For a while now ive been trying to understand rap music. It seems to me to consist of a serious of ideologies and themes all of which are a direct consequence of the cultural revolution of the 1960s and the subsequent emergence of postmodernism. Well, actually it consists of more than that but these aspects interest me most. Three of these seem to me to be: The problems of masculinity. The problems of the "real". And the problem of the self in a dehumanizing society (system). First lets start with the first one.
Ok so our contemporary notion of masculinity has gone through the same sorts of changes that every social and cultural value has gone through in liberal first world societies. The notions that once defined masculinity have been inverted and disconnected from their objects. Once masculinity was identified as an aspect of manhood. Literally if you had reached puberty and had a penis you where expected to behave in a masculine way. Simultaneously if you had reached puberty and had a vagina you where expected to act feminine. As well if you where black you where meant to act black and if white to act white and so on. However after the cultural revolution of the late 1960s and 70s this paradigm changed. Suddenly (and it was sudden) White men where meant to integrate with black men. Women to integrate with men, and so on. Previously held symbol/object relationships where broken down (here we see postmodernism). Masculinity (symbol) was no longer necessarily a product of having a penis (object). Suddenly women could be masculine. Men could be feminine. Blacks had the same rights as whites and so on. All of the old symbol/object values where rearranged and left in a new order. This, in a way, dethroned white male masculinity and "equalized" its symbolic values. Note here that postmodernism was not a way of literally turning black into white or women into men, it simply changed the symbol/value relationship in society at large. In the same way that the white man was dethroned the black man was dethroned as well. No longer was it the place of black men to be subservient and out of sight. Now he was expected to integrate with white society. Understand that this is just as difficult for the white cultural power structure as it is for black cultural power structures at the time. Martin luther king was rebelling against white and black power structures. Reconciliation between peoples who had been enemies (in a way) for so long is not something that happens easily.
Anyway so equality and the cultural revolution realigned but did not define these new social/cultural values. So though women could now be masculine they could never in reality be men. The avenue of the symbolic meaning was open yet the "real" was still closed. White cannot become black or black white simply through force of will alone (michael jackson not withstanding). This subversion of symbol relationships and the denaturing of the object values is still carrying on today. We see this in rap music. It is my contention that rap musics popularity is in part because of an attempt to reclaim the place of male masculinity. That is to say a masculinity that excludes women. I think this is borne out by the popularity of rap music with suburban middle class white male kids. Ostensibly they shouldnt be able to relate to this music at all. They didnt grow up poor, or black, they dont have any "street cred" but this, all this thug super hero stuff, is just surface ornament. The underlying message is a reclaiming of the connection of masculinity with men. After all, who has felt more severely the imposition of the cultural revolution if not the male children of the white middle class and young impoverished black men? Rappers (in nearly every song) address these issues. What is "real"? What is a man? What is masculinity? They attempt to reconcile the inherit structural conflicts between the utopian notion of equality and the undeniable reality of an unequal "real" world.
Its strange to me to think how all of todays popular rappers, from snoop to puff dady to jay-z or whoever, made the millions they brag about mainly off middle class white kids buying their records. In a strange way its as if rappers have formulated the perfect fantasy land for middle class white kids to live in. A magical world (truely) A world in which the old symbol/object relationships still exist. Men are men, women are bitches. You keep it "real" on the street. Money is actually money, connected to actual work. A world in which symbols and objects have actual connections. A reality with actual consequences. A "real" world, that is to say, a postmodern fantasy. I think rappers acknowledge this fantasy aspect. They even refer to rapping as "the game". Moreover anyone who has actually had to spend any time around junkies, anyone who has ever actually stepped foot in, or god forbid, lived, in a ghetto knows its horrible shit. Its not cool, thug life, hard knock life, even most "gangster" rappers acknowledge they dont like it. In the words of jay-z:
"I don’t be in the project hallway, talkin’ bout how I be in the project all day. That sounds stupid to me"
This also reminds me of a line by zizek:
"Is not the ultimate figure of the passion for the Real the option we get on hardcore (porn) websites to observe the inside of a vagina from the vantage point of a tiny camera at the top of the penetrating dildo? At this extreme point, a shift occurs: when we get too close to the desired object, erotic fascination turns into disgust at the Real of the bare flesh."
Nobody really wants to be poor or shot at or harassed by police or get beat down for being on the wrong block. Never the less this high stakes fantasy is infinitely intriguing, particularly if you have never actually lived it. It is this supposition of "real" life that is so intriguing. One of the many effects of the disassociation of symbol/object values during postmodernism has been a denaturing of the reality of objects and a consequent, endless, search for the real. Again the language bares witness to this. "keeping it real" "real nigga talk" and so on. What need would there even be to keep it real if the world wasnt fake? Full of subverted values, meaningless objects, irrelevant narratives and so on.
It is then a strange thing that we have going on in rap music. The same postmodern changes that enabled (socially) the appreciation and "integration" of rap music by white americans where the same change that made rap music possible. It also however, caused many of the problems rap music attempts to deal with. The denaturing of masculinity, the denaturing of the "real" and the place of black americans in american society and culture at large. Its interesting that rap music is hugely popular beyond the shores of america and this seems to be rarely mentioned in rap music. This is not just an aesthetic and ideological struggle for suburban white kids and impoverished black kids from america. It is as well a music for marginalized people around the world. Whether because of economic or racial or ideological circumstance. As it is not just in america that we feel the effects of postmodernism but in fact in every liberal democratic nation in the world.
