Simply Put: Hip-Hop Good Music

By: Greg Pivarnite

Posted: 11/9/05

Bakari Kitwana, formerly of Source magazine, came to the African American Cultural Center a couple of weeks ago to speak about his new book "Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America." Kitwana's book tries to analyze the reasons why the white youth today likes hip hop music. Kitwana is not the only person to have delved into this issue.

Today in America, there is still a stigma between white and black people. People tend to accentuate the differences instead of the similarities. Instead of trying to use social and cultural explanations to try and understand why white people like myself listen to hip hop, I would like to offer an explanation that is so simple that it may not have even been presented anywhere, anytime until now - hip hop is good music.

This idea that an explanation needs to be given as to why white youth listen to rap music probably comes from the need for the older generation of white people to understand why their children would listen to such "hideous" music. Music that is full of violent and sexually explicit lyrics is "unacceptable." How is this different from the acid-trip-induced albums of the Grateful Dead? Sex and violence is appreciated by every American, regardless of the art form in which it is presented.

Every generation has their own genre of music that emerges as from some unexpected source. The previous generation had rock 'n' roll. The only reason this same discussion didn't take place with their music is because that generation of white people stole it from a style that was essentially black to begin with and called it their own. There was no chance for black-only expression to scare white America.

The aspect of hip hop that scares white America is that it can't be separated from black culture. It seems to be the last thing that blacks as a people can hold onto as their own. Most of the artists speak of issues that are important and pertinent to black culture. Rappers take pride in being authentic because record companies may be able to change a person, but they can't change where they came from. Hip hop has historically, from its roots, been music for a disenfranchised youth. It just happened that youth happened to be black.

Style has also affected this notion that white kids are turning black. All generations have their own style. Why is it that if a kid dresses in a FUBU sweatshirt he is all of a sudden stigmatized as he wants to be black where as if someone in the 1970s dressed in bell-bottoms and platform shoes it was just considered a fad? Bell-bottoms and platform shoes were just as much a product of the disco culture as baggy pants and backward hats are a product of the hip-hop culture.

Even with all the stereotypes and racist points of view, which have deemed hip-hop culture as something of a malignant tumor spreading through white America, the idea of all white kids becoming "wiggers" is still an old wives tale. It seems that people who try to push their theories have forgotten to do the simplest thing and just look around them. Of course it seems hip-hop culture is pervading all aspects of society - due to exploitation and marketing schemes by record companies. And of course there are going to be some white kids who wear FUBU and G-Unit sneakers, but those people are the exception rather than the norm. All one has to do is walk around campus to see the normal attire for most people isn't the stereotypical hip attire. And even if it was, why should there be something wrong with it?

I am white, most of my friends are white and we all listen to hip hop music, but we all wear clothes that fit. When we ask for each other's opinion on whether or not a song is worth listening to the issue never comes up of whether or not it is too black, but rather of what quality it is, the same type of reasoning applied to any other genre of music. I bet you would be hard-pressed to find a person on this campus who does not have at least one rap song they like. If hip hop wasn't good music it would have failed long ago. I don't listen to Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas and even Eminem because I want to be black. I listen to it because I enjoy the music.

Some of the subjects in their songs I would never claim to understand. I would never know what it's like to grow up poor or sell drugs, but this is what these guys rap about because it is their life experiences. Does it mean I can't appreciate a well-made song, with a good beat and intelligently-crafted lyrics because I am white or can't dance? Besides, my parents listen to Elton John and I don't accuse them of being gay.