Hip Hop Doesn't Need "More Balance" In The Mainstream! (Wait. What? 😨)

Plus upcoming events, conferences, and more Hip Hop news that isn't about dumb sh*t

Apr 08, 2024

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🙏 THREE QUICK NOTES and then on to me explaining my disturbingly provocative headline, plus some Hip Hop events that aren’t about dumb sh*t.

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HIP HOP DOESN’T NEED “MORE BALANCE” IN THE “MAINSTREAM”

OK. I mean, it’d be nice, I guess. But A) it’s not going to happen, so B) we need a plan B.

I recently saw a snippet from a radio interview with rapper Rapsody (who recently released another dope project by the way!), where she reiterated a common refrain we hear from critics of Hip Hop.

“We need ‘more balance’ in the mainstream.”

OK. We hear this a lot. The implication is pretty simple: that Hip Hop suffers from a lack of more lyrical, intellectual, creative material through mass media (though creativity is always subjective), but particularly in this case where she was being asked about women artists — less sexualized-centric music..

I mean… Sure. In theory. But respectfully, I disagree with this reductive take.

Ew. No. Not like that.

Yes. Hip Hop does need balance, that part is 10000% true. But we have to come to grips with reality.

The "mainstream" is going to have little to nothing to do with it.

Even if we did have more of the aforementioned styles of music highlighted in the “manstream” (and we won't, so please, get over it), it wouldn't be as liberation-inspiring as it was back in the day, as the folks doing the critiquing remember it.

THIS is really what I think many — rightly so — want to see more of.

Because we remember a day when rap music on the radio provided us information and inspiration and perspectives we weren’t hearing anywhere else. The usual suspects are the ones we think of — KRS-One, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, dead prez, Poor Righteous Teachers…

It’s literally what inspired me, and countless others, to hold Hip Hop in such high regard.

These artists and their content were brilliant and influential, for sure. But the thing is — back then — this was for the most part the ONLY place we could get that kind of information easily, in a way that connected with us (and for free —thanks to the radio).

So today, we give a casual look at what the music industry has morphed into, and we listen to what’s on the radio, and we’re appalled! We hear very little, if anything, that reminds us of that time in our lives when we were so inspired by what we heard when WE turned on the radio.

[UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT!] But times have changed! Diverse rap could survive during those times largely because record companies and radio stations had little idea what they were working with. We can debate whether there’s been a purposeful “dumbing down” of the music — a theory many subscribe to — but to be honest, reducing popular music to the least possible common denominator has ALWAYS been the strategy for these industries.

It’s what sells the most music. Every genre. Every era. Every time.

Now, luckily for us, rap music on the radio is no longer the only free way to obtain this sort of knowledge, and it’s certainly not the only place we can find music that speak to those values.

Yet somehow, many of us still feel it needs to go back to the days when young people would get their music from one (free) source, and that source needs to be “balanced.”

Fact is, “mainstream” (which to many usually means radio) is just not as ubiquitous as it once once. Young people get exposed to new music through TikTok and YouTube at least as much as terrestrial radio. So A) the idea of “mainstream” being a thing anymore, and that B) we need balance there, are honestly, outdated concepts.

So what’s my point? Yes, we need that balance. But we need it BEFORE our young people even get exposed to social media, YouTube and “the radio.”

We need that balance in LIFE!

Young kids need to see the lyricism and brilliance and intellectualism and creativity and uplifting ability of rap music and Hip Hop culture in SCHOOLS, as the #hiphoped movement and other culturally connected pedagogical approaches have been preaching about, with positive receipts, for a while now.

They need to see this balance in therapeutic settings, where outdated and Eurocentric styles of therapy are being replaced by Hip Hop-based practices which are more culturally aligned, and honestly, seem to be more effective with ALL of today’s youth than those outdated methodologies.

We need to see Hip Hop as a fun, engaging, inviting, inclusive and exciting way to connect young people to other aspects of life and society in camps. In KinderCare! In more community-based non profit organizations! In church!

At home wouldn't hurt either.

