FUCK HIP HOP
A Eulogy to Hip Hop

by Pierre Bennu

Dissident Voice

December 18, 2002




I know you’ve been thinking it. And if you haven’t, you probably haven’t been paying attention. The art we once called hip hop has been dead for some time now. But because its rotting carcass has been draped in platinum and propped against a Gucci print car, many of us have missed its demise.



I think the time has come to bid a farewell to the last black arts movement. It’s had a good run but it no longer serves the community that spawned it. Innovation has been replaced with mediocrity and originality replaced with recycled nostalgia for the ghost of hip hop past, leaving nothing to look forward to. Honestly when was the last time you heard something (mainstream) that made you want to run around in circles and write down every word. When was the last time you didn’t feel guilty nodding your head to a song that had a ‘hot beat’ after realizing the lyrical content made you cringe.



When I heard Jam Master Jay had been murdered, it was the icing on the cake. A friend and I spoke for hours after he’d turned on the radio looking for solace and instead heard a member of the label Murder, Inc. about to give testimony about the slain DJ’s legacy. My friend found the irony too great to even hear what the rapper had to say.



After we got off the phone, I dug through my crates and played the single “Self Destruction.” The needle fell on the lyrics:



“They call us animals

I don’t agree with them

Let’s prove em wrong

But right is what were proving em”



The only thing that kept me from crying was my anger trying to imagine today’s top hip hop artists getting together to do a song that urged disarmament in African American communities, or promoted literacy, or involved anything bigger than themselves for that matter. I couldn’t picture it.



All I could picture were the myriad of hip hop conferences where the moguls and figureheads go through the motions and say the things that people want to hear but at the end of the day nothing changes. No new innovative artists are hired to balance out a roster of the pornographic genocide MC’s.



In their place, we’re presented with yet more examples of arrested development – the portrayal of grown men and women acting and dressing like 15 year olds. Balding insecure men in their mid 30’s making entire songs about their sexual prowess and what shiny toys they have and you don’t. The only hate I see is self-hate. The only love I see is self-love



All one needs to do is watch cribs and notice none of these people showing off their heated indoor pools or the PlayStation Two consoles installed in all twelve of their luxury cars have a library in their home. Or display a bookshelf, for that matter. No rapper on cribs has ever been quoted saying: “Yeah, this is the room where I do all my reading, nahmean?”



To quote Puffy in Vogue magazine Nov, 2002: “Diamonds are a great investment… They’re not only a girl’s best friend, they are my best friend. I like the way diamonds make me feel. I can’t really explain it, its like: that’s a rock, something sent to me from nature, from God, it makes me feel good… It’s almost like my security cape.”



If rappers read, they might know about the decades of near-slavery endured by South African diamond miners. Or the rebels in Sierra Leone whose bloody diamond-fueled anti-voting rampages leave thousands of innocent men, women and children with amputated limbs.



Often, hip hop’s blatant excess is rationalized with, “We came from nothing.” That statement rings hollow given even a little bit of context. African Americans have been “coming from nothing” for 400 years. That didn’t stop previous generations of artists, activists, and ancestors from working toward a better situation for the whole, not just themselves. It’s grotesque to see such selfish materialism celebrated by a generation who are literally the children of apartheid.



The time has come to re-define the street and what it means to come from the street. Yes, criminals & violence come from the streets, but so do men and women who live their lives with kindness, and within the realm of the law. The problem with making ‘street’ or ‘realness’ synonymous with criminality is that poor black children are demonized. You never see the image of middle class white children killing each other promoted as entertainment.



I respect the ability of an artist to explore the darker side or extremities of their personality but when that’s all there is, there is no balance. In previous years, NWA existed simultaneously with Native Tongues, Cypress Hill and Digable Planets, Gangstar and 2 Live Crew.



There’s room for thugz, playaz, gangstas, and what have you. My issue (aside from the fact that rappers spell everything phonetically) is that they have no heart. Rappers reflect what has become a new image of success where money is its own validation and caring is soft unless you’re dropping a single about your dead homie.



Question: Why haven’t these so-called “ballers” gotten together and bought a farm, a prison, a super market chain, or chartered a school? But they all have clothing lines. Smells like a sucker to me. The lack of social responsibility from people who claim to ‘rep the streets’ is stunning.



