The essential argument, or proposition for discussion is, is art something to be judged? or villified? or is art something to be experienced, and so, moved and enriched? And, is art the only thing we can learn from? or can we learn from the experience of indivdual's who's lives and situations differ vastly from our own?
These are very important questions, because if art is to be judged, then it is to move a level away from the intent of the artist. Surely, in schools, in practicums, internships, fellowships, apprenticeships, to "judge" is essential. To critique the artists work, is surely an indispensible process for the Teachers, or Critics of artistic endeavors, however, once we arrive at the final finished product, that expresses, that which the artist desires to express, in the unique manner or professional manifestation of their craft, "judgement" may no longer be the proper perspective from which to view, or experience the work.
My point is that African-Americans have been villified, condemned, judged and subject to all manner of harsh experiences throughout the diaspora. Perhaps no African-American story can stand higher, in terms of rawness and complete and total experience of transformation, as that of the African-American in America. Seeing as the European tradition of recording, writing, satirizing, editorializing, is so strong, the 500 year history of African-Americans, forms one of the richest and well documented trevails of any peoples in the world.
Which brings us to the artform of "Rap" music.
My contention, and theory is that Rap music, at its heart and soul, is the expression, the voice of the inner city, and effect of the experience of Africans in America that rivals all other forms. In "Rap" we have a complete and total voice, that if listened to and understood from 1. The heart & 2. A clinical, perspective as a dialectic of the "other" experience, it forms a full-voiced expression, of the horrors and net result, of the American tradition and experience of exclusion, disparity, racism, segregation and political impotence.
I grow tiresome of this whole condemnation of rap as anti-bitch and pro-profanity. There is no comparison between the disgusting, stomach turning, destructive, murderous result of the U.S. Constitution, which condoned and legalizing the slave trade, and the world's "worst" most profanity laden rap song. My point is this. If you have someone that has lived through a horrendous experience a the hands of a government and it's systemetized, unmitigated racist philosophy, then to describe the effects, the mentality, the psychology and the life that you live because of it... is that really something we should condemn? It's like slitting someone's throat and yelling at them for bleeding. To take it a step further, there is a long tradition of the arts as the social conscience of society. Rap music can be, and many times, is the contemporary artistic expression of the experience of African-Americans. If it isn't art, then nothing is.
Don't just take it from me, Leo Tolstoy, who died long before the creation of rap music, gives an unbiased and well-rounded definition of art, which can be changed but slightly to mirror and express my feelings about Rap as an art-form, and fully realized artistic expression.
In Chapter 15 of Leo Tolstoy's "What is Art?" which he wrote in 1896, he states:
"There is one indubitable indication distinguishing real art from its counterfeit, namely, the infectiousness of art. If a man, without exercising effort and without altering his standpoint on reading, hearing, or seeing another man's work, experiences a mental condition which unites him with that man and with other people who also partake of that work of art, then the object evoking that condition is a work of art."
And, "But most of all is the degree of infectiousness of art increased by the degree of sincerity in the artist.", " And the degree of the infectiousness of art depends on three conditions: 1. On the greater or lesser individuality of the feeling transmitted; on the greater or lesser clearness with which the feeling is transmitted; on the sincerity of the artist..."
Tolstoy goes on to say, "I have mentioned three conditions of contagiousness in art, but they may be all summed up into one, the last, sincerity, i.e., that the artist should be impelled by an inner need to express his feeling... Therefore this third condition - sincerity - is the most important of the three."
And so, let's look at the disdainful and rejected medium of "gansta rap" and look at the lyrics and what is being said and shared, to see if it meets the definition of "art".
"I Got Yo Back" by X-Raided, is a song about the rapper and his devotion to his fellow bretheren. He sings of his loyalty, to the death if necessary that he holds for his friends and close associates. If this type of death pact between those whose entire existence is live outside of the lines of legitimate society is confusion to some, then listening to these lyrics, along with lyrics of all rap, will surely help to bring such ignorance into the light of day.
