Announcing The Hampton Institute!

I'm updating here at OI to announced that I am part of an exciting, new project called The Hampton Institute. Future writing I do will be sent there, so everyone check it out!

http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheHamptonInstitute
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HamptonThink

About the Hampton Institute:

In the late 1920's, while imprisoned under Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy, Antonio Gramsci compiled 32 notebooks containing roughly 3,000 pages of work, touching on everything from Italian politics and history to social, economic, and political theory and analysis. During this time, Gramsci coined the term "organic intellectual" to describe conscious members of the working class whom he felt must be developed in contradistinction to the traditional intellectual "clergy," composed of "men of letters, philosophers and professors" who were intimately tied to the dominant culture, and therefore compromised and limited in their own capacity. "All men (and women, we might add) are intellectuals," wrote Gramsci, "but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals." As a Marxist, it was no secret that Gramsci's ideas were centered on the need for revolutionary opposition to the oppressive social relations perpetuated by the capitalist structure - whether represented in the private sphere through property and labor exploitation, or the public sphere through state-backed repression. And while traditional intellectuals certainly played, and continue to play, an important role in this struggle, Gramsci saw the development of the organic intellectual as a crucial component in the ongoing battle for consciousness which exists within the daily lives of the mass of people. "There is no human activity from which every form of intellectual participation can be excluded," explained Gramsci. "Everyone carries on some form of intellectual activity, participates in a particular conception of the world, has a conscious line of moral conduct, and therefore contributes to sustain a conception of the world or to modify it, that is, to bring into being new modes of thought." The organic intellectual possesses the unique ability to touch those who exist within their own social grouping: the working class.

In the late 1920's, while imprisoned under Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy, Antonio Gramsci compiled 32 notebooks containing roughly 3,000 pages of work, touching on everything from Italian politics and history to social, economic, and political theory and analysis. During this time, Gramsci coined the term "organic intellectual" to describe conscious members of the working class whom he felt must be developed in contradistinction to the traditional intellectual "clergy," composed of "men of letters, philosophers and professors" who were intimately tied to the dominant culture, and therefore compromised and limited in their own capacity. "All men (and women, we might add) are intellectuals," wrote Gramsci, "but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals." As a Marxist, it was no secret that Gramsci's ideas were centered on the need for revolutionary opposition to the oppressive social relations perpetuated by the capitalist structure - whether represented in the private sphere through property and labor exploitation, or the public sphere through state-backed repression. And while traditional intellectuals certainly played, and continue to play, an important role in this struggle, Gramsci saw the development of the organic intellectual as a crucial component in the ongoing battle for consciousness which exists within the daily lives of the mass of people. "There is no human activity from which every form of intellectual participation can be excluded," explained Gramsci. "Everyone carries on some form of intellectual activity, participates in a particular conception of the world, has a conscious line of moral conduct, and therefore contributes to sustain a conception of the world or to modify it, that is, to bring into being new modes of thought." The organic intellectual possesses the unique ability to touch those who exist within their own social grouping: the working class.

As a youth organizer for the NAACP and eventual leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), Fred Hampton was the embodiment of Gramsci's "organic intellectual." Born to working class parents, Hampton became a pre-law major in college and deployed his knowledge to combat police brutality and unfair law enforcement practices that targeted impoverished black youth in the greater Chicago area. Hampton's realization of the inherent connection between institutional racism and class politics led him to negotiate a "class-conscious, multi-racial alliance" between politicized organizations (the BPP and Students for a Democratic Society) and Chicago's major street gangs (Young Patriots, Young Lords, Blackstone Rangers, Brown Berets and Red Guard Party). As BPP's local leader, Hampton organized rallies, assisted with maintaining a local medical clinic, taught weekly political education classes, and operated a Free Breakfast Program for underprivileged children. As both an organic intellectual and de facto educator, Hampton's brilliant oratory skills were not used to place himself above the oppressed, but rather to immerse himself within the oppressed community of which he was a member. His words, and the linguistic style in which his analysis was advanced, were a shining example of the simultaneous process of education and dialogue that must take place with the oppressed. Ultimately, Hampton was the praxis to Gramsci's theory. By combining an effective class analysis with a stage-based social application that included "real world" solutions, he was the quintessential revolutionary. "That's what the Breakfast for Children Program is," explained Hampton. "A lot of people think it's simply charity, but what does it do? It takes people from a stage to a stage to another stage. Any program that's revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change." In addition to praxis, he and the BPP fortified and transcended the struggle against racial oppression by effectively tying it to the international class struggle, much like Dr. King was doing with a critical assessment of war and poverty. "We're not gonna fight fire with fire, we're gonna fight fire with water," cried Hampton. "We're not gonna fight racism with racism, we're gonna fight racism with (working class) solidarity!" His untimely and tragic murder at the hands of Chicago police would ultimately stifle the revolutionary momentum of the time. However, as Hampton once proclaimed, "You can kill the revolutionary, but you can never kill the revolution!"As a youth organizer for the NAACP and eventual leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), Fred Hampton was the embodiment of Gramsci's "organic intellectual." Born to working class parents, Hampton became a pre-law major in college and deployed his knowledge to combat police brutality and unfair law enforcement practices that targeted impoverished black youth in the greater Chicago area. Hampton's realization of the inherent connection between institutional racism and class politics led him to negotiate a "class-conscious, multi-racial alliance" between politicized organizations (the BPP and Students for a Democratic Society) and Chicago's major street gangs (Young Patriots, Young Lords, Blackstone Rangers, Brown Berets and Red Guard Party). As BPP's local leader, Hampton organized rallies, assisted with maintaining a local medical clinic, taught weekly political education classes, and operated a Free Breakfast Program for underprivileged children. As both an organic intellectual and de facto educator, Hampton's brilliant oratory skills were not used to place himself above the oppressed, but rather to immerse himself within the oppressed community of which he was a member. His words, and the linguistic style in which his analysis was advanced, were a shining example of the simultaneous process of education and dialogue that must take place with the oppressed. Ultimately, Hampton was the praxis to Gramsci's theory. By combining an effective class analysis with a stage-based social application that included "real world" solutions, he was the quintessential revolutionary. "That's what the Breakfast for Children Program is," explained Hampton. "A lot of people think it's simply charity, but what does it do? It takes people from a stage to a stage to another stage. Any program that's revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change." In addition to praxis, he and the BPP fortified and transcended the struggle against racial oppression by effectively tying it to the international class struggle, much like Dr. King was doing with a critical assessment of war and poverty. "We're not gonna fight fire with fire, we're gonna fight fire with water," cried Hampton. "We're not gonna fight racism with racism, we're gonna fight racism with (working class) solidarity!" His untimely and tragic murder at the hands of Chicago police would ultimately stifle the revolutionary momentum of the time. However, as Hampton once proclaimed, "You can kill the revolutionary, but you can never kill the revolution!"

Using Malcolm X to Anaylze the Role Schools Play in Society

The degradation and dehumanization Malcolm X, or Malcolm Little as he was known then, was forced to endure throughout his schooling experience is a testament both to the dominant ideology’s derogatory, overt racism and the interrelated political and economic subjugation which was a reality for blacks during the 1930’s. The barriers Malcolm faced, such as being denied the opportunity to pursue a career of his choice despite his outstanding grades, were the result of an oppressive hierarchy of racial oppression, determined in large part by a nearly impenetrable class structure. This class society, which inevitably fueled racism, was essential in perpetuating the dominant ideology and political economy which so prodigiously influenced Malcolm’s schooling experience. One will find that racism and other forms of prejudice are not only direct results, but integral functions of a capitalist society. As such, the element of racism within the dominant ideology, as well as its material manifestation in the political economy, cannot be removed without the dismantling of a class-based society; the abolition of class society, however, is not a guarantee for the abolition of racism, but rather a prerequisite. Viewed within a dialectical framework, it becomes obvious that Malcolm’s experience was not simply the result of prejudiced or misguided authority figures. Instead, it was heavily dependant upon how various social, political, and economic factors interacted in a specific historical and material period. His experience provides illuminating details that are applicable today.

