Introduction—Love Affair and Emerging Critiques
In a survey political theory course early on in my higher education, I was assigned a book that got me hooked into the discipline because it helped me believe in the powers of practical theory.
The book is called Riches for the Poor: The Clemente Course in The Humanities by Earl Shorris, and I was absolutely enchanted by the framework behind what seemed to be, according to the author, a very successful program. The goal of the program, the Clemente Course in the Humanities, was to enhance humanity by educating the very poor, for free, in college-level humanities. Dually, Shorris hoped that by enhancing inherent “humanity,” his curriculum would be instrumental in stimulating reflective thinking, ostensibly contributing to the ability and potential of the poor to alleviate their own poverty and become autonomous individuals.
Of course Shorris couldn’t have been much clearer about the fact that he was going to be arguing for teaching by-and-large from the philosophical and political canon , the book does have the word Humanities in its title. Furthermore, he’s an academic, and his thesis is that the oppressed poor can only become a threat (and by that he means a danger to the status quo) if they have an education in the humanities and learn reflective thinking, which he believes will lead to political awakening. Political awakening can lead people to liberating themselves from oppression, which is what makes them a threat. If you know your history and are literate, then you know that your knowledge and the ideas that are stimulated by that knowledge is a threat to hegemony, and if you don’t, there’s the old cliché “free your mind and the rest will follow.” Frederick Douglass expresses lucidly in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave how obtaining literacy and an education made him dangerous as a slave to his master, and lead to his eventual emancipation (in a climate that withheld literacy from slaves.) In the beginning of this selection, Douglass is paraphrasing his former master’s words and thought process that occurred for Douglass following them
‘[…] He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.’ These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty -- to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. (p. 41)
In the case of Douglass, reflecting on his master’s words critically proved to be a very important skill that helped to him escape from anomie , and those words were prompted by the Master’s fear of Douglass learning how to read, another avenue for exposure to ideas which potentially prompt reflective thinking.
There’s nothing to argue with here. I accept Shorris’ argument for the humanities to some degree because it corresponds with my personal politicization process. In order for struggles to be sound and effectual the oppressed, marginalized and impoverished people of the world must not be in a state of constantly having to reinvent the wheel (to employ another cliché), and have a relatively in-depth understanding of the socio-political system that they, as well as those who actively sustain supremacy, are operating within.
The only trouble was that I loved the book so much that I became personally peeved with the author when his work fell short of my expectations. My expectations were informed by critical theory, postcolonial theory and feminist social and political thought, and my limited background as a teenage activist and punk. I was organizing in solidarity with left-wing political radicals and the poor in direct actions ranging from Food not Bombs to upstaging xenophobic and racist anti-immigration protesters. Because of this background I was troubled by Earl’s lack of gender analysis in his “surround of force” and his focus on the (mostly) white male canon, a nebulous entity that relies very heavily on ancient, classical, medieval, renaissance, colonial, industrial, modern and current acclaimed and oft taught writings by almost exclusively what he terms Dead White European Males (DWEM.)
The humanities will always be heavily influenced by the work of the dead white men of Europe, for they have been history’s troublemakers, the fomenters of revolutions and inventions, the impetus of change, the implacable enemies of the silence in which humanity perishes. No other great body of work invites criticism or denies loneliness to the same extent, and no other body of work in all the history of the world led to politics, with its still astonishing notion of autonomy.
His rationale for utilizing the canon of DWEM is because the poor should have the very same tools in their life-skills toolboxes as the elite in the Ivy Leagues, if they are to accomplish the goal of the course.
The Near-Exclusion of Women’s Voices and Voices of Color in the Curriculum
By introducing the acronym DWEM, Shorris shows us that he isn’t attempting to circumvent issues of gender and race within the canon. Much of the anecdotal evidence he uses to craft the context for the course regards race and gender and how these are factors that can intensify poverty. I don’t imagine that he could elude these factors as a practical educator who has worked in and researched poor communities in the U.S. and abroad. Additionally, he has personally taught the Clemente Course to female inmates in a high-security prison in Westchester, NY, in the inner cities of the U.S., and to indigenous peoples in Mexico. Nonetheless he didn’t pay pointed attention to the patriarchal construction of the binary, and thus he neglected how race and/or class based oppression are compounded by deviant gender or sexuality. Despite being versed in post-colonialist/decolonization (as he demonstrates in his use of Fanon early on in the book) and presumably feminist theory, he made a choice to (largely) promote the ideas from the canonical texts, which in their Euro-centricism and gender-exclusivity can serve as reinforcement of this oppression.
Shorris used the Paulo Freire quote from Pedagogy of the Oppressed to open his section on the surround of force (incidentally, this section of the book provides a extraordinarily digestible way to understand power dynamics and structural inequalities as they play out on a daily basis), “force is used not by those who have become weak under the preponderance of the strong, but by the strong who have emasculated them.” This is a quote that could have very smoothly paved the way into a section theorizing around gender in the ghetto. Poor men (especially of color) are stripped of their ability to perform in the world up to the thoroughly constructed and illusory standards of white, privileged masculinity and this sense of powerlessness gets taken out on easy targets, overwhelmingly in a violent manner on women, queer folk and children. Of Shorris’ otherwise exhaustive delineation of twenty-six contributing coercive factors that keep the poor relegated to the private sphere and in a state of anomie that Shorris terms the “surround of force” , only one applies specifically to gender and that is “family violence.” At the same time he wrote of the overwhelming adversity that welfare mothers face, and the flaws of a system that create a situation where “the sound of a women’s prison at night is of weeping.” Yet he still almost totally excluded canonized theorists of feminism in the Clemente Course.
