The subject I would like to examine in this installment of the "No Shot Zone" is a new phenomena in hip hop that has developed over the last decade. This is that fact that rappers no longer need street credibility to be accepted.
During it's climb in popularity in the late 80's and Early 90's "Gangsta Rap" became a prevalent sub-genre of hip hop. Acts like NWA, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. told stories of the communities they came from and the lifestyles they lived out and were exposed to. Young members of impoverished communities related to these songs and saw rap as an outlet for them to express themselves, tell their own stories and possibly become a tool for them to leave their dangerous lifestyles. With this osmosis the mentality of the streets became as much apart of hip hop culture as the stories it lent to it. Rappers were in constant competition, calling each others bluffs and starting beefs. Rap became a declaration of masculinity and it seemed that if you didn't have street credibility you could not be accepted as a rapper.
The quintessential product of this movement in hip hop was Curtis James "50 Cent" Jackson III.
50 Cent was the trifecta of street credibility. A former drug dealer from South Jamacia Queens New York who was pretty much born into a violent lifestyle. A man that was shot 9 times by a rival and lived to tell about it. He also had underground following motivated by his song "How To Rob" which took shots at the top artist of the day, a dishonerable mention by Jay-Z at the biggest hip hop event of that year and growing attention surrounding his beef with rapper with Ja Rule, which included voilent altercations. With the addition of a 1 Million dollar deal signed by Eminem and gangsta rap legend, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent's story alone could persued people into buying his album without hearing one note of his songs. (I'm sure some did). He was a force to be reckoned with, the total embodiment of a hip hop subgenre with a enough hype to lauch a spacecraft.
Soon after the sky rocket of 50 Cent came an artist who seemed to be totally out of left field. Kanye Omari West.
Kanye West was a name known to Jay-Z fans as the producer of "The Blueprint" but not well known otherwise. His background story was a high contrast to that of 50 Cent. Kanye West was the son of a college professor who lived in the more suburban outskirts of Chicago. He was not a thug, drug dealer or gangster at the time of his record deal. He was a frustraed guy who had the opportunity to be a college student but had enough and decided to follow his musical asperations. Like 50, Kanye had a near death experience which added to the hype behind him, his song "Through The Wire" was recorded as he recovered from a devestating car accident which resulted in him having his jaw wired shut as it healed. Although this did add the interest around him it was much different from being shot 9 times. In subject matter of course is where some the the biggest contrasts lie. While 50 rapped about his past, violence and pimping on his album. Kanye rapped about college, working at the gap and Jesus. Dispite the contrasts both 50's "Get Rich or Die Trying" and Kanye's "The College Dropout" shared an accepted hip hop point of view.
I once read an inverview where 50 Cent took credit for Kanye's popularity. Stating that after he was out he was the bad guy and people wanted someone who wasn't threatening. I think this a slightly extreme arguement but it has some truth to it. Kanye West was the first big blow to the idea that rappers needed for street credibility. I think 50 Cent knows this, Kanye in alot of ways I the anti-50, they both totally embody opposing lifestyles within the world of hip hop. This is the reason why 50 challeged Kanye in a public record sales battle. It wasn't just the artist that were feuding it was the lifestyles they represented. Many people bought both albums but others were very addimittly on one side. When Kanye won it was a powerful indication that the tide was changing in hip hop.
The next artist to be examined is Dwanye Michael Carter Jr., better known as Lil' Wanye...
Pause. Before I go any further, think back 10 years,
WHO THE HELL SAW THIS COMING!?
Anyway, Lil' Wayne's story earned him a lot of street cred. A son of the Magnolia projects in New Orelens, a hood that is no joke, and known rapper since the age of 15 who rapped about very adult things. Lil Wanye had more street cred as a young teen than many do in their adulthood. He's been shot on 2 occasions and has arrests for firearms and drugs. As he got better as an artist throughout the years he surprisingly made it to the forfront of hip hop and has stacked more street cred on the way.
HOWEVER, as I stated before during the rise of street mentality in hip hop, rap became a tool to delare masculinity and inturn became very homophobic. In countless beef records recorded, accusations of homosexual behavior was used to insult and discredit the subject. So when this was caught on film and came out in 2006.
Lil Wanye was at risk of losing all of the street cred he had built.
