Just Looking ...

Hey back in the day, who couldn’t respect Lauyrn Hill with her unique perspective, or keep to the beat of social justice corralling by Talib Kwali. Yes in the era of Jay- Z shoes and P.Diddy cologne - Nas correctly stated Hip-Hop is dead. However, with that said perhaps we shouldn’t be too critical of Hip-Hop artists today, I mean many of them grew up disenfranchised youth, trying to make a dollar or two to survive.
Instead of completely writing off value of this commercial age of Hip-Hop perhaps we should look at the positionality and context those artists are in. I truly believe Hip-Hop today is unique because it is an art form imbedded in challenging norms, yet has been incorporated by the mainstream as a tool to sell product. In turn, it is actually those voices that were once disadvantaged that now have the economic means to bring about real change; as the saying goes use the masters tools to bring down his house.

I think in-lieu of just writing off Hip-Hop as a culture that is celebratory of misogyny, drugs, and cash money, we should further look at the institutions at play. Perhaps Hip-hop is Black America’s interpretation/ articulation of the American Dream? Maybe, while we are enjoying ourselves watching Shawty get low or doing the Superman, we should ask ourselves why platinum fronts are celebrated- it would give us greater perspective of what our cosmology is.