At one point in the text, Shorris related a fairly confrontational conversation he had with a social worker about the Euro-centricity of his curriculum, following an attempt to recruit students for the first trial run of the Clemente Course in New York. She begins
-“Are you going to teach African history?”
+“No. We’ll be teaching a section on American history, based on documents, as I said. We want to teach the ideas of history so that…”
-“You have to teach African history.”
+“This is America, so we’ll teach American history. If we were in Africa, I would teach African history, and if we were in China, I would teach Chinese history.”
-“You’re indoctrinating people in Western culture.”
He didn’t have an answer for this accusation, except to reiterate the importance of having a map to the socio-economic-political battlefield, so to speak, which manifests in the curriculum by trying to cultivate a good understanding of Petrarch’s humanities : Philosophy, Literature, Art , History , and Logic, with the logic sometimes replaced by critical thinking or cultural history leading to reflection, autonomy, and the public world.
I think that his answer to the social worker’s question of indoctrination lies embedded in the second-to-last chapter of Riches for the Poor entitled “Other Countries, Other Cultures,” in which Shorris describes the success of incorporating indigenous cultural history and language into the curriculum when the Clemente Course is offered to Maya, Inuit, and Cherokee communities. One can presume that this integration makes the program more holistic, relevant, and meaningful to the students in those communities. He writes of the importance and necessity of re-learning and integrating indigenous culture as an imperative intermediary to the process of amalgamating the humanities, and asks the question “Was it the purpose of the Clemente Course to make Europeans out of the Maya or to bring the poor into the public world through the humanities? And if it was the latter, how could one instill reflective thought in people by conquering them?” He answers his own question in the next paragraph, “To adopt the role of the cultural conqueror would be to inhibit reflective thinking, to destroy the political life of the students.”
If the project is to make the poor (and by extension—the oppressed and discontent) a threat to the oppressive ruling elites through political awakening, couldn’t there possibly be other, more organic ways of stirring the minds and hearts of the downtrodden beyond or in addition to the DWEM enculturation? Adding a component to the literature and history curriculum of contemporary theorists of postcolonialism, radical/critical pedagogy, and feminism would make it more comprehensive, and the arts and cultural history element could use a little bit of sprucing up as well. This is not to suggest that the classical humanities and “high art” or “high culture” should be pitted against contemporary theory, contemporary narratives and contemporary art, but rather that they are already in conversation with one another, and they are better understood in this non-dichotomous, non-supremacist way. Now the question of which contemporary theory, narrative, and art should be added to the Clemente curriculum to best complement the humanities and most likely lead to the formation of political consciousness in the urban U.S. arises.
Suggestions for Making the Curriculum More Relevant
“Rap is Black America’s CNN”-Chuck D of Public Enemy
In addition to the theorists I made mention of in the last paragraph, I think hip-hop should be taken into serious consideration as a counterpart to Shorris’ beloved humanities. Some of the most movingly, radically politicizing material I have ever heard in my life came from hip-hop. I’m not proposing that hip-hop should be an alternative to the humanities Shorris teaches and advocates, but rather an ancillary tool, incorporated into the section of the curriculum that deals with the arts. Now don’t shake your head at me, I don’t mean that it ought to be subordinated to the humanities, like a slave in Aristotle or Plato’s democracy (that would be too historically consistent) but rather to serve as a fantastically colorful and joyful ingredient to throw into the inter-disciplinary mix that is compelling, accessible, and makes you want to move your posterior in a rhythmic fashion while you’re making revolution. Why hip-hop and not some other kind of sub-cultural phenomenon or genre of expression? Because…
Of all of the contemporary art forms available to consume and engage with in our postmodern landscape of globalization, hybridization, and multiculturalism, hip-hop is one of the most visible whether in advertising, in popular discourse, in the blog-sphere, in academia, in magazines & newspapers, on television, or on the airwaves. Hip-hop, now going strong for over a quarter of a century, is so prevalent in popular culture that people all over the world are at least marginally conscious of its all-encompassing presence, if they’re not preoccupied with replicating it. Rap music, the most easily commodified (and arguably the most articulate) facet of hip-hop births a new rising star nearly daily with one or 25 danceable hit (s), and being a rapper is potentially very lucrative (bling bling), empowering, and serves as an outlet for creativity (punning, rhyming, bragging, generally being witty or artistically communicating a message.) Perhaps most importantly, becoming a rapper can be a channel through which people without financial means and political power can enter into the public sphere with a citizen’s voice and to escape the surround of force and the conditions of anomie. Or, in the politically potent language of the ghetto, it can express anomie to perfection. Even listening to the words of rappers or being involved in the culture of hip-hop can also provide an escape from anomie, because it is a socially and politically charged movement in every one of its expressions, potentially making the poor into thinkers and activists.
