Tuesday, 03 February 2009

  • POVERTY AND PROPS -WWW.GRINDMODECONNECT.COM

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    It's official, within Hip Hop it seems that being poor is keeping it real. How many times have you heard that an artist has sold out as soon as they manage to get the sort of success that allows them to live comfortably? For all of the "get rich or die tryin'" rhetoric it seems that we don't really like to see our stars shining. Living in a mansion with a fleet of luxury vehicles and eating the best food while drinking on the most expensive cognacs seems better left as a dream in the minds of the image-conscious keeping-it-real consumer. Instead the 'realest' lyricists seem to be those who proclaim to be living the street life and facing poverty, crime and drama on the daily. Never mind that very few are actually living like this, it is more about speaking to and in many more cases glorifying a picture of bleak urban life. The downside being that, for an MC who comes up spitting about hustling to eat, to actually achieve the goal of making it to a better life undermines the status as spokesperson for the people, even if the people they move most units to happen to be middle class whites in the suburbs. Hip Hop, it seems, is stuck on poverty and this is not just confined to the gritty portrayer of Street-Hop. It seems that for an artist to maintain their props they have to be seen as struggling, or at least having been through the struggle.

    Of course many Hip Hoppers have witnessed a struggle and come from poverty-ridden backgrounds, something that is seen clearly through the very culture of Hip Hop. To get a record company advance can seem like having 'made it' and rather than invest any money from record sales too many head straight for the jewellers to cop a chain and a watch. This peacock-style flossing is not new, nor is it just restricted to Hip Hop, indeed many working class inspired social movements have had a similar desire to flaunt wealth through clothing and material possessions before thinking of the future. Of course everyone wants to have nice things around them but it is something of a working class bane to blow your riches on material goods in order to show and prove. However in doing so you also set yourself up as a target for selling out. it is little wonder that in order to maintain a sense of credibility too many successful artists will roll with a crew in a manner that will help maintain their street edge. Of course you should not forget your friends and family but is it really a good idea to go to all the same spots you used to while advertising your wealth through expensive consumer goods? OK, so it's keeping it real? So you are proving that you can handle yourself and that you have not changed? All well and good, but don't wonder when someone who is still struggling to eat comes up to rob you. It's simple street economics.  

     

    It seems that the way around this problem is to change the mindset of the culture somewhat. Instead of hating on Hip Hop's success stories with claims of selling out perhaps we should embrace the rags-to-riches tales as examples that you can make a better life. We should allow our stars to be true to themselves in whatever situations they find themselves in and remove the pressure to show a thug mentality when either there never was one or it is simply no longer how they need to live. Certainly Hip Hop should accept poverty as a fact of everyday life for many people and should allow their stories to be heard but isn't it about time we stopped constricting people on the basis of their success or otherwise?

     

    By Slim of  http://WWW.GRINDMODECONNECT.COM

     

     

     

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