Hip Hop Serving the Middle Class

I want to comment on your article “Soulja Boy Dissed by Amerikan Rappers,” featured in ULK22. Personally it is a grave disappointment to witness what hip hop has morphed into. We went from “Fuck da Police” and “Don’t Believe da Hype” to “A Milli” and “Arab Money.” Ironically the vast majority of the people that these modern day braggarts grew up around don’t even have U.S. middle-class money, let alone “Arab Money.”

Modern day hip hop artists seem unable and/or unwilling to move beyond this brag-about-my-wealth style of rap. Of course there’s exceptions to this but in general there’s no longer any social consciousness or depth to the lyrics of these mainstream hip hop artists. I’m no hater and I love to see people prosper and enjoy life but an album has to go beyond an artist detailing his or her good fortunes, to really have merit.

But pertaining specifically to the article, is it any real surprise that these artists ostracize an associate for something as simple as speaking his mind? The one main thing that the Black nation has been consistently good at throughout the years is attacking one another and embracing division, internal division.

Additionally all, or most of, the major hip hop artists are personally benefiting from the current system and establishment so naturally they stay in tune with it. They don’t care that the overwhelming majority of people who look like them have been systematically discriminated against and oppressed from the very origin of this racist and corrupt country. The Hollywood set of the Black nation, which most of these hip hop artists integrate to, would sell their mothers and sisters for the crumbs their “massa” throws to them.

In part it goes all the way back to their forefather’s house, which is Uncle Tom’s cabin. A place where anybody who opposes “massa” is the enemy. And these descendants of Uncle Tom are the same today, they will go the extra mile, extra 1,000 miles, to protect their imperialists masters’ interests; chiefly because they perceive some sort of shared interests and maybe even camaraderie.

Many people, even some in the underprivileged class, accept and embrace the glaring inconsistencies and contradictions which permeates U.$. society. They willfully embrace the lie that the establishment means good for them and the rest of the world, and when they’re being pacified with their “Arab-Money” there’s little chance they’ll think any different.

MIM(Prisons) responds: While we share this comrade’s dismay at the current state of politics from major hip hop artists, we don’t see them as quite so isolated in their benefits from the current system. While the New Afrikan nation certainly faces ongoing national oppression within U.$. borders, they also enjoy the wealth of an imperialist country and can see that they are better off than the majority of the world’s people. The vast majority of U.$. citizens, regardless of nation, are earning more than the value of their labor and are part of the labor aristocracy. So in a way, hip hop artists who speak about their good fortune, do represent something real to their audience, even if their level of wealth is unattainable for most of their listeners. And the shared interests with the imperialists are real: the wealth of the labor aristocracy is won from the exploitation of the Third World.