The Beef with Hip-hop

I used to think hip-hop wasn't music.

That's a strange thing to consider for a person who is now seriously contemplating a career as a "hip-hop scholar" (the fact that such a career path even exists is baffling to some, including myself).

My reasons weren't anything original, I hear the same things from people today. It doesn't have melody or harmony (even though it really does, sometimes in very interesting ways). It's poetry said to a beat, not music. But mostly, I think the younger me was just troubled by the bad hip-hop that of course is what gets the most airplay.

I shared my opinion on hip-hop with my friends in high school. Because I had smart friends, they disagreed with me. It became a common topic of conversation between my friend Dan and I. Dan was, and still is, a much smarter person than I, and he pretty much tore my argument apart. Though I never conceded the point to him, I'm very glad that he pushed the issue and planted the firsts seeds of doubt.

I could excuse my ignorance by saying that I hadn't yet heard of John Cage or any of the other major composers of the "real music" tradition who challenged everything we thought we knew about what constituted music. I was not yet operating under the "humanly organized sound" definition of music that seems to be the norm now (and which still isn't perhaps entirely adequate).

But I won't make any such excuses except to say that I hadn't heard any hip-hop that I thought was of any merit (and frankly, I think growing up white in South Dakota didn't make it any easier for me to appreciate hip-hop either).

I'm not entirely sure when I first started liking hip-hop, probably sometime in college. But I do remember quite vividly the first time a hip-hop song completely floored me. Of all things it was a musical guest appearance on "Chappelle's Show." Mos Def and Talib Kweli were performing as Blackstar. They did a song called "What Beef Is," a track they never commercially released. I remember just being completely blown away by it. It was the first time I understood how powerful hip-hop could be and what a sublime experience a truly great hip-hop performance is. The song had all the in-your-face vitriol that first drew me to punk some five years earlier.

I would say it was probably that experience that first made me really pay attention to hip-hop, to seek out hip-hop that was better than what I could hear on the radio. Of course, what I discovered is that there was so much great music to listen to that I am embarrassed now to think that I ever questioned it at all.

And that's why I cringe whenever I hear somebody say that they like any music except "country and rap." I'd venture to guess that most people who say that haven't sought out anything in either of those two genres beyond what makes top forty radio. I'm not going to pull out the "all the good hip-hop is underground" cliche because it's every bit as wrong as it is tired. It's just that the point of top forty radio is that you aren't expected to actually listen to the music. And that's where I think that people go wrong with hip-hop. They don't actually pay attention to what's going on in the music, they just sort of ignore it and tune in when all the naughty words and misogyny kick in. If people did pay attention, and if they sought out the kind of hip-hop that's intelligent, thoughtful, clever or poignant, they'd be surprised.

I know that not everybody is going to fall in love with hip-hop the way I did. We all have our personal hang ups about music, and some people will never really be able to get into hip-hop. I completely understand, I feel the same way about jam bands. But I do think that just about anybody could find a hip-hop song or artist that they could appreciate on some level if they gave it half a chance.

I could start name dropping here, start a laundry list of all the socially conscious MC's that I love, but the list is too long and people need to discover these things on their own. I'll just say that hip-hop can be extremely powerful. I am constantly reminded of just how powerful it is every time I hear a verse that makes me think, gets me angry or brings a tear to my eye. And if it can do that for me, a white kid with absolutely no idea what life on the streets is like, then I think it can do it for anybody who is willing to sit down and listen for even a moment.