This past June, I attended a birthday party for a 1-year-old boy. The decorations consisted of basketballs and bears, children played games and danced, and the adults sat back and observed. Overall, it appeared to be the perfect gathering, except for one tiny flaw. Some of the music played by the disc jockey was inappropriate for the young partygoers.
Modern-day hip-hop music—with the flashy clothes, fast relationships, easy money, and hustlers’ dreams fulfilled—has become a double-edged sword: It’s entertaining for adults but sends the wrong message to kids, especially those in the inner city. But who do we blame for this? In his song “Dr. Carter,” rapper Lil Wayne states, “The kids do watch/Gotta watch what we say.” Are rappers the ones who need to proceed with caution? Or do parents and guardians need to sit down with their children instead of letting the radio and music videos take over?
Q the Prophet, a 28-year-old gospel rapper from Brooklyn, N.Y., and winner of the 2007 Underground Music Awards for best gospel hip-hop, thinks the communication should start at home. He shared a story with me of when he was a youngster listening to old-school rappers such as Slick Rick, an artist known for his storytelling rhymes, which at times could be R-rated. Q said that his mother happened to overhear one of his cassettes one day. “My mother sat with me and made me listen to it and taught me the difference between positive and negative music.”
Q prides himself on not using profanity in any of his lyrics. However, before he got into the rap world, he was on the other side of the fence. He informed me that at one point he “turned to the streets” and got involved in “dealing drugs.” He credits God for his newfound ways, stating, “God saved me and turned my life around. I rap about my reality with God.”
When Grammy-winner Kanye West released his third single “Jesus Walks” off his debut album, The College Dropout, it peaked only at No. 11 on the Billboard charts. West actually wanted the song to be his first single. However, radio stations did not want to play the track, feeling as though the audience wouldn’t receive such a song by a new artist. Ironically, one of the lyrics in the song has a frustrated West asking, “So if I talk about God/My record won’t get played, huh?”
It’s all about “supply and demand” says Jupiter, an Irvington, N.J,, hip-hop artist. The 25-year-old feels the focus has become “less about hip-hop and more about money.” Jupiter, who is formerly half of After Earth, a rap duo that won No. 1 draft pick at the 2006 Underground Hip-hop Awards, expressed that the industry is all about “payola”; paying radio DJs off to play certain songs. When talking about marketing and artists who are trying to make a difference in the rap industry, such as the conscience-minded Common, Jupiter states, “Good rap is good, but it’s not as lucrative as derogatory rap music.”
Rene Antoine, 27, a physical education instructor at the Chancellor Annex Elementary School in Newark, N.J., deals with inner city children throughout the year and sees how the music affects his students. “A lot more attention is given to hip-hop than schoolwork.” He went on by saying a lot of the students know the lyrics to the songs on the radio verbatim, yet “ask them to recite math rules and majority of the students won’t be able to tell you.”
I asked Antoine if he ever encountered students who said they wanted to become rap stars, and his response was affirmative. “They think by rapping, they’ll be able to ‘make it.’ Until they become more conscious, kids will still believe that’s a reality.” Antoine goes on by stating, “There won’t be a significant change until someone steps up.”
The problem is that people have stepped up, yet their footprints aren’t sustaining. Hip-hop artists who are trying to make good music like Common, the Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Dead Prez aren’t getting as much radio spins or music video plays.
Q brought up a point in his interview, saying, “Long gone are the days when music was sending a message. Hip-hop was fun, sent a good vibe plus a message. It is now distorted, teaching kids to be dumb instead of cultivating them.”
So the question still stands: Who’s to blame? Is it the parents, the artists or the teachers who need to keep children informed? There’s only so much that everyone can do. Let them know it’s OK to dance and enjoy music. However, as adults, we need to do our best to explain the messages and keep the lines of communication open instead of shutting the music off.
Ramona Alcantara wrote this article in Bruce Reynolds’ course in magazine writing. Posted September 2008.