Hip-hop is a grassroots cultural movement of five parts: DJ-ing or turntable-ism, graffiti, break-dancing, rapping or MC-ing—and as Afrika Bambaataa put it, knowledge [disclosure.] Rap music is the most marketable aspect of this culture through the monstrous music industry and therefore the most accessible to the mainstream, but all five parts are intrinsically tied to one another and were developed in collaboration with one another. There’s no reason to go into the entire history of hip-hop because there are whole books devoted to the subject, and I don’t have the cultural or experiential background to recreate an exhaustive historical account. However, I will try and make some important points about the historical evolution of hip-hop as I understand it pertaining to the stimulation of political awareness within the dominant culture, and its own subculture.
Despite the current extravagant state of hip-hop (many are saying now that it’s in the throes of death because it has gone as far as it can go ), hip-hop began with modest roots. Most people trace it back to the early seventies, and while there are many ideas as to the precise location where and exact moment when hip-hop originated, it’s widely accepted there was the development of an organic art form during this time akin to folk music, gaining popularity in the Bronx. Listen to some Gil Scott Heron, Camille Yarborough or the Last Poets to get the idea of what this proto-hip-hop sound was like—politically charged and poignant poetry spit over sublime jazz.
Hip-hop culture was beginning to gain popularity in poor areas of New York City into the late 1970’s. There was some sampling of disco and funk with complex lyrics, and guerilla performances in empty warehouses and on street corners, and black market trading of ideas going on—which often looked like an exercise in masculinity, which poor men of color are stripped of in our society—with break-dancing, graffiti, rhyming (as well as beat-boxing) and turn-tablism. Men of color were able to impress the ladies while simultaneously proving their worthiness of existence through the creation of—b-boy culture. DJ Kool Herc, one of hip-hop’s founding fathers, used to set up his turntables on Cedric Ave in the Bronx and would play funk records, getting people to dance as an alternative to gang activity. There were women there too, and they were painting, dancing, spinning, and rhyming just as well. This artistic and social movement happened alongside of the emergence of punk consciousness, and it was just as fresh and outrageous. However, punk predominantly came out of the white urban sector with disillusionment after the failed hippy movements towards liberation, with a self-conscious synthesis of radical political philosophies and the avant-garde.
Though punk was a working-class oriented subculture, which associated itself with anarchism and socialism and the extreme left side of the political spectrum and therefore ostensibly downward mobility in proletariat or blue-collar solidarity, middle to low class punks (predominantly white, though with notable exceptions such as Bad Brains ) usually weren’t suffering the extreme structural inequalities inherent in race dynamics in the United States that were reserved exclusively for people of color at that time (and continually.) In the 1970’s ghettos of America, little access to a decent education in transitioning desegregated “separate but equal” schools with miserable funding, rampant “black on black” violence, drug addiction, prostitution and incarceration might be identified as major challenges (and classical symptoms of suicidal anomie) facing the African American and Latino communities. Nonetheless, and without particular inclusion within the hippy movement, nor necessarily the help of the canonical texts of the humanities that have shaped our republic, the pioneers of hip-hop were able to create a narrative art form that more than adequately represents, reflects and sometimes critiques power paradigms that are evident in and often times dominate daily life, as well as suggesting resolutions.
For an example of this we could listen to Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.,” or the Coup’s song “Pimps.” The song “Pimps” serves as a vehicle for commentary on the American Aristocracy, and is rapped over sped up cocktail party violin orchestration by a nasally sounding gentleman claiming to be a Rockefeller
"If your ass occur shit it wouldn’t be the first time/I done make a massacre, nigga please how you figure these/Mother fuckers like me got stocks bonds and securities/No impurities, straight Anglo-Saxon/When my family got their sex on/Don’t let me get my flex on, do some gangster shit/Make the army go to war for Exxon/Long as the money flow, I be making dough/Welcome to my little pimp school/How you gonna beat me at this game I make the rules/Flash a little cash make you think you got class/But you really selling ass and hoe keep off my grass/Less you cutting it, see I’m running shit/Trick all y’all motherfuckas as simps/I’m just a pimp"
The Coup exhibits the creative dialectic of critique of co-optation and the greed of capitalism while staying within the artistic form of hip-hop. On the track “Pimps”, the Coup excel in the artistic form of hip-hop on its own terms, utilizing three out of its five components of rapping, knowledge disclosure, and turn-tablism. “Pimps” manages to balance potent critique negotiating gangsterism within the context of hip-hop, as well as within the ranks of the greedy corporate elites while keeping it funky fresh, thanks to Boots Riley’s lyrical stylings and Pam the Funkstress’ mad dj-abilities. Correct me if I’m wrong in saying these lyrics are extremely powerful and substantive, but it seems to me that not only can hip-hop serve as a pedagogical tool for bridging cultural gaps across class, race, and nationality, it’s also a pretty powerful tool of politicization—maybe even radical politicization. While the Coup have been active in hip-hop since 1991, they are certainly not the dominant voice in hip-hop, quite to the contrary they represent the radical fringe of the “socially conscious” element within hip-hop. But social/political consciousness, even in the most seemingly banal of the crassly commercial element within hip-hop is never entirely lacking, because it is at the root of the art form itself.
On the (sometimes) less radically left-wing, self identified “raptivists” continue to use the genre’s popularity (and unpopularity) for social change, as is its tradition.
