I’ve never understood rap music, certainly not the lyrics. The street-slang rapid-fire staccato presentation of rap meant that I heard perhaps one word in six. I now know I didn’t miss much, or maybe I did. I recently began a cable television series that features lots of rap music in the soundtrack. Since I regularly leave the subtitles on for even English features, I can now read what they say (sing?). I will have to assume the person doing the subtitles is getting the rap lyrics right.
I did a quick Google search with the question, what is rap music. The first response was a Wikipedia explanation that it was originally called hip hop and was based on a rhythmic beat with an anti-drug and anti-violence message. After reading the words about contemporary rap music, I’m guessing Wikipedia doesn’t understand it either. Anti-drug? Anti-violence? Not when toughness and street cred are all important themes.
The rap music of today, if this cable series is not an anomaly in its selections, is a boastful, male-centric dialogue where money and power are one and the same. They are the main objectives in life. Your acquisition of money through any means possible, both legal and illegal, is a priority. Once acquired, you must flaunt your wealth for all to see. Drink whatever is most expensive, “Pop your confetti, pop your Pérignon,” and wear the flashiest clothes and jewelry you can find. Women are sex objects whose only purpose is to make men look good. Men own their “bitches” and keep them in line with gifts, drugs, clothes, jewelry, and entertainment. Life is cheap and violence is power.
While I don’t want to seem like a grumpy old man and dinosaur from a bygone era, rap music may have entertainment value for some, but not for me. I’m not a prude but I find its message to be patently offensive. I will grant that I am only basing my opinion on the music that was featured in a cable series (Power, btw) that is about a drug dealer and that there may be some other rap music with a different message, but I feel this (gangster??) rap has had its influence on a large section of our younger-than-me generation.
I used the word “Politics” in the title, and this is where I feel there is a certain parallel between our rap music topic and the morality of today's politics. The term “political morality” is an oxymoron with an emphasis on the morons. Morals be damned, power at all cost. Social issues are but a cover, noise if you will, that hides the lust for power. When people enter the voting booth, emotions win the day, not any specific issue.
Like the not-so-subtle messages in rap music, power is a means to an end which happens to be more power. It is the ouroboros metaphor, the self-eating snake, wherein the cycle is self-destructive. We are willing to set aside our instinctive morality for elusive self-gratification. In the political arena, the promise of a better life is dangled like the carrot in front of the cart mule, it will always be out of reach. The one with all the carrots is the guy driving the cart, not the mule doing all the work.
We see America following leaders bellowing their promises and relying on the frailties of the human condition, lust, greed, prejudice, and religious fervor, to obscure their intent. We ignore what we see and hear with our own eyes and ears and believe the contradictory messages of these purveyors of confidence schemes. Their lust for power is motivation enough and justifies the lies and deceit.
The “lies” are not just the spoken promises of campaigns that we all take with a pinch of salt, they are also the contradictions of their actions that would require more of the sodium chloride condiment than could be produced at the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. There is the feigned abhorrence of illegal immigration countered with killing the legislation written by their own party that would have gone a long way to correct the problem. There is the blocking of a SCOTUS appointment with the claim that we were too close to electing another president and then the complete about-face when the situation is reversed.
Rap music presents a fantasy world of excitement sometimes experienced by the entertainers but not part of the IRL of the fans. The “bitches and bling” world of the rappers is but a dream or nightmare depending on your perspective. Likewise, politicians paint a picture of a fantasy world of splendor they would have for themselves but don’t really work for or want for their constituents.
Without mentioning any specific politician lacking a moral compass, I’m sure many of you have an image in mind. His moral compass is more like a fidget spinner than an ethics guide. He has dangled the carrot of a total abortion ban to blind and motivate those Christians willing to ignore his total aversion to morality to achieve their self-identified pious objective. For the racists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other societal flotsam, he uses immigration as a rallying cry to keep out the “others” not like them. Lying becomes like breathing. When caught in a blatant lie, he doubles down, triples down, and never admits he is wrong. You must not believe your lying eyes. His followers respond in a zombie-like fashion, “Yes master.”
These purveyors of false messages have terms for their lies. They are the “new truth” or alternate facts, all else is “fake news.” Their mantra, “truth is not the truth,” is like something that should have been in 1984 or Catch-22 and not part of the current political landscape. Distract the peons with bling and flash and you can get them to believe whatever you tell them. Many of today’s politicians are the troubadours of falsity, the rappers of image over substance. Grab that snake by the tail because it is you.
POSTSCRIPT: Further research into the origins of rap/hip hop, found that I had listened to and enjoyed some of the earlier roots of the genre. Claimed as one of the first hip hop songs was Pigmeat Markham’s 1968 single, “Here Comes the Judge.” It was later picked up by Flip Wilson as a routine on his show. I knew someone who worked at a Black radio station in Orlando and the station’s storeroom was filled with music and comedy albums I wouldn’t have normally heard. Pigmeat Markham and Mom’s Mabley were two of my comedy favorites. While Pigmeat and Mom’s were the king and queen of the double entendre, they were a far cry from the lyrics of today. I’ll leave you with the last four verses of, Here Comes the Judge:
Let them know I'm comin' back
Sit right down with Rock and Nick
Teach them boys some of Pigmeat's tricks
Oh, oh judge, your Honor, Pigmeat said
"Don't you remember me??"
No, who are you, boy
Well, I'm the feller that introduced you
To your wife... to my wife?
Yeah, life! You son-of-a-gun you
Come November, election time
You vote your way, I'll vote mine
'Cause there's a tie, and the money gets spent
Vote for Pigmeat Markham, President
I am the judge, vote for Pigmeat
I am the judge, vote for Pigmeat
Now, everybody knows I am the judge
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