Where did Rap Music & Hip Hop Culture go?

"You have to create problems to create profit. There is no profit under the current paradigm in saving lives, putting balance on this planet, having justice and peace or anything else. There is just no profit there."- Michael Ruppert



Technique 1200's Turntable



Long before Hip Hop came on the scene in the late 70's and early 80's before sky rocketing into the 90's--she was destined to become an anomaly.  The deviation and departure from the original essence of rap has caused a paradigm shift that has caused her to make a turn to the dark side like Anakin Skywalker.  To suggest that Rap Music and Hip Hop culture have fallen into a cesspool of filth, outrageous sensationalism, and pompous grandeur today would not be an unfair assessment.

Hip Hop is no different than any other activity of life and is not exempt from the grasps of corruption or damage that is reflective of the current state of human life today.  As a former DJ, I cherished the days of putting a vinyl record on a Technique 1200 turntable, it was simply priceless! 

The Golden Era

During the Golden Era of Hip Hop (1986-1999), the era that I am most intimate with sparked of the most influential period of music history in modern times.  Like Muhammad Ali said, "I shuck up the world!"  That's exactly what Hip Hop did on so many levels because it was an expression of a generation.  Chuck D of Public Enemy said it best "Rap is the CNN of the ghetto."  This was the time of the beautiful diversity in Rap Music and Hip Hop culture that expressed various perspectives of urban life.  We had a menu of choices to choose from that spoke to our collective and diverse interests.  There was the politically sharp Public Enemy, the savvy Run-DMC, the controversial NWA, and the jovial DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince to just name a few.  Hip Hop allowed us to be ourselves and not have to emulate anybody else but ourselves. 



B.I.G. & Pac early 90's

I saw the change coming during the East Coast/West Coast Beef which was a sign of what was to come..  The implementation of diabolically concocted schemes and tactics descended upon Hip Hop culture like bats in the night--schemes like what I've termed as "crime profit theory," the shrewd economic tactic practiced by privatized companies to gain and profit off of the prison system.  Of the nearly 2.1 million adult men and women imprisoned in the United States, roughly 70% are persons of color (Davis, 1998).  Many of them are Black and Latino males between the ages of 18-35 in this country (USA) and of those many most are in prisons run by private corporations like Corrections Corporation of America, Wackenhut, who trade their stock on Wall Street based upon how many people are in jail (Ruppert, 2011).

In my humble estimation this is no different than Blacks in the south picking cotton from sun up to sun down or being sharecroppers making pennies--while those who profited off of their blood, sweat, and tears made millions!  "It's all the same game," just an updated version.  "Recording executives are more interested in turning a quick buck than nurturing rap culture -- and they are behind the apparent demise of hip-hop music," suggests Hip Hop legend Davey D.  And might I add the demise of American music in general.

So, for one to assert that the "East Coast/West Coast Beef" was orchestrated wouldn't be too preposterous of an assertion especially when covert and overt operations like CONTELPRO existed during the 60's to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of those progressive socio-political movements and their leaders of the 60's.  The beef sure made a lot of people rich in particular the record companies and yet the murders of Biggie and Pac still remain unsolved.

Hip Hop Culture

The "dumbing down" of Rap music to gain profit versus producing a culture that has a keen mental perspective is outright criminal!  The high bar that was set in the early 90's by acts like the Ghetto Boys, Spice 1, Ice-T, Eric B & Rakim, Kool G. Rap, and KRS-One of the vivid accounts of urban life fell off dramatically and abruptly started the demise of a culture that was once responsible for changing and saving a generation.  The neutralization of powerful voices like Poor Righteous Teachers, Gangstarr, Brand Nubian, X-Clan, and Kam were all diminished by the late 90's quickly became directly and in-directly responsible for the filthy, disrespectful, and deplorable condition(s) of a generation.  Today, we have more and more Black and Latino teen pregnancy, teen violence, and teens not graduating from high school like never before as all the latest statistics suggest.  All of these ill conditions can not only be linked to Hip Hop culture but to a failing educational system, the prison industrial complex, and a corrupt monetary system, just to name a few.

Thank the Hip Hop gods for the re-birth of conscious rap and that there is hope but it is being challenged and comprised daily.  Now, we have the likes of Common and Kayne West, whom many would say have gone mainstream and have been suppressed from the conscious rappers that they once were so they could make more money.  I beg to differ in some respects but that's another story.  But there are others like Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Mos Def along with the refreshing Lupe Fiasco and the intelligent Mikkey Halsted both from Chicago and the radically charged Kendrick Lamar of Compton who are carrying the torch.  The edgy late 90's rap trio the LOX whom were signed to Bad Boy Records the label that broke the careers of the late great Notorious B.I.G. and Puffy made a serious suggestion "Let's Start Rap Over, Back To The Way Things Were."  Where's the love? 

Nuff Said!

Literary, Scriptural Support, & Footnotes:

^{Davis, Angela Y. September 1, 1998. "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex". See}

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=8

http://parkstepp.tumblr.com/post/3628963426/you-have-to-%C2%A0create-problems-to-create-profit

 
"A Huey P. Newton Story - Actions - COINTELPRO
 
COINTELPRO Revisited - Spying & Disruption - IN BLACK AND WHITE: THE F.B.I. PAPERS

http://defendingjustice.org/pdfs/factsheets/10-Fact%20Sheet%20-%20System%20as%20Racist.pdf

http://www.daveyd.com/commentaryishiphopdead.html

http://www.alternet.org/media/48693