Kids, I hope this won't be my first flame war.....
First, there is no comparison between the Harlem Rennaissance and
politicized hip-hop. I was only trying to point out a shared
lineage. A lot of folks in the hip-hop game grew up with that poetry, those
books and those essays on the shelves around their crib. Some of them
even called those artists Grandpa, Auntie or what have you. So there are
some links.
Second, there a difference between artists coming out of universities
and/or successful families and those coming out of a penitentiary/broken
home. A recent post concerning this thread mentioned lyrical content and
the underclasses. The DPs are NOT from intellectually or economically
poor families. Their recent video which features them strolling through
a rather stylized vision of a New York ghetto REALLY pissed me
off......only because it struck me as a false representation of who they
are....and romanticized poverty. Sort of like the dude from Harvard
(Rage Against the Machine) pretending to be a working-class hero. Though
I love the fact that he/they are politically aware, the marketing fronts
bother me.
Third, I can't imagine LAUGHING at any of that sh*t. Those lyrics
reflect serious failure. Failure of families, communities,
schools....personal failure......
It is not funny.
k