The most brazen ideological component stemming from the dominant culture is the overt racism, both personal and institutionalized, so common during the 1930’s. This consisted of the belief in the natural superiority of the white race and, conversely, the natural inferiority of the black race. This racism of the dominant culture manifested itself in the action taken upon this belief; blacks were less human than whites and, accordingly, were less capable of performing at the level of whites. This was true in most areas such as intelligence, professions and occupations, sports, and a variety of other social categories. Tied into this idea was the concept that blacks were naturally lazy, more prone to crime, and less likely to be able to function in society than their white counterpart. Despite the skill shown or intelligence displayed, blacks were largely unable to achieve any social status and economic position in society that challenged this idea of racial supremacy. In other words, while blacks may compete amongst themselves and other poor whites for vocations deemed lowly by middle and upper class whites, they were generally denied the already extremely limited chance to move up the social ladder.
 

What one may label the white power structure held immense sway over the daily lives of ordinary people and societal institutions in which they worked and lived. Indeed, nearly all societal institutions were in some way affected by the ideological hegemony stemming from the predominately white, capitalist power structure. In the South, legal segregation remained an important aspect of society. In the North, discrimination was usually more discreet. Instead of legislation promoting segregation in housing, banks and government agencies simply redlined districts or selectively gave loans along racial lines. Confined to poor, urban neighborhoods, this translated into the schools where blacks were generally confined to low quality schools with fewer resources. The ingenious scheme to unequally fund schools through property taxes is an important continuation of this trend today. By under funding certain schools, rulings whites could easily push propaganda about the inferiority of the black child’s mind when they scored worse on tests or dropped out to pursue a life of hustling, robbing, drug dealing, or other self destructive behaviors as Malcolm outlines in his autobiography. Indeed, Northern racism, hidden behind a cloak of modern liberalism, was as prevalent as in the South.
 

One cannot question the link between the dominant ideology of the 1930’s and Malcolm’s experience in school. The inferiority of blacks was a built in component of society, reinforced by legislative and corporate maneuvers which further marginalized the black community. Despite the fact that Malcolm’s teacher was friendly and even liked Malcolm, he still doubted his potential because of his skin color and covered his racist ideas with a façade of pragmatism. His comment, that Malcolm should consider some sort of manual labor such as construction instead of pursuing law, was not meant to malign Malcolm as an individual, but instead reflected how profoundly racism impinged upon all aspects of society. However, Mr. O, with his personal prejudice betrayed by this display of benevolent racism, should not be analyzed separately from the society in which he lives; the institutions and establishment he was part of were prodigious factors in transmuting the dominant ideology onto him and, from him, onto Malcolm.
 

Malcolm’s understanding of the limits society would impose on him became much more lucid after this incident. As he reflects, “It was then that I began to change – inside… Where nigger had slipped off my back before, wherever I heard it now, I stopped and looked at whoever said it” (Haley, 1964, p.37). It is important to note that Malcolm was conscious of the effect these artificially imposed limitations were having upon him. He began to see that society was not based upon individual merit but instead upon a set of societal norms enforced by the dominant ideology. This sort of ideological hegemony would undoubtedly shape his lens through which he analyzed society in various phases of his life. It must have played an immense role when, during his involvement with the Nation of Islam, when he viewed racism and racist ideology as an integral and natural aspect of white society and an inherit quality in white people more broadly. It must also have played a decisive and much more profound role when he dismissed his earlier notions of white supremacy as a natural instinct of white people and instead embraced the idea that racism was a historic phenomenon arising from a particular form of society. Because of this recognition, which he developed after traveling to Mecca and splitting with Elijah Muhammad, he also understand that racism was perpetuated by the current economic system and, born from and galvanized by certain material roots, it could also be dismantled with the abolition of the dominant economic system. Thus, at each period in Malcolm’s life, Mr. O’s comment appears to take significance in a different and unique way, dependant upon the framework Malcolm employs.
 

Another aspect of the dominant ideology apparent in this scenario is the implicit acceptance of an extremely hierarchal, class-based society. Malcolm’s teacher, whether or not he meant to, sent a dualistically degrading message to Malcolm. On one hand, he implied that because blacks were inferior, they should be confined to jobs consisting of manual labor. By this implication, he not only degraded Malcolm and blacks in general, but also anyone, white or black, involved in jobs where you must be “good with your hands” (Haley, p. 36). Not only was Mr. O’s comment an invective towards the very conception of black humanity, it was also an insult to a significant portion of the working class; being a manual laborer, according to Mr. O, was something that inferior humans pursued because they were mentality less capable. More importantly, the dominant ideology once again plays an immense role in this situation. Without this passive acceptance of the wage system and a capitalist economy, the ruling class could not maintain its power and privilege; this was a system Malcolm would eventually come to reject. In fact, Mr. O’s comment towards Malcolm provides an extremely important look into the political economy of the time period.
 

The 1930’s were a tumultuous time in American society; a depression was sweeping the nation, unemployment figures were staggering, unionization rates were surging and labor battles were being waged fiercely between exploited workers and bosses. The ruling class was shook by immense strike waves and increasing worker militancy. At times such as these it is essential that those who run society are able to use creative means to divide the working class. Racism is a vital weapon in the ruling class arsenal. In fact, it was extremely beneficial that up until this point labor unions had more or less remained segregated or at best ambivalent on the race question. By utilizing black workers (or any marginalized group) as scabs during strikes carried out by a mostly white working class, workers were able to skillfully manipulate each group so that instead of viewing their natural interests as workers in alignment they would view their own fellow workers as competition. Hostility and animosity would replace solidarity. This rancor would be further fueled by elite propaganda and the pseudo-scientific theories postulated claiming the inferiority of blacks and other marginalized groups.
 

This divide and conquer tactic has been, and continues to be, utilized regularly to defend corporate interests. Many white labor organizers failed to realize that racism or ambiguity concerning the rights of blacks was extremely detrimental to the working class cause. The only benefit whites gained, as W.E.B. DuBois so brilliantly explained in his work concerning Black Reconstruction, was a “psychological wage” (Taylor, 2008, 64). By maintaining a permanent underclass, bosses are able to keep wages and benefits low for all workers. Unorganized, divided workers are much less of a threat than an organized, collective force. The function of racism in a capitalist framework, then, is to destabilize the workers’ movement and paralyze it through with virulent ideological poison. So when Communist Party members, despite their many flaws, began organizing black and white sharecroppers together in the South, this provided a radical challenge to both the ruling class (North and South) and the conservative labor organizations (Pope, 2001, p. 232-266). Critically literate, radical blacks who began organizing the unorganized were threats to the economic and social stability of the capitalist political economy and the dominant ideology stemming from it.
 

