Should Have Been a Rock Star- Rapping for an old dude

Should Have Been a Rock Star- Rapping for an old dude

Looking at some lyrics the other day… actually rap lyrics. My sons have started listening to rap music, something they distained at one time. My wife, Ash, was actually the first person in the house to give credence to Rap as an art.
Maybe it’s because she teaches literature and words are her tools, but she often, over my moans, spoke of some of the complex lyric she heard in Rap songs.

Me, just like my slow evolution to music’s new technology, I am a slow person to convert. There are a few things you will find on my IPOD that could be considered rap, or at least have Rap line in them. I really like the music by Tony Morello and Street Sweeper Social Club. It has great sizzling guitar with a rap vocal that caught my eyes and ears when it came on MTV with “100 Little Curses.” Morello says he is looking for the perfect blend of rock and rap. He’s pretty darn close.
I also have some things by Black Eyed Peas who first caught my attention with the song “Where is the Love. “ I do truly love that song and its content. I have to admit there was a time I would have turned it off before giving it a chance, which is funny because when Run DMC made the airwaves with their innocuous version of “Walk This Way,” I listened and even got the LP. I was even a fan of their song “My Addias.” For me, and my musical tastes, it was a big departure.
There were even experimental entries into white boy rap that preceded people like Eminem. Years ago artists used some rapid fire spoken lyrics, but as late as the ’93, Todd Rundgren made an LP that seemed to me to be based on William Gibson’s “Neuromancer,” called “No World Order.” Rundgren rapped the largest part of the lyrics. Even Who guitarist Pete Townshend added a sizzling bridge rap with a guest rapper to a solo live performance of the song “Who are you” in ’98 at Shepard’s Bush. Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys and Anthrax, who is credited as being the first band to mix heavy metal and rap lyrics, all paved a way to what is pretty common place on the video channels today
These aren’t the first rappers to cross the line and bring rap music out of Black American culture. I know that when my sons turned on to it, I was surprised because, me the fossil still saw it as a cultural music, rather than something more universal. When some white artists rapped, such as Vanilla Ice, I must admit, I saw them more as a caricature. But the list is a lot longer than the few I have and they played a big part in introducing the art form to a new crowd. And, the white artists seemed almost cartoonish compared to the darker, more street oriented music that I heard from Ice-T, or Public Enemy or even NWA.
Those acts did seem to represent a culture of the streets, poverty and disenfranchisement. I could understand that their music spoke to something different, to oppression, racism and poverty. I have often wondered how those original innovators feel about the Rap/Hip Hop on the airwaves now, filled with wealth, garish display and lyrics less about cause and more about “see my wealth.” Do they see it as a violation? As a sell out? Do the rappers that burned a pathway into the public eye see the new rap as a perversion of the music of the street?
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In its early days, the complaints about Rap music were many. Some complaints usually referenced the misogynistic theme of much of the music. Women were referred to as ‘bitch’ and many other less than polite terms. Yes, the same thing permeated some rock music, but the Rap music seemed to be less subtle in its sexism. Eventually, female rappers like Queen Latifah , Salt-n-Pepa, and Missy Elliot forced their way onto the Hip Hop scene and spoke against the inherent sexism in the lyrics. Once a voice against oppression, the Rappers had developed their very own ‘good ‘ol boys’ club.
Violence is also a focus of the criticism of Rap music. As late as 2007, a congressional hearing called witnesses concerning the focus on bad language and violence. Is the violence in the music dangerous for the listener? Even pop and rock faced the same challenge during the PMRC hearings in 1985. Those trials were inconclusive with little more than voluntary labeling for content as a result of the spectacular driven by Tipper Gore.
Even Illinois representative Bobby Rush, an ex-Black Panther, implied that the companies are not doing enough to protect young listeners. “This hearing is not anti-hip-hop,” said Mr. Rush. Still, he said, violence and degradation have “reduced too many of our youngsters to automatons, those who don’t recognize life, those who don’t value life.”

Is rap a bad influence? Is it worse than pop or rock in which semi-clad singers writhe around in videos leaving no doubt about the sexual content of some lyric like Lady Gaga’s“I Want To Ride on Your Disco Stick?” Is it the most common race of Rappers, and hints of racism itself that draws the attention of the public to this genre’s excesses? Or, it the criticism accurate in its assumption that this musical form has gone too far, degrading women, promoting violence and desensitizing the youth to foul language, violence and sexism?

A tough question that every generation seems to have to answer, whether it is the Ed Sullivan Show only showing Elvis from the waist up, making the Rolling Stones sing “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” instead of the night together, or early attempts to ban rock and roll because, as a southern radio station DJ in the 50’s said, it was “Nigger music.”

Will rap mellow? Mature?
Will it be diffused by its spread into a wider culture? Will it settle into a formulaic genre as some pop music has? Will it take the reins of social upheaval or slide into the same corporate interchangeable parts form of entertainment as so much of Rock has done, losing its mandate as the changing force in society?
Does it still speak for the disenfranchised or a display for the Nouveau Riche?

We can only hope that among the hours and hours of drivel, that somewhere in both Rap and Rock, someone is fermenting rebellion, and that someone wants to make the listening public aware of injustice, and someone is still trying to shake the foundations of complacency by using the music we love so much.