I don't know if it was sympathy because of his hometown being destroyed from Hurricane Katrina, the fact people were becomeing big fans of his music or the fact that he impregnated some girl right after but somehow the hip hop community let it by. I think it's a good thing. I mean I really don't know what that picture was about and I think it's bad enough that the guy calls himself "Baby" and that Wanye call him "Daddy" but to each his own. If hip hop let it by, that has shown some growth. I have my doubts that that could have flown a few years ago. Nonetheless, this was a huge blow to the need for street cred. I personally I think his pop colaborations are a big blow to his street cred too... and just plan bad, but that's not the point. At the end of the day when it comes to the decline of street cred there is one rapper (very close to Wanye) that takes the cake.
Aubrey Drake Graham, known simply to rap listeners as Drake. Damn, where do I begin?
Drake is from an affluent Jewish community in Toronto Canada. (I could stop there). He grew up there with his Jewish mother and visted with his black father in Memphis Tennessee. He was inspired by his father to pursue music because his father was a musican and the drummer for Jerry Lee Lewis (look him up, not gangtsa at all). Before his rise to rap stardom Drake was well known in the tween and teen demographic as Jimmy Brooks on the high school drama "Degrassi: The Next Generation". During the shows run Jimmy was shot in the back and left wheelchair bound. Honestly, the way I see it, Drake has NEGATIVE street credibility. Almost a decade after 50, who's story of surviving 9 bullets wounds spured on his hype, we have a rapper who's biggest street cred draw was being shot on a T.V show. Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning his credibility as an artist, just examining how the standards of hip hop have changed. Drake is a different kind of rapper. With his background he has had to find a totally new approach to rap. His skills as an actor are highly incorperated. When I watch him I sometimes feel like I'm watching Terrence Howard as "DJ" in "Hustle and Flow" only his lyrics aren't written by 3-6 Mafia, maybe by Lil' Wanye (just kidding). Drake is the character Aubrey Graham is currently portraying and many people are fooled. If you step back you can see that he looks highly rehearsed in his mannerisms, and his writing style is highly formulaic (why he seems to not freestyle). He has worked from the ground up to present to us the charater of Drake. You can see the contrast because in interviews he seems like he's back to being same old Jewish Aubrey. I don't know I if would have nominated him for a Grammy for the work he's done, maybe an Oscar.
With all this said, if the ends justify the means, his music is catchy and entertianing. Though his persona and music may not be as true to self as other artists, his drive and respect for the art form is more than respectable, and Drake serves as a great translator of the honest thoughts and feelings of a Jewish kid from Canada dealing with his ambition and fame. With the resources he's been given I don't know if his success is really that big of a deal (anybody could have done it with entertainment connections, Degrassi money and talent) but that's neither here nor there. One thing is certain though, with the current status Drake has obtained, the neccessity for a rapper to acclumulate street credibility is offically DEAD.
I think that's a great thing because this means that people are looking at the music first again.
In addition, it's great news for me personally and NYe. We are artists, songwriters, but we acknowledge the fact that rapping is our vehicle, mainly because neither of us can sing. We want to have everyone rocking to our music and we want to be accepted in hop hip also. We don't have street cred either. On paper we could say that we're from single parent households in Harlem but that's as far as it could go. Our house holds were very nurturing and caring with a lot of support from our extend family members and although our fathers were not living with us, neither of our fathers were totally absent from our lives. We went to two of the top ranked specialized public schools in New York City. A middle school and the second best High School. We had the oppurtunities to take AP classes and had the full ability to attend Ivy Leauge universites if we choose to work for them. Our best mutual friend is a Rhodes Scholar (shout out to Roc). Music is not our way off the streets, we're 2 guys who never even taken a recreational drug, much less sold them. We're not rapping because we didn't get basketball scholarships and then drafted (I don't even play sports). We are doing this for one simple reason. We love it. And personally there's nothing else on the world for me, every waking moment is spent admiring and creating art. I just want to share my love and apprecitation with the world. If I could get to make enough money to pay my bills eat and have some to blow shopping and having fun, then that's my LIFE right there. That's all I could really see for myself, I finished my 4 years in college majoring in a subject I will never use, it's all music for me. We got some songs coming out soon. I think you guys will dig them. One way or another, this is going to be one hell of a ride. I hope you'll be onboard with us.
/.Eyes Always Open.\
- Jag-Ra
I must say this is a well-written article. I learned a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to talk about Drake a little bit because I don't feel like you analyzed the full Drake. You really just broke down the one we see now (the commercialized Young Money Rapper). It's not the full story.
Anyway good luck with the music, and I'll be patiently waiting for Passenger Flow's first album.