Thus, one can begin to understand why Malcolm’s teacher pushed him to pursue something which engaged his hands and not his mind. The hegemony of the dominant ideology demanded that blacks maintain positions of inferiority in order to avoid the threat of militant black radicals and to undermine white laborers struggling for economic gains. Keeping blacks and white separated, based upon what today seems arbitrary, was a logical and rational maneuver for those who ran society. Had Malcolm followed the advice given him, he could have become an obedient black worker, marginalized and underpaid for his labor. Likewise, he may have even been used as a scab worker to help foster artificial hostility between blacks and whites, provide ideological ammunition to racist labor leaders, and undermine working class unity. It is quite interesting to consider that the radical, militant Malcolm X could have simply remained a passive, submissive construction worker named Malcolm Little. Mr. O’s gentle reminder to Malcolm of his place in society should not be viewed as an isolated instance of personal prejudice but instead an integral aspect of the dominant ideology being transmitted through an institution where the primary goal was the maintenance of the capitalist political economy. While Mr. O may not have been consciously plotting to subdue the black community, he was unconsciously helping to fulfill the desires of the dominant class, of which he was not even a part.
 

One cannot question the fact that societal institutions are reflections of the economic system under which they are created. Schools and the ideas transmitted by these institutions are designed to perpetuate the existing society. As reflections of the dominant class, these ideas are necessarily reflections of the interests of that class. The example Malcolm explicates upon provides a paragon for analyzing both racial and class relations in the 1930’s and how they affected schooling. The threat of militant, black radicals (especially when involved in labor organizing) to the political and economic establishment was a fear many ruling elites dared not take lightly. Similarly, marginalizing blacks and maintaining an obvious disparity allowed elites to maintain low wages for all workers and utilize them as scab workers. This helped to suppress the disruptions caused by the laboring masses who were challenging the profit-driven, free market system. These two important aspects of the political economy were backed up by an ideological hegemony which promoted the ideas that blacks were intellectually inferior and that a class society was fundamental to human existence. The artificial wedges used to divide black and white workers would be impossible to preserve without the dominant ideological components which accompanied them. Malcolm’s experience at school in Mason, Michigan was intricately bound upon in the existing order and the class structure of society. Without educational institutions which inculcated youth with the dominant ideology, the political economy would be hard pressed to maintain itself. Thus, Mr. O’s personal, singular instance of racial prejudice cannot be understood outside the context of American capitalism in the 1930’s.

Works Cited

Haley, A. (1964) The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York, NY: The Random House Publishing Group.
Pope, D., (2001) American Radicalism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
Taylor, K. (2008) Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880. International Socialist Review, 57, January-February. Also available from http://www.isreview.org/issues/57/feat-reconstruction.shtml.
 

Black August - The Story of George Jackson

Below is a review I submitted to the Socialist Worker over a year ago concerning the film Black August, a film which received far too little reception by the dominant cultural institutions. It was understandable, of course, considering the immensely political nature of the film and the deep-rooted criticisms which it explored. For those of you who have not yet seen it, however, I highly suggest it. It is imperative, in my opinion, that we on the left appropriate mediums of expression, such as film, to a much higher degree than we do now. There are limits, of course, given the framework in which we operate, but articulating ourselves and expressing ideas in ways other than pamphlets and study groups is essential if we are going to create a true culture of resistance. Black August deserves to be one of the pieces of cultural resistance...

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The George Jackson Story

BLACK AUGUST, a film about prison activist George Jackson released on DVD on February 12, presents a prodigious indictment of the U.S. judicial system.

By Derek Ide | March 28, 2008 | Issue 667

http://socialistworker.org/2008/03/28/george-jackson-story

Racism, inequality and police brutality are brought to the forefront in this heart-wrenching film, starring Gary Dourdan, who will be familiar to fans of the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Black August exposes the terrible injustice perpetrated against Blacks and the extreme harshness with which opposition is met.

Jackson, at 18 years old, was sentenced one year to life for a $70 gas station robbery. The maximum sentence was intended for Jackson, especially once he began organizing for the Black Panther Party after being recruited by co-founder Huey Newton.

Jackson became an integral organizer in San Quentin prison. The film covers the last 14 months of his life, after his political transformation and during his attempts to pen his book Soledad Brother. The story focuses around his ordeals and problems inside the jail, along with his relatives and their struggles to free him outside of prison.

George's younger brother, Jonathan--played by Ezra Stanley--becomes increasingly determined in attempting to get his brother out of prison. Frustrated, in 1970, he attempts to take a judge hostage in exchange for George. Ultimately, Jonathan and those with him, including the judge, are shot down as they try to escape.

George remains locked in prison, and the guards continue their abuse of him, which ranges from simple harassment to violent beat downs. As a desperate last alternative, Jackson formulates a plot with outside help to gain his freedom.

The acting in the film ranges from below par to outstanding. Some of the characters are rather flat and unconvincing, while others, such as Angela Davis (played by Tina Marie Murray), skillfully capture the essence of their characters.

For those unfamiliar with Jackson's life, the plot will be full of twists and suspense, but those viewers aware of the events should not worry. Some surprises surrounding this Soledad Brother and his life may be revealed throughout the film.

Black August shines as an example of a heartfelt story of revolution woven into a quality film. It is no wonder this movie never made it in the theaters. For those interested in the life of George Jackson, or those who know nothing about him, this is a must-see.

Rampage: "I'm done fighting" and What It Says About the UFC

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson told the world on Tuesday that he's "done fighting."

Hate him or love him,  the news of Rampage's declaration that he will no longer fight hits many of us fans quite hard.  Rampage is, undoubtedly, one of the most exciting, skilled fighters to grace the Light Heavyweight division of the UFC. From his often humorous interviews and coaching on the Ultimate Fighter reality show to his emotional and legal journeys that we sympathetically followed him on, Rampage has grown a significant fan base in the sport. On one hand, his decision is a percussive blow to those of us who love watching him in all his glory; his percussive punching power and his unique, vibrant fighting style always prove a thrilling watch. On the other, he stipulates a laundry list of rather convincing reasons for his choice. He mentions his repeated injuries and his desire to pursue an acting career an ancillary motives in his decision. However, what he clearly articulates, if not in these words, is that he is fed up with the authoritarian, corporate structure of the world's dominant fighting organization, the UFC, and it's figurehead Dana White.

Rampage cites a variety of problems he has encountered with the management of the UFC. His first line says it all: "The UFC has done a lot for me but I think I have done more for them." From there, he airs out all the crap he's been put through to fight in the UFC, from being pushed into fights he claims he was not ready for and having to compete with serious jaw injuries, to fighting matches which he says "wasn't even worth it to me financially," and being snubbed for a rematch after he lost the 205 pound belt due to a controversial decision against Forrest Griffon.

On top of this, Dana White's shady deals are intricately woven all throughout the drama. After promising Rampage that he could fight for the belt after hosting The Ultimate Fighter reality show season 10:

"After I signed the contract Dana then changes his mind & says I have to fight Rashad [Evans]& even told me what to say in the press & so my fans think I was scared to fight Machida [205-belt holder]. After all that I still never complained & I did it all."

