The sound of capitalism

Hip hop music was blamed for the August riots. But behind the celebration of “bling” is a culture of entrepreneurship

by Steve Yates / September 21, 2011 / Leave a comment

Published in October 2011 issue of Prospect Magazine

Read Steve Yates’s rundown of the tracks that changed hip hop at our blog

The latest album by the twin titans of hip hop has been a record-breaking success. On its release, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne had the highest ever first week sales on iTunes of any new album. A total of 290,000 copies were downloaded that week, and when CDs are taken into account, the album’s sales approached the 450,000 mark. Hip hop is big business.

Watch The Throne is symbolic of the status that hip hop, or rap, has now reached. Originating in the South Bronx in New York City in the late 1970s, when performers began rapping over looped beats taken from soul and funk records, hip hop has since journeyed right into the heart of mainstream culture.

Jay-Z is married to Beyoncé Knowles, queen of R&B, and together they form the most influential power couple in global music. His wealth is estimated by Forbes at around $450m, and he has had 12 US number one albums (only the Beatles, with 19, have had more). Kanye West’s fortune is around $70m. Watch the Throne is thick with references to wealth—even the sleeve is designed by Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci: “Luxury rap, the Hermès of verses,” raps Kanye, giving the brand its French pronunciation, lest anyone should think he was mistaking the high-end goods manufacturer for a mythic Greek messenger.

But for its detractors, this materialism is one of rap’s three deadly sins, along with its violence and misogyny. Casual fans of hip hop often see its materialistic side as something either to be played down or embraced “ironically.” Some commentators judge it more harshly. When the riots broke out across Britain this summer, many saw hip hop’s celebration of materialism as one of the key causes. Paul Routledge, writing in the Mirror, summarised this view when he said, “I blame the pernicious culture of hatred around rap music, which glorifies violence and loathing of authority… [and] exalts trashy materialism.”

