12
1
Kangol: a brand of
hat
Knockin’ boots:
sexual intercourse
Knot: fat wad of
money
Large: doing well
Loc: Loco, crazy
Louie: dollar,
money
Mackin’: a flam
boyant lifestyle
supported by
women; or
being in control of a
situation with one’s
wit as the chief tool
Mad: used to de
scribe an abundance
of something
Makin’ g’s: earning
thousands of dollars
M.C. (emcee):
originally master of
ceremonies; now
mike controller,
pertaining to a
rapper
Miss Thang: a
conceited woman
New Jack: a person
new to a situation
making an attempt at
being the best
New school: the
state of mind and
action of people
making hip-hop
music
Oaktown: Oakland,
California
Old School: hip-hop
style of music in the
late ’70s and early
’80s
-KM3 il-^—
DAILY NEBRASKAN
Cultural collision
realities of inner-city life
- By Shelley Biggs
ap's roots stretch back to
_Jamaica and West Africa, but
through the years the music has
evolved into a new sound salted
with thoughts, experiences and
lifestyles that are distinctly
American.
Rap has developed its own culture.
African-Americans, Hispanics, Latinos,
Asian Americans — these are some of
the groups contributing to rap today,
each blending their culture into rap by
telling their side of the American
experience.
For the last 15 years, rap music has
been a way for inner-city youths who feel
displaced by society to talk back to
mainstream America. Rap artists often
relate both the painful and the positive
lessons they experience as the result of
oppression and overt discrimination.
As lower classes in the United States
slowly emerge from under the thumb of
the Reagan era, so, too, do rap artists.
Musicians from all walks of life are
rapping rhythms designed to expose the
injustices of life behind the fragile candy
shell of the U.S. Constitution.
Lraig Werner. a professor of Afro
American studies at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison, found these
messages important — important
enough to warrant a class devoted to
their study.
Werner describes rap as "the only
voice crying out from the inner cities '
"Rap reflects the reality behind our
democratic rhetoric," Werner said.
In a country where the main message
is 'work hard and make it.' rap is giving
you a direct rapport where that is not
true."
New language
Greg Tate, staff writer for the Village
Voice in New York City and an authority
on rap music, said rap was the most
contemporary experience of African
American music thus far.
Tate, a cultural journalist and author of
a collection of essays on hip-hop, titled
“Flyboy in the Buttermilk," said rap music
had defined new areas of language,
dress, beauty, visual art and dance.
Rap music gives rappers a voice to
talk about the concerns of young African
Americans in society today.
It's kind of like a battle cry," he said.
It can be of a rebellious nature *
Werner said he was drawn to rap
music and its messages in the 1970s.
The idea of teaching a college course on
the theory of rap came to him when he
saw the American form of rap music
begin to gain popularity during the early
‘80s.
Werner looks at rap as a collage of
individuality. He also sees each class as
individual, with unique interests and
feelings.
He uses the artists' messages to set
the theme of the class. By balancing the
messages relayed through rap and by
choosing distinctly individual rap artists,
Werner said he could highlight most of
the immediate cultural backgrounds of
students in his classroom. '
"It depends on the class,’ Werner said.
"Right now it’s a good energy time in my
classes, so I’m playing a lot of Ice-Cube,
Yo-Yo and Public Enemy."
Werner said he tried to create a
cultural mix of messages on his syllabus
by choosing rappers from different
socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
This allows him to introduce a more
subtle version of ethnocentrism tp which
the class might not be attuned.
Tension
The contrast in the course sometimes
creates tension, but Werner said that
tension was the key to opening up
discussion to the true message of each.
"In the beginning of the class, I
highlight the tension in the most
obnoxious way I can find; partly to get
people out who can’t handle it and to
introduce controversy," Werner said.
Werner accomplishes this by playing
hard-core rap, which is a "rawer" form of
rap that initially is extremely insulting to
people who take it too literally.
“Students sometimes get at each
other’s throats because they don't like
each other’s attitudes," he said.
But, Werner said, “When people are in
a mood to accept the process, it can be
a very positive experience."
Accepting and understanding rap
music calls for an open mind and the
ability to see all sides of the message —
even if the message is insulting to a
person’s particular race, class or gender.
Opening up to rap's messages can be
painful and uncomfortable, Werner said,
and people have been known to walk out
of the class — himself included.
Werner has walked out on classes
before, he said, because he didn’t think
the students were being serious enough
about the subject matter.
"Sometimes I don't like their attitudes,"
he said.
"Once every two years I get a class
that is a pain in the ass to go to," he said.
“Rap takes us past the polite surface and
forces us to clarify what is being said.
