Race and Identity By:Taylor Woods

Often times when one thinks of hip-hop, the people and culture that it rose from is more often than not thought of as well, the identity and the race of hip hop. Race is the physical characteristics of a human being, their skin color, hair texture, eye color, etc. Identity is the base of any meaningful idea, the core parts, for hip-hop this identity envelops music, struggle, rhythm, and joy.  Russell Simons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings once said, "The thing about hip-hop is that it’s from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized.” In one sentence he sums up the identity of hip-hop. 

Hip-hop has always been composed of an identity and a race; more and more now a days the difference becomes much more clear. In the early days of hip hop the race that consumed this art was that of African Americans and that race only, seldom seen were any people of other races in the light of hip hop. For this, as other races began to creep into the realm, some did not take to this lightly, being that hip-hop was for African Americans, or so they thought. In the video below Blacking Out, you see the conflicts that arose when Caucasians began to embrace the art of hip-hop. They were seen as traitors to their own race, or that they were mocking the genre. This would have not been a problem if those who were narrow minded would take into consideration the identity of hip-hop, they would see that with the identity all groups of people were part of hip-hop.

Hip-hop is for all people who have been “locked out” or “not recognized” those who want a voice to be heard through a lyrical melody. In Common’s song “I Used to Love H.E.R.”  he discusses the identity that hip-hop has in the form of an allegory in which he personifies hip-hop to show it in its truest form.

Eminem was amongst the first to prove to the world that hip hop was not just for one race but was about fitting an identity, being able to relate to the music you created and to be at home with the artist in your genre. In the cypher below you see Eminem among the one and only Mos Def, one who will forever be known in hip-hop.

storytelling

As my dad always loves to say, it's a shame our generation has been taken over by the idiotic and annoying rap songs we hear today. Of course, anyone under the age of 35 completely disagrees. Fine, once I showed him the song, "walk it out" by UNK, I can understand why he might think of rap as (in his own words with an imaginary beat), "And you pick your nose and you don't know why...".   Obviously it's debatable that certain songs can be seen as annoying, but that doesn't take away from the fact that mostly every song has a story behind it. Even a song as repetitive as "Walk it Out" has the story of these rappers coming from nothing and making it big. In his second verse of Walk it Out remix, UNK says, "I walked it out the bank, with a lot of zeros. That's what my teachers called me, predictions like they Cleo. So I do my dance for 'em, then make 'bout forty thousand. I do that in a month, I'm on resorts and islands.." He's saying it's ironic how his teachers use to call him a zero, yet zeros are the only thing he's counting on his paychecks. He's just shoving it into their face when he brings up a teacher's salary of forty thousand by making it clear he makes that in a month. In my opinion, that's probably the worst example of a story within a rap song. That just proves my point that almost any rap song can have a story behind it. One of my favorite songs that has an incredible story to compliment it would probably be, "Live your life," by T.I. and Rihanna. Even though half that song is about being famous and all the great things that come with it, the song also emphasizes the importance of "stop lookin as what you ain't got and start being thankful for what you do got." T.I. also highlights the significance of ignoring all the haters because in the end, when you come back at them, it only fuels them to keep coming back at you. Money also being an important value of his life, he expresses how the time you spend retaliating is money you could be getting.

Telling a Story Through a Song

Hip Hop is often viewed as a simple ghetto music with little to no meaning by those who do not fully understand it. However hip-hop can be so much more. Hip-hop can be the medium for expression for those who cannot express themselves or be heard any other way. This is often known as story telling. An artist or a Hip-hop group will often aim to tell a story through their songs to either promote a message or bring the worlds attention to a critical issue in their lives.

One of my personal favorite examples of this is the song “My life”  by The Game featuring Lil Wayne. The song’s intro begins with a very dramatic scene of a break-in gone wrong with the robber getting shot at the end. Someone who does not understand the background to the song or the background to the musical style might see this as a senseless addition to the song, however, it is much more. This part of the song demonstrates in full what the message of the song is. This scene displays the tough lifestyle that someone who lives in the “hood”, to quote The Game, might have happen on any normal night, along with the hardships of everyday life. The song goes on from there to describe the “grind” of everyday life just to make it through the day. This is mainly to show the audience the hardships of life in the ghetto and the struggle to stay alive. This struggle is also later expressed through the game mentioning he wants to leave the hood. “Take me away from the hood/ like a state penitentiary./ Take me away from the hood/ in a casket or a Bentley./ Take me away...”(The Game). This is the exact essence of what story telling through Hip-hop is. The game through verses like this is telling his story of struggle and hardships that people need to hear. This is my personal favorite Hip-hop song that tells a story because I heard this at a time where I knew very little of the hood. When I first heard this song it changed my viewpoint on the hood a lot. This shift in viewpoint was mainly because I was young and very uninformed about conditions outside of the neighborhood that I lived in. The song, written with a story behind it, allowed me to branch out and see a bigger issue in the community around me.

