Urban Think Tank Critical Issues

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What is the Hip Hop Generation?

Bakari Kitwana, author of the book "The Hip Hop Generation," defines the Hip-Hop generation as "blacks born between 1965 to 1984." He has asserted that "unlike the 'civil rights generation' -- blacks born between 1945 and 1964 -- the newer generation of black youth have a way to use commercialization to its advantage to politicize the agenda's of young, black Americans on the local and national level" (Utah Chronicle). Additionally, the members of the Hip Hop Generation have seen the further erosion of the socio-economic conditions of black people and have also seen mainstream politics as ineffective. Jeff Chang says of the Hip-Hop generation:

• "Unlike the civil rights generation, the hip-hop generation came of age during a time of reversal. Schools were closed, services reduced, safety nets shredded. Deindustrialization was followed by disinvestment. The federal government reduced its powers – and its budget – to restore and cure, and delegated budgets and powers back to the states and the cities. These were the politics of abandonment." (AlterNet)
  
  

Even though the Hip-Hop generation is distinct from the 'civil rights generation' before it, many of the same struggles remain: the fight against cultural commodifcation, racist policies, descrimination, health issues, disinterested politicians and media stereotypes. Central to the Hip-Hop generation is Hip-Hop itself which articulates the political visions, dilemmas, problems and contradictions of the generation that bears its name.

It's Bigger Than Hip Hop

We have compiled the following list of critical issues in the numerous works published by the Urban Think Tank Institute and its authors on various other websites. You can learn more about all these issues by doing some of your own reading in our bibliography. Any unattributed commentary provided about the issues below are the opinions of our group, they do not necessarily represent ideas in the dialogue of the people who make it their livelihood to think about these issues. The following points represent the way Hip-Hop is conceived of 'externally,' as an idea bigger than the music or its lyrics or its artists. As abstract as that sounds, the issues are very concrete and easy to comprehend.

• Hip-Hop as a political tool: Perhaps the most important idea in the literature of the Urban Think Tank institute is the idea of Hip-Hop as a political tool to motivate the members of the Hip-Hop generation. This vision treats the Hip-Hop generation as a disaffected constituency that can be moved into action by the music and the culture of the music. Many authors have written about the power of this rising black constituency, especially since Bill Clinton's election in 1992 when many young people came out and voted to get him elected. Even the Hip-Hop generation itself is seeing it's own politicians start to rise up; Yvonne Bynoe points to Erica Ford who in 2001 ran for District 27 in Queens for the New York City Council as one of the first members of the Hip-Hop Generation to seek political office.
  
  The motivational power of Hip-Hop music to harness its political power has almost nothing to do with just making music that might inspire people to political action. This is an important distinction to make, because as Janelle Harris points out in her piece about the prevalence of Hip-Hop in mass culture, the music is already commercialized to make people do many things (like buy food and cars). Rather, Hip Hop as a political tool revolves around several other key poles, four of which Yvonne Bynoe discusses in her article "Hip Hop as a Political Tool": getting people to start thinking critically about the content of Hip-Hop, educating the Hip-Hop generation about its history, developing youth leadership, pushing the the Hip-Hop generation to provide its own alternative set of images for young people and moving Hip-Hop rhetoric into substantive action. In this paradigm, apathy and ignorance are the enemy. By that same merit, it is within the power of the Hip-Hop generation itself, not just the music, to enact the social changes it desires. If you're interested in more about Hip-Hop as a political tool; check out Chas Walker's "Cultural Weaponry."
  
  

• Hip-Hop's "Hidden Agenda": Another vision of Hip-Hop in these circumstances is the notion of Hip-Hop itself expressing political notions. This view seeks to unearth some of the explicit and implicit political ideas in the music itself for its listeners in the Hip-Hop generation. We have found that the important thing to keep in mind when considering this idea is that one doesn't need to look for out-and-out political or social rap music to locate political ideas. Daryl Nelson urges in his article "Elitism in Hip Hop” that people abandon the division between 'political rap' and other forms of the music. The idea of Hip-Hop's hidden agenda takes the whole art form as a form of protest or at the very least as something very rooted in the African-American experience and African history.
  
  A sub-issue of this topic is which artists qualify as 'political rap.' It is almost universally agreed by many writers that several artists qualify for this label: Public Enemy, X-Clan, Spearhead, Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Jurassic 5, and 2Pac to name a few. It is important to note that just because some of these artists don't sell as well as their 'non-political' counter-parts, that doesn't indicate interest; most of the people buying Hip-Hop music are white teenagers who may not be receptive to these messages. That said, there seems to be something dangerous about canonizing certain music as the only suitable political Hip-Hop music (as opposed to just considering the whole musical form a 'protest') because you start getting into contentious territory about which artists can really represent the Hip-Hop generation. As we'll see in another section, certain contradictory ideas are an important element of this generations thoughts about self-identity. If you're interested in reading more about Hip-Hop as political protest, check out Dr. Manning Marable's "The Politics of Hip-Hop."
  