Yet we still have had the hearts and minds of most of the world. We negate this power if we don’t step up to the plate. Our perspective needs to change; our whole idea of power needs to globalize. Gangsta shouldn’t be shooting someone you grew up with in the face. “Gangsta” is calling the United States to task for not attending the World Summit on Racism in South Africa. “Balling” shouldn’t be renting a mansion; it should be owning your own distribution company or starting a union. Bill Cosby’s bid to buy NBC was more threatening than any screwface jewelry clad MC in a video could ever be.



As a DJ, it’s hard: I pick up the instrumental version of records that people nod their head to… and mix it with the a cappella version of artists with something to say. It is expensive and frustrating. But I feel like the alternative is the musical equivalent to selling crack: spinning hits because it’s easy, ignoring the fact that it’s got us dancing to genocide.



There are plenty of alternatives today but you’d never know it through the mass media. Hip hop has become Steven Seagal in a do-rag. Meanwhile, media radar rarely registers artists like Cannibal Ox, Madlib and the whole Stones Throw crew, Bless, Saul Williams, Bus Driver, Del, Gorillaz, anything from Def Jux, Freestyle Fellowship, Anti Pop Consortium, Kool Keith, Prince Paul, shit Public Enemy… the list goes on for ever. I get some solace from knowing and supporting these artists, and from the fact that around the world from Germany to Cuba to Brazil to South Africa, hip hop’s accessibility and capacity for genius is still vital, thriving, and relevant.



And yes even amongst the bleak landscape in this country, wonderful things do happen. Like Camp Cool J and various artists donating money to research AIDS and even lend their faces to voting campaigns. Russell Simmons, among other socially conscious endeavors, led a rally to stop NYC’s mayor from cutting the school budget and donates part of the proceeds from his sneaker sales to the reparations movement. The lack of coverage of efforts like this is as much to blame as any wack MC with a platinum record.



I’m not dissing the innovators of the art form, or those of us who got it where it is today. I will always play and support what I feel is good work. I guess this rant came more out of what Chuck D said at the end of Self Destruction: “We’ve got to keep ourselves in check,” and no one has checked hip hop for some time.



I’ve entertained the idea that I might just be getting old. But if it’s a function of my age that I remember hip hop as the people’s champ, so be it. I was raised on a vital art form that has now become a computer-generated character doing the cabbage patch in a commercial, or a comedian ‘raising the roof.’ That’s not influence to me, that’s mockery.



Hip hop my friend, it’s been a great 30 years filled with great memories, and it’s been fun to watch you grow. We’ve got dozens of broke innovators and plenty of mediocre millionaires out of the deal, but I really need my space now and we’ve got to go our separate ways. I will always love you, but it’s time for me to move on.



Yo, what happened to peace?



Peace.



Pierre Bennu is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, artist and performer. He is, along with wife Jamyla, a founder of exittheapple, a creativity collective focusing on film and digital media, visual arts, literature, dance, and music. He is the author of Bullshit or Fertilizer?: Tough Love for Artists on the Fence.



>> This summed up so many of my feelings regarding Hip Hop that I just wanted to share it with everyone here.

Wow.
Damn.


This is very deep.

Also, sadly, this is quite true.


This is 1 article I am going to forward to a lot of people.

mltijchr said:

I hear you man. This shit actually touched me. It sums up what a lot of us in the first hip hip generation (35+) are feeling.

Very nice article.

tossin a flower on the grave...

cryin and actin out...oh, laaawd!!!

Bullshit, you just have to know where to look. Don't just rely on radio and EmptyV for your music. The Roots, Talib Kweli, Common, Jurassic Five; they are all keeping it real, and don't you fuckin forget it.

Like I've said, while I've never been a big fan of hip-hop, there are certain aspects of it that I can relate to. I know that this music not only represents a "community" but it also touches a nerve; some elements of hip-hop, almost any person can feel or relate to.


It really has-
more times than not-
become an issue of money or "bling bling" or whatever other superficial or materialistic thing you can think of. That "materialistic" angle pervades & degrades the best parts of hip-hop, & it seems the biggest (& most popular) "offenders" are the ones who don't see this.