Perhaps the most humanizing section of his entire entry is when he explains why he simply requested that the UFC administration push his fight with Rashad Evans back a month or two:

"Then this movie role came about that I have been trying to get for over a year & as soon as I found out I was close to getting it, I called Dana right away & asked to push the Memphis fight back just a month or so. I told him what this movie role meant to me. I told him that I used to bond with my father watching the tv show as a kid when my parents where still married & it represents the memories I had with my father when we lived together. My dad became an alcohalic & addicted to drugs & we grew apart. But after my dad got his life back together, I was so proud of my dad & I told him I would always take care of him in the future & make him proud of me. My dad & I are still very big fans of the show & I am basically doing this for the childhood memories I had spending time in front of the tv with my dad. Dana went on the internet & mocked me because of that & I still did nothing. Dana & I finally talked & we made up & then after that he went back on the internet & said some bullshit & he was talking bad about the movie when information is not even supposed to be released & talking about payments which is not even true could really hurt my future acting career, which could very well last longer than my fighting career. I'm not like Randy Couture. My body has been getting so many different injuries that I wont be able to fight until my forties & neither do I want to fight that long. So I feel like my second career could be in jeopardy.. so I'm done fighting."

It was that piece, perhaps, that was most heart-wrenching of all. Quinton Jackson is, like each and every one of us, a human-being with emotions, feelings, hopes, and desires. He is not simply a caged animal for us to enjoy. Unfortunately, the corporate, profit-driven framework in which Dana White and the UFC management function promotes the dehumanization of the fighters within the organization.

Dana White, and the Fertita brothers who own the majority of the UFC, ought to be ashamed of themselves. Often we forget that it is not the promoters, not the owners of the fighting organizations who have to actually go out and get punched, kicked, submitted, slammed, and what have you for them to make their enormous profits. Regardless of all the hyped-up discourse around White "really bringing MMA to the mainstream," he has done little more than monopolize the sport and push away good fighters or seriously strain the lives of the ones who put up with him.

Dana White has thoroughly discredited himself as a decent human-being multiple times. Replying to a female MMA journalist who wrote about managers and agents losing backstage passes in an "to separate fighters from their business representatives," White responded with a "disgraceful diatribe" in which he "calls Hunt a “f—ing bitch” and refers to a source of Hunt’s as a lying, “f—ing faggot.” Afterwords, he gave a half-hearted apology to the gay community yet refused to apologize to the author, Loretta Hunt. This disgusting debacle is just a drop in the bucket.

White has consistently proven he is the epitome of the vicious leech which lives off the labor of others while pretending that he is helping them. Freelance writer Jake Eman lays out a pretty good list of reasons why Dana White is a threat to the fighters and fans of mixed martial arts. While I think it is important to point out that White is, more or less, a figurehead for a profit-hungry organization and his replacement would mean very little in terms of restructuring how the UFC operates, Eman's criticisms are well taken. He cites the fact that the UFC repeatedly attempts to discourage competition, disrespects the sport and plays favorites in order to stimulate particular markets, and hypocritically criticizes boxing while committing many of the same sins boxing promoters are notorious for. Perhaps his most powerful arguement concerns pay:

"Dana White underpays the fighters in the UFC by an insane margin. The fighters don't even come close to sniffing the money that they are solely responsible for generating. For example, for UFC 100, billed as the "biggest night in the history UFC", the UFC paid a total of approximately $2.2 million to all of the fighters on the card that night, which includes $400,000 of special bonuses.

Lesnar is reported to make about $3 million including his share of the pay-per-view sales, which is an extra $2.6 million from his salary. Georges St. Pierre is also set to receive a share of the PPV, so let's just assume that totals out to another $2.6 million for him as well, because it certainly wouldn't be more. The result is $7.4 million paid to UFC fighters for the UFC 100 event, about $6 million of which went to 2 fighters, leaving the other 18 fighters to divvy up the remains.

The live attendance gate for the fight was $5.1 million. Dana White said he'd be thrilled with 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, so let's just underestimate that at a cool 1 million buys, which the UFC has done before, at $45 a pop. That's a total of $50 million generated not including foreign rights, closed circuit distribution and other earnings. That means, even tweaking the figures in his favor, Dana White and the UFC paid 15% of the money they earned that night to all of the fighters combined. Outrageous."

Outrageous is right, but we cannot assume that simply replacing Dana White would actually change much. Let's face it, the UFC is the largest, wealthiest fighting organization out there. They're goal is not, as some may suggest, to simply provide entertainment or to promote the welfare of their fighters; they're ultimate motivation is to make money. They function, as with all any other private institution in our society, to pursue profits. We can learn something here from Andrew Carnegie who maintained that he was "not in the business of making steel but in making a profit."

Sportswriter Dave Zirin spoke out wonderfully in a recent piece on boxing. Replace the word boxing with MMA and the passage transfers over seamlessly:

"We need to confront everything that's rotten in boxing. Right now there is no commissioner and no governing authority. There are no unions, and there is no collective bargaining on behalf of fighters. There is no health care, no mental health treatment and no one watching out for those who suffer from the debilitating effects of brain damage and its conjoined twin, depression."

For those of us who hate to see Rampage go, we should at least know where to direct the blame. It is not his fault, and we should stand behind him in his decision.

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Hip-Hop: A People's History of Political Rap (VI and VII)

This is the fourth post covering the final sections of my paper on hip-hop and the political and economic conditions under which it was fostered. Due to blog limitations, my footnotes are not included. However, I will post the Works Cited with the last post. Also, if anyone wants a PDF copy (around 35 pages, sort of long) I will be glad to e-mail them one.

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INDEX: How Capitalism Underdeveloped Hip-Hop: A People’s History of Political Rap

+ Introduction: Historical Phenomena, Hip-Hop Culture, and Rap Music
+ The South Bronx in the 1970’s and Material Conditions in Hip-Hop’s Birthplace
+ Afrocentricity, Black Power, and Hip-Hop’s New School
+ West Coast Projects, the Rise of Gangsta Rap, and Congress’s War on the Youth
+ Corporate Consolidation and the Telecommunications Act
+ Bursting Onto the Mainstream Scene and Contemporary Political Rap + Hip-Hop at a Crossroads: Conditions Today and Where Do We Go From Here? + Works Cited

Disclaimer: The language expressed in this article is an uncensored reflection of the views of the artists as they so chose to speak and express themselves. Censoring their words would do injustice to the freedom of expression and political content this article intends to explore. Therefore, some of the language appearing below may be offensive to personal, cultural, or political sensibilities.

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Bursting Onto the Mainstream Scene and Contemporary Political Rap

Hip-hop stepped forward into the mainstream political establishment in 2004 when it had a brief, rather superficial media campaign targeting youth voters. Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs used hip-hop as a platform to organize a campaign under the sensationalist title “Vote or Die” as an attempt to register younger voters, garner youth participation, and generate excitement about the elections. While registering voters was only a marginal success, it was clear the goals were decidedly apolitical with little actual political motivation for urban youth who, for years, had felt alienated from mainstream political discourse. The two candidates put forward by America’s ruling elites, George Bush and John Kerry, had platforms so similar it was challenging to generate enough interest for young people to mobilize within the context of the two-party duopoly. Four years later, however, hip-hop would emerge as an unimaginably powerful advertisement for Barack Obama. His 2008 campaign sparked immense interest within the hip-hop community and debate flourished over whether or not hip-hop should stand behind Obama. It was little more than a decade prior that Tupac hopelessly exclaimed “although it seems heaven sent, we ain’t ready, to see a Black president” on the song “Changes.” Now, energized by a candidate whom, for the first time, they felt would reach out to the hip-hop generation, many artists, such as Jay-Z, took center stage in fundraising concerts and spoke proudly of their involvement in his campaign. Nas, one of hip-hops “most brilliant orators” whose own political trajectory involved going from conscious gangster with his first album Illmatic (1994) to passionate revolutionary with his latest release Untitled (2008), “captures the gambit of fears, hopes and doubts that swirl together in the consciousness” of the black community on the track “Black President:”

KKK is like "what the fuck," loadin' they guns up / Loadin' mine too, ready to ride / Cause I'm ridin' with my crew / He dies--we die too / But on a positive side / I think Obama provides hope and challenges minds / Of all races and colors to erase the hate / And try and love one another, so many political snakes / We in need of a break / I'm thinkin' I can trust this brotha / But will he keep it way real? / Every innocent nigga in jail gets out on appeal / When he wins--will he really care still?