Of course, activism and hip-hop -- the culture that sprang out of rap music -- have always danced together. They've been partners ever since rap's earliest beginnings in the Bronx, when Afrika Bambaataa and his Universal Zulu Nation abandoned gangbanging for rapping and grass roots organizing in the 1970s. But (Russell) Simmons's rally in Manhattan earlier this month reflects a ratcheting-up of an investment in the three Ps: politics, philanthropy and protest. It's even got a nickname -- raptivism. […] And then there are Mos Def and Talib Kweli, outspoken artist-activists who organized other rappers to produce "Hip-Hop for Respect," a maxi-single decrying police brutality; proceeds benefited a nonprofit organization that encourages entertainers to play leadership roles.
To be clear, there are MANY subgenres of rap music, in fact, more than I could possibly hope to cover here. Therefore I am going to limit my scope to the subgenres of “socially conscious” and “gangsta” for the purposes of this paper because my focus is on political capital (and what is potentially problematic politically) within them. Gangsta rap, now the dominant form of hip-hop available to consume in watered down form, has been under fire since its inception, but most intensely since it has become popular due to the influence of artist like NWA and Public Enemy. A common critique of gangsta rap is that as a subgenre it glorifies feudal violence and perpetuates misogyny. While this may be true, that thought process should be suspended momentarily to discuss it as an art form that has been commodified and therefore geared towards a specific audience of consumers, and the limitations of what it can express as such. For all of the problems of gangsta rap in its current commercially diluted, drawn-out state , it is a near-perfect expression of Shorris’ anomie, and is therefore very political indeed.
The gangsta vocabulary that is often assessed critically for its vulgarity, misogyny, irreverence and feudalistic glorification is what veteran gangsta rapper Ice Cube justifies as “the language of the streets [is] the only language I can use to communicate with the streets. ” This vocabulary includes words like ghetto, thug, code of the streets, bitch, ho, prostitute, pimp, nigga, warrior, struggle, shame, hooker, gospel, commandments, drugs, money, escape, pain, and alone—and these words are weaved together to reveal a very disturbing and descriptive tapestry of suffering and isolation indeed. But these words and the behaviors that they sometimes reflect (in visual form in music videos and in the physical reality of the prevalence of domestic violence within the hip-hop milieu ) don’t exist in a vacuum, as bell hooks points out in her essay “Sexism and Misogyny: Who takes the Rap? Misogyny, gangsta rap, and The Piano.” Her analysis includes a critique of the white supremacist capitalist patriarchal (as usual, for bell hooks) mass media that has been quick to demonize black youth culture as it is expressed by some rappers within this one subculture/subgenre, gangsta rap, which is in reality part of a sexist continuum, necessary for the maintenance of patriarchal social order. […] It is useful to think of misogyny as a field that must be labored in and maintained both to sustain patriarchy but also to serve as an ideological anti-feminist backlash. And what better group to labor on this ‘plantation’ than young black men. To see gangsta rap as a reflection of dominant values in our culture rather than as an aberrant ‘pathological’ standpoint does not mean that rigorous feminist critique of the sexism and misogyny expressed in this music is not needed.
Later on in the article, she also calls for a rigorous critique of “hedonistic” conspicuous consumption and extreme materialism inherent in gangsta rap as well.
"It would mean considering the seduction of young black males who find that they can make more money producing lyrics that promote violence, sexism, and misogyny than with any other content. […] More than anything gangsta rap celebrates the world of the ‘material,’ the dog-eat-dog world where you do what you gotta do to make it. In this world view killing is necessary for survival. Significantly, the logic here is a crude expression of the logic of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy." (bell hooks)
This “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” as bell hooks terms it, is at the root of the structural forces that Shorris describes in his “surround of force,” leading people in most cases to a state of anomie. In gangsta rap the MC is transcending several of Shorris’ “surround of forces” by transcending poverty through their art form, which serves as an articulation of those very “forces.” If the knowledge of those powerful “forces” is communicated through gangsta rap’s articulation of them to others who experience the “forces,” leading to one of several possible outcomes: we may see that the realization of exclusion from political life and comfortable living through the “forces” informed by gangsta rap’s articulation can lead to revolt, as may have been the case in the L.A. riots (Watts, Rodney King.) As Shorris puts it,
A person who abandons the polis by leaving it or turning against it cannot be a citizen. That person is excluded from citizenship, made a part of the vast world outside the polis, an internal or external exile; in the Athenian view, like a dead person. When the poor riot in the streets or in other ways destroy the places in which they live and work, it is not an act of madness, but a result of their exclusion from citizenship, which means they have no place, no home. (Shorris, 68.)
Another possible outcome is that of the loneliness of poverty (or as he terms it, “isolation,”) another one of Shorris’ “forces” being somewhat alleviated, while possibly providing hope that others may also transcend poverty, either by similar means (becoming a member of hip-hop culture’s legion of artists), or otherwise.
Practical Application of hip-hop, or “high art” vs. “low brow culture”
Recently there was an article published in the New York Times about the way that young urban girls who experience street harassment are learning to deal with harassment through hip-hop in a positive, healthy way at school
"Creating rhymes about bad behavior may not seem like a meaningful way to battle harassment. But rewriting rap lyrics is one way educators are trying to harness the power of popular music to help build kids’ self esteem and counter negative images of women in the media. […] the power of hip-hop to reach teens hasn’t gone unnoticed by health researchers, who are now spending time on the dance floor and dissecting rap lyrics in hopes of finding ways to better communicate with young people. "
Does it really expand the limitations of the collective imagination that a form of expression that was generated as radical creative outlet nearly three decades ago by the poor and oppressed could potentially have a profound social and political impact upon the same demographic with whom it is both popular and from whence it originally came?
