“Blackface” or “I get why Spike Lee has a problem with Hip-Hop now, and I think don’t think he’s right.”

I remember a time when I could simply enjoy something without thoughts of racial inequality, cultural appropriation, homoerotic sub-texts and such coming in and forcing me to think. I remember those times, those were good times. I guess those lofty days are gone, huh?

The first thing I have to question now about hip-hop is this: Can I like hip-hop? Am I allowed? Am I allowed to enjoy it without having to know about the historical appropriation of black music? Would I seem like a jerk to someone who does knows? Would Spike Lee invite me to his next movie premiere? I suppose I could, they would and that Spike still would, but what if I decided I wanted to be a hip-hop super star [(live large, drive phat cars…) I had to throw in that Cyprus Hill lyric]? Would I then be contributing to the cultural theft that Blacks have been subjected to since the dawn of the pop-culture/music era?

I was in another class and we were talking about Hip-Hop and appropriation of voice (yes, I brought it up because I’m still trying to get this.) I said something to the tone of hip-hop being great because it brings people together; there are kids in China right now doing Headspins to Kanye west beats, there are native teens rockin’ roccawear and listening to Jay-Z, there are white kids in various Ontario suburbs veggin’ out in front of the tube watching BET. The cultural and racial gap is closing. Hip-Hop is great. Then someone said this, “But I don’t see it that way. It’s not great that everyone is listening to Hip-Hop, it’s for a specific people.” I told her I felt sorry she felt that way, and the prof, seeing where the debate was headed, quickly changed the subject. But it haunts me, the idea that Hip-Hop is for a certain people. I don’t buy that shit, but is it? Even its history, its genesis in the “predominantly African-American and Puerto Rican South Bronx” breaks away from that idea of Hip-Hop being solely for Blacks.

The fact remains that Hip-Hop is enticing, there is something about it reaches so many people and connects them in ways that Disco never could. *Shiver* Disco. Tate writes, “The aura and global appeal of hip-hop lie in both its perceived Blackness (hip, stylish, youthful, alienated, rebellious, sensual) and its perceived fast access to global markets through digital technology.” While I don’t really get the technical-jargony bit about “markets through digital technology” the idea that being hip, stylish, youthful, alienated, rebellious, and sensual are traits exclusively black angers me. Why is Tate building up these walls? Hip-hop reaches so many people, it transforms lives. I can understand how the appropriation of Jazz and Rock and Roll can piss people off because it pisses me off, but hip-hop is different. Its different in that we live in a period of time where equality is at the forefront, while yes, it might just be veneer, still there is a sense that equality it is important. Back when Rock and Roll and Jazz were big it wasn’t like how things are now. I’m not saying that things are perfect, but I am saying that things are different. No one would ever say that hip-hop was done by white people first, no one is stealing hip-hop, no one is changing hip-hop, hip-hop is changing the landscape and not the other way around.

Isn’t there a bigger issue though? While history is important we can’t simply live looking backwards. Things progress and while hip-hop was created in a predominantly black cultural vacuum, it made its way out and is touching down all over the globe. Why can’t hip-hop be the cultural forum where there is a universally shared culture? Why can’t hip-hop BE that universally shared culture? We aren’t dealing with the white/black binary here anymore. People all over the world are feelin’ hip-hop. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t mind that my people were responsible for creating something that united more people than anything else in the entirety of human history.

Back-tracking a bit I wanted to touch on the Robert Christgau piece “In Search of Jim Crow”. I don’t know if I just didn’t “get” it, but was he saying that there was a silver lining to minstrelsy in that white people that performed these shows and those that attended the shows were enticed by black culture and in some twist of logic by Christgau that means that they some how accepted black people? I don’t buy that shit. Even if I did get Christgau wrong I know that I am in fact detecting something in his writing that attempts to paint an understanding of how one could accept minstrelsy. As I said before, I don’t buy it.

The whole bit about the veracity of the Jim Crow story being called into question sets up something else in my mind. Christgau writes of the Jim Crow story, “it has a ring, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s such a hell of a metaphor that one understands why few historian of minstrelsy have resisted it, and why it shows up frequently in less specialized accounts of race relations and popular music.” For those of you that don’t know the myth/legend of Jim Crow here’s the condensed version:

White man named Rice happens upon a Black slave who is handicapped in some way. The various retellings of the Jim Crow story give and take away various impairments to the black slave, but basically he can’t walk very well because he either has some sort of leg problem (at the least) or is partially paralyzed on one side of his body (at the worst). Anyway, when Rice sees the Black slave, the black slave is “dancing” as best he can while singing “Every time I turn about I jump Jim Crow.” Rice, seeing this as entertaining, starts a minstrel act sometime after. Rice steals both the clothes the Black man was wearing as well as his song, his dance, and even his crippled features.

Whether or not there is any truth to this tale we’ll never know, but regardless of whether it is truth or fiction, either way it present equally fascinating metaphors. On the one hand the literal stealing of culture and identity plays well if the tale is true, on the other hand if Rice’s actions of stealing from the Black slave are made up it up all together the story is built on hatefulness, conjecture, and stereotype. And, surprise, surprise, so is minstrelsy. There is no silver-lining in minstrelsy, it is lined with hatefulness and stereotypes that lead away from understanding anything about anyone.

Hip-hop by Whites, Hispanics, and Asians is nothing like minstrelsy. Hip-hop is a medium from where people of any cultural heritage can find a way to express themselves. Hip-hop isn’t about stealing from Blacks and trying to be black, it’s about expressing yourself in a common forum that has conventions and rules that anyone can follow.