Nas is not alone in his critical support for Obama; Mary J. Blige and rapper Big Boi from Outkast compose a song of solidarity for the working class and poor in “Something’s Gotta Give,” which challenges Obama to truly listen to the concerns and pressures of urban communities while earnestly calling for desperately needed social change. Big Boi articulates his working class consciousness when he rhymes, “You know the common folk, blue collar, day-to-day workers that squeeze a dollar / so maybe they can swallow a little, not a lot, just enough to fill that bottle / But it's a million dollars a gallon for gas to get to work tomorrow." Unapologetically political, well-known artists creatively maneuvered political dialogue and discussion into the mainstream discourse.

Still, these odes to Obama were able to push through corporate outlets partly because their content and message remained safely within the established political borders. Obama, after all, garnered large support from many of the capitalist classes ruling elites, whom viewed the Republicans eight-year run as disastrous for the United State’s economic power and image abroad. Despite this brief stint within mainstream circles, political hip-hop did not begin, and it will not end, with Obama. Radical hip-hop and revolutionary artists like Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, Paris, Lupe Fiasco, Son of Nun, and an innumerable amount of other artists remain marginalized and embroiled in the struggle to spread their message in the face of a competitive, cut-throat jungle of corporate conglomerates and consolidated, top-down radio. Often, hip-hop artists formulate unique narratives or relay stunningly academic critiques of society that tie together seemingly separate issues and help the listener foster a more critical, holistic analysis of larger societal forces.

On his latest single, “3rd World,” Immortal Technique utilizes a percussive, hard-hitting instrumental produced by DJ Green Lantern to expose U.S. imperialism and militarism across the globe, brilliantly explicating on the concept of contemporary war as a natural outgrowth of capitalism. Born in Peru and representing his third world roots, Technique explains that he is:
From where the only place democracy's acceptable, is if America’s candidate is electable… from where they overthrow Democratic leaders, not for the people but for the Wall Street journal readers… So I’ma start a global riot, that not even your fake anti-Communist dictators can keep quiet!

On “Ghetto Manifesto,” The Coup humorously outline ghetto conditions, sardonically utilizing hip-hop lingo to emphasize their point, “Got a house arrest anklet but it don't bling bling, got a homie with a cell but that shit don't ring!” Later, they put out a call for organization and mobilization, explaining “even renowned historians have found that, the people only bounce back when they pound back.” They simultaneously challenge nationalist ideology, “the trees we got lifted by made our feet dangle, so when I say burn one I mean the Star-Spangled.” A plethora of underground and independent rap artists express similar themes which address the need for autonomous political organization and present alternative, more humane visions for society.

Hip-Hop at a Crossroad: Conditions Today and Where Do We Go From Here?

Hip-hop was cultivated in the streets as an innovative response of urban minorities, traditionally marginalized by dominant political and economic structures, seeking a voice of their own. Alienated by harsh conditions imposed upon them by an advanced capitalist society, these urban youth sought an outlet where they could foster their own conceptions of identity and challenge institutional oppression, whether individually or collectively. Poverty, unemployment, a decrepit educational system, cuts in social services, and capitalism’s inherent need to maintain a permanent underclass blended together to create a matrix in which a new, counter-hegemonic culture would emerge with the dialectically opposed characteristics of both the oppressor and the liberationist. Today, the devastating conditions which birthed hip-hop remain a reality and, in some instances, have intensified. The recent crisis capitalism has found itself in continues the downward spiral and the world economy appears close to collapse. The conditions for the working-class and the poor, however, have only worsened over the thirty years since hip-hop established itself as a cultural entity. Unemployment is skyrocketing nationally across color lines but in many cities, such as Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago, black unemployment is at or near 50 percent. Already claiming the highest rates of poverty in the industrial world, U.S. poverty statistics have risen drastically since the onset of the world banking crash, placing both Blacks and Latinos at or above 20 percent; youth minority statistics are often much higher. The loss of jobs, combined with the collapse of the housing market and sub-prime predatory lending, has pushed an immense amount of working-class residents out of their homes and left nearly fifty million people without healthcare. Schools, after a brief glimmer of hope with post-civil rights integration, have become more segregated now than they were thirty years ago with public school systems in Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and many other urban areas 80-95 percent Black and Hispanic.

Thus, the conditions in which hip-hop originally arose have not improved. Social commentator and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor postulates these are rational outcomes of the dominant political economy:

The material impact on the lives of Black workers should be clear enough, but ideologically, the systematic and institutional impoverishment of African American communities perpetuates the impression that Blacks are inferior and defective. These perceptions are perpetuated and magnified by the mass media, Hollywood and the general means of ideological and cultural production in bourgeois society. The recurrence and persistence of racism in this economic system is not accidental or arbitrary. American capitalism is intrinsically racist.

Like Taylor, independent hip-hop has, throughout its existence, maintained a critical approach to the capitalist mode of production and the material conditions resulting from it. On “Window to My Soul,” Stic.man of Dead Prez painfully professes the emotional trauma he experienced as he watched his older brother develop a serious drug addiction. Rather than blame the individual, an old rhetorical tactic utilized to conceal social inequality and displace blame, even more prevalent now that a Black man occupies the Whitehouse, Stic.man addresses the larger socioeconomic forces which often dictate and limit choices for the urban poor:

The same conditions that first created the drug problems still exist… / And on days off, we blow off them crumbs like nothing / Getting high cause a nigga gotta get into something / But we get trapped in a cycle of pain and addiction / And lose the motivation to change the condition… / How did Black life, my life, end up so hard?

He questions the entire wage system and bourgeois morality with piercing lines such as “got to go to the job or starve, without a gun every day employees get robbed.” Questioning whose interests are served in the perpetuation of the current system, he concludes that it’s “the police, lawyers, and judges, the private owned prison industry with federal budgets.” He ends with an unapologetic proclamation that the oppression of blacks is systemic, but oppressed communities cannot turn to individualized forms of escapism and instead must discuss the organization of society as it currently exists, “I blame it on the system but the problem is ours, it's not a question of religion; it's a question of power.” The call to a revolutionary alternative, although not always explicitly detailed, has been a persistent theme in the language of political rap. This, undoubtably, is due to the fact that many within the oppressed communities share Taylor’s conviction that the dynamic interrelationship between wealth, power, poverty, and the institutional forms in which oppression is manifested.

The landscape of independent, political hip-hop is constantly changing, progressing, and evolving. In the last few years, the augmentation of revolutionary hip-hop which aims to combat traditionally oppressive societal institutions and entrenched corporate structures provides a glimpse of the potential for the art’s future. Hip-hop’s place in politics extends far beyond a presidential election or congressional debates on explicit content; hip-hop, in the words of Dead Prez’s M-1, “means sayin’ what I want, never bitin’ my tongue / hip-hop means teachin’ the young.” Immortal Technique tells it like this, “I live and breathe Revolution, Rebellion is in my blood and Hip Hop is the heart that pumps it.” Two decades into the rap game, Paris provides a way forward with the newest single, “Don’t Stop the Movement,” from his independently owned label Guerrilla Funk:

Givin’ power to the people to take back America / Panic in the head of the state, pass the Derringer / Aim and shoot, Beruit to Bay Area… / Panther power, acid showers/ This land is ours, stand and shout it… / Hard truth revolutionary black militant / Death to the Minutemen, checks to the immigrants / Streets still feelin’ it, we still killin’ it / We still slaughterin’ hawks, feed the innocent / Read the imprint / Guerrilla Funk was birthed outta’ necessity, collectively / Respectively, to behead the beast / On behalf of the left wing scared to speak, NOW GET UP!

