What comes from rage and no water to quench the fire? How can expression be calm as the sea when it is burning infinitely internally? I’m surrounded by others in an area where hip hop is viewed as the devil; they ignore the negatives of their country and rock that at times exploit the worldly life. However, hip hop is mainly known to broadcast the ugly more than the pretty. You will not see me justify, by any means, any aspect of killing or degrading of women. But please understand, when the bolts and nuts of this genre intertwined with the crack “epidemic”, it exploded. Lyricists are not untalented musicians – they are poets putting lyrical verses into rhythmic form (just think of how many songs that can only be song cannot hit upon the many points that are made in a rap song…seriously, think about it), A poet is our reporter. Poetry has extended into rap – and the inner cities were especially not pretty in the 1980’s.
I didn’t even need to live in the inner cities during that decade to understand that crack was a corrosive disease amongst Latinos and blacks. I was a child who witnessed her family gutted from the inside and destroyed while living in the South. The inner cities are catalysts to the creative process; they have more people, more exposure, more to witness. Hip hop reflected what was projected. Would you write of in these situations?
Indeed crack was whack, but politicians and the media were absurdly ridiculous. “WAR ON DRUGS”. Yes, a war on addictions and the market it produces. Does that make sense to you? Some are awakening from their haze of this condemnation, where first time offenders were sent away for decades – lives ruined and returning into society as a potential violent offender. Addicts weren’t reformed, but instead imprisoned – beginning a cycle of more children in foster homes and possibly becoming drug dealers themselves in else to get by. What words can be used to describe Barbara Bush (or was it Nancy Reagan) championing a tank pushing into a house in order to look for dealers, only to find a home of a family, and walk away saying “we were only trying to save them from themselves” (if you think I’m making it up, look up the documentaries of N.W.A. and “Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Epidemic”). It really wasn’t an epidemic until the media blew it up in order to warn others of its detrimental effects. That’s a noble cause that went by the wayside of sensationalism. WAR ON DRUGS equals BULLSHIT. This load of feces never quelled gangs and the gang mentality. It definitely helped intensify the rage in rap.
Don’t confuse rap as only being about drugs, violence, and sex. It has many other elements that are constantly overshadowed. Can I see the point of views of those who look down upon hip hop? Yes, certainly. Last night I had a long discussion with a doctor who is from D.C., and attributes crack and rap to setting the rap community back in progress. He also said it made people run back to Country music, which was a simple form of music and was dying out thanks to more evolving music like Jazz, Rock, and R&B. It hits him personally, but I think this genre was the scapegoat, the devil that societies need from time to time to blame the reason why their rich son became an addict, their daughter became a whore, or nephew serving a sentence from violent tendencies.
There will always be love in my heart for hip hop – the form that gave kids with few options the chance to become entrepreneurs, which produces beats that do indescribable things to my heart and soul. I do my best to defend it, although I know its ugly sides are more mainstream than its uplifting parts (how unfortunate). If there is anything I hate, it is crack, the crack epidemic, and how its droppings still affect us to this day. Too many families have been destroyed by it, but it gave rap material. Some could argue that it made some rich – but no, the richness was limited and gave many reasons to dehumanize the image of black Americans. Could rap be blamed for not censoring how it affected their communities, what they knew, or would they be wrong for doing what musicians tend to do – make art of what they know? I can’t write about the drug life? I’ve been offered the chance to do – but would never sell drugs. Because of how it affected my life, I could never dive into doing drugs. My poetry is reflective of me, so the drug life is not a part of my material. Is rap glorifying this hellish thing, or is it reflective? No doubt, some glorify it, but even those who don’t in the rap game are condemned.
This little reflection of mine might have strayed off point a bit; sorry if it did. These are two things that are strongly influential in my life, so too many thoughts have passed through my head as I tried to squeeze it out on my laptop. How blessed are my children that they will never walk in on their mother using, How pissed am I that I know of some who still think cocaine is okay. It still affects us, as the children of the 80’s – my generation – are now adults who are fractured and weren’t fortunate to see the glory days after the Civil Rights Movement. No, we saw that it was okay to be racially profiled, because our people were the only crack dealers and addicts (and what a bold-faced lie that was). My anger has calmed down some, things have changed much. Still, if you want to blame just one thing for the destruction of a generation, you have to look at more than just the scapegoat.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with any points I have made?
cmccree24 