Through the years, hip hop has evolved not just as a popular music genre but as an emergent subculture in American society. Although it may be considered by many as a combination of other cultural forms, most of these are of purely African and Caribbean origins, the ultimate result of such melding cannot be argued as one distinctly American.
This is in context with the concept that American culture is actually a mixture of different cultural influences, a consequence of the fact that the country’s population is composed of diverse races and nationalities. Being a subculture, hip hop reflects the life of the marginalized Afro-Am sector of society.
It portrays the difficulties of living in the ghettos of the east coast cities and in the poorer sections or hoods of those in west coast. At the same time and to certain degree, usually subliminal, it also explains the aspirations of the impoverished Afro-American people in the US.
Since its beginnings in the seventies, the hip hop subculture did not attract so much attention from journalists and academics, which would have been able to analyze its significance in the context of the social problems experienced by the Afro-American people. Instead, it had been often recognized as just another popular form of music that can be related to other modern art forms such as break dancing and graffiti, DJing and MCing.
All these were attributed to the artistic talents of exceptional Afro-Americans. However, by late the eighties and early nineties, at the time when lyrics became laced with violent and sexually explicit content, the conservative sectors in society gradually expressed criticism against rap music in general.
This happened despite the fact that many rappers and hip hop artists did not write and perform music with such content although gangsta rap, which particularly developed first in west coast, was gradually gaining acceptance as an alternative and popular sub-genre. In the face of these, discussions regarding the impact of hip hop subculture on American society began to arise.
These are often provided space in media and, in fact, several books on it have been published. However, Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, being multi-awarded, became highly controversial because it actually raised hip hop to the level of political discourse.
Chang reiterated in a more profound manner what social critics and sociologists have explained before; that hip hop is the Afro-Americans’ cultural form of struggle against the continuing racist oppression that they experience in a white-dominated society.
It is in this context, that the conservative backlash may be identified and evaluated. For the conservatives, hip hop this time is no longer just a menace to society because it allegedly encourages crime and sexual promiscuity and exploitation. It is also poses a threat to the predominantly white establishment because it continues, in a manner more effective in gaining sympathy from the youth, the struggle for social and racial equality.
There is no argument to the fact that even before Chang came out with his book, the conservative reaction towards hip hop and rap music has been one that is extremely prejudicial and critical.
To some extent, the backlash, which can be seen in the efforts being employed by both public and private sectors, can be considered as on that borders on moral panic. The principal line of attack that is constantly used is that rap music and hip hop, in general, promote crime, violence, and sexual oppression.
The conservatives point out to the lyrics and to the corresponding music videos that usually accompany a single or an album’s release. According to them, these explicitly excuse the use of violence and crime in furthering one’s social standing while justifying the oppression of women. They also accuse hip hop groups and individual artists of themselves being gang members who are prone to commit violent crimes and even deal illegal drugs on the side.
Rap hits such as Cop Killer by Ice T and Fuck the Police by NWA were deemed as unambiguous encouragement to resist law enforcers and even to launch violent attacks against them. Rap artists have also been accused of racism as in the case of Ice Cube’s Black Korea, which allegedly eggs Afro-Americans to burn stores owned by Korean nationals.
In the face of such criticisms, however, the artists defended themselves by stating that their music was just portraying the realities that many Afro-Americans experience in the ghettos and hoods, including the racist abuse they often suffer from the police authorities.
Black Korea was inspired the killing of an Afro-American by a Korean storeowner on mere suspicion of shoplifting. Ice Cube explained that the song was meant to awaken the Afro-American community regarding this issue. The labels, on the other hand, merely insisted that the First Amendment allows them to produce and promote such works.
The debate, therefore, got bogged down on the issue of free expression. As a result, a deadlock was achieved, although there were cases that were elevated to the courts. Nevertheless, since the record companies only wanted to increase their profits and not really to stand steadfastly for the right to free expression, a number of them began to implement steps in self-censorship.
The objective is to ensure their products acceptability by a wider audience, including the more populous and more financially able whites. Subsequently, there were hip hop artists who actually mellowed down and became just as profit-driven as the labels as shown in their works’ content.