The Atlanta teens are part of a group called HOTGIRLS (Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations). Although rap is often blamed for promoting degrading images of women, HOTGIRLS uses rap music to start conversations with girls about the challenges they face growing up. […] Rewriting song lyrics helps girls “critically analyze the messages they encounter in the media and in their daily lives,’’ said HOTGIRLS founder Carla E. Stokes. “Girls are using hip hop as a vehicle to reach their peers and raise awareness about issues that affect their lives.’’
Hip-hop is a current art form that is relevant to youth today, for better or worse with all of its positive and negative impacts upon youth, so why not try and make the impact as positive as possible by utilizing it as a tool for critical thinking and social good as it was originally intended? More than seventy people who stumbled upon the New York Times article about HOTGIRLS, a sample of literate America, disagreed and felt the need to post overwhelmingly negative comments about the HOTGIRLS project, reflecting what bell hooks referred to as the views of the “white supremacist capitalist patriarchal” “mass media.” One poster wrote:
#8.November 6th, 2007 @12:24 pm
How about teaching teens to completely avoid rap music, rap “culture” and always speak proper English? Rap music and culture leads to low IQ, low expectations from life, angry attitude, praising-prison mentality and many more social problems. When will you liberals give up on this “hip hop in the classroom” nonsense?
Another wrote:
#14. November 6th, 2007 2:13 pm
Why is this even printed? Further diseducation / miseducation of American youth. Perhaps they should turn to Shakespeares Sonnets, rather that (sic) this garbage.
These two New York Times reading commentators reactions to the article about the positive impact of using hip-hop as a politicizing and critical thinking tool can help us to understand better dichotomization of popular or current “low” cultural artifacts and “high culture,” a reactionary response once again degrading the “demon” (read=dangerous, Shorris’ goal for the poor) black youth culture. Reflecting a minority position, one poster suggests that the readers of the article check out a website (
The (W)rap up
Yes, the course has been criticized as Eurocentric. But never by the students, and it is the students who are important to us. The course places great emphasis on the Greeks, as it should. Their work has lasted and influenced all the world that followed simply because of its quality. It did not endure for reasons of the race or gender of its authors. Moreover, those dead white European males, especially the Greeks, were not the Establishment, they were the great troublemakers of history. Their art spurred people to think reflectively, to question the status quo. Our students deserve nothing less. If we were to deny them these conversations with the great ideas and give them instead a curriculum based on race or gender, we would be cheating them. And they have already been cheated. Society has already denied them access to the very works and ideas that bring people legitimate power in a democracy. That is why they are poor, why their parents were poor. - Earl Shorris
Shorris’ point is well taken. The humanities need not be sacrificed in favor of a less broad-reaching curriculum in the case of the Clemente course, but that doesn’t mean that the humanities shouldn’t be supplemented with other, less Eurocentric components to provide other opportunities for potential politicization. These might include the great doers and thinkers of our time, from whatever genre or genera and within whatever cultural sphere the Clemente course is being offered. On the topic of Eurocentricity and multiculturalism (and globalization is a factor, certainly), the author would like to point to the universality of hip-hop as an art form that has transcended geographical boundaries. Hip-hop has become an international phenomenon. If you type “Mongolian hip-hop” into the “youtube” search engine, you’ll find a smattering of popular artists with music videos local to Ulaanbaatar such as Tartar, Vanquish, Digital, Lumino, 2 XXY, and Quiza. Bored and jetlagged at my Granny’s house in Munich late at night, I would often flip on MTV Europe and watch Austrian, Swiss, French (MC Solaar, Rappin’ Hood), Spanish and German (Sabrina Setlur) rap videos. The Palestinian Liberation front has its own rap group, Dam. Brazil is forever coming out with incredible hip-hop projects, some fresh examples include Bonde Do Rolé and Cansei De Ser Sexy. Furthermore, there is a fantastic and fascinating variety of hip-hop in existence called gyp-hop that is a fusion of traditional gypsy music and rap. And with lyrics, vocals, and samples like those found in the heartbreaking “Bag Lady” by Erykah Badu (of United States origin), gently encouraging the downtrodden, disadvantaged black women in America to lessen her emotional baggage, and not to lose herself in anomie, who can blame the global community for latching onto hip-hop, with its values of social and political discourse and activism, and its earnest eloquence around the universally understood topics of pain and privation.
Of course, it’s easy to document how many times people have gotten up in arms about new modes of audio-expression, or any new creative mode of expression (impressionism, surrealism, conceptual art, doo-wop, punk, jazz, and rock to name a few.) Usually the fear of new modes of expression dissipate after a decade or two and then that form of expression is canonized (to a lesser extent perhaps than Shorris’ humanities, but rather within the context of popular culture), and winds up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art or as the Jimi Hendrix museum. Hip-hop has been going strong for a quite some time (around three decades), but it’s been wildly contentious for longer than many of those previously aforementioned art forms. Keep your eyes and your ears open for ongoing updates about the socially and politically relevant topics in hip-hop’s domain.
