Contemporary urban music: controversial messages in hip-hop and rap lyrics.

Introduction

Anyone who is unfamiliar with recent contemporary urban music is likely to be surprised at its unusual rhythms and perhaps even shocked at its uninhibited lyrics. Unless one is involved with urban teenagers or ghetto culture or watches MTV on cable, there is little likelihood of being exposed to such music. The purpose of this paper is to help familiarize the uninitiated with some of these newer forms of music which have become so controversial.

When hip-hop music became popular in the early '70s, most people responded only to the music (Sims, 1993, p. E3). More recently, the term "hip-hop" describes a culture, superficially characterized by performers with droopy pants, hats to the back, laceless sneakers, hoods, and loud radios. "Hip-hop [is] an African-American and Afro-Caribbean youth culture composed of graffiti, break dancing and rap music" (Rose, 1994, p. 2). As Garofalo (1990) points out, "rap music must be understood as one cultural element within a larger social movement known as hip-hop." It's a culture born out of a mixture of cultures with its own language.

"Hip-hop is the fundamental matrix of self-expression for this whole generation" (Katz & Smith, 1993). But the superficial characteristics which are deemed minimally acceptable to mainstream society can be deceiving. Often the words reflect the frustration over poverty, drugs, violence, poor schools, family breakdown and racial tension (Leland, 1992, p. 52). The victims have become victimizers in the way that they communicate the events and emotions of inner city people. Hip-hop, then, is another form of musical expression that has included rhythm and blues (R&B), rap or urban style, dance, new jack swing, reggae or ska. All may serve as a protest of racism and poverty. According to Rose, [rap music is]:

...the central cultural vehicle for open social reflection on poverty, fear of adulthood, the desire for absent fathers, frustrations about black male sexism, female sexual desires, daily rituals of life as an unemployed teen hustler, safe sex, raw anger, violence, and childhood memories. It is also the home of innovative uses of style and language, hilariously funny carnivalesque and chitlin-circuit-inspired dramatic skits, and ribald storytelling. In short, it is black America's most dynamic contemporary popular cultural intellectual and spiritual vessel. (Rose, 1994, p. 18)

Rap music also demeans women and promotes drug use and violence as a way to achieve empowerment through symbolic verbal action. The negative implications of rap music have become as popular as the music itself. It has attacked racism through more racism, lack of power through supremacy and perhaps poverty through the sales of racist and misogynist material to those willing to be entertained and influenced in their desire for information about ghetto culture - those who take the easy stand of observing rather than participating. According to Henry Louis Gates Jr., a professor at Harvard University:

A lot of what you see in rap is the guilt of the black middle class about its economic success, its inability to put forth a culture of its own. Instead they do the worst possible thing, falling back on fantasies of street life. In turn, white college students with impeccable gender credentials buy nasty sex lyrics under the cover of getting at some kind of authentic black experience. What is potentially very dangerous about this is the feeling that by buying records they have made some kind of valid social commitment.

This kind of consumption - of racist stereotypes, of brutality toward women, or even of uplifting tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King - is of a particularly corrupting kind. The values it instills find their ultimate expression in the ease with which we watch young black men killing each other: in movies, on records, and on the streets of dries and towns across the country. (Samuels, 1991, p. 29)

Rap is a musical expression characterized by continuous beats looped to produce a steady rhythm and overlapped by sentences which are recited rapidly but in cadence with the music.

Rap's various musical beats contribute to differentiation in styles. "Hip-hop may sound the same to the inexperienced ear, but beneath the posturing and booming beat lies one of pop's most complex forms" (Toure, 1993, p. H32). The looping of beats, which consists of recording the same musical line over and over again may seem monotonous if only one line (for example, the bass line) accompanies the lyrics. Nevertheless, various instrumental lines are layered diversifying what is heard. Also, rap recalls the African tradition of story-telling - "it's a form of rhyme accompanied by highly rhythmic, electronically based music" (Rose, 1994, p. 2). Its historical authenticity is established by the use of the popular slave and church tradition of call-and-response, where the lead singer asks a question or requests interactive participation from followers or peers.

The "chants" may be abrupt and therefore sound inconsistent to a new listener, because many times it seems as if the song has ended for a few seconds, but then it rapidly returns to the previous musical line. Also, its complexity is intensified by the use of sound effects adding realism to the statements expressed.