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Comments

Douglas Haddow
October 11, 2011 at 13:03
And by focusing on a few popular artists who've parlayed their music into small business empires, you've neglected the entire purpose of the genre, which is to provide an accessible medium of communication to those neighbourhoods whose realities are neglected by existing media, journalism and literature. Which is especially pertinent in the UK, where grime was born from pirated radio frequencies.
Sam Page
October 11, 2011 at 17:09
As Scroobius Pip said, "Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be." Also, the reading of NWA would suggest you wouldn't give much credo to the Chuck D assertion as Hip Hop (w)as "the black CNN." Ice Cube's "protege" was female, and his 1st solo album was produced by the people behind Public Enemy. Also, you've got your chronology wrong - A Tribe Called Quest's first album came out in 1990s - the "alternative hip-hop" thing was not simply an '80s thing. You don't talk about the responsibility of the media or the record labels in any of this, or the commercialisation, etc, etc. What it broke big with, etc. Frankly, the history section of this is too inaccurate, too brief, and too selective. In other words, Douglas Haddow's right.
Steve Yates
October 11, 2011 at 20:26
@Sam I didn't say "alternative hip hop" (not a tag I'd ever apply to ATCQ anyway) was a purely 80s thing, just that it began in the 80s and was eclipsed by gangsta rap in the early 90s. And I don't see how Ice Cube producing Yo Yo negates the misogyny of much of his work, any more than the Bomb Squad producing his debut . There was much that was political about Cube's work, but the dominant strain that came out of NWA was ultimately the gangstaism - Chronic and Doggy Style sold yards more than Death Certificate and established a template that proved successful for the next 5 years.
rapiscrap
October 15, 2011 at 05:52
Rap is stupid
Ted Fontenot
October 15, 2011 at 13:13
Claiming misogyny is not arguing it.
Andrea D. Merciless
October 15, 2011 at 15:47
"Like other popular representations of American gangsterism—The Godfather, Scarface—it was a vision of unfettered free market enterprise." GODFATHER is NOT about unfettered free market enterprise. The mafia live by a certain code which demand honor and even sacrifice among its members. Profit is NOT everything. The family and clan loyalty count for more. In the end, it's not just 'business'. After all, Michael avenges his father for personal reasons. Also, GODFATHER is not a brazen celebration of money but a cautionary tale of how a man may gain the world but lose his soul. There is nothing in Gangsta Rap that is reflective, self-critical, or beyond the me-me-me. Though Michael does 'lose his soul', recall that he was being 'strong for the family'. Family or the larger group isn't even the issue in rap. Even the politically inclined Public Enemy was less about 'we blacks' than 'I, Chuck D, know everything, so shut up and listen, mofo'. SCARFACE is more of a crazy celebration of money, dazzle, and power, but even it has an element of cautionary tale. And though Tony Montana is fun, we are not supposed to see him as a hero but a deranged nut. Btw, American capitalism and dream are not simply about money, money, money. It's about succeeding according to rules and doing some good for society. Only a fool would say Steve Jobs and heroin dealers are part of the same American Dream. Jobs was about the American Dream. Heroin dealers are about the American Nightmare. Also, real entrepreneurs play by the rules. They win with superior products but bow out when their competitors come up with better things. IBM didn't send goons to kill Bill Gates. But, gangsterism isn't about meritocracy or fair play. Gangsters will use whatever means--often violent and brutal--to secure advantages over others. It's simply about us vs them or me vs you. (To be sure, people on Wall Street can be regarded as dirty gangsters in light of what happened since 2008, but then finance capitalism with crony ties to government was always a shadier enterprise.) Rap has been hyped and sold by the legitimate capitalist industries, but its values are not those of Protestant Work Ethic, the sort of thing that drove Edison or Ford. It is capitalism corrupting itself by feeding the worst impulses--lack of discipline, egocentrism, savagery, thuggery, etc--to young people whose attitude then becomes, "I know best because... well, I'm a thug who can kick butt." There is a certain logic to it. It's the logic of consumerist-hedonistic capitalism. Once society dispenses with all its inhibitions and values, all that's left is animal drives, appetites, and lusts. Without a culture of shame, people munch of junk food and grow fat. Without a culture of shame, people judge human worth on their raw power and raw sexuality. Rap panders to the sub-Nietzschean thug and pimp/ho in every human soul that has dispensed with all values and restraints. It leads to animalization. Traditionally, American Enterprise was balanced between the profit motive and moral values. The West was never as purely capitalist or self-interested as Soviet Union or Maoist China was monomaniacally communist or collectivist. American culture was pluralistic, balanced between self-gain/individualism and community values/common good--as well as spiritual principles. But that balance has been lost since the 'liberation' in the late 60s and 70s. Rap's counterpart in visual media is porn. Both are infectious and irresistible to many people because they serve up what has the most primal and basic appeal to animal instincts: sex and power. Porn is instant orgasm and rap is instant