MAYBE IT'S JUST NOT VERY GOOD?:

The death (and rebirth) of hip-hop: Why does the mainstream resist hip-hop artists who reach beyond the material world? (Kevin Britton, 2/05/03, Cincinnati City Beat)

I was talking with a sister who I ran into at the Greenwich Tavern during a recent poetry set sponsored by Atlanta-based RaRa Enterprises. We were commenting on the positive vibe felt throughout the evening that featured a number of regional artists and poets including Zebra Killah, Embrya, Olufemi, rapper Pryzless, and the night's headlining act, the Watusi Tribe. We both shared the perspective that there was a certain comfort in hearing artists who spoke from the soul, mostly unencumbered by the conformity and materialism that plagues popular music today.

Yet, why is it that artists with "conscious leanings" do not enjoy the same degree of media exposure as more mainstream artists? Is it the unnatural juxtaposition of Western values (i.e., capitalism and consumerism) onto the Afro-Latino tradition of Hip Hop that results in conscious Hip Hop's absence from mainstream pop culture? Or are media powerbrokers determined to create barriers preventing messages of self-knowledge and empowerment from reaching a broad audience?

Author/rapper/activist Sista Souljah is quoted in Angela Ard's 1999 treatise, "Rhyme and Resist" (The Nation), as stating, "It's very difficult to mix education and consciousness with capitalism. And most people, when confronted with an option, will pick money over everything else." Wu Tang issued the same warning back in 1993 when they declared that "cash rules everything (around me)."

The question--why doesn't the media cover unpopular art?--obviously answers itself. A more appropriate question would be: why are these "conscious leaning" artists unpopular? Terry Gross interviewed ?uestlove, from The Roots, last week, and he said that as far as he and his manager could determine, they're the only hip-hop band where the members actually know how to play musical instruments themselves. That could limit the appeal of the form, eh? Posted by Orrin Judd at February 14, 2003 4:00 PM