You wanna know what's really dragging Hip Hop down? Entitled Negroes that live in a box and have a little bit of paper and influence. We generally like Jay-Z, as he's consistently the least-embarrassing figure in modern Hip Hop, which may or may not have something to do with his advanced age. But sometimes, elucidating on the state of society through a skewed lens can be just as offensive and dangerous as all-out coonery. Take this quote for example, which we refrained from posting earlier because we wanted to determine if we'd be any less irritated if we waited a week. (Guess what? We weren't):
"[Hip-hop] has changed America immensely... Hip-hop has done more than any leader, politician, or anyone to improve race relations... Racism is taught in the home... and it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?' That's why this generation is the least racist generation ever. You see it all the time. Go to any club. People are intermingling, hanging out, enjoying the same music."
I love the part where he says "Racism is taught in the home," because if I was a racist and wanted my kid to follow in my footsteps, then I would show him modern rap videos.
Racism isn't just being called a n****r outright or waking up in the middle of the night to a flaming cross on your front lawn courtesy of the neighborhood welcome wagon. It's everything that goes into a systemic oppression of one group of people by another. Often times it's neither obvious nor intentional--and, despite the fact that a half-negro holds the keys to the so-called free world, it hasn't gone anywhere.
Hip-hop is a powerful tool that can be used for great things. However, as it stands, the culture has become little more than a cog in the faulty capitalist wheel that has caused wagon of our known world to crash and collapse onto itself.
