Some months ago, Tino Foy published an article right here on PoiseSocial where he explored the relevance of culture in Cameroonian rap music and how much cultural references rappers put in their music. He also wrote another article where he asked if there was a place for conscious rap in Cameroon using Bonzyz (whom I love by the way) as a flagship example. Today I want to stretch that concept a little further.
I want to know if our rappers really teach us anything at all. In 2014 I was lucky enough to meet a rather popular rapper at a barbeque. I had listened to one or two of her songs and I kinda liked them. It wasn’t long before our conversation over a plate of grilled chicken gravitated towards rap. To say the least, we were at loggerheads over a number of issues; particularly what should be the central thematic of rap music in general.
You see, I am old school. She is more new school. But the bone of contention, at least in my view, was the fact that she, a rapper, had little hip-hop culture. Turns out she knew nothing at all about the origins of rap music. I couldn’t take her seriously as a rapper after that.
I’m not saying that you cannot be new school. I am saying that irrespective of what kind of architectural design you want to use to build a house, you have to be able to know how to dig a foundation first.
Let me take you all back in history to the origins of rap music.
Rap music started in the South Bronx neighbourhood of New York in the mid-70s. Disco music was THE music back then and only the popular upscale clubs played disco. Black people were living for the most part in project housings and their neighbourhoods were infested with drug and crime.
DJ Kool Herc, a popular DJ at that time used to organise these parties in the basement of buildings. Afrika Bambaataa, one of the very first rappers, formed what was called ‘The Zulu Nation’; a group of his neighbourhood kids and they would meet regularly to do rap battles and perform at local shows, including at DJ Herc’s shows. His aim was to keep the children away from drugs and gangs.
So rap originally was political. It was anti-drugs, anti-violence and anti-gangs and anti-establishment.
It was about EDUCATING young black people about their history and their present and how they could move out of their predicament. I’ll give you one example of such a song from that time. “The Message” by Melle Mel. Google that.
So rap music was gritty, hard, political and also violent. Then somewhere along the line Puff Daddy came and ruined it.
But I digress. That is a story for another day. Let’s go back to the story.
I am not by any means saying rappers should be political. I am saying that, in my humblest of opinions, to be an accomplished rapper you have to be a teacher and a scholar. You have to be smart. You have to be able to make people go to google and research some stuff. You have to be able to push the boundaries of knowledge by imputing worthy cultural references.
In my last article on Tenor, I explained what an Iambic Pentameter is. Do you know who I first heard that from? - Tupac Shakur.
Do you know Rick Ross? Not Rick Ross the rapper. The original Rick Ross. A drug dealer who reportedly made $300 million net profit in 1984. He was, however, a small cog in a large wheel. It was the height of the cold war and the CIA wanted to fight the communist regimes in South America notably in Guatemala where they sponsored the CONTRA rebels.
The American Congress did not want to fund another war. Not after the failure of the Vietnam War. So the CIA (with the backing of President Reagan) helped South American cocaine sellers to bring in cocaine and helped them sell it to Rick Ross. Rick Ross sold the high-end powder to rich white people; politicians and businessmen. While the residue from cocaine (called ‘crack’ cocaine) was sold in the inner cities where there were black neighbourhoods.
The same neighbourhoods where AfriKa Bambaataa (remember him?) and the Zulu Nation were trying to keep young black kids off drugs.
The effects of crack cocaine in black neighbourhoods were, many families broken up by drug abuse, mass incarceration of black people, and a high rate of HIV in young black men (the most infected group in the U.S till today).
You are wondering how I know all this, right?
Well, it was 4 lines from a Jay Z song. You may know it. The song is called “Blue Magic.”
"Blame Reagan for making me into a monster Blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra I ran contraband that they sponsored Before this rhyming stuff we was in concert"
(Notice the wordplay in the word ‘concert’)
I googled ‘Iran-Contra’ and I ended up spending one hour reading everything on the war on drugs in the 80s and early 90s from Rick Ross to Reaganomics to Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel.
I could give you other examples but we don’t have all day.
Let’s come back home.
The question still stands. Do our Cameroonian rappers teach us anything? I have looked around and I cannot really answer in the affirmative. It’s hard to find rappers that challenge our intellect. Maybe it’s the culture generally. Maybe they have an audience that does not want to be challenged. Maybe they have the ‘over sabi’ complex. That complex that forces us to sit quietly even when we know something because if we speak up we will be taunted for knowing more than everyone else and not feel like we belong to a social grouping.
It seems most of our rappers are more inclined to enthrall their audience with catchy punchlines and rhythm. Which is not, in itself, a bad thing. It’s one of the pillars of rap music. But true art remains in making a mark by clicking a shot that captures the image of a time or situation and passes it down in an intellectually challenging manner. It causes us to reflect.
Now do yourself a favour and go back again and listen to “The Message” by Melle Mel and ask yourself the difference about the things he talks about in the message there and now across the Afro American cultural landscape.
Kool G Rap, one of the most celebrated rap lyricist said: “You are only entertained to the level of your intelligence.” I feel, unfortunately, that too many rappers started listening to rap yesterday and have not taken the time to know the history of rap. The real history and so have no notion of the intellectual level which rappers like Ras Kass and MC Solaar took you to.
Whereas rap music gives us the ability via a longer word count to express a multitude of ideas.
Or maybe I’m just old school. Too old school to take trap musicians seriously. But one thing I know is as an artist, you are supposed to push the boundaries where others have confined their minds. You are supposed to usher people into a realm where they are enabled to transform their mind and thinking into seeing their world through different lenses and to quote Shakespeare “to see a natural perspective that is and is not.”
Or maybe I am asking too much. Am I asking too much?
- Wandji Wilfred.