Currently, there are several interesting conversations taking place in the music. One of these conversations is about when it’s appropriate to use words with a painful legacy, another is concerning a renegotiation of what it means to be gangsta and the implications and repercussions of gangsta as a movement. A novel trend of direct endorsements of mainstream political candidates has occurred in honor of the most recent national election, while rap has elevated the Arab and Muslim world to the ultimate gangsta status in response to the political climate in the U.S. towards the Middle East and its imperialist ventures as well as an extreme manifestation of traditional MC swagger. Finally, (and at long last) an open and sincere dialogue in song and with the press around hip-hop’s traditional homophobia as a threat to delicate black masculinity as evidenced by the frequent usage of the trope “No Homo” has begun.
Appendix
(PEDAGOGY OF THE PEOPLE)
Includes: Select favorite song lyrics (one song per decade), as well as a brief, incomplete, limited timeline with a focus on “socially conscious” and “gangsta” subgenres within the aspect of hip-hop that is most easily commodified, rap. The timeline came from my brain cavity, which wasn’t cognizant yet in the 70’s or much of the 80’s, and was only vaguely aware of hip-hop in the late 90’s and 2000’s. Fortunately the timeline has been critiqued and improved upon by my far more knowledgeable friend, Max Henderson.
Timeline from the 1980’s onward—there is a brief explication of the origins of hip-hop in the 1970’s in the body of the text:
Mid to late 1970’s:
*Grandmaster Flash, Sugarhill Gang, Afrika Baambaata start playing house-parties in the Bronx, and the culture forming around the parties is refered to as “hip-hop” for the first time by DJ/MC Lovebug Starski.
*Kurtis Blow (managed by Russell Simmons of the raptivism blurb in the body of the text) is the first rapper to be signed to sign a major record deal in 1978.
*Around this time the music industry coins the term “rap” and their focus shifts to MC’s.
*In 1979 “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang reaches #36 on the Billboard charts, becoming the first rap hit.
Early 1980’s:
*The first hip-hop film, Wild Style comes out in 1982.
*In 1983 Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel come out with the important public service announcement “White lines don’t do it” using this new genre-hip-hop music to get the out to the community, in an authentically critical, creative, sincere, accessible way from the community—this hip-hop consciousness is being formed parallel to punk consciousness. It also becomes a hit.
Mid 1980’s: Four words, Roxanne Shanté (and) Def Jam Records +…
* A form of rap that emphasizes and glamorizes excessive violence, misogyny, sex, and drugs. Influenced largely by blaxsploitation culture like “Dolemite” and Iceberg Slim’s “pimp novels.”
* 1984 Philadelphia rapper “Schoolly D” is credited as being the progenitor of gangster rap. First used the word on the song “Gangster Boogie.” Doug E. Fresh comes out with the track “Just havin’ fun,” which takes some of the seriousness out of rap
* 1986 In California Ice T gains credit for making the first gangster song, “6 in the mornin’” and pushing himself to the forefront of gangsta rap in the eighties with several albums; although his lyrics straddle between critiquing and glorifying gangster lifestyle.
*Also around the time that some white Bard College kids from the hardcore punk scene decide to trade their shitty, noisy roots in for something new, and gain popularity with their re-incarnation as rap group the Beastie “No sleep ‘till Brooklyn” Boys.
*In the South the Geto Boys start rapping.
Late 80’s- Early 90’s:
* 1987 N.W.A. release the blockbuster gangster album “Straight Outta Compton” and the controversial song “Fuck the Police.” In the same year Public Enemy released “Yo! Bum Rush the Show”
* 1988 Hip –hop gets its first television show, “Yo! MTV Raps”, MC Lyte releases her first album. Fresh Prince “I asked her for Adidas and she bought me Zips!” get on MTV with some silly songs about having a good time, some of the content is somewhat inane.
*1990(ish) Many of the “socially conscious” rappers/rap groups of prominence drop their first records around this time: Nas, Del the Funky Homosapien, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Sheep, Gangstarr, De La Soul, Black Moon, Digable Planets, Black Star, Common, the Fugees, Pharcyde, the Roots, the Coup.
*The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff win the first Grammy award in the rap category for “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”
* 1991 Many of the gangstas from the late 80’s break out of their group projects seemingly to respond to “fun time rappers” with potent message of life in the ghetto as not so much fun: like Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg “It’s like this,” (a day in the life) 2Pac Shakur “They don’t give a fuck about us”[…]“in this white man’s world,” etc.
Gangsta rap is further bolstered by West Coast style of rap “G-Funk” through the dominant label “Death Row” Records. Several rappers (including the aforementioned ones) come to prominence in this watershed moment.
* On the east coast, at the same time, comes Mafioso rap. This genre has a grittier sound than the melodic (and funk-heavy) sound in “G-Funk.” The rappers that represent this movement are: The Firm, Kool G. Rap, Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Mobb Deep, Bone Thug’s Harmony and the Wu-tang Clan. Wu-Tang Clan (collective? Crew? Clique? Derivation of name comes from kung fu movie, but what of the obvious similarity to Ku Klux Klan?) Wu-Tang Clan takes the record industry by storm, launching an initial record with 9 MC’s, who then launch too many side-projects for me to count, helping to forge a legitimate place for hip-hop in popular music.
*Lil’ Kim, one of Notorious B.I.G.’s protégés and mistress collaborates with him on “Notorious,” opening up the doors to female hardcore rap embodying Apache’s “Gangsta Bitch” archetype. Rappers that follow suit include Foxy Brown and Trina.