Expressing the need for solidarity between the struggles against militarism in the Middle East, black oppression in the U.S., and dehumanizing anti-immigration policies, the chorus warns activists to not stop the movement for social justice and liberation. It ends with a recording of the common protest chant which proclaims that “the people, united, will never be defeated.” KRS-One comments that hip-hop is the only place Dr. Martin Luther Kings dream is visible, “black, white, Asian, Latino, Chicano, everybody. Hip-hop has formed a platform for all people…that, to me, is beyond music.” As underground rap artist Macklemore urges his listeners, “to my real hip-hop heads, please stand up, because the only ones who can preserve this art is us.”

The battle continues to rage over hip-hop’s soul. Two contradictory forces clash to gain dominance: one representing the great wealth and power of the established order, the other struggling for independence, autonomy, and social change. Manning Marable makes the argument that “cultural workers,” such as hip-hop artists, “must be able to do more than rhyme about problems: they have got to be able to build organizations as well as harness the necessary monetary resources and political power to do something about them.” To answer the question of what role hip-hop will play in the formation of such revolutionary organizations and movements depends on which side wins, the power of profit or the power of the people. For hip-hop activists to rescue the art form from capitalism’s corporate clutches it will take dedication, organization, and education; time will tell if the hip-hop generation is up to this onerous task. The very essence of the culture is at stake.

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How Capitalism Underdeveloped Hip-Hop: A People's History of Political Rap (VI and V)

This is the third post covering the fourth and fifth section of my paper on hip-hop and the political and economic conditions under which it was fostered. Due to blog limitations, my footnotes are not included. However, I will post the Works Cited with the last post. Also, if anyone wants a PDF copy (around 35 pages, sort of long) I will be glad to e-mail them one.

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INDEX: How Capitalism Underdeveloped Hip-Hop: A People’s History of Political Rap

+ Introduction: Historical Phenomena, Hip-Hop Culture, and Rap Music
+ The South Bronx in the 1970’s and Material Conditions in Hip-Hop’s Birthplace
+ Afrocentricity, Black Power, and Hip-Hop’s New School
+ West Coast Projects, the Rise of Gangsta Rap, and Congress’s War on the Youth
+ Corporate Consolidation and the Telecommunications Act
+ Bursting Onto the Mainstream Scene and Contemporary Political Rap
+ Hip-Hop at a Crossroads: Conditions Today and Where Do We Go From Here?
+ Works Cited

Disclaimer: The language expressed in this article is an uncensored reflection of the views of the artists as they so chose to speak and express themselves. Censoring their words would do injustice to the freedom of expression and political content this article intends to explore. Therefore, some of the language appearing below may be offensive to personal, cultural, or political sensibilities.

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West Coast Projects, the Rise of Gangsta Rap, and Congress’s War on the Youth

Gangsta Rap burst forth in its nascent form in the late 1980’s in the heart of Los Angeles. To comprehend how this subgenre of rap developed, however, the ruthless conditions which originally produced the gang epidemic must be recognized. Institutionalized racial segregation, economic deprivation, and social degradation, enforced by hegemonic government and business structures, had historically plagued communities of color in the area and produced a distinct history which would give rise in the 1980’s to a prodigious spike in gang activity and violence. Historically marginalized groups would be pitted against one another in despondent economic conditions and forced to compete amongst themselves for the paltry scraps that fell from society’s table. Government departments, banking agencies, and the real estate industry would play into the game of get-rich-quick racial segregation. Redlining, the practice of denying or increasing costs of housing and insurance to economically segregate communities along racial lines, played a fundamental role in the homogenous racial composition of west coast urban areas. In 1938, the Federal Housing Administration released an underwriting manual which all lenders were forced to read, explaining that areas should be investigated in order to determine “the probability of the location being invaded” by “incompatible racial and social groups” and, more importantly, that for a “neighborhood is to retain stability” it must “be occupied by the same social and racial classes” because a change in these would lead to “instability and a decline in values.” Some entrepreneurs “figured out how to hustle racial fear” by buying at low prices from whites fleeing their homes and selling to blacks at prices significantly higher than market level. This effectively kept blacks and whites segregated into different neighborhoods.

After World War II, public housing projects were constructed, giving Watts the highest concentration of public housing on the West Coast. Combined with this historic segregation, the 1980’s brought with it “deindustrialization, devolution, Cold War adventurism, the drug trade, gang structures and rivalries, arms profiteering, and police brutality” which would combine to “destabilize poor communities and alienate massive numbers of youth.” In the same decade 131 manufacturing plants closed their doors, Los Angeles’s official unemployment was at 11 percent in 1983 and in South Central youth unemployment was over 50 percent, one quarter of Blacks and Latinos lived below the poverty line, and living conditions had drastically declined. Even when gangs attempted to make peace and establish long-standing treaties with one another, no infrastructure was in place to maintain stable communities with jobs and social services. In fact, when the leaders from seven rival gangs called a truce and marched to City Hall to request funding for social services, they were told they could apply for a paltry $500 grant. This denial was on top of the conservative economic agenda dominating the political domain at the time which had already cut spending on subsidized housing by 82 percent, job training and employment by 63 percent, and community service and development programs by 40 percent from post-World War II era progressive spending policies.

It was within these conditions that by the 1980’s, after the dismantling of political organizations such as the Black Panthers and Young Lords, 155 gangs would claim over 30,000 members across the city. Gangsta rap, as it was labeled, would attempt to articulate, and in some instances glorify, the street life so common in Los Angeles. Immortal Technique points out that a “factoid of information probably purposely forgotten through the years is that before it was labeled ‘Gangsta Rap’ by the industry itself it was called ‘Reality Rap’ by those individuals that created it.” Political prisoner and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal explains that the music was spawned by young people whom felt “that they are at best tolerated in schools, feared on the streets, and almost inevitably destined for the hell holes of prison. They grew up hungry, hated and unloved. And this is the psychic fuel that seems to generate the anger that seems endemic in much of the music and poetry.” This anger would shine through on tracks such as “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A., where rapper Ice Cube explains that he’s “From the gang called Niggaz With Attitudes” and “When I'm called off, I got a sawed off, squeeze the trigger, and bodies are hauled off!”