The song starts out with his pledge of solidarity with his "nigga's"
(Chorus)
If you wanna get high, nigga I got a sack
If you wanna ride, my nigga I got a strap
Do or die for my true thug niggas, and that's a fact
You and I got that true love, nigga I got yo back
What X-Raided is saying to his partners, is if you want to get high, I'll get you high, if you want to do a drive by and kill someone, I got a gun. I'll die for you cause you're just like me, and I support you in whatever you do. Because you are the only one that cares about me, loves me, looks out for me, and are the one that I can trust, I have more loyalty and fidelity towards you than any law, rule or legal pronouncement in this land that don't give a fuck about us.
The question then becomes, how does one become so twisted that they think that to get someone high, to kill with them, is an appropriate way to show devotion? Aren't friends supposed to help one another to do right? How does someone get to this point that they're willing to die for another man's high and desire to kill? Listen, and the song will reveal these and more answers.
Don't nobody got your back, when you need ‘em most
I'm yellin' where the love at? But you don't hear me loc
Sometimes I think I'm goin' down, I need a life preserver
But you throw me bricks, tryna help me drown
But I survived, what other options do I have?
Can't blame it on my Mom, can't blame it on my Dad
I make my own decisions, I chose the path that I walk
What X-Raided is saying here is, "Who loves me? Who cares for me? Not society (loc), not anyone that has a real opportunity, or option, or way to excape the madness that I'm living in. All I get is ignored, Police, Jail, unemployment lines, and no, no, no, no, no. And because of that, often, I either feel that I'm drowning and dying, (while still alive), hopeless, despondent, no options, or I actually am, and at that point, I need some help. I need something to make me feel hope again, or that there is some point to this cold, heartless, optionless existence. (I need a life preserver), but instead, I'm blamed again, I'm either called, crazy, lazy, hazy (high), or that I brought the shit on myself, or that I don't qualify, or I need to go somewhere else, or I'm locked up in a mental ward, or in jail or prison, because that's the only help I can get (you throw me bricks). And I can't blame my mom or dad, they're just as fucked up as me, and they went through the same thing as me. They were no more able to help me, than I am to help my kids, or their parents were able to help them. The condition is societal, it's beyond the strength or ability of the average ghetto survivor, to escape these entrenched cycles of hopelessness (can't blame it on my mom, can't blame it on my dad). I'm the one that decided to not persevere and go to school. I'm the one that decided to get into the dope game. I'm the one that decided to join a gang. I'm the one that decided to not pay those parking tickets, or the child support, or to rob that store, or jump bail, or probation...
But me and my father never had that "man to man" talk
But there ain't no need for me to hate him
He did me a favour when he caught my mama ovulatin'
He brought me in the world, and the rest is up to me
So I'm a, do what I gotta and be all that I can be
X' is sayin' It's futile for him to hate his father, he lies blameless in the tide of forces beyond his control. Instead of hating him, he needs to thank him and his mother for bringing him into the world (aint that what humans are supposed to do?), all of the hurdles and stumbling blocks he faces, are for him to traverse, and overcome. His parents left him at the starting line, and now it's up to him to do the best he can do (which evidently, is pretty incredible, seeing as he's an incredibly talented artist, rapper, musician, and internationally known. it's truly remarkable).
Now I wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a judge
But it wasn't meant to be so now I got a grudge
I was hit with resistence, and asked for persistence,
You kept me at a distance, so fuck all you bitches
I don't need none of y'all, I'm a do it on my own
And when I'm ballin', I'm a floss in front of all y'all non-believers
You thought I couldn't win
But to my homies, my lovers, and my friends
I got ya back
Here X' is sayin, he wanted to be more, he aspired to be more (a doctor or lawyer or judge), but those roads were blocked, and he does have a chip on his shoulder, because, quite honestly, he was doomed from the gate when it came to competing for those coveted educational opportunities with kids that had ALL the advantages, security, safety, encouragement and resources to get those coveted opportunities. He tried to stay in school, but the help and support wasn't there (resistence, persistence, kept at a distance), so to hell with this system that didn't want him to begin with (racist admissions, substandard schools, disparity). He decided to do it on his own, and when he makes it, he's going to flaunt it and wave it in your faces to show you up. society had him buried before he was born, but he made it, and so, to his "homies, lovers and friends" he'll get them high, he'll drive by for them, he'll go to the death, because THAT was his family, THAT was his support, THAT is what kept him going when he felt like he was drownin'. And so without them, there wouldn't be an X-Raided, so seeing as he owes them his life, he will go to the death for them. and heaven help him that he won't be killed, but.....
