Hip Hop Dreams
‘Chains showin, rings glowin, range rovin’
Puff Daddy1
Hip Hop grew out of the neglect and poverty facing young African-Americans [and Latinos]... With no one to speak for them, they rediscovered the power of their own voices by talking about the fears, pitfalls and frustrations of their world. They spoke for those who could not, for those whose ‘very parents had written them off as a lost generation’.2
Although in many senses nothing much has improved socially and politically since Jamie Dowrad wrote the above quote, there is a feeling now that the message in the music has grown less important. The most obvious reason for this comes from Hip Hop’s mainstream success over the last ten or so years. And with this success, yearly record sales of Hip Hop music have increased to such a level that Hip Hop now out-sells country music in the US.3
Politically aware groups like Public Enemy and Digable Planets were pushed aside as record labels, hungry to match the enormous sales of NWA and always eager to exploit the next big thing, looked for groups that [copied] the winning formula. After the mega-success of Suge Knight’s Death Row Records – which released albums by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg – Hip Hop’s new direction was firmly set.4
The kinds of figures we’re talking about are mind-boggling. Eminem’s first three albums, with total sales of 20 million, represent $300 million gross for Interscope Records. Tupac Shakur’s two best selling albums made $270 million… and the three best selling albums of Notorious B.I.G. made $240 million.5
Even in Aotearoa, where CD sales sometimes only number in the hundreds, Hip Hop ‘star’ Scribe’s album The Crusader went quadruple platinum – selling 65,000 albums in the first three months of its release. For musicians who have been quietly toiling away at their craft for years, this must seem almost unbelievable!
Who Gets the Money?
However, this commercial success is not to everyone’s liking – with many in the global Hip Hop community believing that ‘fifteen years ago, rappers rapped for the people, whereas today they rap and rep for their companies, because money dictates the direction’.6 Although most overseas video clips and magazines are filled with glossy images of jewel-studded, fur-wearing Hip Hop ‘celebrities’, the people who are growing rich from this (in the main) are the record companies.
‘The artist’, according to Wendy Day (founder of Rap Coalition), ‘is always the last to get paid’. In fact, by her calculations in ‘Why Rappers Aren’t Millionaires’, ‘artist[s] only actually made 21 cents per unit [CD]…that works out to be about $10 per hour’.7
I made 144 million dollars for them [record label] in one year and guess how much they gave me?… They didn’t give me shit! What they did was loan me $3 mil towards my next album. So as soon as they give you that money, you already owe them 2 more albums. They don’t give you anything…
DMX8
Day talks about the pressure on an artist, once they’ve released a record, to appear successful to friends, families, and fans – all of whom have taken the journey of hope with this artist, and now want to celebrate the fact that they’ve ‘made it’. And rapidly there’s an expectation of being well-dressed, of driving a more expensive car, of more shows, tours, on and on… ‘Think about it: Don’t you expect the artists ‘to look like artists?’9
Suddenly, now more than ever, the pressure is on – even though the ‘reality’ of their world has changed. Once Hip Hop was a buyer’s market, where the audience decided who was good or bad… now it has become ‘a seller’s market, in which what does or does not get sold as Hip Hop to the masses is whatever the boardroom approves.’10
The media rarely show that other options exist; black people are usually singing, dancing, telling jokes, bouncing a ball, or going to jail. Rarely do [they] show other forms of African-American achievement in the form of doctors, lawyers, scientists, public servants or astronauts… the white-owned media, and some of its black counterparts, do a great disservice to the Hip Hop generation… they sell pipe dreams…11
This is the world where, according to artist DMX, ‘the highest paid artist gets 18 cents off the dollar and the record company still owns the finished product… they want to keep you hungry; keep you wanting that advance’.12
It’s Not all Bad
But it can’t all be bad news can it? While many openly despise this ‘commercial’ form of Hip Hop, there is no doubt that the global success of Hip Hop as a money-maker has lifted many people out of otherwise humble lives. Artists, promoters, independent recording companies and other spin-offs … it would be foolish to write off the positives these activities have provided for many who had lost all hope of success.
Isn’t it these very stories of artists dragging themselves up from ghastly childhoods that make us love them, and cheer when they do well? Take Missy Elliot, who openly declares herself a survivor of childhood domestic violence; who was named spokesperson for ‘Break The Cycle’ in 2003, an organisation dedicated to helping young people break the chain of domestic abuse. What about Eminem, whose ‘white trash’ upbringing won over the hearts of a whole new breed of Hip Hop fan? Along with his predecessors like NWA and RunDMC, he also opened up Hip Hop to commercialisation through his fan-base of white suburban youth.
I was down and out / Struggling / Wondered how I’m gonna make it through / I’ve got a dream / Holding on / Can’t let go / ’Cos I’ve got to make it come true…13
Aotearoa’s Sara Tamati (aka Graff artist Spexone) observes ‘there is a real affirmation of ‘it’s all good’, regarding this new-age commercialism’; feelings of elation, of finally being able to get paid and appreciated for having developed skills and talent.’14 And she’s got a point – one that any passionate artist who has worked away without recognition will relate to. ‘However, all too often, opportunities are still going to individuals who are not sufficiently skilled – as opposed to the more capable, educated and personally invested members of the Hip Hop community.’15
What commercial interest in Hip Hop has done is raise its profile in the wider community. Māori programmes, and the arrival of Māori television, use and advertise Hip Hop culture as a tool for youth development, interest and the spread of Māori culture. The opportunities for Hip Hop artists have never been greater, with events such as the Dowse Museum’s ‘Aotearoa Respect Hip Hop’ exhibition (in which graffiti artists submitted panels that covered one entire gallery wall), national B-boy and B-girl competitions, and dedicated Hip Hop and locally-produced music shows on music channels.
It’s good for NZ Hip Hop as it reflects on all that we are working towards and strengthens it…
Scribe16
Everyone needs dreams and aspirations… I don’t want to be one of those cats that says ‘man I could have done this… or I could have done that.’ I’m just doing my thing…
King Kapisi17
Hip Hop has now reached a point where it has received broad acceptance as a rich and varied music and culture, which can provide valid paths toward professional and commercial success. The trick, then, is to draw a line between the benefits of commercialisation and abuse of it.
So stop getting sucked in by advertising for starters.
Put your money where your mouth is, actions where our heart is.
Trillion18
- What were the total sales for Eminem’s first three albums?
- Who, according to Wendy Day of the Rap Coalition, is the last person to get paid?
- What kinds of pressure are put on an artist after they’ve released a record (according to Day)?
- What does the phrase ‘a seller’s market’ mean?
- How does Sara Tamati think most people in Aotearoa’s Hip Hop community feel about increased commercialism?
- What are some of the positive outcomes of the raised profile and popularity of Hip Hop?
Extend your thinking
We live in a world where the making of money, and the buying of goods, is seen as an indication of ‘success’.
How do you feel about this? Is it fair on everybody? Is it a good goal to reach towards? Do you consider anything more important in your life than making money?
1 Puff Daddy ‘If You Want This Money’.
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