Their rhymes signified a shift from the revolutionary programs set forth by previous political rappers and instead focused on a complete self-indulgence in instant gratification; drugs, women, the murder of enemies and assassination of police, everything was fair game. It was N.W.A.’s track entitled “Fuck tha Police,” released in 1988, which garnered national media attention. The rather prophetic song would become a universal slogan in ghetto communities just four years later with the police beating of Rodney King and subsequent urban uprisings. Disgusted with the police brutality they witnessed regularly, N.W.A. would take up the issue, not politically, but with an individual vengeance and wrath previously unmatched. Beginning with fictitious court hearing in which “Judge Dre” would preside “in the case of NWA versus the police department,” the “prosecuting attorneys” MC Ren, Ice Cube, and Eazy E would each lay out their case against the Los Angeles Police Department. Ice Cube’s opening lines, brimming with unparalleled virulence, would set the tone: “Fuck the police comin’ straight from the underground, young nigga got it bad cuz I'm brown, and not the other color so police think, they have the authority to kill a minority.” Reminiscent of Paris’s earlier fantastical verbal assassination of President Bush, MC Ren would warn police “not to step in my path” because “Ren’s gonna blast,” and, turning the tables, he confidently proclaims his hatred towards the police “with authority, because the niggas on the street is a majority.” Eazy E finishes the last verse, emphasizing that fact that cops should not be perceived as immune to violent resistance: “Without a gun and a badge, what do ya got? A sucka in a uniform waitin’ to get shot.” The controversy revolving around this song would push the album it was featured on, Straight Outta Compton, to double platinum status. By June of 1989, the right-wing backlash against N.W.A. would be front page news, an entertainment manifestation of the “War on Gangs” which L.A. Police Chief Darryl Gates had already brought to South Central.

The atmosphere of late 1980’s was dictated by punitive measures explicitly directed at youth and relentless attacks on youth culture. The Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act was passed in 1988 and enhanced punishments for “gang-related offenses,” created “new categories of gang crimes,” and gave up to three years in state prison for even claiming gang membership. This piece of legislation had profoundly harmful repercussions for youth who identified with, or even may have displayed certain characteristics of, being involved with a gang; police considered any combination of two of the following examples to constitute gang membership: “slang, clothing of a particular color, pagers, hairstyles, or jewelry.” Within a decade most major cities and at least nineteen states had similar laws. The crossover into what became a congressional attack on Gangsta rap was facilitated by opportunistic politicians who pounced excitedly on the chance:

Tipper Gore, the wife of former vice president Al Gore, and Susan Baker, the wife of Bush’s former campaign manager, James Baker, formed Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) which called for, and received, a congressional hearing on record labeling. Every song listed by the PMRC and presented at the congressional hearing as being too explicit and obscene and in need of censorship labeling was done by a Black artist.

While politicians and networks of Christian fundamentalist groups had already begun anti-hip-hop campaigns under a guise of protecting morality, what Thompson labeled the “cultural civil war,” it was failed liberal politician and head of the National Political Congress of Black Women, C. Delores Tucker, who spearheaded the congressional war on Gangsta rap. Teaming up with cultural conservatives, Tucker, through a façade of feminism and racial pride, organized a concerted campaign against rap in order to push through legislation that strengthened juvenile-crime laws and crackdowns on youth. Inverting cause and effect, she argued that the hip-hop generation would become internalized “with the violence glorified in gangster rap” and that rap music created a “social time bomb” which would “trigger a crime wave of epidemic proportions,” only to be stopped by smothering the cultural and musical developments of ghetto youth.

Among some of her chief targets was Tupac Shakur (2Pac), who was not quiet in his opposition to Tucker and her political opportunism. Tupac, staying true to his roots on “Nothin’ But Love,” outlines the composition of his family tree as one of “Panthers, pimps, pushers, and thugs;” this unique mixture helped him to articulate a conception of the rebellious ghetto lifestyle blended with the legacy of black struggle into what he termed “Thug Life.” An acronym, which stood for “The Hate U Gave Little Infants Fucks Everybody,” his idea of “Thug Life” was a “new kind of Black Power” that young black males were forced to live through:

These white folks see us as thugs, I don’t care if you a lawyer, a man, an ‘African-American,’ if you whatever…you think you are, we thugs and niggas [to them]…and until we own some shit, I’ma call it like it is. How you gonna be a man when we starving?...How we gonna be African-Americans if we all need a gun?

Tupac, whose mother Afeni Shakur was a prominent Black Panther and political activist, would utilize his connections with the streets and balance his music with historical connections to political organizers such as Huey Newton and chilling urban tales of despondent situations such as the fictitious tale of the teenage mother Brenda and the ever-present black-on-black violence. Through this unification of social commentator and street participant, Tupac would authenticate his image to millions of youth, black and white alike. Tupac’s response to Tucker’s critique of the lyrical content of his music was redolent of Chuck D’s interpretation of rappers as journalists who help to show the world the gruesome reality of urban street life; as he argued, “I have not brought violence to you. I have not brought Thug Life to America. I didn’t create Thug Life. I diagnosed it.”

Furthermore, according to Dyson, the attempt to suppress “gangsta rap’s troubling expressions” is manipulated for “narrow political ends” that fail to “critically engage…artists and the provocative issues they address.” While dialogue concerning rampant homophobia, sexism, and other dehumanizing aspects of certain rap artists should be challenged, it should be done so in a way that does not alienate and isolate, but engages and allows for the artist to transcend both actions that reflect the dominant ideology and the use of oppressive language. Rapper and activist Son of Nun summarizes his position:

Some real rappers spit truth every night, but say stupid shit when it comes to gay rights. They talk about the Panthers, but they never knew that Huey woulda’ called their asses out for what they do…So, in my music, I try not to call out specific emcees…[because] I realize that I have more in common with them, then I'll ever have in common with the label head or the corporate people putting that music out… [Despite sexist or homophobic remarks] when you read the interview and listen to some lyrics, you'll see that there's a revolutionary consciousness that's there at the same time…and I'd rather see those brothers as my comrades whom I can build with, as opposed to people I need to chop down and diss…

This extension of the right-wing economic attack on working class and poor youth into the cultural realm, as exemplified by politicians like Tucker, should not be viewed in isolation from the larger historical trends occurring at the same time; it operated within a certain political economy and aided the perpetuation the dominant ideology required in order to push through neoliberal economic policies.

The mental framework in which Gangsta rap functions is articulated by Immortal Technique, drawing on the theoretical contributions to education outlined in Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he explains, “Our youth and young adults see these gangstas and other ruthless men [famous gangsters, drug kingpins, etc.] as powerful beyond the scope of a government that holds them prisoner. People emulate their oppressor and worship those that defy him openly.” This does not, however, mean that Gangsta rap is devoid of a political foundation or that it should be ostracized by the Hip-hop community. As Dyson argues, “While rappers like N.W.A. perform an invaluable service by rapping in poignant and realistic terms about urban underclass existence, they must be challenged…[to understand] that description alone is insufficient to address the crises of black urban life.” Thus, this fusion of gangster and rebel, a sort of misguided revolutionary, groping in the darkness of urban decay and abandonment for a way to challenge oppressive, hegemonic institutions, finds its musical expression in the West Coast rap scene. Today, gangsta rap has spread far beyond the streets of L.A. and into every neighborhood, ghetto, suburb, country, to every corner of the world. The rebellious, gangster appeal, devoid of social content and reality, continues to be marketed on every street corner; a sort of “manufactured, corporate bought thug image” is pushed to the youth while “the Revolutionary element is for the most part completely sanitized by the corporate structure.”

