I Say Let them Get There Own Museum.

dbanner1newparis
This article is in response to the recent controversy that emerged around the new Hip Hop Museum in New York. The city council which funded part of the museum is insisting that gangsta rap not be aprt of the exhibit. Here’s the article..
p076.ezboard.com/fpolitic…D=16.topic

I say Let them Get There Own Museum.
by Furious Styles

original article-August 15 2006

I applaud the people working with the development of the new Bronx museum. I really think its important in telling the story of Hip Hop, that we leave something for future generations to be proud of and to strive for. I believe wanting to be an emcee and to rock a party or have a good time, or to talk about yourself and how fly you are, or cleverly showing your battle ability without degrading people because of your lack of vocabulary, or talking about women and relationships in a nurturing and healthy way, or various societal issues is great. If you are a history of music, these songs with these topics and mood from the 60s and 70s are considered classics, and stand the test of time no matter what new microwave pop corn new act that pops up. Examples- Change Gonna Come- Sam Cooke, Whats Going On- Marvin Gaye, Sweet Thing Chaka Khan.

But when you begin talking about or glorifying death, murder, mayhem, pimping, misogyny, incest, guns, cocaine, women as objects to just dance, or portray black people, or the Hip Hop generation as a group of people who live in the club, @#%$, fight, drink, steal, or do anything counterproductive to life, I feel firmly that you have no place in a museum, or in the history of Hip Hop, except in showing what was wrong with our culture, and how we should never have future generations go down that road but learn the lessons of history.

I understand the age old worn out statement that Gansta Hip Hop is a product of the environment, its bigger than the thugs, pimps and playas, we dont own the planes that bring drugs into our communities, the-had- a- bad up bringing, no daddy in the house, being shot, the streets, etc. etc. etc.. etc.. But the fact of the matter is that these artists are pushing stripper music into the ears of our children, they are talking about crack selling, distribution, and murder, and wonder why we have so much violence in the lives of our youth. Oh, by the way, what you listen to does make a difference on your psyche, mental health, self impression, everything. . Check out the movie where the dude at McDonalds for a month. If music is food, and you are what you eatThink about it.

If gangstas, pimps, playas, hustlas, tricks, ballers, killers, rapist, murderers, foul mouth imdividuals want a museum to display their works, let them build there own. But for me, I want my kids to take their kids to a museum where they can learn the importance of all the men and women on stage and behind the scenes that made Hip Hop music that had something to say, something to evoke and stimulate thought about life, family, the world, having fun, etc. And I hope my childrens children dont have to go somewhere where they have a Shrine for Nelly but none for Kool Herc, where theres the new track with Trina dissing Khia, but no ladies first by Queen Latifah, where there will be walls of shots of 50 cent, but no remembrance or understanding of Tupac. And yeah, Tupac would be in my museum and 50 wouldnt.

Again, for those of you who may have missed it, read the last 3 lines of the first paragraph. At least with Tupac he was well rounded, and had different dimensions to himself, and was able to challenge himself to talk about more than the bullshit. Most of these new dudes have no reference to Hip Hop history, and have nothing else to talk about. And great artists who have wonderful things to add in the world of music are labeled underground, cant get radio of video play, and are forced to watch people be destroyed for the lack of good musical food. Yeah I said it.

_Furious Styles

Archives

Comments

  1. Honestly, I think the good,bad, and ugly side of Hip Hop should be told with none of the styles being overglorified or demonized.In other words, show the strengths and weaknesses of all of it. The museum should talk about the historical,economic, social,geographical and cultural contexts that brought the different styles of hip hop into play. That is done in books why can’t that be done in a simplified form in the museum.(It would not surprise me if it does not happen but hey.) In addition to this, telling all sides appears to be the best way. If you just focus on the positive side of hip hop, then the negative side becomes subversive and exotic.Which indirectly glorifies the negativity by making it appealing.If you focusl on just the positive side, then the museum appears to be distorting information which may give the impression that the institution is resistant to different styles/points of views in telling the story of hip hop.This also smacks of censorship-artistic or otherwise. In addition to me being wary of censorship, I also feel like people forget that other styles of black,mainstream, and world music had various types of styles that informed,entertained,edutained, or mobilized people in good/bad ways. Hip Hop may only appear to differ because hip hop is blatently pro-cultural,radical,subversive, nihilistic, or vulgar as opposed to other types/styles of music. I admit that suttlety in terms of lyrics,form, whatever goes a long way, but in the end if the themes are the same-the message is not all that different. Which is why when my kids come along, when they have museums for hip hop, I hope that they see the whole side of the story. It will be up to them to intelligence,intuition, and conscience to decide what’s good/bad,smart/dumb, positive or optimistic, negative or pessimistic, or whatever. As a parent, it will be my job to help them do this and not leave this responsibility solely to others-even though others will be responsible for what they encourage,make,etc.