The Hip-Hop Debate: Conscious vs Commercial
Sidenote: This is a conscious article, for commercial posts please look at “The Only Way Is Ends”, “Cockblocking 101″ “10 Things We Thought We Knew About Women” or “Hate-onomics”.
I was first introduced to the words “conscious rapper” in 2004 during Kanye West‘s entrance into the music industry as a rapper. Having been a fan of hip-hop music since the tender age of 10, I found it strange that it took almost a decade until I realised that there was a segment of rappers considered to be more conscious than the superstars that I was use to. Since that day I have been asking the question: “What is a conscious rapper?” and almost a decade on I am still yet to hear a definition sufficient enough to close this chapter in my life.
Conscious Rap (Political Rap)
Ask a fan of “conscious rap” to define the sub-genre and they are more than likely to use the words Political rap or socially conscious. Now, the reason this fails to register to me as a sub-culture is the fact that “consciousness” cannot be attributed to any particular group of rappers, because:
Consciousness: although difficult to define most reasonably educated people would agree that consciousness is about having awareness, feelings and thought about the external world.
Young Jeezy – President Is Black
“My president is black, my Lambo’s blue
And I’ll be goddamned if my rims ain’t too
My momma ain’t at home, and daddy’s still in jail
Tryna make a plate, anybody seen the scale?”
Awareness: His president is Black and his Lambo is blue
Thought: He would be god dahmed if his rims aint too.
Feelings: His momma ain’t at home, and his daddy’s still in Jail
Action: He has to eat, so he needs to hustle
Now, we all know Young Jeezy is not one of the rappers that would be classed as a “conscious rapper” and I ask why not, when in his own weird way he shows all the ingredients for consciousness. To some extent he also shows political awareness by knowing the pigmentation of his president. But if you actually listen to the song, you will hear that Jeezy and Nas’ message is about the importance of protecting the livelihood of those around you and by any means necessary regardless of the colour of your presidents skin. #NoMalcolm
Yet after all these 16 bars, a hook and adlibs, Young Jeezy is never going to be considered as a “conscious” rapper because 90% of the time he makes the type of music that the so called “conscious” fans would argue “is killing our community.”
The Two Extremes
On one hand you have rappers that make politically influenced rap such as Dead Prez, Immortal Technique etc and on the other hand you have “Blowing Money Fast” hip-hop from the likes of Rick Ross and Lil Wayne. Now this might come as a shock to you all, but I honestly believe -exclusively- none of what these two type of rappers are doing is going to help sustain the entire culture or better the lives of the rest of society. Here are the reasons why.
Remember: The key words in that sentence are: “exclusively” and “entire”
Take this an analogy:
You go to church for the first time, you are baptised and born again, thus making a conscious decision to attend church every sunday. The preacher talks about how you need to be conscious of the word of God and treat other the way you would like to be treated. There is totally nothing wrong with this scenario, except that after a few months you realise that he has been preaching to the same people that are already born again. Now Immortal Technique and Dead Prez are like church pastors who preach every album, mixtapes and shows to the same “conscious” listeners. But rather than these conscious listeners spreading the gospel they use it as a parameter to beat down the “non believers”.
“Conscious” fan: “You call yourself a hip-hop fan, and you don’t know who Jay Electronica is?”
“Born again” Brother: “You call yourself a righteous, when is the last time you went to church?”
How can you change the world when you scare away the people that need to hear the gospel? The problem here is not the preacher (rapper) nor the gospel (content) but the followers. Just because you find Jay Electronica entertaining or stimulating doesn’t make you any more “conscious” then a guy who chooses to listens to Rick Ross. Other people don’t need a rapper to tell them about history and world affairs, music to them is a form of entertainment.
Whereas rappers like Dead Prez seem to show collective consciousness, BMF rappers seem to concentrate on themselves. History has proved so many times that greed and self focus has never helped sustain any community. The BMF fans would argue that “political rap” is boring and doesn’t apply to them, once again this is short sighted and I am sure we all dread the day when everyone is making it rain over auto tuned beats.
What the game needs is a balance, because not everyone wants to hear complicated theories or be reminded of how much more richer their favourite rapper is to them every time they turn on their iPod.
Balance
Here is an example of how such a balance has worked in the past.
