Monday, September 22, 1997 Harmony, Not Thugs RAP:
By Jeff Hilger
Daily Bruin Contributor
When music historians look back at the second half of the ’90s,
hip-hop and rap may be the music genres to dominate the history
books. Like rock ‘n’ roll in the ’60s, disco in the ’70s and
techno-pop in the ’80s, rap music is intimately intertwined with
the mainstream counterculture.
It’s the music that most every kid’s mom and dad complain about.
It’s the music that gets blamed for murders, suicides and every
other sort of social ill a journalist can think of. It’s the music
that often attempts to portray the realities of its creators. And
it’s the music that everyone’s buying, and it appears to be keeping
the record companies in business as sales for past superstars,
including U2 and Michael Jackson, continue to dwindle.
Over the past 12 months, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G. and
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony have all released double albums. Each of them
entered the Billboard Charts at No. 1 and quickly went multiple
platinum. According to Damion Young, the music director at Power
106 (the radio station "where hip-hop lives"), "Rap fans are
extremely passionate about their music. When people are passionate
about their art form, they want as much of it as they can get. The
artists who have been able to are trying to meet this demand."
Pop music aficionados of prior generations often consider the
double-album phenomenon responsible for some of the absolute best
records ever made. These albums present fuller stories, tighter
themes and get listeners more involved than the typical record.
Surely, the Beatles "White Album," Led Zeppelin’s "Physical
Graffiti," the Rolling Stones’ "Exile on Main St.," Pink Floyd’s
"The Wall" and The Who’s "Quadrophenia" and "Tommy" represent the
ultimate statements of rock ‘n’ roll. Likewise, who would deny that
the double album "Saturday Night Fever" captured the disco
generation?
While the verdict is still out on the Bone-Thugs album, both the
Tupac and B.I.G. sets have been as successful in the arena of
critical acclaim as they have in sales. In addition, they have been
embraced by an entire generation of young listeners as being almost
spiritual.
"I’m not sure if Tupac is dead. At least he’s still living in
his songs," says Joe Ramirez, a 15-year-old from Inglewood.
"The rappers are just trying to tell everybody how life really
is," says Marlon Washington, 13, who lives in the much-rapped-about
South Central Los Angeles. "It’s about reality."
But is reality actually full of guns, drugs, and violence? "No,
just sometimes," says Washington. "There’s lots of other kinds of
songs too. Most of them are about other stuff, songs like the new
Mack 10’s ‘Backyard Boogie’ and ‘Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems’ (by The
Notorious B.I.G. , Mase and Puff Daddy). They’re not about anything
bad, just about all kinds of stuff."
Of course, not every artist has gone down the double-album path.
"Puffy (Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs) could have released a double
album," says Q, one of the members of 112 (who has been produced by
Combs), "but wanted to keep it tight."
Warren G, one of the most respected rappers and producers in
hip-hop music, has gone the alternate route. Both of his solo
albums have clocked in at less than 40 minutes, while the average
album today lasts about 60 minutes and the average double album
contains more than 80 minutes of material.
"I don’t think about the length," Warren G says. "I just go out
each album and try to make the best one I can."
At Summer Jam ’97, a major hip-hop concert put on by radio
station The Beat (92.3 FM Los Angeles) in August, Warren G made a
rare concert appearance. After a fairly short set, he started to
leave the stage, but then came back, in a move that clearly seemed
unstaged, to tell the audience to "Leave the guns alone, leave the
bangin’ alone, and just try to keep things positive."
Positiveness clearly seemed to be the message behind Summer Jam
’97, as well as behind The Beat’s campaign slogan, "No Color
Lines," that they have been working with for a few years now.
While the past year had been extraordinarily violent in the
hip-hop world with the shooting deaths of Tupac and The Notorious
B.I.G., the attitude among most rap artists and fans now seems to
be that there is an urgent need for peace.