Those who are unfamiliar with these new forms of musical expression may use dictionary definitions as their starting point although semanticists recognize that music as much as words is interpreted differently by different people. Surprisingly, the dictionary definitions of rap relate to the musical expression itself, although none defines the style specifically. "A sharp rebuke or criticism; slang: the responsibility of or adverse consequences of an action; a criminal charge; a prison sentence." Also to rap is "to talk freely or frankly; a tall conversation" (Webster's, 1991, p. 975). The music itself is a cultural expression which "prioritizes black voices from the margins of urban America" (Rose, 1994, p. 2).

Rappers are criticizing what they believe to be an unfair society, and the majority of them have had problems with the law, giving the style a nefarious reputation among some listeners (Sims, 1993, p. E3). Conversely, many teenagers and minority group members view rappers as their spokesmen because of their ability to speak in street language and bluntly express their frustrations. That street language usually depicts the least socially desirable elements of urban life including misogyny, illegal drugs, and violence.

Misogyny

Gender equality is hindered by a sexist society and rappers contribute to this abuse. Often these artists refer to their partners as "bitches" and "whores" and they appear to take pride in describing their abuse of power in sexual situations. Dr. Dre's most popular song "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" is a misogynistic anthem. Snoop Doggy Dogg raps the first few verses of the song:/...before you hit on a bitch you have to find a contraceptive//you never know she could be learning her man/.../and at the same time burning her man/...(Dr. Dre, 1992).

Sexually explicit titles are also frequent in Dr. Dre's music, for example, his song "Let Me Ride," is meant to have double entendre: "ride" is also a slang term for coitus or a sexual encounter. Also, Dr. Dre was the producer for Snoop Doggy Dogg's album entitled Doggystyle. In the album's intro, one of Snoop's friends refers to him "doing his gift doggystyle" - that is in the "rear entry" position (Snoop Doggy Dogg, 1993). Double entendre is also obvious in K7's song "Come Baby Come," with a chorus line saying I come baby come, baby baby, come come ...if I gotta' give you loving then you gotta' give me some.../(K7, 1993).

Some of the representative lyrics associated with Dr. Dre's former group N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitude) are as follows:/This is the bitch that did the whole crew/She did it so much we made bets on who the ho would love to go through.../And she lets you videotape her/And if you got a gang of niggers the bitch'll let you rape her/(N.W.A, 1990). These lyrics are derogatory sexual innuendoes viewed by many as promoting gang rape. The following may also be considered misogynist lyrics, from the song "One Less Bitch":/In reality a fool is one who believes all women are ladies; a nigga is one who believes all ladies are bitches/./And all bitches are created equal/./To me all bitches are the same, money hungry scandalous, groupie hos, that's always riding on nigga's dick/, always in a nigga's pocket/...(N.W.A., 1991).

The overwhelming majority of rappers are African Americans and most white people would be surprised to find the hated word "nigger" used so freely. However, words that might be inappropriate for outsiders to use are commonly employed by those within a group. So too with the word "bitch," commonly considered a pejorative word, which is sometimes used to mean "a woman who gets what she wants." Street language does not always conform to majority group use or meaning (Condon, 1966).

Contemporary rap surpasses acceptable limits to conservative listeners. The controversy may never get worse than the one connected to rap group 2 Live Crew. Their obscenity court case is famous because it centered the group in a vortex of powerful social and cultural issues such as First Amendment rights to free expression, the force and extent of misogynist and cultural impulses, and the function of race in judging controversial artistic expressions (Dyson, 1992, p. 274).

In addition to misogynist feelings and attitudes expressed in rap music, drugs also seem to be a major theme where the artist praises its illegal consumption and makes public its effects.

Drugs

Rappers seem to take pride in their illegal drug consumption. Many rappers have a history of drug dealing or abuse. Recently, Latino rap newcomers Cypress Hill became the official spokesmen for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a group attempting to legalize marijuana (Ehrlich, 1993). Their new album Black Sunday gives a detailed explanation on the cover of the benefits of hemp, contrasting this with pictures of skulls and tombstones, which adds to its titillating aura. Also, track number nine on this album openly expresses "Legalize it" (Cypress Hill, 1993).

Dr. Dre appears to be promoting drugs by calling his album "The Chronic," with an icon of a marijuana leaf omnipresent in all of his videos. He challenges the boundaries set by networks such as MTV by shooting scenes which he knows will be censored. The Chronic is mildly but deliberately blurred on every video, creating further controversy. "Snoop Doggy Dogg can't be shown wearing a cap with a marijuana leaf on it, while Tori Amos's 'God' video shows a man with a cord around his arm in a reference to both Judaism and shooting heroin" (Weisbard, 1994, p. 135). Some rappers, who may not be as popular as Dr. Dre because they are not usually on MTV or even played on the radio, get away with descriptive lyrics such as rapper Redman with his song "How to Roll a Blunt," a checklist of directions (Redman, 1991).

