Paul’s Blog

If you are listening to the radio now (online), try the channel ‘beatbasement’ on shoutcast.com, it’s my preferred rap channel, if I’m going to listen to internet radio rap (not often). However, for the most part, there is very little rap I enjoy these days; I mostly prefer rap from the golden age of the 90’s (my 20’s). If it’s modern stuff, I just try to tune out the lyrics most of the time and enjoy the beats and rhythms of the sounds.

When I was a boy, I used to believe that emotions were the root of all evil. It wasn’t until I became a full-time parent that I began to understand that as Pascal remarked, “The heart has wisdom the mind cannot know”. Some might even interpret Frederick Nietzsche as intending something similar from “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.” Arthur Schopenhauer’s monster behind the veil seems to be so often in command of what we believe to be sound logic.

At some point, I began to question whether the heart could be a useful compass. I will not claim such ethereal epistemologies as innate ideas, but I do believe the conscience and moreover affect itself, should be not be ignored or suppressed, because they are as inescapable as freedom itself (Jean Paul Sartre might say). Why am I bringing this up? Because I think I have a somewhat radical philosophy of aesthetics with regard to rap. I listen to my heart, and my conscience (often more so than the lyrics of the songs), and they modulate the rationalizations I make.

One of the most critical aspects of rap music, and of hip hop culture more broadly, is that it is a culture. Many of the ethnocentric bigots who made casual observations from a distance in the 17th century and earlier, of foreign cultures they considered ‘inferior’, have largely been discredited of having scientific merit today by the community of cultural anthropologists. At some point, the novel idea that one must go inside the building if one’s comments about the interior are to be considered valid, was lighted on, and suddenly ethnographers were “going native”.

The best actors have to truly ‘become’ the character, in order to accurately work out exactly what that character is feeling and thinking, even when that character is on the edge of sanity, or commits horrific ethical crimes (police detectives do this too). That is also why it can be easy to empathize with the many innocent and descent folks you find in maximum security federal prisons, if you are a person who naturally attempts to understand and see the world through the eyes of another.

That is the flavor of art criticism I have approached the matter with. Rather than evaluate the meaning of the lyrics, or the character and life choices of the artists, I have attempting to feel what they feel, and relate to their mindset, in the context of their environmental history and culture. Although more often than not, a skilled artist will gracefully fluctuate between hiding their meaning in metaphors or anecdotes and blatantly proselytizing for their political stance, this entire element of art is not a complete necessity for it to be art.

Although I find myself attracted to books like the below, I believe it ultimately comes down to the sounds and rhythms, and whether they make you feel good, or give you some sense of outlet for negative feelings (like a safe way to express or experience social taboos). Still, if you prefer purely logical explanations, the below books look like they would be an excellence starting point:

Hip-Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason (Popular Culture and Philosophy) (Paperback)
by Derrick Darby (Editor), Tommie Shelby (Editor)
http://www.amazon.com/Hip-Hop-Philosophy-Reason-Popular-Culture/dp/0812695895/
pairs great philosophers and their works to rap classics by Lauryn Hill, OutKast and others to show rap can help uncover the meaning of such philosophers as Plato. A delightful, fun presentation invites young college students to understand underlying meanings in both ancient and modern texts.

When Rap Music Had a Conscience: The Artists, Organizations and Historic Events that Inspired and Influenced the “Golden Age” of Hip-Hop from 1987 to 1996 (Paperback)
by Tayannah Lee McQuillar (Author), Brother J of the X-Clan (Foreword)
http://www.amazon.com/When-Rap-Music-Conscience-Organizations/dp/1560259191/
What comes to mind when you think about rap music? If you’ve been paying any attention to the high-profile rap releases of the last decade, it wouldn’t be surprising if that question compelled thoughts of violent lyrics, booty-filled videos and images of decadence and materialism. But as Tayannah Lee McQuillar points out in her book “When Rap Music Had a Conscience,” in stores on April 10, it wasn’t always that way. McQuillar’s book is a celebration of the “Golden Age” of hip-hop (defined therein as occurring between 1987 and 1996), when artists like Public Enemy, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest were able to carve out a space for themselves with their thoughtful, political music. The book isn’t just a look back, though; it’s also a lament over the current state of rap music, which the author views as tipping too heavily in the direction of the “gangster” and “crass materialism” and away from the progressive values of the golden-era rap she holds dear.

Hip Hop as Performance and Ritual (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/Hip-Hop-as-Performance-Ritual/dp/1412053943/
by William E. Smith Ph.D. (Author) “Hip hop has definitive links with African performance elements and musical techniques that are traceable through the well-documented characteristics of Africanisms

Total Chaos: The Art And Aesthetics of Hip-hop (Paperback) by Jeff Chang
http://www.amazon.com/Total-Chaos-Art-Aesthetics-Hip-hop/dp/0465009093/
In this wide-ranging, academic anthology of essays, interviews and panel discussions, 2005 American Book Award–winner Jeff Chang (Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop) presents hip-hop’s past, present and future as seen by some of its founding figures, guiding lights, journalists and scholars.