During the last class prof Kalmar used Flo Rida’s song “Low” as an illustration to the fact that the commercial hip hop music has become a part of the hegemonic society (when it started out as being anti-hegemonic), and he asked us why we think that has happened.
At first I didn’t really know how to reply to that question. It seems as if the popular belief that hip hop had gone pop and become hip pop might be reluctantly accepted, but it has nevertheless become accepted. Then I started thinking about the various terms and ideas we have been learning in this course and here is my short answer (could write an essay on it).
Andrejevic’s idea of the uncanny capitalism is an interesting term in this discussion. Since capitalism is the only way of life we can see, no wonder that the kind of hip hop culture (HHC) we see in the media (hip pop) has become a part of the capitalist society. Why HHC has become less and less transgressive with time? Because adopting to the ‘mainstreaminess’ sells.
Still, I would argue that even the most mainstream hip hop music is transgressive. First of all, I find it important to point out that most of us refer, in the popular/every day language, to North American hip hop when talking about commercial hip hop. Since the North American culture is, as prof Kalmar has discussed in class, still very much affected by the division between black and white, it is embedded in the society itself. This, to me, makes the act of non-white people taking up space in media a transgressive act, since being white is still very much default as it has been since the first wave of colonialism. Just like prof Kalmar pointed out – anything else is the Other. Therefore, even when Flo Rida is (without using any faul language) rapping about how this certain girl is making him sexually aroused and there’s a description of her outfit, I would argue that by being non-white his very existence in the media is transgressive. Looking at the content of the lyrics and the video spurs other discussions and other points of views, such as that since it is not as sexual as many other songs and accompanying videos it is no longer transgressive – yet, by taking a closer look at the lyrics there is plenty of sexism to be found along with the objectifying of women. If that is no longer transgressive I would argue that it says more about what is considered transgressive in this North American society of today (that the limit and tolerance level has changed) and with it something about the entire society itself than about Flo Rida’s music. The artist most probably got into the ‘hip hop game’ as an easy way of getting rich (even though most hip hop artists don’t seem to gain a greater wealth for a longer period of time) and he might not even care about the content of the lyrics - he probably didn’t even write them himself. The idea of uncanny capitalism might, therefore, be the reason why Flo Rida got interested in becoming a part of the ‘hip hop game’ and it might be one of the reasons why hip hop has become as commercial as it has – it's the biggest thing out there and by being a young (black) male in North America, what else does the consumer-capitalist society tell you to aim for?
Lupe Fiasco’s song “Hip Hop Saved My Life” talks on this topic I’m arguing that Flo Rida might have went through, along with many of the young men aiming for a career in hip hop music:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4XtBqNCL-I
(For those of you who are fans of Lupe, he's coming to town this Thurs. For more info: http://www.circatoronto.com/eventcalendar.html)
# posted by Andrea Dankic @ 12:48 PM