Look at that Alabama law that dropped recently, banning public colleges from funding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Look at how underfunded school districts — particularly school districts in primarily Black or Hispanic or poor communities — continue to be. Look at how anyone trying to do the kind of work I’m hinting at has had to scrounge for grant money.

Look at how folks like me who share this knowledge can't get enough people or institutional support to sustain my independent media, scholarship and advocacy work to help promote these ideas!

Sorry, got personal there for a moment. But it’s true!

What I’m really trying to say is that we need to not be so focused on the music business if we’re looking to find ways to expose our youngsters to a more positive representation of Hip Hop music and culture.

That used to be our only outlet, and then biased/bigoted and/or simply uncaring greedy corporate overlords took it over.

True.

But it’s not our only outlet anymore!

We need to be at school board meetings asking why we don't have those Hip Hop-based education programs. We need to vote locally to stop these Handmaiden Tale laws from continuing to limit the rights and access to folks who have always been oppressed. We need to financially support independent outlets LIKE MINE.

We need to finally start to turn Hip Hop ‘community’ into Hip Hop ‘constituency.’

We need to learn who to listen to when it comes to Hip Hop as a force for good, because it’s often not the superstars or bigger organizations doing the real work.

(And don't get me started on where our "Hip Hop moguls" are with the philanthropic efforts to help do some of this...)

We need to listen to the people who ARE doing that work — ME! and the people I talk with on Hip Hop Can Save America! — who are using their authentic connection to Hip Hop, coupled with their work in “traditional” fields, to help push back against the folks who want to take our education system, our political system, our country — HUMANITY — back 100 years.

The great Audre Lorde taught us that “the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.”

Well, if the music industry has now become a tool of the master, the solution can’t be to push for “balance in the mainstream.” It has to be to use the tools that the master has ignored. To invoke that same ingenuity and innovation that has helped the oppressed survive in America, and that fueled the creation of Hip Hop itself, despite nearly insurmountable odds. By infiltrating the systems at play. By siphoning electricity from the lamppost. By touching and manipulating the vinyl records in audibly blasphemous ways. By circumventing the behemoth music industry with mixtapes. And so many more examples.

We cannot counter what's being distributed “in the mainstream,” by trying to play by the master’s rules. What we CAN so, is amplify the positive influence it can have from day one — in schools, in other programs, in communities, in churches, and at home.

THIS is what will create the balance we want, by showing our babies all the beauty, brilliance, and balance that Hip Hop possesses, long before they even get exposed to the damn "mainstream” in the first place.

—
Manny Faces

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📅 UPCOMING DOPE & INTERDISCIPLINARY HIP HOP EVENTS

April 13, Bronx NY: Hip Hop Youth Research and Activism Conference [info - register] (FUN FACT: I’ll be there as a mentor and holding down the DJ duties!)

April 14, Brooklyn NY: Silent Knight Album Release Celebration - Come through to celebrate my friend and frequent collaborator Silent Knight on his latest release, Restoration Vol. 3. A little day party action, listening session, lyric breakdown and more. (FUN FACT: I’ll be on the ones and twos for a brief back-in-NYC-visit!} [3p-5p @ Secret Pour, 1114 Dekalb Ave, Brooklyn]

April 11-14, Philadelphia: AERA (American Educational Research Association) Annual Meeting

April 23-25 [Cal Poly Humboldt]: 11th Annual Hip Hop Conference

May 3-4, Harvard: 8th Annual Can’t Stop Hip Hop Education Conference

May 4, NYC: The 2024 Peace & Justice Youth Conference is a youth led-adult supported, in person conference for NYC based youth ages 11-21 (middle school, high school and college).

May 23-26 [Cork, Ireland]: European HipHop Studies 7.0 - DROPPIN’ SCIENCE (FUN FACT: I’m presenting here!)

June 22, NYC: #HipHopEd Conference

Oct. 11-12 [Chattanooga]: Chattanooga Hip Hop Summit

KNOW OF AN EVENT THAT SHOULD GO HERE? REPLY & TELL ME!

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Thank you. 🙏 —MF