When everybody got they noses up in the air
I'll be there for you, lettin' you know your nigga cares
I ain't got much to offer but you welcome to what I have
Down to ride witcha, even when the homies mad
I be down witcha; winter, spring, summer, fall
I'm ready to ride every time that my homie calls
I never stall on ya dawg, through it all, thick or thin
We went from boys to men in the same hood
So it's all good, even when you actin' like you got this bitch made
It's still on, I'm a ride when you right or wrong
Standin' strong, no matter what the situation in
And if you die, will provide for your wife and kids
That way you live, forever
This one is simple, if you've read the others, in this X' is just continuing entreaties, pledges and promises to be there for the ones that were there for him, a pledge to never say no, to never delay, to not put them off, and to be behind his friends and their family forever.
However, a nigga's never gonna let ‘cha rest in peace till we back together
Fuck restin' in peace, I'm in an up roar
What other reason does a nigga have to live for?
If you ain't ready to ride for what we believe
Then get the fuck out the game, it's time for you to leave
Cuz only niggas is willin' to put it all on the line
And ride with us when it's killin' time
I got yo back loc
This is just continuing re-statement and passion about how dedicated he is to the ones that were there for him when no one else was. They may have been wrong, but they were there. They were the only ones that cared, and they all stood together to protect what little they had. And to be a part of this, you have to be ready to (put it all on the line), when it's "killin' time"
[Chorus] x2
X-Raided mad at the world, ready to go to war
So tell me what y'all mothafuckas waitin' for?
Put on your boots, and lace ‘em up
Dawg, tell me which tree you wanna chase ‘em up
It's an organized congregation, committee of the wicked
If you ain't ready to ride, then nigga you can't kick it
So get the fuck up out the set, you high powered coward
Before your bitch ass get devoured
At any given hour my soldiers is bound to loc up
The warriors gonna ride, and all you bitches gon' choke up
But that's the only way to separate the real from the fake
Don't ask me why, bitch a bitch ...(?)
That Northern Cali kill ‘em all mentality
It ain't my fault, blame it on the criminality
I'm out to make the paper stack
And when my homie calls, hell yeah it's a conspiracy
I got his back
Summary: Now, if you have no familiarity to with the experience of the African-American, or the inner-city, then yes, I can see your disdain, confusion and desire to discard the words of X-Raided and all of the other rappers that have made it out of pure nothing and situations where the odds were completely stacked against them, but if you are at least able to listen, you can learn how they feel, why their lives are the way they are, and most of all, their triumph and passion and incredible musicality.
Rap music is a relatively recent creation, but in the African-American, despite huge odds, they were able to create blues, gospel, rock, jazz, big-band, rap, r&b, and all manner of different art forms of dance, music, etc, etc, etc. Yes, the venacular can be confusion, but no less confusing than Shakespeare, to the uninitiated. At first, no one knows what the fuck is being said. Those that study Shakespeare, or even the bible are continually mining new truths, new meanings, new insights. The same can be done for Rap.
For me, it's not hard to listen to the pledges and love that flows from brother to brother, and to relate to that. Oftentimes, the love we have for the oppostite sex, is unsustainable, If it starts as lovers, many times it can not persist as friends. In the situations that start as friends, it's often hard to avoid becoming lovers, in essence, risking all. Such is the passionate drive of sexual attraction and reproduction. But your male friends, that you know love you without a care for you sexually, and that you have known, from when you had nothing and before you had direction, or purpose, or even knew yourself.... yeah, much of this rap is about signing the praises of that unquestioned love. One has to also factor in the high rate of single-parent households, and kids that, even if they did have a father, did not see them much. These groups of youths band together, without guidance, without supervision, desiring to be, what they see in their own 'hoods...
God Bless X-Raided and all of the brave souls and artists that have made it against all odds, kept, harbored and nurtured their dreams, and have been able to not only give us such beautiful music, but to make known the suffering and conditions of love that exist in the forgotten inner cities and ghettos of America.
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