Rap's explicit lyrics are modified for public air play and many songs are not even played on the commercial level, but rap albums still manage to sell in great quantities (Rose, 1994, p. 4, 7). Some songs remain unknown to fans unless they decide to buy the whole album. Cypress Hill's "I Wanna Get High" is such a song, and is dominated by boxy beats and characterized by a boost in the bass with a repetitive melody. The resulting sound makes listeners feel as if the room is spinning and simulates being under the influence of drugs.

In addition to the disturbing misogyny and promotion of illegal drugs by rappers is the concern about the ultimate alleged consequence of gangster rap: violence.

Violence

A variety of social problems are conveyed in rap lyrics narrating daily events in cities, but which may be irrelevant to those who are not affected. "Rap music brings together a tangle of some of the most complex social, cultural, and political issues in contemporary American society" (Rose, 1994, p. 2). Through rap, the black voice has the opportunity to break the obstruction the media has provided for many years (Rose, 1994, p. 14) and nowadays African-Americans or minorities in general can symbolically release their built-up energy. "In great part, hip-hop's pervasive popularity is due to its rebellious nature - set to a beat you can dance to" (Sims, 1993). Rap's cathartic effect can be identified in its angry lyrics which target institutions such as the church, government and justice system. "Catharsis has a quasi-curative effect. It temporarily relieves the tension and may prepare the individual for a change of attitude" (Allport, 1954, p. 497). However, rappers may be reliving their own painful experiences over and over again through their music, delaying their own and society's process of recovery (Wortman & Lotus, 1992, p. 479).

In 1989, two years before the Rodney King incident, N.W.A. wrote a song about the perceived relations between blacks and police officers. It was called "Fuck the Police." The lyrics included/Some police think/they have the authority to kill the minority/taking out a police will make my day/(Leland, 1992, p. 52). The King beating was considered by many to be a tragic and outrageous event but rare. However, many blacks claim that there are numerous Rodney Kings whose pain and suffering no one shares or acknowledges.

"Gangster rap, which many of its aficionados see as validating the turbulent and deadly streets of an America denied, is the latest manifestation of hip-hop, which first washed over the country in the mid-70s" (Sims, 1993). The "gangsta" image may be becoming a role model to our youth, which is expressed lightly through their clothing but dangerously by carrying out what is expressed in rap songs.

According to MTV, the number one hip-hop song of all time is Dr. Dre's "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," "G" referring to gangster and money (grand). One of the famous lines of this piece is/if your bitches talk shit, I have to put the smack down/(Dr. Dre, 1992). He almost always refers to females as "bitches" and "whores," as he rhymes on about his power and phallic self-praises (e.g. "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang). Dr. Dre's videos are unique because they are always set in group or house parties with the omnipresent "blurring" of hats and shirts probably the result of the depiction of the marijuana leaf as in The Chronic.

This gangsta' attitude also contributes to stereotypical attitudes assumed by blacks and other minorities. According to California Assemblyman Curtis R. Tucker, whose district embraces many black areas of Los Angeles, rappers preach drug culture and violence. Furthermore, according to Tucker, embracing that lifestyle may consequently encourage youngsters to emulate the rappers (Sims, 1993). Many have condemned rap music relating it directly to violence and drug use. According to Sims (1993), supporters of the genre say that it is attacked because society does not consider it a real art form and because it is dominated by blacks. Yet "The arrests of hip-hop artists on charges including sexual assault and murder have heightened concerns that some of these performers, particularly the stars of gangster rap, have become dangerous emblems for an immensely popular, primarily black, musical genre that celebrates violence, gangs, guns and sexual conquest" (Sims, 1993).

Rap lyrics convey a "gun-toting, weed fiend" side of the artists, some of who have criminal records (Sims, 1993).

Mentions of Dre in the Los Angeles Times, his hometown paper, tend to include the phrase "surrendered to police," and perhaps he is the first recording artist since Sly Stone whose name shows up almost as often on the police report page as it does in the entertainment section. Much attention has been devoted to his thuggishness, relatively less to his artistry.... (Gold, 1993, p. 40)

Snoop Doggy Dogg, Flavor Flav, and Tupac Shakur are also noted for their frequent arrests.

