Steven Samuel on the Age Gap in Hip-hop Taste

It seems that the Greg Tate conversation has spun off into a "Is there a rift in the tastes of the older and younger hip-hop heads?" meme. Jeff Chang asked the question that sparked it. Then Jay said the older heads are "Love Addicted" to hip-hop while the younger ones see and appreciate the music for what it is, dirt and all. Others chimed in, but I'll let you dig up those links yourself.

On the side, I've been having an email convo (I don't do IM that much) about this with Steven Samuel, of SOHH.com fame. He's allowing me to republished a pieced together version of what he said over email. Ha, my first second exclusive. Oh yeah, remember this is an off the cuff convo, and doesn't represent official SOHH opinion, or whatever.

Peep:

Steven Samuel:

Every older generation at some point feels like the current generation's choice of entertainment is trash. My brother’s friend, Frank Gordon, who was 13 years my senior would argue that Kool Moe Dee destroyed LL Cool J. Ten years later I’m arguing with my cousin, who is ten years younger than me, that LL waxed Canibus.

Truth is there is a lot that's incorrect with rap music; however there is a lot that is improper with magazines, movies, television, video games and other genres of music and entertainment. Why do us ‘old folks’ complain about rap music and the direction it’s going in? Because rap music is an easy target and it can’t properly defend itself.

If you want instant popularity, you either align or attack rap music. Who was talking about Rev. Butts or C. Dolores Tucker until they attacked rap music? MTV was not the channel to watch until they started to show rap videos. Bill O’Reily wasn’t that popular until he went at Ludacris. And now there’s ESSENCE Magazine. How many people were talking about ESSENCE before their ‘taking back our music’ campaign? One yearly article on Mary J. Blige does not make you a hip-hop publication. But their campaign got them featured in a few magazines. Mission accomplished and I’m sure we won’t be hearing from about that campaign. Next!

My generation has pretty much abandoned rap music. My friends are still recalling the glory days of A Tribe Called Quest and harping on “rap music is not like it used to be.” Well, neither are video games. Imagine trying to play Halo 2 on a 2600 joystick? Games needed more controls, thus the need for growth. And for the record even though my friends love De La Soul none of them have purchased The Grind Date.

People put too many expectations on rappers. Why is it that rappers are the only genre of music that are expected to ‘stay in the hood’ and ‘give back to the hood’? Most entertainers find themselves in financial ruin even though they’ve seen every episode of VH1’s Behind The Music. So why are we looking to them for leadership?

As we get older, we get feeble. Remember in the 90’s we hoped for the day that rap would be everywhere. And we had critics who had issues with it then. We told our parents they were wrong; “it’s just a song.” We forget that this is what we wanted.

It continues.

Comments

[Candicissima]

I disagree that it can't defend itself. It seems like since TateGate (TM someone), there has been more than a little defense mounted on its behalf.

Something that could've probably used more context is the "attacking rap = popularity" argument because it's patently ridiculous. All of those people had a certain stature before they even spoke out about rap music/artists. Is he speaking about their prominence for the rap listeners, those in the hood, the world at large, or what?

And the rappers representing thing is such a strawman argument. If anything, everyone is well aware that once a rapper hits big, the first thing they do is run from the hood. Then, occasionally jumping back for video shoots and shouting out the block in songs when they're really representing Rockland or Bergen Counties. They're projecting that hard image themselves because they know it'll sell better than a good maid/lawnmower is so hard to find.

[Jay Smooth]

"Tategate" is trademarked by Hiphopmusic.com Incorporated.

(First lemme say I know how it is to get quoted from an off-the-cuff note, so I'm not assuming that Steve meant to imply everything I address below)

I agree that many people both attack hip-hop and align themselves with it for publicity's sake. But O'Reilly and MTV were already large before they did it, so the case here is a little overstated.

And in Essence's case, are we going to deny that misogyny is a problem in hip-hop? Even assuming they are just publicity hounds, it's disingenuous for us to act like we don't have a mess in our backyard, which is giving the haters an abundance of material to work with.

I agree that hip-hop is sometimes burdened with unrealistic expectations, but As Candice said we are more than capable of defending ourselves. More importantly we need to be capable of scrutinizing ourselves honestly and take responsibility for our shortcomings. Because let's be real, we have quite a few of them.

So these lines of defense can only be taken but so far.. Tate's piece was a little off-balance because he left out too many pieces of the puzzle, but the pieces he did focus on are very real. Hip-hop ain't dead but it could damn sure be healthier.

[lynne]

jay - that was so well expressed. did you say you weren't a college graduate? lol :-)

nah but seriously - is this conversation realy about hip hop the music, or is it about black politics? seriously, think about it. i mean greg's piece and all the ensuing conversations. overall it's about youth culture.

didn't this same ish go down with the blues, rock, et. al. i just find that these medium we're using nowadays makes the attention to these issues appear more heightened. and while we're all on here discussing this, i'm wondering are we helping to drive anything forward - if there is a forward.

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