[JPL] For the future of hip hop, all that glitters is not gold teeth

[Jazz Promo Services]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/12/01/2008-12-01_for_the_future_of_
hip_hop_all_that_glitt.html

For the future of hip hop, all that glitters is not gold teeth

Monday, December 1st 2008, 4:00 AM

It continues to appear that the cool and highly intelligent Barack Obama is
going to have a powerful impact on debilitating black popular culture,
particularly hip hop. The signs are everywhere.

In the wake of Byron Hurt's searing documentary "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and
Rhymes," hip-hop fans have questioned the retarding effect that hip hop has
had on young black men through encouraging thuggish violence, misogyny,
clownish behavior and crude materialism.

Hurt's documentary is most powerful because the filmmaker himself is a fan
of the idiom but, as a grown and responsible man, he felt it was necessary
to call out hip hop's many shortcomings because the idiom had moved from
clever rhymes and dance beats to advocating personal, social and criminal
corruption.

Those who pretend that they do not know what Hurt is investigating because
"that is not ALL of hip hop" need to take note of the fact that Russell
Simmons, the godfather of hip hop, recently blamed the deep vulgarization of
the genre on producers who would do anything for a buck. "Some producers
have found that dirt sells," says the godfather. How now, brown cow?

Simmons is nothing if not clever and senses that the arrival of Barack and
Michelle Obama could mean things are going to change. One would not at all
be smart to defend the "authenticity" of pimps, supposed whores (all women,
actually), misogyny, thuggery and the rest. Pimps up, ho's down, as they
say.

Before he was elected President, Obama said in an interview with MTV News
that there was no need for laws against teenage hip-hop dress but that young
black men "should pull up their pants."

A friend of mine who lives in California remarked to his grandson that he
did not like the way rappers dressed or carried themselves. His grandson
told him that he needs to stop living in the past and catch up before the
plane leaves.

My friend noticed, as usual, that his grandson did not dress or carry
himself in the style or manner he was defending. So he decided to ask him
some questions. Shoot, said the young man, ready to straighten out his
grandfather.

If you were on a plane waiting to take off, my friend asked him, and the
pilot and the co-pilot came on with their pants sagging to the ground,
covered with tattoos, mouths full of gold teeth and wearing braids, what
would you do? His grandson told him he would get off the plane as fast as he
could. No doubt.

My friend then asked if his grandson's baby daughter had been hurt and she
was taken to the emergency room, how would he feel if the doctors on duty
looked like the men about to fly the plane. "I would," said the younger man,
"get her the hell out of there."

At that point, my friend wondered what would happen to young black men who
showed up looking for work but seemed more ready for a hip-hop performance
than for a job?

The answer: They probably would not get hired. Case closed.

I believe our next President will elevate many things in our country, top to
bottom. On the pop cultural end, Barack and Michelle Obama's worldliness and
common sense will greatly diminish the national appetite for and the defense
of those who proudly commit intellectual suicide by submitting to
anti-intellectual stances and the surface styles that repel across all
ethnic lines. We are on the way out of the muck. Ask Russell Simmons. Good
hustlers always know when the game is changing.

crouch.stanley at gmail.com