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Source:http://www.democratandchronicle.com
(April 1, 2007) — 50 Cent, one of the globe's biggest names
in hip-hop music, is the antithesis of proper society, from his songs
glorifying gang life to the multiple gunshot scars he wears like badges
of honor.
But one of his most uplifting songs, the hallelujah "God Gave Me Style," never
gets played on the radio.
"The gatekeepers playing this music, this is what they want," filmmaker
Martha Diaz, executive director of the nonprofit Hip-Hop Association,
told a scattered crowd of academicians and hip-hop fans at University
of Rochester on Saturday. "The media conglomerates are programming
this."
The university played host in Hoyt Hall auditorium Saturday to a most
nontraditional academic symposium Saturday on hip-hop music and culture.
Alongside the discussions on topics that ranged from the branding of
hip-hop to commercialism in American culture, three young break dancers
popped and locked while Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc, widely credited
as a pioneer of hip-hop, spun songs by James Brown, Mary J. Blige and
Rare Earth.
Much of the day's focus was on hip-hop and entrepreneurship. Richard
Nicholas, co-manager of the Grammy-winning hip-hop band the Roots,
talked about the economics of being an artist. "The Roots' early gigs
would be for $35," Nicholas said. "We did tons of gigs at a loss. (Success)
is incremental."
And even though today the band — hip-hop artists who play their
own musical instruments — now makes thousands of dollars for
a show, "you don't ever feel like you've arrived," Nicholas said.
Diaz was part of a traveling panel touring colleges around the United
States to talk about misogyny in hip-hop.
Hip-hop's most ardent fans are often so defensive about the music and
culture, "that becomes an excuse not to engage in discussion about
gender," said Bakari Kitwana, a former executive editor of The
Source magazine and a UR alumnus.
And all too often, what gets played commercially is "booty music" — party
music, said Mark Anthony Neal, associate professor of black popular
culture at Duke University:
"Why is it that the music isn't reflecting a broader range of our
human emotion?"
MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com
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