Mid-90’s:
*This is around the advent of “socially conscious” girls’ hip-hop like Salt-n-Peppa “You should be responsible if you’re having sex,” and Queen Latifah (who won a Grammy in 1995) “Huh, I punched him dead in his eye and said "Who you calling a bitch?"
* After Tupac (1996) and Notorious B.I.G.’s (1997) death, rappers follow a similar trend to invite them to death. Rappers like: Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Ja Rule on the East Coast.
*Mainstream culture begins to accept hip-hop more and more and it starts getting played on popular radio. Increasing acceptability of white hip-hop in popular culture with the help of a black mentor (Dr. Dre of West Coast gangster and his protégé Eminem.)
Late 90’s:
*Missy Misdemeanor Elliot has been a female producer for quite some time, and comes out as an MC with “Supa Dupa Fly,” one of the most successful (selling) albums by a female rapper of all time.
* Rap opens up to more subgenre’s emphasizing a regional fascination on the same gangsta rap tropes from the South with rappers like Scarface, UGK, Master P, Lil Wayne, Hot Boys, Young Jeezy Rick Ross
* Midwest rappers also follow suit. Rappers like Do or Die, Bone Thugs In Harmony, Twista
*Subculture of white/black spoken word poets finding voice in hip-hop. Simultaneous development of hyper-violent element against individuals apparent in artists such as Necro: Jewish, crack-slinging project dweller, metal head, and rapper of “Come on baby light my fire/suck my dick/show me your tits/rub your clit/you’re a fucking twit,” Cage, Immortal Technique, Circle of Tyrants, Ill Bill, Mr. Hyde, “I’m just a piece of shit bum stinky wretched and foul […] kinda’ like a sick animal with rabies and mange”
*50 Cent, Ludacris, Cash Money Millionaires, and a bunch of folks with the prefix “Lil’” enter on the scene, and there’s an increasing acceptability of a lot of white people making socially sanctioned racist remarks about how hip-hop is a useless art form that degrades women and keeps ghetto youth in the ghetto.
The brain cavity is exhausted.
For a much more comprehensive and historically far reaching timeline, see
Lyrics:
Gil Scott-Heron’s “Who’ll Pay Reparations on My Soul?” from the album “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” released in 1970
Many suggestions
And documents written.
Many directions
For the end that was given.
They gave us
Pieces of silver and pieces of gold.
Tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Many fine speeches (oh yeah)
From the White House desk (uh huh)
Written on the cue cards
That were never really there. Yes,
But the heat and the summer were there
And the freezing winter's cold. Now
Tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Call my brother a junkie 'cause he ain't got no job (no job, no job).
Told my old man to leave me when times got hard (so hard).
Told my mother she got to carry me all by herself.
And now that I want to be a man (be a man) who can depend on no one else (oh yeah).
What about the red man
Who met you at the coast?
You never dig sharing;
Always had to have the most.
And what about Mississippi,
The boundary of old?
Tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Call my brother a junkie 'cause he ain't got no job
Told my old man to leave me when times got hard (so hard).
Told my mother she got to carry me all by herself.
Wanna be a man that can depend on no one else (oh yeah).
What about the red man,
Who met you at the coast?
You never dig sharing;
Always had to have the most.
And what about Mississippi,
The boundaries of old?
Tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Many fine speeches (oh yeah)
From the White House desk (uh huh)
Written on the cue cards
That were never really there. Yes,
But the heat and the summer were there
And the freezing winter's cold.
Tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Who'll pay reparations,
‘Cause I don't dig segregation, but I
can't get integration
I got to take it to the United Nations,
Someone to help me away from this nation.
Tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5’s “The Message” for the album “The Message,” released in 1982
It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care
I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise no more
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkie's in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far
'Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car
Chorus:
Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head, ah huh-huh-huh
[2nd and 5th: ah huh-huh-huh]
[4th: say what?]
It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
Standing on the front stoop, hangin' out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady livin' in a bag
Eatin' out of garbage pails, she used to be a fag-hag
Said she danced the tango, skipped the light fandango
The Zircon Princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got Social Security
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own
[2nd Chorus]
My brother's doing bad on my mother's TV
Says she watches too much, it’s just not healthy
“All My Children” in the daytime, “Dallas” at night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I'm not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station
Neon King Kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane
[3rd Chorus]
My son said: ”Daddy, I don't wanna go to school
Cause the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
I’d dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it's all about money, ain't a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey"
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can't walk through the park, cause it's crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun, cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say: “You want some more?" livin' on a seesaw
[4th Chorus]
A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he's frowning too
Because only God knows what you’ll go through
You’ll grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You'll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them, huh,
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers even panhandlers
You say: “I'm cool, I'm no fool!”
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you're unemployed, all non-void
Walking ‘round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you’ve done did
Got sent up for a eight year bid
Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag
Spent the next two years as a undercover fag
Being used and abused to serve like hell
'Til one day you was found hung dead in your cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young
[5th Chorus]
Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” from the album “Black Reign,” release in 1993
Uh, U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity
U.N.I.T.Y., love a black man from infinity to infinity
(Who you calling a bitch?)
