetry that’s what a rap is
It takes musicality, focus and practice
The rhythm is rapid like the notes of a jazz lick
Or if it’s a triplet it slows down like traffic
You might point out that it lacks a melody
But rap can be melodic like Ella or Della Reese
I don’t care about your musical pedigrees
Cos I’m the half breed of a jazz funk legacy
You better be on point when you diss it
Cos we know the critics of rap are all bigots
So dig it
This is how I kick it and it’s beautiful
Don’t ever try to tell me that my rap isn’t musical

That’s how it is
That’s how we do it
That’s why I love this hip hop music

The same critics talking trash and dissing rap
Listen to jazz, rhythm and blues and classical gas
Maybe they never studied the past or just don’t mind
That jazz wasn’t considered a music at one time
They don’t want to admit that it might last
A very long time like jazz and it’s no fad
Rap tracks continue to pack kiddies knapsacks
So listen to the sax sayin’ somethin and that’s that

Now I can rap alone spontaneous like a saxophone solo
Without a chaperone or a stack of poems
I’m deep like a baritone singing in catacombs
Back in the days I used to freestyle for accolades
What other musical genre besides rap
Crafts lyric gems just as rhythmic as hi-hats
What other music improvises up wisecracks
To make the crowd happily clap
And why’s that?

That’s how it is
That’s how we do it
That’s why I love this hip hop music

See I grew up in Philly listening to the Roots
And Black Thought taught me the rules of this rap sport
And now I’m hip-hoppin’ on planes taking it worldwide
To make the fellas clap and the beautiful girls sigh
And every now and then critics emerge
Telling me rap’s not a music and I think it’s absurd
Cos I transcribe the rhythms and I know that I’m right
And I show and prove my theory when I’m holding the mic
I know you might not respect what I do
But at least hear me out when I’m stepping to you
Cos I’m not your average cat waving a gat
When I rap I freestyle while I’m taking a nap
Making them clap to the music as I travel the globe
A representative
With my pen I give a sensitive consideration to my sentences
That’s the concept
Take it to the hook let me put it in context

Here’s a live clip on youtube (low quality, though), or another song of them, in studio.

Now, let’s look at what kind of lyrics we find in those well-beloved, best-selling classics:

(Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock)

The warden threw a party in the county jail.
The prison band was there and they began to wail.
The band was jumpin and the joint began to swing.
You shouldve heard those knocked out jailbirds sing.
Lets rock, everybody, lets rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin to the jailhouse rock.

(The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever)
Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn’t matter much to me.

I don’t see how this stands out favourably from what hip hop has to offer. I listen to just about every genre of music and rappers seems to offer the best in terms of lyrics. It doesn’t quite fit the lyrical structure that the older generations are necessarily accustomed to and the culture it comes from is perhaps distant from upper-middle-class white suburbanites, but once you gets used to it and become capable of listening to the lyrics with ease, it is indeed the best we’ve got today and I can’t think of any genre that clearly outclasses it; there’s no place for snobbery.

It’s important to note that not all hip hop is focused on the ghetto, racism, drugs, sex and money. It’s just that certain rappers are over-represented in pop culture and people mistakenly use them as a guide to hip hop. 50 cent, for example, is only one artist, but he represents much of what the public understands to be “hip hop”.

As for the music, like in the content and tone of lyrics, there’s a fair amount of diversity. DL Incognito, Saul Williams, Nujabes, RJD2, Atmosphere, Buckshot LeFonque, Spank Rock, Abstract Tribe Unique, Buck 65, Busdriver,  Antipop Consortium, K’naan, Deep Puddle Dynamics, Immortal Technique, DJ Cam… I should probably stop now. And these are (I think) pretty much all relatively recent artists: hip hop from the 90’s, 80’s and 70’s differs significantly.

The music tends to focus on setting a certain mood, rather than building a musical progression. But this goes for much of music: Jailhouse Rock can be summed up in 15 seconds, probably less. Progression lays in bands such as Aphrodite’s Child. But progression isn’t all there is to music.

Some people, however, seem incapable of appreciating anything different. In this case, it’s not even about the depth of the music or the lyrics, but it’s entirely a matter of style, like when jazz first clashed with conventional genres, or when artists such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe came through. Her music was surely frowned upon by those used to classical music. However, Once the genre was packaged in a handsome white man, it became incredibly successful (id est, Elvis Presley).

I don’t think that current prejudice towards hip hop has anything to do with race, but the same old resistance to change seems to remain. The same, sadly, goes for electronic music.

-Dussault

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