Hip-Hop Subculture as Answer to Social Inequality

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One of the most notable aspects of a contemporary living in America is the fact that, as of today, the sub-culture of Hip-Hop had ceased being considered in terms of a largely marginalized socio-cultural phenomenon. Probably the main reason for this is that, as time goes on, Hip-Hop continues to grow ever more discursively inclusive, which in turn creates the objective preconditions for it to acquire the status of a fully legitimate culture of its own. Even today, Hip-Hop has effectively stopped being solely associated with a particular music style – hence, causing people to increasingly refer to it as the multi-dimensional ‘style of life’: “Its (Hip-Hop’s) cultural forms or common activities, include — DJing (i.e., ‘turntablism’), rapping (i.e., ’emceeing’), dancing (i.e., ‘breaking’ or breakdancing), and art writing (‘graffiti art’)” (Brunson 6).

In its turn, this allows us to hypothesize that Hip-Hop can be best discussed as the cultural medium that allows its creators (African-Americans) to project their existential anxieties unto the American society, which in turn makes it possible for them to contribute to the ‘making of America actively’. In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, while advancing the idea that Hip-Hop (especially ‘rapping’) can be well seen as the instrument of African-American perceptual/socio-economic liberation.

Nowadays, it became a commonplace practice to suggest that, up until comparatively recent times, African-Americans used to suffer from being exposed to the different forms of racial discrimination. What it is rarely mentioned, however, is that even today, these people often find it rather impossible to remain thoroughly observant of the conventions of the currently predominant euro-centric discourse in America, as subtly racist and even worse – utterly hypocritical. The reason for this is quite apparent – this discourse is being largely concerned with the country’s White Conservatives opposing their Liberal White adversaries.

Yet, neither the Conservative no Liberal cause appeals to the majority of African-Americans, as individuals who, due to being psychologically healthy, are well capable of recognizing the sheer fallaciousness of both of the mentioned causes. After all, despite their ability to indulge in the well-meaning rhetoric of political-correctness, the country’s White ‘owners’ never ceased being solely concerned with striving to enjoy the sensual pleasures of life (sex), to attain a social prominence (domination) and to become rich (money). In its turn, this established the objective prerequisites for the emergence of Hip-Hop as we know it.

After all, this sub-culture can be well discussed, as such that reflects the fact that ever since the early seventies, African-Americans began to grow increasingly aware that, in order for them to be able to get rid of their socially underprivileged status, they must be willing to face the truth that there is nothing ‘metaphysical’ about one’s life. Being essentially ‘hairless apes,’ people cannot help having their unconscious desires essentially animalistic – even when they do not admit it to themselves consciously. This explains why, ever since the time of its emergence, Hip-Hop became strongly affiliated with promoting materialism, violence, and sexism – the trend that reached its peak during the nineties (Crossley 504).

Thus, Hip-Hop can be well discussed as the instrument of Black people’s intellectual liberation from the religion-based White oppressiveness. Therefore, it is fully explainable why, ever since the early seventies, African-Americans were able to empower themselves rather substantially, in the social sense of this word. It appears that this is the direct consequence of the fact that, after having adopted Hip-Hop as an integral part of their lifestyle, they were able to perceive the surrounding social reality, as it is, without holding any idealistic illusions about it.

Apparently, the sheer popularity of Hip-Hop, as a sub-culture (not only among Blacks but among Whites, as well) directly derives from the fact that it is thoroughly consistent with most fundamental Darwinian laws of nature. As Murray pointed out: “Hip-hop has no taboos, and it resists the mythic unity and naivete of Afrocentricity and Black Nationalism, opting instead for the hustler, “playa’,” pimp mentality, the money-rules-everything-around-me mentality” (6).

Thus, it will be thoroughly appropriate, on our part, to suggest that Hip-Hop represents specifically those people (primarily, African-Americans), who happened to be both:

endowed with plenty of biological vitality,
possessing certain intellectual integrity that allows them to celebrate such their endowment.

Allegorically speaking, Hip-Hop is a ‘raw power,’ which originates in the hearts of intellectually liberated African-Americans, and which is now being enjoyed in just about every part of the world — conceptually speaking. However, Hip-Hop is best defined as the tool of self-affirmation, on the part of those people who, despite having suffered from different injustices in the past (due to the color of their skin), grew powerful enough to be claiming their share of ‘goodies’ in the White-dominated world. As Shabazz noted: “Hip-hop’s spatial practice allows for practitioners to transform their lives through transforming the built environment.

It is a way to challenge exclusion and access spatial power through the Black occupation of public space” (373). Therefore, it is fully explainable why the representatives of just about every racial minority (such as Puerto-Ricans) in the U.S. enjoy the public image of being strongly affiliated with Hip-Hop – such their image confirms that these people indeed have what it takes to be able to put away with the legacy of White oppression, once and for all. Hip-Hop actually helps them to confirm it in their own eyes: “Like other Latino groups, Puerto Ricans are using rap as a vehicle for affirming their history, language, and culture under conditions of rampant discrimination and exclusion” (Flores 84). Thus, there is indeed a good rationale in referring to Hip-Hop in terms of a culturally-philosophical paradigm, which helps its affiliates to challenge the hegemony of pretentiously tolerant but factually vicious Whites and to reclaim the environmental niche of the latter consequently.