“Our job as a class is to get beyond
the abstract ’
Message
The process of communication within
the class isn't always easy because each
student, based on his or her background,
has a different response to messages. At
times, those responses create tension
that lasts through the whole semester, he
said.
Werner gave the example of a Korean
student who refused to listen to a cut
called "Black Korea" from Ice-Cube’s
album “Death Certificate,' in which Ice
Cube has a line that talks about burning
down the businesses of Korean grocers.
The student would not listen to the
rest of the song; he refused to hear it,"
Werner said. Instead of trying to figure
out the message behind the song and *
why Ice-Cube wrote it, he wouldn't open
up and listen."
Werner searches for the differences in
the rap artists he teaches. Differences in
race and social class usually present
good topics for discussion, he said.
Public Enemy and Run-DMC are
considered middle-class rappers because
they are college-educated rappers, while
rappers from the lower class such as
Naughty By Nature and NWA rap
messages exclusive to life in the ghetto.
“Ice-T raps a 'street-smart message,’
the X-Clan’s message is mainly
Afrocentric, KRS-1 is humanist, and
Schooly D is ‘hard core,’" Werner said.
By mixing the artists that he teaches
in his course, Werner creates a stark
contrast between rappers and highlights
the experiences of different races,
4 4_
*Rap reflects the reality
behind our democrat ic
rhetoric. In a country
where the main message is
‘work hard and make it,'
rap is giving you a direct
rapport where that is not
a n
uue.
Craig Werner
-5 9
classes and genders. Afterward, Werner
encourages further thought about the
music’s message.
Werner discusses the content of rap
to help students understand the contro
versy the lyrics can generate. He explores
the sociological beginnings and tries to
make his students aware of the changing
demographics in society today, such as
the isolation of young black males.
"Poor black men are portrayed in a
stereotypical fashion by the media,’ he
said. It’s either in drugs or violence; but
never in any context that they are feeling
human beings."
Social niches
To dispel this media myth, Werner
said, he explains the people behind rap
and the impact that separations of race,
and class within the city have on them.
The city brings diverse cultural groups
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said, and this creates "willing and
unwilling social niches"
The inner cities create a broader,
cross-cultural context within the races,'
Werner said. “Cities radically increase
conflict — and the contrast fuels the
conflict.
"Cities in the United States are
multicultural, not just black and white."
Rap music often is viewed as
specifically black music, but Werner said
the true experience of many rap artists in
the United States showed that they came
from different backgrounds, and their
talents and messages weren't specific to
one race or class.
"Music is music," Werner said. 1 resist
the premise that rap is just black music. If
you want to take the argument that rap
derives from a specific African position,
for example, West African tradition, you
have to study the culture."
Werner said hundreds of years of
prejudice and oppression experienced by
African-Americans conditioned rap
messages and created a stage for rap in
the United States.
“West African cultural conditions are
not cultural-specific, they don’t draw
boundaries. That is, they encourage you
to learn from all the different energies
around you," Werner said.
When discussing issues of race and
social class with his students, Werner,
who is a white male, said it was important
for his students to realize rap music
wasn't targeted solely at whites.
Many white students are offended by
the direct, negative implications of some
rap music and think the music always is
directed at white people, he said.
"Rap artists aren't quite as concerned
with white people as we people think they
are," he said.
Black and white
The problem, Werner said, is that
white students don’t identify immediately
with some of the cultural aspects fueling
rap’s messages. Also, the low number of
white rappers makes white people think )
they have no say in rap.
White people who are interested in
becoming rappers should rap what they
know, Werner said. He used the example
of what he saw as two effective white rap
groups, 3rd Bass and House of Pain,
who stick primarily to their own social
conditioning.
The question comes up in class, 'Can
white people sing the blues?’ My answer
is: 'Of course they can sing the blues —
but not the black blues," Werner said.
White rappers should not try to be
black,' he said. The Beastie Boys sound
like idiots and Vanilla Ice ought to drown
himself, he sounds so lame'
Special circumstances sometimes
enable white rappers to talk about
experiences usually particular to blacks,
he said, for example, if the white rapper
is raised in a black community.
If you come from the hood, sound
like you do — if you come from the
suburbs, sound like you do,' Werner said
Where rappers grow up plays an
important role in how their rap messages
come across. Artists don’t just specify
differences in class between blacks and
whites, he sad. They also examine the
class differences within their own
community.
There is a lot of calling out of middle*
class blacks," he said.
These divisions usually come in the
form of social class, but also can pertain
to different religions or to regions of the
country.
Ghetto life
Werner said class differences created
a sharp contrast in the messages of
different rappers. He repeated a line from
Naughty By Nature’s "Ghetto Bastard" as
an example of messages about class: If
you ain’t ever been to the ghetto/don’t