hope, hip hop, the economy and the future of America!

So this is a topic that I’m going to just scratch the surface of, but I’ve been thinking a lot about hip hop and I’ve got a bold new thesis to write at you:

Hip hop, the fall of the American economy, and the future of our society are all integrally linked.

Hip hop has been in a rut. I’ve been a fan since the mid 90′s, and not much has changed. In fact, the hip hop genre might be the must static musical genre in the last 100 years, because for at least 15 years rap music has been about essentially three things; violence, sex, and drugs (alcohol included).

What started out as a mouthpiece of social criticism in the 80′s, rap music has come to symbolize and represent the excesses of Hollywood. I could write a book about this topic, and it’s a story most of you know.

What the story points out, however, is a capitalist quandry not dissimilar to what our energy and auto industries are facing. It all boils dow to this: what sells now will bankrupt the future.

As a DJ, I know that “positive” music doesn’t usually sell. Actually, I’ve often been criticised for playing “edited” versions of songs, which are a joke because all the kids sing the dirty lyrics to my so-fresh-and-so-clean-clean beats anyway. And I guess this is my point, that even those who want to change the system struggle to do so as long as the economy dictates.

So who’s fault is it? Is it the DJs? Nope, they just play what the industry feeds them to make a buck. So it must be the artists’ fault, right? As the 2007 PBS documentary, points out, the artists can’t get signed with the positive stuff.

I don’t buy the argument that hip-hop music is destroying the inner city or black America, but I also don’t buy that it doesn’t contribute to the problems. Certainly, the music industry has failed at trying to solve many of the social issues that exist, a clear departure from the 60′s and 70′s.

At the very least, the story of modern hip-hop reinforces the 500 year-old story that even successful black’s aren’t free or in control of their own destiny. Is that really the message we want to send?

As the 21st century is betting on in age now, and in our current state of “change,” it would be nice to think that our entertainment industries were trying to rethink the way they do business as well.

But perhaps their argument, at the end of the day, is the strongest. The music and movie industries simply attempt to reflect American society, and “sex, guns, and rock & roll” still sells.