At What Point do the Lyrics Matter?
This isn’t a rant or outright hatin of rap music I don’t like, this is a sincere question. Yesterday, I was blessed to be in Washington DC for the Powershift conference. I was invited by an incredible organizer for Checktheweather.tv named Kari Fulton to perform at a afterparty sponsored by Checktheweather.tv and Green for All called “All Green Everything“.
I performed alongside some incredible artists all of which came with conscious messages. Then the music started. Now, I completely understand that most if not all of the popular music today is not conscious, so I wasn’t expecting the DJ to play Immortal Technique, Wise Intelligent, and Talib Kweli all night. I was not at all surprised when Waka Flaka Flame’s “Hard in the Paint” came on and people got hype, it’s a popular song with a hot beat. I truly felt it was a great experience for me to see what type of music moves the crowd so I could continue experimenting with my own art.
However when “Make it Rain” by Travis Porter came on I felt like..ok…we’ve gone too far. But have we?
***Warning this is NOT the clean version, this has EXPLICIT lyrics, but I wanted you to hear it like I heard it. But if you’re easily offended by bad language and an even worse subject matter DO NOT press play***
I’m asking honestly because I saw very intelligent black men and woman singing every word. In fact when the song came on people actually started to scream…in joy. I wondered if there is hypocrisy in a woman dancing and singing that song and then asking to be respected or not called out of her name, or is it hypocritical for a man to sing that song and then want another man to respect his sister/mother/wife/girlfriend. Is this just a song and I’m trippin or hatin? At what point to we say I want to dance and enjoy music but not be degraded as a people? Is Travis Porter at fault or the record label or us for making it a hit song?
And so not to be a hypocrite myself, I performed a song that I refer to as my theme song called “The Matador” and I was approached by a good brother and friend who said he thought some of the lyrics were homophobic. I explained to him that I wasn’t criticizing a person who was openly gay, I was talking about rappers who try and jump on the latest fad to stay relevant and sell records. Essentially a fraud who doesn’t want to be themselves. He excepted my explanation, but what do you think? Would you consider my song homophobic?
Wow.. we are an intelligent mess. Yes we have gone too far. But it reflects our mentality.. we are truly in a sad state. All you have to do is look around our communities. It is in the nature of the woman to demand proper treatment but if we accept,love, and embrace mistreatment (verbal, physical, etc it says alot about how we view ourselves as women. This is very sad!
And I too think your lyrics were just explaining how far people would go to be ‘famous’..
Wow.. we are an intelligent mess. Yes we have gone too far. But it reflects our mentality.. we are truly in a sad state. All you have to do is look around our communities. It is in the nature of the woman to demand proper treatment but if we accept,love, and embrace mistreatment (verbal, physical, etc it says alot about how we view ourselves as women. This is very sad!
And I too think your lyrics were just explaining how far people would go to be ‘famous’..
I think Jasiri that the important thing is to be clear. I could understand where you were going with the lyrics but I also see how things can be misinterpreted easily. Everyone doesn’t listen so closely to music or the world around them in general so being clear is important. When using words like gay, etc…. Unfortunately I think it is natural for the first assumption to be homophobic (so sad) so people don’t quite hear, listen, or understand, a lot of things. Also last time I checked being gay wasn’t cool but maybe you meant style (like tight jeans etc…) If that’s the case then its a severely gendered statement that could use some more thoughtful attention. It would also mean that (dressing) gay or doing (gay) things is a slam. Which is homophobic. Its relative but the important thing is that you care enough to think and challenge our ideas of race, religion, sexuality, homophobia, etc….Don’t ever forget the closet is not one that gay people step out of rather one everyone else needs to. They are our own issues and social constructions that hold us back as a people on so many levels.
I think Jasiri that the important thing is to be clear. I could understand where you were going with the lyrics but I also see how things can be misinterpreted easily. Everyone doesn’t listen so closely to music or the world around them in general so being clear is important. When using words like gay, etc…. Unfortunately I think it is natural for the first assumption to be homophobic (so sad) so people don’t quite hear, listen, or understand, a lot of things. Also last time I checked being gay wasn’t cool but maybe you meant style (like tight jeans etc…) If that’s the case then its a severely gendered statement that could use some more thoughtful attention. It would also mean that (dressing) gay or doing (gay) things is a slam. Which is homophobic. Its relative but the important thing is that you care enough to think and challenge our ideas of race, religion, sexuality, homophobia, etc….Don’t ever forget the closet is not one that gay people step out of rather one everyone else needs to. They are our own issues and social constructions that hold us back as a people on so many levels.
YES! It was great having you come down for the event.
Yeah the balance is for songs with respectable lyrics to team up with good beat makers. At Checktheweather.tv we get people’s “Conscious” hip hop songs all the time and a good portion of them are whack.
So I guess that’s the artists challenge. How do you keep the crowd and the revolution going at the same time.
YES! It was great having you come down for the event.
Yeah the balance is for songs with respectable lyrics to team up with good beat makers. At Checktheweather.tv we get people’s “Conscious” hip hop songs all the time and a good portion of them are whack.
So I guess that’s the artists challenge. How do you keep the crowd and the revolution going at the same time.