Is Hip Hop an Art Form or Hate Speech?

This was a question posed by the African American news periodical The Florida Courier. With the recent events surrounding the Don Imus incident firmly in mind, it does dredge up a question, but not whether or not hip hop is art or hate, but what are the origins of this characteristic black indifference anyway? Is it 'inborn' or psychological? That is the subject matter of this article, and the focus of a subsequent work to be undertaken in the very near future.

First, direct your attention to the history of the African American. Aggressive hip hop artists such as Fifty Cent and the like are making an unconscious statement about themselves to white people. The intent of its message, however, is misdirected , as it is instead aimed at other blacks. This message is outrage wrapped in the guise of hate. Hate it is not, anger-in abundance-it is.

As slaves, blacks were conditioned to hate and mistrust other blacks in order to reduce the likelihood of an uprising, and since there has been no formal conditioning to undo the previous conditioning, blacks continue to conduct themselves as they have been conditioned to. The treatment standards that existed then, exist now, albeit in another form entirely: Inequality. That is to say, the slave treatment of early America, based on the perception of white superiority, still exists as whites continue to perceive themselves superior to blacks and other non-whites in almost every important category.

We have come not one step farther today than we have been allowed to come, since the day we were first proclaimed 'free'. Is it any wonder that, those of us who have risen to the top of the barrel, so to speak, lord it over those who have not? It is what we were conditioned to do as slaves, and since that traumatic period in our history has never been dealt, it has manifested into a form of violence and aggression, almost exclusively against other blacks including social glorification of violence and violent themes.

When black artists use aggressive lyrics in which they are threatening to harm or kill or have implied harming or killing an individual, that particular individual is usually black. Whenever hip hop artists refer to others negatively in their songs, they are almost always referring to other blacks. When hip hop artists rap about shooting, killing, aggression with, or otherwise speaking violently to a perceived opponent, the subject is almost always another black.

So we are not dealing with an art form or hate speech, but a predisposed mentality that has been bred and trained into us. We are dealing with the psychological leftovers of slavery. Leftovers that have metastasized into a Stockholm's type syndrome of mental dysfunction that exclusively affects the decedents of Colonial chattel slaves: African Americans.

This is why black on black crime is so prevalent: Other blacks are the only other citizens of America over whom we can actually exercise our 'power'. We are our own worst enemies because we have been trained to be. We are like crabs in a barrel because we have been trained to be. We were never meant to rise above the colonial designation of slave.

That is why the Constitution had to be amended; to include non-whites. A special set of rules had to be put in place in order to account for America's 'minor' citizens. The very same rights declared inalienable by the white writers of America's Declaration of Independence. Male blacks who become prominent flaunt every rule of moderation and etiquette, disregard moral values, and lack any appreciation for the culture that produced them. They are rebelling on a grand level, and they want everyone to see it.

Sure there are the obvious exceptions, but not everyone wants to be a Will Smith. But I digress. Our former slave masters did not prepare us for 'freedom' in their democratic society. Nor were we mentally conditioned to properly interact with those who had formerly owned us. Let me clarify: We were trained to be slaves, but we were not untrained. We have acclimatized, but we have not adapted very well because of the traumatic memory of slavery.

We continue, to this day, to fear white authority. We continue to this day to be submissive to our wives and significant others. We continue to this day to hate and mistrust other blacks. Sure we rebel in various ways; our social culture is a testament of an unconscious rebellion, if not a conscious one. Nappy locks in our hair or shiny bald heads are a prime example. Baggy clothes, flashy 'whips', bling, and amassing 'chips' are also a testament to our aggression.

Instead of appreciating the path we took to achieve success, we flaunt success in the faces of those who have so long denied it to us. That is because America values the material, and we have assimilated those American values rather than stylizing our own. We have no emotional attachment to each other, but we have great attachment to the things we perceive as our 'own', to such an extent as to be willing to kill for it. We are not at the same R&D table as the 'real' Americans, but we celebrate our glories and achievements with the same bloodlust.