U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know)
(You go, come on here we go)
U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black woman from (You got to let him know)
infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho)
U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know)
(You go, come on here we go)
U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black man from (You got to let him know)
infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho)
(Refrain)
Instinct leads me to another flow
Everytime I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a ho
Trying to make a sister feel low
You know all of that gots to go
Now everybody knows there's exceptions to this rule
Now don't be getting mad, when we playing, it's cool
But don't you be calling out my name
I bring wrath to those who disrespect me like a dame
That's why I'm talking, one day I was walking down the block
I had my cutoff shorts on right cause it was crazy hot
I walked past these dudes when they passed me
One of 'em felt my booty, he was nasty
I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath
Then the little one said (Yeah me bitch) and laughed
Since he was with his boys he tried to break fly
Huh, I punched him dead in his eye and said "Who you calling a bitch?"
(Here we go)
Refrain
I hit the bottom, there ain't nowhere else to go but up
Bad days at work, give you an attitude then you were rough
And take it out on me but that's about enough
You put your hands on me again I'll put your ass in handcuffs
I guess I fell so deep in love I grew dependency
I was too blind to see just how it was affecting me
All I knew was you, you was all the man I had
And I was scared to let you go, even though you treated me bad
But I don't want my kids to see me getting beat down
By daddy smacking mommy all around
You say I'm nothing without ya, but I'm nothing with ya
A man don't really love you if he hits ya
This is my notice to the door, I'm not taking it no more
I'm not your personal whore, that's not what I'm here for
And nothing good gonna come to ya til you do right by me
Brother you wait and see (Who you calling a bitch?)
(Here we go)
Refrain
What's going on in your mind is what I ask ya
But like Yo-Yo, you don't hear me though
You wear a rag around your head and you call yourself
a "Gangsta Bitch" now that you saw Apache's video
I saw you wilding, acting like a fool
I peeped you out the window jumping girls after school
But where did all of this come from?
A minute ago, you was a nerd and nobody ever heard of ya
Now you a wannabe... hard
You barely know your ABC's, please
There's plenty of people out there with triggers ready to pull it
Why you trying to jump in front of the bullet (Young lady)
Uh, and real bad girls are the silent type
Ain't none of this work getting your face sliced
Cause that's what happened to your homegirl, right? Bucking with nobody
She got to wear that for life (Who you calling a bitch?)
(Here we go)
Refrain
A verse from Dead Prez’s “Hell Yeah”, on the album “Revolutionary but Gangster” released reluctantly by Columbia Records in 2004
Every job I ever had I had to get on the first day
I find out how to pimp on the system
Two steps ahead of the manager
Getting over on the regular tax free money out of the register
And when I'm working late nights stockin' boxes I'm creepin' their merchandise
And don't put me on dishes I'm dropping them bitches
And taking all day long just to mop the kitchen shit
We ain't getting paid commission, minimum wage, modern day slave conditions
Got me flippin' burgers with no power
Can't even buy one of what I make in an hour
I'm not the one to kiss ass for the top position
I take mine off the top like a politician
Where I'm from doing dirt is a part of living
I got mouths to feed I gots’ to get it.
Bibliography
(PEDAGOGY OF THE PEOPLE)
Books:
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000.
Neal, Mark Anth. That's the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Shorris, Earl. Riches for the Poor The Clemente Course in the Humanities. Boston: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2000.
Articles:
Hooks, Bell. "Postmodern Blackness." Postmodern Culture 1 (1990). University of
Pennsylvania, African Studies Center. 19 Apr. 1994. Oberlin College. 20 Mar. 2009
Hooks, Bell. "Sexism and Misogyny: Who Takes the Rap?" Z Magazine Feb. 1994.
"Nappy Happy: A Conversation with Ice Cube and Angela Y. Davis." Transition (1992): 174-92.
JSTOR. Marlboro College Library, Marlboro.
Parker-Pope, Tara. "Rewriting Rap to Empower Teens." The New York Times 6 Nov. 2007.
Dec. 2007
Shorris, Earl. "Making the Poor Dangerous: I found my job through the Apology of Plato." The
Prometheus Project. Valencia Community College, Valencia. The Prometheus Project: A
Valencia Community College Course in the Humanities. Valencia Community College. 9
Mar. 2009
Shorris, Earl. "Social Transformation through the Humanities: An Interview with Earl Shorris."
Interview with Kristin O’Connell. Mass Humanities: A commonwealth of ideas. 2000.
From the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities
Wiltz, Teresa. "We The Peeps: After Three Decades Chillin' in the Hood, Hip-Hop Is Finding Its Voice Politically." Washington Post 25 June 2002.
Warren, Bruce. A Premature Proclamation of Hip-Hop's Demise. Song of the Day. 27 Feb. 2007.
NPR (National Public Radio).
Music:
"Bag Lady." Rec. 2000. Mama's Gun. By Erykah Badu. 2000.
"C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)." Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). By Wu-Tang
Clan. Loud Records, 1993.
"Hell Yeah (Pimp the System)." Rec. 2004. Revolutionary But Gangster. By Dead Prez. Columbia
Records, 2004.
Riley, Boots. "PIMPS." Rec. 1994. Genocide and Juice. By The Coup. Wild Pitch Records, 1994.
(All of this writing is missing the footnotes, glossaries. If you're interested in where some of the info came from, shoot me an e-mail.)
Please critique this work! It begs your critique!
