Is there ANY significant meaning BEHIND these Gangsta Rap Tunes?

The most popularized forms of violence within rap music are those acts of violence perpetuated by black males against other black males (see Cave, et. al, 2006; Hari, 2002; Hiatt, 2005; Mitchell & Johnson, 2005). This intra-racial violence is commonly referred to as horizontal violence and/or intrinsic violence (Fanon, 1963; Roberts, 2004). It is Neil Roberts (2004) who defines intrinsic violence in juxtaposition with instrumental violence (anti-hegemonic/vertical) by suggesting “in contrast to instrumental violence, [intrinsic violence] refers to a metaphysical concept in which the act of either random irrational or calculated rational violence itself contains inherent value” (p. 146). Frantz Fanon (1963) uses a psychological approach to introducing intrinsic violence through a discussion on the freedom experience that dreams provide the oppressed. Fanon’s argument is that while dreaming the oppressed individual experiences a freedom of motion through physical acts of running, jumping, and climbing. Once the dream is finished, the oppressed individual exiting repose first exercises this physicality against his own people. Because the colonizer/oppressor is much an exhibitionist with power, and as a result an intimidating force, “the muscular tension of the colonized periodically erupts into bloody fighting between tribes, clans, and individuals” (p. 17).

Anthony Pinn (1999) suggests that a condition of absurdity plagues severe economically deprived communities. He defines absurdity as a phenomenon that “connotes alienation from self, and leads to a collapse of self-esteem” (p.10). He continues by stating that self-hatred, which is manifested in Black-on-Black crime, is a result of inhabiting in a state of absurdity. The hostile environment essentially creates absurdity that many inner-city Black Americans face as a result of economic malaise and institutional and political racism. Pinn (1999) does an excellent job in connecting the notion of absurdity with the awesome defects of ghetto life. However, what he does even better is that he connects these traumatic situations in the Black community with the need for renewed combat and a new vision for the Black community. He offers both gangsta rap and progressive rap as a rhetorical means for social transformation.

This black-on-black violence is thoroughly documented throughout the chronicles of Hip-Hop culture and rap narratives. A mere 10 years ago intrinsic violence reached its peak within the Hip-Hop culture with the deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. in an intense, media-infused, East Coast/West Coast rap war. To date, this is the most unequivocal example of the intensity and tragedy of intrinsic violence within Hip-Hop. It is still important to not that though not as publicized, there were violent deaths of rap artists before Tupac and Biggie and rappers have met violent deaths afterward as well. One of the latest violent deaths being that of Detroit-rapper, Proof, Eminem’s hype man and member of the popular rap group D-12 (Cohen, 2006; Zahlaway, 2006).

Opposite Fanon’s (1963) psychological approach to understanding intra-racial violence, Arthur Pressley (1992) opts to take a more cultural approach to the problem. Placing more of an emphasis on the culture of impoverished inner-city communities, it becomes important to note that in 1978, the same period as the birth of Hip-Hop, death figures for black men were around 37,000 a year (Pressley, 1992). These deaths are illustrated as “920 suicides, 650 homicides, 20,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease and 500 deaths from cirrhosis of the liver” (p. 93); remaining deaths were distributed between prisons and hospital drug treatment facilities. Sharing this stance with Pressley (1992), Rose (1994) reminds us “poor people learn from experience when and how explicitly they can express their discontent” (p. 99). So, whether using indirection, signification, other forms of metaphor, or direct verbal confrontation, American blacks have consistently resisted the hegemonic powers that be. In essence, the dances, languages, and musics produce communal bases of knowledge about social conditions, communal interpretations of them and quite often serve as the cultural glue that fosters communal resistance (Fanon, 1963; Rose, 1994). Though total black resistance is duly noted, the vehicle of rap music and Hip-Hop culture is characteristically masculine. Kitwana (2003) offers the idea that “rap music has given young Black males {italics added} a primary avenue through which to access public space” (p. 87). It is Eithne Quinn (2005) who proffers the notion that “gangsta rap is seen both to reflect and to be constitutive of the worsening problems facing African-American communities and especially young black men” (p. 19). It is this collective scholarly emphasis on black masculinity, within Hip-Hop culture more specifically, and African-American resistance more generally, that create a catalyst for research dedicated to uncovering phenomena concerning black masculinity. As an astute advocate the feminist movement, bell hooks (2004) comments on the paucity and/or whimsical treatment of black masculinity in contemporary research on black men. She notes “the absence of this work stands as further testimony validating the contention that the plight of black men is not taken seriously” (p. xvi). hooks’ (2004) concern, being quite valid, provides significant reason for brief examination of black masculinity and resistance.