We were never on equal footing with white America in the first place, but the question whether or not Hip Hop is 'hate speech' or an art form it is something of a red herring. That is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem.

That is to equate black Americans with white Americans and black influence and authority with white influence and authority. But we have no power. Hip Hop artists call black women bitches and 'hos' because it is a learned response. Black males generally refer to each other as 'dog' and 'boy' because we were referred to as dog and boy among other things by our slave masters. Same deal with bitches and hos.

Which is why we are where we are now. Don Imus has been a prejudicial bigot for as long as he has been on the radio. But don't take my word for it, take radio talk show host Glen Beck's word for it. But there is ample evidence to support his position that Imus' 'nappy headed hos' statement was more than a little reserved for him.
But what is eye opening is that rap artists have been calling each other 'niggas' and females of all colors 'hos' for years and nothing has ever been done about it. Almost from the moment 'rhyming battles' started to current beefs like that of Fifty Cent and The Game, black artists have been targeting each other with verbal and physical violence and no one else.

Somewhere in this country, there are white folk rolling around on the floor laughing at our antics. They know we don't know anything about anything, that we have never been allowed to even compete on equal footing with 'real' Americans since we were unmade slaves. We are trying override a system built by colonial Americans for colonial Americans.

We have never obtained or gained a single foot or toe hold from them without having to give up something of ourselves to do it. Black dope dealers sell dope to black dope smokers. But whites are the only ones with power enough to bring it into the country undetected. No matter how much someone might take in profit, it is only a fraction what is really being made in the industry. We're talking billions of dollars a year. Show me one black billionaire dope dealer.
Black sports athletes are getting tens of millions of dollars to play in white owned venues on white owned teams. What are their profits if these teams can 'afford' to pay their black cash cows multiple millions of dollars per contract without batting an eye?

All the money black rap artists and hip hop stars are getting paid is a mere shadow of the profits their white contract owners are making. Even those who 'own' their own record label, contracts, masters, and have their little profit ducks all lined up in a row, are still only just getting their toes wet.
It has been constructed this way, and there is nothing we can do to alter the reality of the American Dream. Not any law, not even a black president, and certainly not conversation about whether or not Hip Hop is an Art Form or Hate Speech. We don't have the power to affect anyone but ourselves. If it were black aggression against whites or verbal violence aimed at whites, the FCC would have long ago shut down the hip hop industry, if not the entire black entertainment industry altogether.

They are not overtly going after black music artists because black rap music promotes black on black violence, and that is a plus in their column. So what if a few of them (and by them I mean us) rise to the top and get to shine in the lime light. They've paid well for the privilege. Otherwise white America is not worried. End of discussion. We can only do what they allow us to do, and so long as we have been 'free', that is the way it has been and nothing is going to change.
Alternatively, if there was change, it would be no more significant than altering the Constitution to allow blacks and native Americans to be considered American Citizens was. Our emancipation did not provide us with justice, peace, true liberty, or freedom, and certainly it did not invite us to be a part of the inner circle of American society.

We are the footnote at the end of their history, and all it says now, and all it ever has said is: No political, economic, or otherwise significant contribution. Even though we built it pretty much brick by brick, our intellect had nothing to do with it, and that is why hip hop artists calling African American women bitches and hos is merely a symptom of the greater problem that is only just now coming to a head: Our Cultural Independence and Social Identity.

In the process of trying to establish a niche for ourselves, we have instead become a comic item. A derision, a by word, a shaking of the head to those who can recall our origins. Because what they know, we have forgotten. We have become public caricatures of a materialistic, corporeal nation in which we have had no part in the foundation of. Our country? Says who? We do. We make the blind and ignorant claim that their country is also our country, but it never has been, or ever will be. The truth is we are but bit players in their magnum opus. Extras, in every sense of the word. The last ones to be acknowledged. Is there any doubt as to why?

Bitches and hos? Pshaw. We've got bigger fish to fry. Not that I'm trying to down play the import of black rap stars demeaning black women. From here on out, you'd better behave yourselves boys.

Or else.