In 2005 Kanye West released “Diamonds” single, which was later remixed by a local Chicago rapper by the name of Lupe Fiasco in which the young MC talks about the conflict diamond industry which exploits young African kids. The song went on to influence Kanye to revise the title of the single to “Diamonds of Sierra Leone” and a remix in which Kanye West raps:
“Though it’s thousands of miles away,
Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today,
Over here, it’s a drug trade, we die from drugs,
Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs,
The diamonds, the chains, the bracelets, the charmses,
I thought my Jesus Piece was so harmless,
‘Til I seen a picture of a shorty armless,
And here’s the conflict,
It’s in a black person’s soul to rock that gold,
Spend ya whole life tryna get that ice,
On a polo rugby it look so nice,
How could somethin’ so wrong make me feel so right, right?”
Off of the back of the remix and the conceptualised video, and – coincidental popularity of the “Blood Diamonds” blockbuster, there was a greater state of consciousness amongst rappers when buying diamonds. This later sprung up the wooden Jesus piece accessories, which has created business for UK urban entrepreneurs such as NorthSkull and ended up bringing Lupe to the world.
Its a win win for the entire hip-hop community, the “conscious” listeners get a new rapper who wouldn’t have reached the masses if it wasn’t for a “commercial” rapper. Yes, Kanye was most probably doing it as a gimmick to sell records, but we must remember that a single “conscious” line from the likes of Jay-Z or Kanye West on a “dumbed down” track is more powerful than a whole discography of a conscious rapper, who only reaches 10,000 people.
Conscious rappers opinion on Commercial rappers
Great lyricists such as Talib Kweli respect commercial rappers like Jay-Z and vice versa. It is the followers who have it twisted and try to segment the genre into sub-genres which in reality doesn’t exist.
I have always had the idea that the moment an artist puts his or her music up for sale, they are commercial, because that is called dealing in commerce. If these dudes were really doing this to make a difference, they would be standing in front of Niketown preaching like the brother at Oxford Street. Now that is a dude, who believes in something so much that he is on the gospel whether rain, sun or snow. Until I see a conscious rapper doing that, I will not be able to buy the concept of “politically or socially conscious” rap or at least not differentiating it as “non commercial.”
The concept of differentiating commercial and conscious rap seems like a metaphor within the black community, where on one side we have the people who wish to overcome societies short coming by looking at the root cause and reminding everyone not to make the same mistakes in the past. Whilst others go out there with a different approach and take chances. As you have probably realised at this point I lean more towards the latter, but I am fully conscious that one cannot exist without the other. The Lupe – Kanye scenario highlights how the underground and commercial scene benefit from each other.
So the next time you argue wether or not Jay-Z is better than Common, remember the line from Moment of Clarity “…truthfully I want to rhyme like Common Sense”. Or better yet when Jay Electronica finally releases his album, it is worth looking at the Executive Producer, very likely to be none other than Shawn Carter.
We are fighting a losing battle trying to claim one form of hip hop is greater than another, when really we should just be enjoying the diverse nature of our culture.
The Yak
Follow the BWNG on Twitter @TheBWNG and join our facebook page ‘Brothers With No Game’
16 comments on “The Hip-Hop Debate: Conscious vs Commercial”
-
I have to agree with a lot of the points raised here. So many times my friend who listens to artists like Dead Prez will tell me that I don’t know what I am listening to. At times I just want to enjoy music to be honest. My Favourite rapper is Nas who is considered conscience on the mainstream level, I always find that he can have the perfect blend of saying something which is thought provoking whilst still grabbing the attention of a casual fan. Artists like Tupac and BIG prove this theory best as well. My friend who likes PAC like Dead Prez whilst my friends who like artists like Lil Wayne loved BIG. Great work on the article, gonna keep an eye on your site more.
-
Appreciate this thoughtful side to BWNG. Made me go back and sift through my Hip-Hop collection. I think there are artists who blur the lines (J.Cole, Phonte?). Music is multi-purpose. I like The Roots and I also like Nikki Minaj. We engage with it at different times wanting different things. Sometimes I just wanna Dougie. Other times I’m looking for shared experience. Good post. What are your top 3 rap songs?
-
Love this! Different tone to other blogs but no less brilliant!