WeBeGeekin'
www.ghettogeekin.blogspot.com

Why? O Why? ....must you be so MEAN?

On the topic of understanding and appreciating rap music within academic circles, a significant void between “rhyme and reason” exists because more attention is given to gratuitous violence than is given to ways in which members of these under-privileged communities respond to and utilize violence. Violence within the black urban community is a combined effect of poverty and marginality anchored by a system of institutional racism and oppression (Dyson, 1991; West, 2001). As this is the case, an over-emphasis on violence and an under-emphasis on the ways in which the oppressed populations operate within these violent subcultures create a lacuna of knowledge involving communication and culture. This study fills a gap in communication and culture by advancing a thesis that oppressed populations find collective agency through the use of violent rhetoric. Rap music, being the product of the African rhetorical resistance tradition, is inherently devoted to the task of confronting hegemony. Because rap music is originally derived from society’s most oppressed populations, and as a result, linked to the violent street code (Kubrin, 2005), a rhetoric of violence allows for the unification of rappers and audience based on a common violent ethos and a common goal of resistance and liberation (Fanon, 1963).

With a special emphasis on the culture of academics, currently this urban youth violence is routinely viewed and discussed through sanitized lenses. If examined at all, it is usually inspected by a two-dimensional approach that lacks critical depth but reminds us that violence is a consistent issue within Hip-Hop culture. There is a paucity of research that aims to understand violence. There is little research that aims to observe violence as a communication tool, and not necessarily a socio-cultural phenomenon that requires research that seeks to apply preventive or corrective measures. In a more objective and organic vein, if you will, Jeffrey Fagan and Deanna Wilkinson (1998) have reported a resurgence of identity, culture, and violence in inner-city black communities. With these factors intermingling in typically combustible ways, it has been “understood that using a gun to harm his opponent was the best way to handle a situation both in terms of what was expected on the street and what an individual had to do to maintain a respected identity” (p. 139).

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Check out Bustin' Gats through Spittin' Raps!



OuttaBoundz
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Before Barack, there was Tupac [Excerpt]

How hypocritical is Liberty?
That blind bitch ain’t never did shit for me.
My history full of caskets and scars
My own black nation at war…whole family behind bars.
(Shakur, Letter to President, 1997)

Unlike empathetic understanding, which directs communicative energy on an audience outside of the inner-city, many of Tupac’s messages were directed at his community. These messages, directed at the community, are manifestations of the value of communalism. These types of messages were given in the form of lessons, encouragement, and beneficial advice through strenuous situations. Foster (1971) defines communalism, as it applies to African American referent, as the “relationship of the individual to the group in the larger quest for survival and the ultimate goal of social order” (p. 12). In many instances, this quest for survival and social order requires critiquing and criticizing the established order. By critiquing the established order, one highlights discrepancies in resources or treatment as it pertains to their group, therefore displaying communalism. This form of communalism is the basis for the small excerpt that introduces this section; the suggestion here is that the American value of liberty is hypocritical when related to the African American experience.
Tupac achieves communalism through the use of three general methods which include (1) assuming a pedagogical stance in relation to his audience, (2) making appeals for his young constituents to establish independence, and (3) direct confrontation with the agents of oppression, which in most cases, are the police. In his methodological approach to exercising communalism, Tupac assumes the role of a teacher and demonstrates qualities similar to that of a communal leader.

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