Corporate Consolidation and the Telecommunications Act

This rejection of the revolutionary and embrace of the thug caricature so common in contemporary hip-hop is, in large part, a result of corporate monopolization of radio airwaves and dismantling of independent record labels. For years questions concerning rap’s viability as a musical genre and it’s viability as a pop music sensation surrounded the relatively young art. Industry executives looked upon rap with disdain, viewing it as a niche market unsuitable for broad consumption. This allowed the genre to slip under corporate radar and maintain a sense of independence from major pop labels for a significant period of time. After the innovative development in 1991 of SoundScan that utilized bar-code recording to garner hard data on music sales and replaced the previous “archaic method” which had relied on the retail personnel who compiled weekly, subjective reports of sales trends “open to interpretation,” rap was found to have a much broader appeal than originally thought. With this new, more objective methodology of measuring music consumption, rap jumped from the relative obscurity of being a subcultural phenomenon to a major competitor with rock and pop music on the Billboard charts. The “underreporting of rap was a result of long-standing cultural sensibilities and racial assumptions” on the part of retail personnel. Subsequently, industry executives who still may have “harbored ill feelings toward the genre” could no longer “ignore the sales data SoundScan provided…[or] the huge financial payoff it offered.” As hip hop observer and critic Craig Watkins explains, “In an industry that had long ago sold its soul to the guardians of capitalism, the commercial compulsions that operate among culture industry executives are a powerful force.” The music, however, would have to be tamed considerably.

These commercial compulsions galvanized industry executives to tighten their stranglehold on rap music. In order to protect their status within the capitalist framework and pop music industry, executives were forced to marginalize and reject progressive, dissident, revolutionary, socialist, or any other form of independent and autonomous rap that may present a systemic critique of the established relations of power in society. Corporate hip-hop, as exemplified with the rise of rappers like 50 Cent in 2003, “rested almost entirely on its ability to sell black death” where “guns, gangsterism, and ghetto authenticity brought an aura of celebrity and glamour to the grim yet fabulously hyped portraits of ghetto life.” Statistics are not conclusive, but Mediamark Research Inc. estimates that whites constitute around sixty percent of the consumer market for rap in the United States. Other sources, such as Def Jam CEO Russell Simmons, place the number somewhere closer to eighty percent. Regardless, it is obvious that hip-hop is not an exclusively black culture; the composition of the consumer market facilitates a sort of “cultural tourism” where a “staged authenticity” filled with racial stereotypes of black culture can be marketed to white youth.

Corporate consolidation of media outlets has galvanized this process of promoting a certain image of ghetto youth while downplaying the revolutionary or counter-hegemonic sentiments expressed in the music. Major labels and corporate conglomerates have very little interest in promoting artists who question capitalism or the free market fundamentalism. After all, it was that very system which originally granted them the ability to garner the enormous capital required to build their constantly expanding media empire. Immortal Technique articulates this concept:

The hood is not stupid, we know the mathematics / I make double what I would going gold on Atlantic / 'Cause EMI, Sony, BMG, Interscope / Would never sign a rapper with the white house in his scope / They push pop music like a religion / Anorexic celebrity driven / Financial fantasy fiction.

Without an understanding of the significant role that major media outlets play in promoting a specific paradigm, especially in the case of a popular musical juggernaut such as rap, the rise of the glorified, gangster image cannot be concretely analyzed. Chang comments that “a lot of times people will talk about 50 Cent, but they won't talk about the structures that have made a 50 Cent possible.” The structures Chang refers to are multifaceted, and include broad neoliberal market deregulations that, since the 1970’s, allowed for massive corporate takeovers of independent record labels and a consolidation of radio and other media outlets. For instance, by 2000, five companies – Vivendi Universal, Sony, AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann, and EMI – dominated eighty percent of the music industry. One act in particular, however, the Telecommunications Act passed by Congress in 1996, presented “a landmark of deregulation,” a “legal codification of the pro-media monopoly stance” that allowed the free market to shift power “decisively in the direction of the media monopolies.” The passage of this act had a percussive impact on the artists’ creative control over their music.

The Telecommunications Act relaxed ownership limits over radio and television for corporate entities, essentially creating fewer corporate conglomerates with concentrated control over various media outlets. Congress ostensibly passed the act under the tenuous postulation that “a deregulated marketplace would best serve the public interest.” As to be expected, its passage spurred a rapid absorption of smaller, local radio stations into the hands of large, already established companies such as Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel, and Viacom. The result was that hundreds of jobs were decimated, community programming was abandoned, and radio playlists became standardized across the country. For a stations like KMEL-FM in the Bay Area, whom prided themselves on being a “people’s station” by engaging in social issues affecting the San Francisco community, this meant being bought out and merged with competing stations; playlists became nearly identical, specialty shows were cut, local personalities were fired, and local or underground artists “unable to compete with six-figure major label marketing budgets” were left without a venue. Artists like Binary Star, who challenged the gangster caricature, would become, even more than before, systematically excluded by these corporate structures. Rhymes, such as those displayed on one of Binary Star’s most well-known tracks “Honest Expression,” would be consistently ostracized from airplay.

Conglomerates like Clear Channel, unlike locally controlled radio, had no community affairs department to foster dialogue or promote local artists with fresh sounds or unique lyrics. Companies downsized to maximize profits and regional programmers overtook local ones, signifying a further shift from local interests of listeners. The ever-present need to increase profitability also galvanized some stations to replace live disc jockeys with prerecorded announcers who would create localized sound bites and patch together entire shows based upon a master copy that was filtered down through regional and local distributors; radio truly became top-down. Subsequently, the public sphere in which artists could contest the image of the apolitical gangster or socially devoid party-goer shrunk rapidly. Corporate rap became a medium through which content was filtered and sterilized while dissident voices were marginalized or shut out completely. Even political rap was reworked into a specific consumer niche; “defanged as ‘conscious rap,’ and retooled as an alternative hip-hop lifestyle,” the prefix became “industry shorthand for reaching a certain kind of market” instead of an authentic, organic title.

Thus, as is the trend in a capitalist society where the “market...does not assure that all relevant views will be heard, but only those that are advocated by the rich [and can market a product of mass appeal that will attract advertisers, which dominate the programming message],” the Telecommunications Act has had profoundly negative implications upon hip-hop’s autonomy and ensured that the media landscape was “dominated by those who are economically powerful.” Likewise, the prodigious increase in corporate consolidation facilitated the process by which consumption could be artificially managed and manipulated by the “mass media’s capacity to convey imagery and information across vast areas to ensure a production of demand.” Therefore, the exclusion of particular forms of musical expression, especially those deemed political or controversial, are replaced with corporate-driven, marketed images of young black males adhering to a socially constructed thug stereotype. Fokami explains:

Corporations which dominate the media, have heavily marketed (to influence consumer demand), produced and perpetuated, the gangsta image by, among other things, playing gangsta rap lyrics, almost to the exclusion of other alternative voices that would contest such lyrics or image... The Act has made it virtually impossible for alternative voices in rap (either by the gangsta rappers themselves through their alternative “positive” tracks or by other “positive” rap artists) to be heard on the radio, since corporate conglomerates are less concerned with diversity in ideas but in meeting market created consumer demand for such lyrics.

While congressional attacks were pummeling rap music for degrading lyrical content and demeaning music videos, the same politicians were simultaneously passing laws which facilitated the crystallization of apolitical, socially devoid gangsta rap into mainstream pop culture. This apparently blatant contradiction is, when viewed in the context of the capitalist state, much more consistent than at first glance; the political establishment sought to promote corporate consolidation and media monopolization, thus limiting public space for dialogue and debate in the hip-hop community, which, in turn, allowed them to pursue a the preferable path of blaming the victims for society’s woes. Avoiding an uncomfortable and possibly incriminating dialectical analysis which would address the root cause, namely the dominant political and economic system, that perpetuates many of the social blights expressed in rap music, politicians attack the youth, especially Black and Latino youth, for problems that plagued urban communities long before rap music hit the scene.