  

• Is there such a thing as Hip-Hop activism?: The quick answer is 'absolutely.' Using the music to leverage causes, getting artists to speak in songs and lectures and engaging the whole apparatus around the music (concerts, marketing, criticism etc.) all constitutes Hip-Hop activism. Of course, as discussed above there are numerous ways Hip-Hop can be considered activism even if it's not out there canvasing for a cause. That said, the Urban Think Tank Institute's writers sometimes lack faith in the ability of the Hip-Hop generations to actually engage in any of this sort of activism. These lapses are usually followed by moments of insight, as in Adisa Banjoko's "The Myth of Hip-Hop Protest" which outlines five other forms of more grassroots Hip-Hop protest involving MCs, Grafitti Artists, DJ's, B-boys and Hip-Hop print media. If you're interested in finding out more about how Hip-Hip might organize itself beyond the music, check out Davey D's article about "How to Organize Hip Hoppers."
  
  

• Is there such a thing as a Hip-Hop Culture?: The existence of a Hip-Hop culture around its associated generation is taken for granted by most writers about this subject in the Urban Think Tank Institute and other places. Bakari Akil II provides one of the most comprehensive answers on this question in his article "Is Hip Hop a Culture?" He breaks Hip-Hop culture into four constituent parts: MC'ing, DJ'ing, break dancing and grafitti. The important element of all these parts is that they originate in the African-American and African experience and the practices are closely related to each other. Perhaps the most critical function of this notion of 'Hip-Hip as history' does is contextualize the birth of the Hip-Hop culture by placing it in a recent and distant African-American past. If you're interested in knowning more about the elements of Hip-Hop culture, look for Martha Cooper's Hip Hop Files.
  
  

Issues Within Hip Hop Music

We have compiled a short list of some of the issues dealing the music itself that the Urban Think Tank Institute has wrestled with. The items below do not constitute a hit list for all the things that need to be excised from Hip-Hop music. Rather, they are points of thought that provide insight into some of the Hip-Hop generation's most salient concerns.

• Gangsterism: The conflict between the sort of gangsterism that appears in some rap music and perhaps more political rap is often a subject of the Urban Think Tank Institute's dialogue. We have located two separate but important ideas that help frame this discussion. The first is Yvonne Bynoe's arguement that gangster rap is not any more violent than something like The Sopranos, but because of racial fear rap music is the target of a lot of flak. The other arguement, made by Assata Shakur, is that gangsterism in political leaders is something that African-Americans have been wrestling with for a very long time. It reaches back to Huey P. Newton and some of the leadership of the Black Panther Party.
  
  
• Homophobia: Homophobia permeates many elements of modern American society, so it seems almost unfair to call rap music out on being flagrantly bigoted against homosexuals. There are two major arguements for why such lyrics should be avoided. The first contends that African-Americans were an oppressed group who had their marriage rights limited during slavery and should not perpetrate the same oppression on gay people. The second contends that, aside from the obvious ignorance it belies, homophobia alienates potential allies in the struggle for justice. Earl Hardy says it best in his article "Who's Hating (On) Who?" when he says simply about Hip-Hop's acceptance of Eminem but not of homosexuals, "He is not your brother; I am."
  
  
• Artist Responsibility: The Notorious B.I.G. summed up the choices for many youth in the hip-hop generation when he said: "if I wasn't in the rap game, I'd probably have a ki knee-deep in the crack game/ cause the streets is a short stop/either you slingin crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot." (see Bakari Kitwana's interview). The basic idea is that many youth only see a few ways out of poverty: sports, hip-hop and hustling. Do artists have a responsibility to provide alternate visions of what youth might aspire to? No author on the Urban Think Tank Institute seems to think so, mainly because they separate Hip-Hop Culture from the Hip-Hop Industry that tries to cultivate artists from the street and bring them up. Many of the authors believe that artists should be free to express themselves, but also know that the freedom of expression serves a commercial purpose. They believe it's up to the Hip-Hop Generation to educate itself so it can make its own choices (rather than have the industry dictate) which artists are role models.
  
  
• Additional issues: some issues are only dealt with in one article, but are vast enough that they have often attracted mainstream media attention. You can find additional information about the record industry, the term 'nigga' and government interference in rap music.
  
  

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