power, which is why both have so many addicts. Indeed, pop music has become more pornographic, with grind-dances and sluts-in-videos while porn has become more interracial, with black males and white females. Even so, the irony is the rap industry is possible because most of it's run by people outside rap. Jay Z and Kanye West wouldn't have amounted to much in dysfunctional African nations. They've succeeded in the US because the vast and sophisticated media/technology complex are owned and operated by Harvard grads. The irony is the best and the brightest working in culture now peddle the worst and the basest. This isn't to say rap has no musical value. Its use of rhymes and rhythms can be creative and expressive, but its emotional core is utter trash. It's not Soul music but Hole-in-the-Soul music. Compare Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' with 50 cents. Is this all good for society? It's good for instant thrills, but as far as longterm values are concerned, it's not good for schools, not good for families, not good for social attitudes, not good for social values. It is less capitalism than debasement of capitalism by mindless consumerism that is akin to pushing drugs. It is to culture what sugary junk food is to culinaryism. Sugary foods may give instant pleasure, but it undermines capitalism by overloading society with obese people with serious health problems. Rap and porn may be fun, but they are degrading and vulgarizing, creating members of society who will fail in school, fail in forming stable families, and fail at work; then, they'll be dependent on government and welfare, burdening the productive sector of society. But since all they know is egocentrism they picked up from rap culture, they will never be self-critical or take responsibility but just blame it on SOCIETY for all the problems. Thus, the irony of rap is that hardcore rap fans say, "I wanna do my own shit" but when their 'shit' leads to failure, they demand that OTHERS provide them with their needs, for which they feel zero gratitude. It's like they're entitled to free everything--even free TV and bling--since they are so cool and hip and badass. Rap, like punk, is different from Rock and blues. Rap is a distilled and purified form of pop where all that's left is the refined sugar or cocaine. Blues has an element of danger and risque but it also has roughage and fiber and maturity. Rap, though it's often brutal and violent, has nothing but the beat and attitude, and the attitude is "I'm a badass thug, and you're the ho." It is regressive infantilism, a reversionary form of devolution back to primitive mental attitudes. In the late 19th century, the obsessive admiration of German music blinded many people to the darker aspects of German culture. All this worship of black musical forms is also blinding people to the dark side of black culture. A society where young people define their lives by nothing but macho thuggery and slutty whoredom cannot be good. And though a few rappers have made gazillions, the community from which that stuff sprang is mired in poverty. Why? Because too many black kids are into the rap culture, attitude, life-style, etc. For white kids, it's a product to enjoy. For black kids, it is a philosophy, and a deadly one at that. But as this garbage spreads as an all-consuming lifestyle among white kids, they too will suffer. Many white kids into rap are completely oblivious to their own heritage, culture, and tradition. Also, the hip-hop beats makes for the culture of impatience, a kind of cultural attention deficit disorder. Kids raised on that find everything else too boring, just like kids addicted to videogames and Hollywood blockbusters don't have the curiosity and attention span to sit through older movies, b/w movies, or art films. Real power and success is about self-control and working toward something important. Rap culture says you should and indeed must have it all right now, and if you can't have it--sex and power--, it's society's fault.
joe bloggs
October 15, 2011 at 20:22
"...the core (capitalist) message, that people can have better lives, (by exploiting others), is a good (???) one."
brian warden
October 15, 2011 at 21:19
Decent article, but several problems. Rap has always been about having $$$. Rappers Delight is full of materialistic bragging. Chuck D himself was boasting about his 98 in "You're Gonna Get Yours" back in '87. Same goes for the violence: KRS One, who is amazingly absent from this article, was talking about "listen to my 9 mm go bang" way back in the day. Current "hip-pop" has simply taken these things to an extreme, and the PE/BDP/Jungle Brothers sub genre of rap was never very popular via radio/singles/Mtv/etc., mostly sold by the album. I'm on the other side of the pond, been down since day one, so I just thought I'd put my two cents in.
Don Macmillan
October 16, 2011 at 05:08
Andrea D. Merciless, well said. One can argue the musical merits of rap, but the negative cultural implications of the lyrics and lifestyles should be evident to all.
BDL
October 16, 2011 at 10:42
"Form 696", "Operation Trident" - much cooler-sounding phrases than "Murder to Excellence".
vikram kumar
October 16, 2011 at 14:08
Hip hop music was blamed for the August riots. But behind the celebration of “bling” is a culture of entrepreneurship " that's so true.. Reason being Most of these Hip Hop Guys Previously were Crack or Drug Dealers ... and They would have HUGE Networks and Find their way in to hustle from One City to another City constantly Getting New Clients and Dealing with High Profile but Shady People & Then came in a trend where many of them wanted out .. So they started to apply The same Buisness Model Into shipping their Demo Cd's and the one's who had Musical Talent made it BIG!