            Another song that tells a story beautifully most would not even understand or think about. The song has a deep hidden meaning behind it that most would not understand. When I first played the song in my car with my dad, he grabbed the CD and threw it out the window, simply because he did not understand the meaning and took it the wrong way. The song is “25 to life” by Eminem. This song is a very violent song that sounds as if Eminem is yelling at a girl and all that she has done to him. However, it is so much more. The “girl” he is speaking of through out the whole song, and album, is not actually a girl, but rather fame in general. Through this song Eminem tells his story about his battle with fame and all that came with it and how it was not good for him. However, those who do not know the story are often turned off by this song due to its vulgar language against what they think is an actually girlfriend. This is Eminem telling his personal story in a song that can be heard and played over modern Hip-hop stations.

The Hip Hop Matrix

      Houston A. Baker, an American scholar, ideologist, and author, defines a matrix as, "a womb, a network, a fossil- bearing rock, a rocky trace of a gemstone's removal, a principal metal in an alloy, a mat or a plate for reproducing print or phonograph records." His version of a matrix led him to create the idea of a "Blues Matrix" during the Blues Era (mainly post WWII- 1980s). This matrix was composed of the thoughts, ideas, lyrics, and beats to the songs written and sung. The Blues Matrix is how the elements of lifestyle, emotion, and reality come together and form blues songs. Blues is the name given to the musical genre that originated in African- American communities, primarily in the "Deep South." These songs included jazz and rock and roll, with lyrics similar to that of chants and work songs. Speficially, Baker studied and disected the Afro- American culture. He drew connections between their songs and their lifestyle, such as their history of slavery and suppression. Each of these elements thus led him to creating the idea of a, "Blues Matrix."
       Currently, the "Blues Matrix" has evolved and the music associated within it has done so too. By the late 1980s, the blues music had slowly transformed and incorporated more of an upbeat tempo and rock and roll to it. As it rapidly metamorphozed into a new style of music, hip hop was born. Hip hop originated in the 1970s by commonly being played at African- American neighborhood house parties in the Bronx. Likewise with blues music, hip hop songs were written about lifestyles and emotions, primarily African American, at the time. Contrastingly however, the blues era dealt more with working, drinking, hardships, and love. This newly invented "matrix," the hip hop matrix, included new social activities and emotions such as love, money, drugs, and materialistic items.
      Through a music revolution towards the 1980s' end, hop hop was created. The newly upbeat and lyrical music style was once again reinvented by the African American culture. Singer James Brown is widely considered as an influence and "godfather" to the creation of this new genre. Thus. yet another form of singing had emerged and became popular rapidly. Following the rapid popularity of hip hop was a new genre called rapping or emceeing. Emceeing included raps and lyrical rhymes that were sung by the rapper or emcee. These songs differed greatly from those of the blues era mainyly due to the fact that society had changed and African Americans were faced with new social issues. For instance, in the song, "The Bridge is Over," by the Boogie Down Productions, there is a clear battle that is expressed between the parts of New York. The Bronx think they are the founders of hip hop and the Queens think that they are. "Manhattan keeps on makin it, Brooklyn keeps on takin it, Bronx keep creatin it, the Queens keeps on fakin it," exemplifies that point to a tee. A "battle" between the groups develops and songs become insults to each group.
     Currently, the hip hop matrix still exists, and has transformed from the 1990s. If a music analyst were to compare the three generations of music to one another, they would almost seem unrelated. The blues' beat was much more upbeat than the singing itself, yet today it is completely opposite. The singing is more dominant than the beat iself. Although they have their differences, each generation of this music leads back to the African American culture in the "Deep South." The matrix that exists today includes songs that reflect upon the American dream, hardships of African- Americans, Americans, drugs, money, and females. The majority of the present day hip hop and rap songs include at least one of those elements listed above. "Started from the bottom now we're here," is probably the most used phrase now due to the song, "Started for the Bottom." It describes how the African- Americans have come from being at the bottom of the "foodchain," to reaching heights of becoming the United States President. Ace Hood's song, "Bugatti," puts an emphasis on one of the world's most materialistic desired items and how he "woke up" in one. These rap and hip hop videos include the finest of luxurious in their music videos. Almost none of the newer music videos show hardships faced by the culture. Most show the benefits and luxurious they have. This current hip hop matrix that surrounds us today is much larger than most of us realize. It dates back to the 1920s and has been revolutionized in infinite ways. By looking at each era one by one and diagnosing how music transformed, it becomes clear that there was a significant social change in the African American community from the Blues Era to present day music.