What has been said earlier, in regards to the actual significance of Hip-Hop, should not be considered merely a piece of abstract philosophizing? The reason for this is that it is not only that Hip-Hop empowers those associated with it theoretically, but also practically. The validity of this statement can be illustrated, in regards to the Hip-Hop cult-figure Kool Herc – a person who is being commonly referred to as the concerned sub-culture’s ‘father.’ Before he moved to New York from Jamaica, the cultural life of the city’s Black community used to revolve around the functioning of Black commercial radios, which mostly broadcasted White pop and disco music (Berman 138).

In its turn, this presupposed the situation when the performance of DJs was essentially concerned with changing vinyl records upon the club-owners’ request. Herc changed all that – during the music-parties that he used to stage, DJs never ceased to remain in the action’s actual control, by the mean of resorting to the so-called ‘reggae-scratching’ technique, which allowed them to create nothing short of the compositions of their own, without having been required to compose music. According to Chang, this was nothing short of a groundbreaking musical revolution: “Forget melody, chorus, songs – it was all about the groove, building it, keeping it going… Herc zeroed in on the fundamental vibrating loop at the heart of the record, the break” (79).

Therefore, there is nothing surprising about the fact that Herc went down the history of Hip-Hop as the first MC (master of ceremonies) ever – unlike his predecessors in the field of ‘Black music,’ he succeeded in turning the newly emerged Hip-Hop style into the gizmo of a social advancement for otherwise underprivileged Black youth. This simply could not be otherwise, because Herc’s very approach to staging music-parties made it possible for young African-Americans to compete with each other on a dance-floor, while Herc was inserting reggae-‘breaks’ (some of which used to last for no less than 10 minutes) between the song’s consequential parts.

In other words, Herc’s music allowed the transformation of formerly passive Black listeners into the musical action’s active participants – hence, providing them with not only the opportunity to enjoy themselves, during the musical performance’s entirety but also to take practical advantage of their genetically predetermined talent for dancing and rhyming.

As of today, the Hip-Hop sub-culture continues with the mission of increasing the measure of evolutionary fitness, on the part of African-Americans. The reason for this is that, despite being criticized (on account of its presumed ‘low-class’), this sub-culture is essentially concerned with the promotion of the masculine existential values among ‘ghetto’-residents: “Attaining manhood through a struggle with white patriarchy… is an essential element in the (Hip-Hop-driven) construction of Black masculinity” (Shabazz 372).

This explains why Hip-Hop is being criticized by both: Right and Left, in the first place – the concerned White critics unconsciously perceive it as the threat to their continual ability to lead a ‘struggle-free’ lifestyle of the descendants of slave-owners. Having been deprived of their ancestors’ masculine qualities (reflected by these people’s ‘taste’ for the different forms of degeneracy, such as homosexualism), today’s Whites cannot help experiencing the sensation of envy towards the people of color, especially if the latter happened to be affiliated with Hip-Hop. This explains all the lamentation, on account of Hip-Hop’s ‘viciousness,’ heard from the self-appointed White guardians of ‘public morality’ (Dyson 64).

Nevertheless, there a number of good reasons to believe that the sub-culture of Hip-Hop will grow ever stronger as time goes on. The main reason for this is that, as it was implied earlier, Hip-Hop fully correlates with the principle of the ‘survival of the fittest’ – hence, the concerned sub-culture’s apparent ability to find the ever-newer forms of self-actualization, which in turn suggests that it continues to evolve.

I believe that the earlier deployed line of argumentation, as to what can be considered the discursive significance of Hip-Hop, is fully consistent with the paper’s initial thesis. Apparently, the emergence of this specific sub-culture can indeed be deemed indicative of the fact that it is only a matter of time before American Whites will be no longer in the position of enjoying the undisputed dominance in the field of the nation’s cultural life.

Works Cited

Berman, Eric. “The Godfathers of Rap.” Rolling Stone 672/673 (1993): 137–139. Print.

Brunson , James. “Showing, Seeing: Hip-Hop, Visual Culture, and the Show-and-Tell Performance.” Black History Bulletin 74.1, (2011): 6-12. Print.

Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: Picador, 2005. Print.

Crossley, Scott. “Metaphorical Conceptions in Hip-Hop Music.” African American Review 39.4 (2005): 501-512. Print.

Dyson, Michael. “The Culture of Hip-Hop.” That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Eds. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York: Routledge, 2004. 61-69. Print.

Flores, Juan. “Puerto Rocks: Rap, Roots, and Amnesia.” That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Eds. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York: Routledge, 2004. 69-87. Print.

Murray, Derek. “Hip-Hop vs. High Art: Notes on Race as Spectacle.” Art Journal 63.2 (2004): 4-19. Print.

Shabazz, Rashad. “Masculinity and the Mic: Confronting the Uneven Geography of Hip-Hop.” Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 21.3 (2014): 370-386. Print.

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Hip-Hop Subculture as Answer to Social Inequality

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