|
Straight Outta Compton (Priority, 1988)
/
Ghetto
Music: The Blueprint Of Hip Hop (Jive, 1989) /
Get Rich Or Die Tryin’
– Soundtrack (2005)
*
* * * *
50 Cent CDs
Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
/
The Massacre /
Guess Who's Back /
Power of the Dollar
* * * * * Books on Rap &
Hip Hop
Todd Boyd,
The
New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop
(2003) /
Sharif Responds to Todd
Boyd /
Is Hip
Hop Really Dead?
Brian Cross,
It's Not About a Salary... Rap, Race and Resistance in Los
Angeles: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles (1993)
Tricia Rose,
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America
(1994)
Russell A. Porter, Spectacular
Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism
(1995)
Bakari Kitwana,
The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the
Crisis in African American Culture
(2003)
Imani
Perry,
Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (2004)
*
* * * *
Poor White Boys and the Future of
Hiphop
By
Charles Chea Poverty
is definitely not restricted to any specific area. But ask a
group of youth, or even adults, what "ghetto" means to
them and you'll find that most will limit it by race or region.
People from or near urban areas may classify inner-city projects
and east and west coast black ghettos as the exemplar of poverty
in the United States, while people in rural areas will
immediately discuss rural representations such as trailers or
the "rez" life of Native Americans.
Urban
poverty has an advantage, however, in that it is the
overwhelmingly represented narrative of mainstream hiphop, while
the inclusion of rural and international narratives has only
recently become more popular. The saturation of contemporary
black urban struggle in hiphop, a music form that has precedence
and huge influence in other media markets, persistently
overshadows other realities that further disenfranchise urban
and rural peoples.
The
recent increase of rural and southern narratives may be a hint
of greater change in the future for some, but I would assert
that the mainstream market will attempt to saturate another
face: poor white boys.
The
black urban narrative and its stronghold in mainstream hiphop
makes it almost impossible for any other story to break through.
So why has Eminem been able to take such precedence in
mainstream hiphop to be considered one of the top rappers? For
one, as a white person, it is often humored that their
"realness" needs to take huge strides among blacks.
Many
people profess that Eminem proved his realness through a legacy
of underground rap battles and unique lyrical wordplay that has
often shut down the best of rappers. When we look and listen to
underground 'backpack' hiphop, however, complex rhyme scheme and
wordplay is nothing unique. Every year, there is a new and
upcoming nobody who dominates the battle circuit.
As
with everyone else in mainstream hiphop, I would argue that it's
a fact of marketability. A few market strategies come to mind
when I think about Eminem and the attempt to propagate his
realness: entourage of black men, 8 mile and Detroit 's
derelict, and trailers. The "entourage of black
people" is nothing new for white music artists' who are
attempting to enter the urban music market.
This
is not evidence of the "rural hi-jacking" I
anticipate, but Eminem's association and depiction of 8 Mile is.
I am not going to debate its falsehoods and realities in general
depiction, but I'd like to emphasize and consider his
association to trailers—minor but important. The trailer is a
significant out reach to the stereotype of rurality and the
movie (as his lyrics) often emphasizes being raised in that
environment, not necessarily Detroit.
The
suggestion of "country living," in minor and major
ways, has also been in affect for other white upcomers being
pushed in mainstream markets. Memphis based Lil Wyte, an
associate of the Three 6 Mafia, freshmen album and music video,
"I Sho Will" has a Southern and suggestively rural
backdrop. Nashville raised Haystak has a name associated to
rural stereotypes, as well as "Portrait of a White
Boy," his most recent release that features a drawing of a
farm in the background.
Timbaland-discovered
Bubba Sparxx, who hails from a very rural LaGrange, Georgia,
often incorporates rural narratives into his lyrics. And of
course, there is Northwest Houston's Paul Wall, who has been
making moves with Mike Jones into the national mainstream
market.
It
is too much of a risk for the mainstream market to associate
itself with white people from or near urban areas because they
are often the predominating representations of
middle/upper-class United States, and whose authenticity is
often questioned.
Corporations,
however, understand that huge profits can be made if they are
able to find a white boy (or girl) who is "down."
Whereas urban hiphop has already been racialized to be almost
exclusively black and Latino, rural and Southern hiphop has been
in an ambiguous racialized state.
White
poverty is often thought of in the image of the past, such as
with the Depression, and other images have continued into
contemporary times such as the "hick." Southern
accents and country music has often been a major stereotype more
prone to whites, and with the rise of Southern hiphop subgenres
such as crunk, corporations know that it will be much
easier to promote white rappers in this category. Once they
tweak the formula for the Southern white rapper, I can only
imagine corporations will push it fiercely in hopes of enormous
profit. It'll be Elvis again--and again and again.
We
need to see the "Elvis formula" in more recent times,
however. Native Americans are often participating in hiphop,
creating a small but growing scene that offers narratives
pertaining to their struggles with a long-standing poverty and
representation. Asian Americans are also offering hiphop
narratives about their struggles as refugees and immigrants,
which is rarely heard in the mainstream but happening in their
enclaves.
These
voices won't be heard soon because diversity in the United
States goes only as far as how much money you can make with it.
Instead, the next step of hiphop "diversity" is the
inclusion of the poor white boy narrative and if that becomes
saturated, it'll make a major and unfortunate impact on the
psyche of listeners as to what poverty and struggle is.
Hiphop,
I would argue, has greater influence in the consciousness of
general listeners than what is learned from school—which is
not to say that schools in the United States don't need
revamping either. We should be careful to not look at the
inclusion of poor white rappers as a revolution in the name of
diversity and acceptance, but question its intention among
corporations.
*
* * *
Charles
Chea is a Sociology student at UMass-Boston who is originally
from Philadelphia. chea@asiavists.org
- http://www.asiavists.org
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