"This whole thing of accusing people for things they didn’t do
has blown up out of control," says DJ Quik, another highly-prolific
and successful rapper and producer. "People just need to handle
their business and keep working things out. Otherwise there won’t
be nothing left to talk about anyway."
As critics in the ’60s and ’70s may have complained that rock
music influenced people to take drugs, critics in the ’90s have
accused rap music of causing people to be violent, misogynous or
destructive. And, the fact that rappers like Snoop Doggy Dogg and
Shakur have been accused in the past of crimes has helped taint
rap’s image even further.
"People aren’t going to listen to a song and then go out and
kill somebody," Quik says. "Society creates these problems. The
music just echoes that."
While there have been attempts in the past to ban certain kinds
of rap lyrics, they have continually failed.
"Getting rid of the songs won’t change anything," says Jose
Llamas, a 12-year-old from South Central. "The only way to stop
shootings is if they stop making bullets."
In fact, over the past few years, rap artists have been praised
for making a significant number of positive contributions to the
communities that they come from. According to The Beat’s radio
personality, Theo, "all of the artists at Summer Jam came out to
support ‘No Color Lines’ and to support all of these great
charities."
The charities that benefited from Summer Jam included Barrios
Unidos, Proyecto Pastoral, Unity One, Community in Support of the
Gang Truce, Valley Community Peace Treaty and the Minority AIDS
Project, among others.
Summer Jam was just one event among many put on by The Beat and
other concerned artists and institutions within the rap community.
For the past four years, Death Row records has contributed to a
free turkey giveaway each year at Thanksgiving.
Rap and hip-hop music have definitely captured the heart and
soul of their generation. While there will always be nay-sayers
like law student Jake Simon, who felt that "If anybody deserved to
die, it was Tupac," there are countless other fans, like senior
Peter Spiess.
"It’s hard to find a kid in Los Angeles who doesn’t like every
song Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony releases," Spiess says. "It’s hard to
find anyone under 30 in any inner city area who doesn’t believe
that Tupac spoke for his generation."
"The music has been popular since 1990," Young says. "And it now
has more mass appeal than ever. People who said it wouldn’t last
have been proven wrong. And they’ll continue to be wrong because
its popularity isn’t going to go fall off."
It usually takes a while for mainstream society to recognize and
respect lasting artistic talent. Mozart was buried in a pauper’s
grave. Rodin nearly died in a house with no roof. And when Bob
Dylan first started out, nobody ever imagined he’d someday be
looked upon as the premier poet of folk music.
While hip-hop music is extraordinarily popular with the youth
culture, it still hasn’t found the sort of recognition and respect
that many other forms of music have. According to some industry
insiders and rap artists, at the majority of stores where music is
sold, the rap section is the closest one to the cash register,
perhaps because store owners are worried that rap fans are going to
steal more than non-rap fans.
Maybe the genre and its fans will gain more respect. In the
meanwhile, hip-hop fans and artists continue to create something
positive, enjoying the music that will eventually be known as one
of the most dominant musical art forms of the ’90s.
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony in performance at 92.3 THE BEAT’s Summer
Jam concert in August. THE PLAYERS THE ROCK MUSICIAN"Roger Davis"
played by Christian MenaCharacter from "Rent" Roger barricades
himself in the apartment he shares with Mark, shunning the world
and revealing his own angst as he attmepts to write the "one great
song" before AIDS takes his life. Making it big is part of the
dream for most musicians, but personal struggle, artistic
inspiration and genres that may be tough to get into make for more
strugglers than rockers. THE PLAYERS THE STREET MUSICIAN"Angel
Schunard" played by Wilson CruzCharacter from "Rent" All Angel
needs to take on the world is a pair of drumsticks and the right
outfit. "Music! Food of love, emotion, mathematics, isolation,
rhythm, feeling, power, harmony, and heavy competition," he sings.
The competition is there, but for many musicians it’s more about
weaving lyrics and composing tunes — whether it’s for an
auditoruim full of people or for someone who stops to listen on the
sidewalk.