The gangster attitude influences women as well as men; rapper Apache produced a song entitled "Gangsta' Bitch":/I need a gangsta' bitch/I want a gangsta' bitch/I need a gangsta' bitch/she don't sleep and she don't play/stickin' up girls from around the fuckin' way/.../puffin' on a blunt//sippin' on a Heineken/.../on Valentine's Day doin' stickups together/(Apache, 1993). While the lyrics of "Gangsta Bitch" may be offensive to some, rap music listeners are unoffended by the words and may even attach some sentimentality to the theme of a man needing a female associate to smoke pot, drink beer, and to celebrate Valentine's Day by committing crimes together.

Gangster rapper Dr. Dre has even taken the opportunity to use one of his songs as a death threat towards his reputed enemy, rapper Eazy-E. Dr. Dre made a video for the song "Dre Day," including someone who looked like Eazy but instead calling him Sleazy and ridiculing him by holding a sign which read "Will rap for food," in the closing shot of the video:/don't even respect your ass, so now its time for the doctor to check your ass, nigga'/use to be my homie use to be my ace, now I wanna' slap the taste out your mouth/.../don't think I forgot, to let you slide, let me ride, just another homicide.../so strap on your Compton hat/and watch your back 'cause you might get smoked/(Dr. Dre, 1992).

Cypress Hills' song "Pigs," (which refers to the police) starts with a reporter's voice saying: ..."climbing out of both windows is a male Hispanic and a possible male Black. They have their vehicle parked.." and the music starts abruptly, ending with the sound of a police officer phoning and sending a signal. According to the group's lead singer, B-Real, the song was inspired when a LAPD officer pushed him onto a parked car. He added that the cop did not get away with it because he was caught on videotape, the latest amateur trend (Leland, 1992, p. 52).

Rappers who employ sights and sounds of inner cities in their music may be viewed in at least two ways: (1) they provide release from the grinding tension created by poverty and substandard schooling and housing, or (2) they are promoting a subculture of acceptance and perhaps endorsement of antisocial and criminal behavior.

Discussion

From one perspective rap has contributed to our society, benefiting minorities in their need for release and expression. Rappers are not simply making up stories with a rhythmic pattern; they are narrating what they see or have personally experienced as a way to make the world aware of their despair and anger. The attitude observed in the hip-hop culture combined with the clothing is intended to convey a "hard" outward appearance to achieve the respect which has been denied to minorities for many years. Rap is therefore the voice of the hip-hop culture. Frequently, rappers set the stage for their music videos in a jail, where they present what apparently many people in jail undergo, superficially of course, because the circumstances of the prison system are practically unknown to the average viewer. Rapper attire includes the wearing of droopy pants, which supposedly started in jail where inmates are not allowed to wear belts for security reasons.

Rap music is a confusing and noisy element of contemporary American popular culture that continues to draw a great deal of attention to itself. On the one hand, music and cultural critics praise rap's role as an educational tool, point out that black women rappers are rare examples of aggressive pro-women lyricists in popular music, and defend rap's ghetto stories as real-life reflections that should draw attention to the burning problems of racism and economic oppression, rather than to questions of obscenity. On the other hand, news media attention on rap seems fixated on instances of violence at rap concerts, rap producers' illegal use of musical samples, gangsta raps' lurid fantasies of cop killing and female dismemberment, and black nationalist rappers' suggestions that white people are the devil's disciples (Rose, 1994, p. 1).

The black power struggle has been strengthened through positive role models and activists for more than 25 years; nevertheless, the social hierarchy is still dominated by white males who are struggling to maintain that position. "Most people want to be higher on the status ladder than they are" (Allport, 1954, p. 371). Therefore, it is often found that when one group is not completely empowered but has a stronger or higher position in the hierarchy, they are likely to attack or oppress the ones under them. "Relationships are often strained between members of an in-group grown irritable over their handicapped status" (Allport, 1954, p. 371). Black women occupy the step under black males because they are the product of two handicaps: their gender and their race. According to Rose (1994, p. 15), the stories narrated in rap music "may serve to protect young men from the reality of female rejection; tales of sexual domination falsely relieve their lack of self-worth and limited access to economic and social markers for heterosexual masculine power."

Many critics are likely to attribute the growing misogyny to rap music, when these feelings have prevailed for a number of years, intensifying through sexual harassment incidents and hindrance of power achievement by females. It must be noted that sexism was not born with rap music; it has been deeply rooted in American culture since its beginning (Rose, 1994, p. 15).

