Are We Still Cussing and Swearing in Our Music?

A local artist got in some hot water for swearing at the Boogaloo festival in Town Point Park, Norfolk. In his own defense, he is from California and was probably ignorant to the anti-profanity laws in the region. But it got to me wondering, as some of the respondents to the article suggested that profanity was necessary in rap to sell the music. I've heard plenty of rap where profanity, if it existed at all, was to a minimum. In fact you almost have to wonder if it is 1992 all over again or if hip-hop itself hasn't matured at all whatsoever.

Many of our so called "positive" and "conscientious" artists aren't above using profanity here or there. In fact it falls off of the lips so easily it is almost as if it were merely part of their everyday speech, just like the word n* is. Speaking of which, Nas wasn't helping with the battered image of hip-hop by attempting to name an album N* but that is neither here nor there. I think we can all agree that profanity was never the key selling point of Nas' rhymes.

But does everyone else know that? I sit and watch MTV Jams and they were showing old videos of songs in which Timberland produced and I had to wonder, what type of s* was he really trying to sell us because this is just plain out rediculous? In particular his videos with Jay Z, in which literally hundreds of women are degraded and dancing for no particular reason. The videos that caught my eye were "Hey Papi" and "Big Pimpin", indicative of the mindless consumerism and hedonosm that typified Jay's rhymes at that time. In fact for Jay to be considered such a strong fixture in hip-hop, his videos could at times be quite rediculous.

The irony of which is that the video for "N* What" is actually rather artistic. This when he was first starting to break through from those devoted fans that were there in the beginning. These days us old heads complain about the lyrical skills of artists like Lil' Wayne, which is a complete departure of the old way of writing in which hip-hop takes on a fun quality full of contradictions, non sequitor, and a caricature of rhyme that is focused on wordplay and absent of any real instrinsic or tangible qualities.

Ms. Elliot tried to do this years back with "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", which typified the stream of conscious style we would come to expect from her. But she wasn't seen as a serious artist outside of her visual presentation, and was easily dismissed as a cinematographer in hiding that just wanted to rap. She was actually years ahead of the curve because that type of rapping is commonplace in hip-hop right now. In some ways it sort of hearkens back to the days of De-La-Soul.

That's why we shouldn't dismiss Lil' Wayne quite yet, because he is trying to put a gangsta approach to something that was done by backpackers and flower children almost 20 years ago in hip-hop. Yet Wayne is known to be vulgar, with lewd references to sexual deviancy, pill popping and other hidden treasures in his rhymes. In fact if you aren't listening they often go over your head, as they should.

But are audiences that were never really acculturated to rap focusing on artists like Soulja Boy who may say b*, but is really talking about a place, not a female? In this day and age is there that much of a disparity between the ghetto and the mainstream culture and suburbia? This shouldn't surprise anyone if there is but why haven't we moved on culturally?

I rarely use the word n* in regular conversation, if at all. I don't really feel the need to call a woman out of her name at all, just not really there anymore. Not to say that I didn't as an adolescent though. In fact swearing doesn't really align with my lifestyle at all anymore so why would I listen to music that promotes it?

So perhaps I'm out of touch, because I rarely hear that much profanity in rap anymore. Then again perhaps what I listen to these days has changed and that is the real point. The only thing that I can offer, is that swearing in hip-hop is a phase at best. You get over it, you use the words selectively or think it through, if you will use them at all. But it isn't a necessary ingredient in hip-hop, in fact I think that most of your better hip-hop you won't see much of it if at all. Hate the beats if you want to, but the profanity just isn't what it used to be.