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DAILY NEBRASKAN
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ever come to the ghetto/because you
wouldn’t understand the ghetto"
Pointing out class among blacks,
Werner s£id, is a way of claiming turf and
increasing competition between seg
ments of the black community.
Tate said He disagreed that there still
were strong lines being drawn between
classes.
Rap, bom in the Bronx, is a creation
of black middle-class and working-class
people. But the most dominant rappers
today are the middle-class rappers such
as Erik B. and Rakim, De la Sol, Queen
Latifah and Public Enemy, Tate said.
The middle class and the working
class are the innovators of rap as well as
other forms of music like jazz, blues and
doo-wap," Tate said.
Tate questioned whether class, such
as the criticism of the middle class by the
lower class, was an element in rap
messages. He said people in every class
had common goals of acquiring wealth
and material goods.
“When (calling out) does occur, it
becomes a criticism of bourgeoisie
values, or the notion that what is culturally
correct is defined by the upper middle
class."
Tate said that although some of the
more political rappers chose to critique
class differences, he didn’t think it was a
major part of the rap message.
Youth struggle
For rap about social class, Werner
said he enjoyed Kid Frost, a Chicano
rapper from Los Angeles, and Ice-T, also
from Los Angeles, because distance
separated their voices from the problem.
Werner said he thought these artists had
a talent for explaining the struggle of
living on the streets while still maintaining
their respect and identity.
- 4 4__
Music is music, I resist the
premise that rap is just
black music. IfyoB want to
take the argument that rap
derives from a specific
African position, forex
ample, West African tradi
tion, you have to study the
culture.
-Craig Werner
-5 5
Rap artists such as Kid Frost and Ice
T expound on the struggle of minority
youths in the United States who are trying
to become law-abiding citizens while the
system seems to be working against
them, Werner said.
“Schools are destroyed, teachers are
pretending to teach young children to
read, and (youths) are looking at the
possibility of working at McDonald's'
Werner said.
Werner blames the Reagan adminis
tration for the breakdown of many
communities across the country.
The Reagan era was a time of denial
and public manipulation, he said. The
resulting anger of minority youths is
expressed through music.
Public Enemy is a group that has
been effective in relaying some of the
political feelings of the 1980s through
music. The group's music says, look,
you can’t deny this; you have to deal with
it“ Werner said.
In the ’80s there was an emphasis
on big stars; there was a glitzy surface,"
he said. "Behind that, stuff went down the
drain."
“We heard there was no crack, no
AIDS, no homeless; then in the ’90s they
pop up out of nowhere."
Werner said he thought one reason
white kids listened to rap in the '80s was
because they were using black culture to
escape from the failings of white culture.
They compensate (for the problems)
in a stupid way and go to black folks," he
said.
Rap music also has an element of
rebellion that white kids use against their
parents, much like that of rock *n’ roll in
the '60s, Werner said.
“It’s a music of rebellion, or rebellious
turf," he said. They know their parents
won’t like it."
Midwest rap
Werner said he noticed fhe dramatic
spread of rap in 1986, after visiting a
mall in predominantly white North Platte.
He was traveling from his home in
Colorado Springs, Colo., back to the
University of Wisconsin to begin
assembling one of his first rap courses.
When he visited a mall in North Platte,
Werner said he was shocked to find what
he considered a large selection of rap
music.
1 thought, ’Who is listening to this in
North Platte, Nebraska?** he said.
The selection of rap in North Platte
was, and still is, indicative of the source
of demand for rap music. White youths
snatch up 80 percent of the rap records
sold today.
■Welcome to America," Werner said.
The money is in the white kids.*
But while white youths may be
listening to rap music, Werner said, they
don’t always catch its messages.
\
In teaching his class, Werner said he
had to be careful to root out white
students' assumptions about the source
of inner-city problems.
Criticism
People often view rap music as a
cause of problems, Werner said, rather
than as a reaction to those problems.
That is one reason why conservatives
criticize rap artists, he said.
But Werner said it was important to
make sure "we don’t confuse cause and
effect with rap."
Some of the criticism centers on the
type of language and experiences,
usually considered criminal, that are
relayed in rap lyrics. Werner said critics of
rap artists often become overly con
cerned with the example being set for
other youths listening to the music. Afraid
of the truth, those critics look at what is
being said, but ignore why rap artists are
saying it.
The reality is they wouldn't be
rapping about it if it didn’t happen," he
said.
He used the example of a cut from
KRS-1 that says: “What are you going to
do when you can't feed your famiiy?/Will
you drop a bag? (sell cocaine)/Of course
you would."
Werner’s classes can become
uncomfortable for people who can't see
beyond the critics' view of rap music.
Werner said he wanted his students to
realize that important aspects of rap were
being overlooked by the critics.
"People get mad at each other, and
mad at themselves in my classes. You
can learn a lot about people by their
responses to rap," he said.
"Rap is the reality of a multicultural
society — the reality is, everyone is SS
a part of the same cultural matrix."
Olde E.: Olde
English 800 malt
liquor
Packin’: carrying a
firearm
Paper: money
Peep it: to look
closely at a situation,
person or thing
Played: to be taken
advantage of,
cheated or conned
Player: someone
who gets all his
money off women;
or someone who
earns an illegal
living by using his
or her wits
Pockets are fat:
having lots of
money on hand
Poot-but: a lacka
daisical,
unmotivated, dumb
person
Posse: a group of
people who hang out
together and will
look out for one
another if trouble
arrives
Pull: clout; or to win
the confidence of a
woman
Put heads to bed:
knocking people out
Put your head out:
to kill someone
Raggamuffin
(dancehall reggae):
Jamaican parallel to
hip-hop, with reggae
influence