Many rappers have criticized their position in the mainstream music industry because to be "commercial" was unintended. Their music is aimed at those who are suffering from similar circumstances and are therefore able to relate. Many white suburban young people (who form a large percentage of consumers who buy rap albums) are unaware of the reality conveyed in rap lyrics. They probably enjoy the sound effects, beat, or what they may call "irrealism" because this reality does not relate to them or threaten their existence.

Nevertheless, rap music may cause violence among its own fans. Many may claim that the label of "violent" which has followed rap music for many years is comparable to jazz music's label of "immoral," based on white standards. Therefore political interpretations of rap's explosive and resistive lyrics are critical to understanding contemporary black cultural politics (Rose, 1994, p. 145). Rap is not the only aspect of society that may induce criminal behavior. It is only part of a struggle over access to public space, community resources, and racism which provokes the violence.

Despite recognition of the effects of racism and discrimination, many critics believe that rappers have exceeded society's license to entertain America's youth. Religious leaders have decried what they consider the "Satanic" and obscene content of rap music. For instance, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie stated that "the vehicle of dissemination [for pornography on a massive scale to children] is 'gangsta rap' a type of music that is so filthy and vile that it far exceeds what even the most tolerant parent might accept as an inevitable result of the generation gap" (Yoffie, 1994, p. 88).

Rappers are viewed as role models by many youngsters who seem to identify with the underprivileged conditions depicted in many music videos where a familiar turf or hangout corner seems to provide the viewers with a whole story of despair which itself facilitates a connection between artist and viewer. Although to many listeners, rappers are just rebelling against the circumstances they were born in, according to Stanley Crouch, music critic and author of Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews 1979-1989, the performers have nothing to rebel against. "They are a bunch of opportunists who are appealing to an appetite that America has for vulgarity, violence and anarchy inside Afro America" (Sims, 1993).

Kevin Powell, writer for Vibe magazine, believes that the hard-core side of the genre has gone too far. "This new wave of rap music has influenced black children in a bad way. It's made us think that being hard is the sole definition of being black in the 1990s. It's almost as if we've become the minstrels of the 1990s. White people are sitting back and saying let's watch the niggas wave guns in videos and talk, and grab their crotches and amuse us" (Sims, 1993).

Amazingly, rap music has become more than an underground expression with limited profits. It is a multi-million dollar industry headed by major entertainment moguls such as Teddy Riley and Russell Simmons. Although rappers may see themselves involved in a successful commercial enterprise, they still confront many problems along the way. "Even though they are successful rappers, they still face many of the same conditions, prejudices and problems that other people of color face," said Simmons (Sims, 1993).

Rap music has artists who represent different races and styles and have different motives for protest. One of the first groups to be widely recognized is N.W.A. This group marked the beginning of a successful musical career for Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube. In 1991, N.W.A. released their controversial best selling album Efil4zaggin ("niggaz 4 life" spelled backwards) which many critics regard as a hateful extreme (Cocks, 1991, p. 78). Their album entered the charts outselling mainstream singers such as Paula Abdul, despite the fact that there was no single, no video, and no air play for promotion. In fifteen days, a million copies had been sold (Cocks, 1991, p. 78). Some of the egregious title cuts on the album Efil4zaggin include "To Kill a Hooker," "Findum, Fuckum & Flee" and "One Less Bitch" (N.W.A., 1991).

Due to differences amongst the N.W.A. members, the group eventually disbanded. Currently, perhaps the most popular former member is Dr. Dre, a producer and rapper from Compton, Calif., with a police file to validate his violent and threatening lyrics. His best-selling album, The Chronic, introduced rapper Snoop Doggy Dog.

Conclusion

It appears as if the lyrics of the songs of these rappers all share a common denominator: misogynist, drug, and violence themes. Although rap music's themes may have negative implications, it is necessary to understand the reasoning behind the lyrics, which clearly express a need for social, political and cultural action. Only by understanding the music and deciphering the phrases articulated in black lingo, will society be able to reach a level of understanding of the needs of an exploited community. On the other hand, one must be aware of the consequences of immature audiences being exposed to explicit material. Therefore parents should monitor their childrens' music purchases, listening, and viewing. Rappers must be held responsible for their actions and be mindful that they are influencing millions of youngsters whose prime role models are as close as the nearest television screen. Unfortunately not everyone is conscious and knowledgeable about the distinction between fiction and reality. Reality is already difficult enough for the underprivileged.

REFERENCES

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Franklin B. Krohn, Ph.D., is Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Business Administration at State University of New York College at Fredonia. Frances L. Suazo is a Research Assistant in the Department of Communication, State University of New York College at Fredonia.