This whole article is essentially ON POINT. The following resonated MOST with me:

- "Innovation has been replaced with mediocrity and originality replaced with recycled nostalgia for the ghost of hip hop past"

- "..trying to imagine today’s top hip hop artists getting together to do a song that urged disarmament in African American communities, or promoted literacy, or involved anything bigger than themselves .."

- "..the portrayal of grown men and women acting and dressing like 15 year olds."

- "The only hate I see is self-hate. The only love I see is self-love."

VERY DEEP.

From this deep, well written & thought-out article, this next part probably strikes me the most:

"Often, hip hop’s blatant excess is rationalized with, “We came from nothing.” That statement rings hollow given even a little bit of context. African Americans have been “coming from nothing” for 400 years. That didn’t stop previous generations of artists, activists, and ancestors from working toward a better situation for the whole, not just themselves. It’s grotesque to see such selfish materialism celebrated by a generation who are literally the children of apartheid."

That whole paragraph essentially nails it right on the head.


The only thing I wonder now is..
how many hip-hop artists will read this & (honestly) see themselves?

& of those (few) who would,
how many of them would actually have the COURAGE to innovate, to break the mold, to make hip-hop "cutting edge" again, instead of just "cutting corners"?


I wonder.


MAJOR props to Pierre Bennu for writing this brilliant article,

& to intha916 for posting it here.

hip-hop is far from dead so a eulogy is not needed...just because there was a sensless murder of a hip-hop pioneer or what makes money is not reality but a shined up blinged out illusion that shoudnt reflect on the entire community... there are many artists out there that are soin the right thing and not buyin in2 the garbage that makes platnium hits and get heavy radio rotation... artists like common 2pac the roots gangstarr erykah badu krs-1 rakim talib kweli dmx nas 50 cent eminem dr dre outkast dungeon family killer mike scarface jay-z beanie sigel freeway and many others known, unknown and on the rise are gettin theirs based on the hip-hop rules of engagement: phat beats & ill rhymes that reflect the youth and street peoples of 2day who have no voice otherwise... so i say again dont let the bullshit take away from this beautiful lifestyle cause like my peoples said b4.. its like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how i keep from goin under so dont push me cause im close 2 the edge.. im tryin not 2 lose my head and just cause ur in the ghetto doesent mean u cant grow cause its like that and thats the way it is and even though some of us are still ghetto minded 4 the rest it aint where u from its where ya at even the ghetto...

2freaky4church1 said:

No. It is dead. Today's hip-hop is as much blaxploitation as Pam Greer films of the 1970s. I will admit that those groups you mentioned continue to try and resuscitate a dead movement, and some others do as well, but most artists have resorted to a total state of mediocracy, preferring to talk about their cars, whores and "bling-bling". Of course, I will also admit that ALL music, not just hip-hop has died. At the very least, it's gone into a coma.

Their are still good artists out there, but nobody listens to them. I too virtually cry when I hear the music that my peers consider great songs. I want to scream at them, tell them to WAKE UP, the truth is there if you seek it, but they would just look at me as anti-social and a pretentious music snob. This is far from the truth, as I can love all music, so long as it develops. But today's music doesn't change, it's all the same, it's all hopeless.

I hope, one day, that future generations will wake up from the trance that the media conglomerates have put us under, in an effort to seek out music content that is more than just sub-par. Yet, I weep for my own generation who has, for the most part, become detached. I weep that I am a part of that generation. I regret that so many potentially amazing artists will fade into obscurity, when so much more could be said with their contributions, were they heard.

Hip-hop is dead. But so is country, rock, punk, funk, dance, trance, all music. I avidly seek out great music, but it becomes extremely hard for even me. I can't listen to the radio. It's not on MTV or VH-1. It's very hard to find, so who can blame people who have become disillusioned as to what real music is? It's a tragedy, a sham, one which I would have fallen for myself were it not for my brother-in-law, an escapee of the musical trap.

I don't blame hip-hop artists for hip-hop's death. When people refuse to allow record company's to force-feed them junk food for the brain, hip-hop will become credible again, as will all music.

cheers
sav.