I agree that we should stop trying to box and make distinctions of hip hop, it’s impossible with popular artists anyway – the conscious ones do have songs calling women bitches and the superficial ones have the deep tracks too.
Hip hop is so diverse and wonderful a genre.
I do love me some common, Yasiin bey, lupe amongst jayz
-
Yeah that article is big but I know your knowledge game is better than that yo!!!
You missed some mad historical concepts such as the shift hip hop took where once “conscious rap” was the in the thing “The Last Poets” and “Afrika Bambaataa” and co. Then we say the shift to gangster rap which some argue reflected the youth in Black America’s disillusion in political struggles and showing the world their reality. But for real that was a while back now. The game now has evolved to new place and the beauty of it for me is that there is something for everyone, I’m not sure you only have 2 boxes for artist, Conscious OR Commercial that is too simplistic. Its 2011 feminist skank to Nikki and Ray J is gangster.
Jay Z love him or hate him does reflect the entrepreneurial spirit that the culture embodies from early, both conscious and commercial encourage self determination to an extent although to different ends at times.
Fans on both side of the fence are fickle lol
I like the point about ‘commerce’ and ‘commercial’
Your certified Yak but check out some of my UK brothers embodying the Jay Z and Talib type love G:
http://mixtapemadness.co.uk/blog/videos/the-uk-hip-hop-b-e-t-cyhper/
-
Enjoyed this!
Very true though, we need to embrace the diversity of hip hop/rap culture.
I think on occasion, some people forget that the diversity of hip hop is what has led to the enormous broadcast and acceptance of it in our society today – the business ventures and some of the black moguls listing the Forbes rich list. -
Yak….this was a brilliant post mister! So very accurate and you touched on many things that I have thought for a while now! In any case, whether ‘commercial’ or ‘conscious’, artists with musical integrity whose body of work positively inspires their target audience are to be applauded. Hopefully this post will go towards educating BOTH sides of the hip-hop spectrum eh? x
-
Pingback: Other Side Of The Rope - Brothers With No Game
-
Immortal technique actually said that he doesnt mind people illegally downloading his music. At the end of the day if your good at what you do then why not make money out of it. I understand what your saying about musics just for entertainment sometimes because I listen to everything from technique to 2pac to drake. When im in a f the goverment mood i listen to immortal technique, when im in a f the world mood i listen to 2pac n when im in a f the lady friend mood its drake. Also I know you gotta limit your words but you if your talkin hip hop you gotta mention Big L, Pun and Eminem! Overall I think this whole division came from the people on top of the artists. Back in the day the guy at the top would be like let him say what he wants as long as i get my money but then when people start taking the artist too seriously they remove his ass from the scene. Now its got to the point where they are telling them what kind of videos to put out, what to say, along with the 360 deals. Also its funny you mention the jeezy song, I was looking into that when i first heard it becuase i was surprised he would drop a tune like that. At the start he says something like ‘this might be the realest shit i never wrote’. More importantly a concious rapper definitely wouldn’t big up obama, he has sent american troops to more countries for ‘war’ than any other president. I learnt that from Lowkey check
him out if you dont already know! I guess thats an advantage of listening to that kind of rap; you actually learn about stuff that matters. Peace ! -
This was a great perspective, actually. I think most people like to believe in the hierarchy, as if ‘conscious rap’ is somehow different or more organic than commercial rap. I myself sometimes looked down on more commercial rappers and wondered how people never got tired of ‘Racks on Racks on Racks’ of foolishness. But then I realized, when I’m at the club am I really trying to dance to Immortal Technique? Everything has its place, and at the end of the day it all comes down to money. Whether its made talking about the injustices of poverty or the new Lambo…everyone is out for the almighty dollar in one way or another. I do love me some Common though…
-
Pingback: 6 Reasons Why I Think Drake Is The Best Rapper In The Game (Right Now) - Brothers With No Game
Great post bro! I’m in agreement that there is space for both forms of rap as my iPod is testament to that. I think you can seperate conscious from commercial rap quite easily by what exactly is being promoted predominantly in the artist’s music. Every rapper is able of spitting conscious or commercial and have done so in many cases but it’s the level and volume of the content that will determine if they are a conscious/commercial rapper or not.