gpo
October 16, 2011 at 18:46
“With hip hop you’re buying more than music. It isn’t a genre—it’s a lifestyle, encompassing fashion, break dancing, the clothes or the jewels you wear… The lifestyle is worth its weight in gold ” This guy says it all if you like hip-hop music fine as always the aggressive guys will take over expect the same with Google and the Internet
Will
October 16, 2011 at 22:11
Wow, some dickhead comments on here today! Chuck D/Public Enemy were arguably the most consciousness raising Hip Hop crew around, argueing against violence in communities and against the shows of gold jewelery. & KRS-1 started the Stop the Violence movement! So rap wasn't always about $$$. When record companies realised suburban kids wanted to 'be' black they marketed ganagster rap to the extreme & found white rappers they could big up (& get some successful black MCs & producers to stand next to him to add cred to his image) that's when the rot set in. From the mid-90's money & bitches took the place of any edutainment that had existed before. Record companies are the ones that destroyed Hip Hop.
Steve Yates
October 16, 2011 at 23:29
@Brian Yeah, materialism was present from the start, and violent lyrics can be dated back to Schoolly D even before 9mm Goes Bang, but my point was that both became more prevalent over time. It's an odd and regrettable fact that KRS (certainly one of my favourite rappers) gets written out of overviews of rap history – probably because he had more influence on its underground culture than the rap mainstream. I hope I've made some amends for that here http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/10/the-sound-of-capitalism-my-top-tracks/
elena balabanova
October 17, 2011 at 12:11
Bravo, Andrea Merciless!!
brian
October 17, 2011 at 19:31
i love how you focus on materialism, how about extreme degradation of women? i'm a teacher in a predominantly white suburb and this is what my 10 year old student got caught rapping in the hallway, "my p***y so wet it's better than yers". thanks rap music and your "capitalism". trash trash trash. there's no redeeming quality to rap. capitalism is only the vehicle, and it's not to blame. rap is the drunk cokehead driving right for your 10year old kid.
John Poole
October 18, 2011 at 00:29
I'm not sure "mainstream" is a relevant term in 2011. Pop music may not be able to keep building on the vaudeville ethos. Narcissistic exhibitionism may be close to having played itself out. The swagger thing -whether it be Led Zep's swagger or current rap swagger just seems juvenile and forced. Sinatra's swagger lite seemed much healthier and culturally beneficial.
micelhood
October 18, 2011 at 08:07
In response, east London rapidly developed its own sound, called grime—a rap-dominated genre with a harsh, electronic edge, and lyrics that sounded like a fight in a fried chicken shop. Chantalle Fiddly, 3
Graeme Thiessen
October 18, 2011 at 23:34
Whatever. Anything that can be cashed in on will be cashed in on by someone. It's not the least bit surprising that hip hop has "sold out" as well. Thing is, the underground element that was there from the start has always and will always be present. There are plenty of North American hip hop artists that just do it for the love of it and speak with intelligence about social issues - and many big names amongst them, both during the 90's and today. Del and Jeru were pretty vocal about just these issues and there are many groups who today are equally as political as Public Enemy ever were (Immortal Techique, for example). Mainstream is mainstream, whatever form it may take. Hip hop is still what it once was, but if you're looking (for it) in the toilet, you shouldn't be surprised to find crap in it.
Serge
October 19, 2011 at 03:49
"When critics zero in on hip hop’s materialism, as they did this summer, they see just a fraction of the story—the fraction that talks about money, cars and glamour." That fraction is probably close to 100% in rap, since the decline of positive and socially-conscious hip-hop. (Exceptions exist, of course, like some work by the Roots). - Serge
John Poole
October 20, 2011 at 16:56
Most of the rap I'm aware of is aimed right at the groin. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that aim but it is usually the secondary not the primal crosshair focus. The primal target of anyone who writes with compassion in their heart is the empathy cluster within our brains. With much of rap the secondary target is the trigger finger or maybe the reflex brain cluster to pull a hidden gun out from your belt line.
Gary
October 23, 2011 at 04:35
Drug dealers selling crack in also capitalism. "..an excellent product has been pushed with great skill and new markets opened up with real dynamism and flair."
Cool_Raoul
October 27, 2011 at 12:09
London kids are nihilistic because zero social mobility and the inherent racism of Britain (see the Met) means the society they live in is absolutely fucked. Believing in nothing is not the same as not believing in anything, and kids who are treated as though they're nothing, thankfully, believe in nothing. The materialism of US rap is another thing. It comes from the economic disenfranchisement of a bunch of people, for whom gaining wealth is much more than economic empowerment. A Guardian review of a Sean Combs record once said something like "An interest in luxury cars and clothes does not make a worldview." Like fuck it doesn't. Finally, rappers are capitalists now, wherever they are, because capitalism is all there is now. Everyone wants to "do well".
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