2freaky4church1 said:

i feel u 100% percent cause that article has it all wrong.. i mean we lost 2pac biggie freaky tah big l segram and a lot
of others but hip hop still went on and evolved and changed so much 2 where we got no radion video or space 2 show our lifestyle u cant hardly go anywhere round the world without hearin somethin about hip-hop... so im with u in tellin these non belivers that hip-hop will not die and aint gonnna be dead no time soon... hip-hop 4ever baby grandmaster flash dj kool herc grandwizard theodore cold crush furious five run-dmcs kid kapri's kurtis blowe's buffy the human beat box from fat boy's red alerts mr magics marley marl's and jam master jay's legacy and dream will go on...

diamondpearl1 said:

I'm beginning to think something else is dead. Punctuation and grammatical continuity.

Some of you are taking the part about Jam master Jays death wrong. He is not saying the death was the literal end of hip hop more than figuratively. And I have to strongly disagree with those of you who don't see real hip hop is no more. You think you see it but y'all ain't looking at nothing but a ghost.

savoirfaire said:

One thing I would never have a beef with, is someones spelling and/or grammer in their post. Some people like to use slang and many of us are at work and trying to post at the same time. At times I will go back and edit my errors if I see them but really what does it matter as long as those readind get the point. We "ain't" being graded on this shit
[This message was edited Fri Mar 7 14:16:05 PST 2003 by intha916]

TWO WORDS: POLITICAL CLIMATE.

Complacent/pleasant government breeds useless music.

The three examples I can give:
---
Kennedy had the happy Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, et al, and crappy pop music. LBJ and then Nixon jump Viet Nam, kill the economy, and Stevie and Marvin speak out in MOVING new music, James Brown says it loud, Jimi steps out of the Blue Flames and sets his guitar on fire.
---
Jimmy Carter had the poppy disco wave, the Jackson 5 looking for a new crowd. Reagan put his foot in the ass of better times and brought us Punk, New Wave, Prince. Rap.
---
it didn't end there. King Bush I whupped up the first middle east war, and poof, we get grunge. Clinton makes life a little better all over, and music rolls over and just continues to copy itself with nothing new to say, I mean really, in 10 years, will there REALLY be a "90s Nite" at the clubs?
---
Wait until Bush II pimps this war a little further. You'll find that music gets a kick in the ass.

I've always believed that a Republican president was good for ONE thing and one thing only: A KICK IN THE ASS of TIRED MUSIC.

intha916 said:

thanks 4 the suppor freind and i say 2 those who gotta problem with grammar or whatever else.. get the stick outta ya ass baby lol its all good...

n/m.
[This message was edited Fri Mar 7 23:23:36 PST 2003 by Christopher]

Don't lose sight of what all music in any shape or form is freedom of speech. Hip hop will always be a vehicle in which someone who has something to say will speak. It is all art. If someone takes paint puts it on their body jumps from a high legde to a canvas and dies in the process is the end still not art? Yeah we may feel the way he represented his skill was strange but who are we to say its still not art? Let them rap, the cream aways rises to the top. Rap will have its messiah soon!!

hey now, I'm sorry. I was just poking a little fun at your post. I'm not anal about grammar issues either, but you have to admit that post was one large sentence. Nothing serious, I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, but that post was a little bit muddy and hard to understand. But I'm just having a little fun, and it's true, I see the english language butchered every day, it's getting to be hard to understand. It's ok of course if rules are broken a little, but if things get too out of hand, that's when communication starts to get fuzzy, and people's ideas no longer become properly expressed, such as yours for example. It's hard to relate to your opinions when I can barely read them.

And I know I'm not perfect, I occasionally use the wrong word, or make a typo, or, put, in, too many, commas,,,. But there should be some standards, I think most would agree with me on that.

Hip Hop is dead,boring non creative crap,money,ho's,bling
bling BORING! these cats have the youth of the world's ear
and what do they talk about? a fucking pair of sneakers!
or "I like it when your body go bump,bump,bump"

JAMIESTARR said:

Well to be fair, 18 years ago RUN-DMC was rappin' about sneakers too. But at least they weren't $170 a pair!