“The ghost
of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it / let these words be your earth and
moon you consume every message”[1]
To what extent are rap/hip-hop music videos,
like Kendrick Lamar's "Alright," able to provide political/social
commentary and how does this impact upon different audiences?
Hip-hop is
a multifaceted genre which includes complex social and political commentary,
dating as far back as the 1970’s. The dominant idea of liberation and the
emancipation of the black man are particularly evident in Kendrick Lamar's 2015
extended music video 'Alright.' His music essentially provides a platform, not
only for black youth to self-identify with but also a wider audience through
the universal themes discussed by particular revolutionary hip-hop artists like
Public Enemy and N.W.A. However the stereotypes associated with hip-hop provide
a negative platform for the genre due to the glamorisation and the
fetishisation of materialistic aspects such as 'gangsta life' and violence,
conforming to Alvarado’s idea of “the dangerous black man.”[2]
Thus older audiences especially, negatively associate the genre with the three
ignorant foundation words, 'drugs, sex and violence’ which is undoubtedly
a “shallow understanding of rap, which in many cases results from people’s
unwillingness to listen to rap lyrics, many of which counsel anti-violent and
anti-drug behaviour among the youths who are their avid audience.”[3] Lamar’s
lyrics address significant, complex debates from racial discrimination and the
dichotomy of race and class to the potential demise of hip-hop artists through
their materialistic countenance, therefore Lamar is able to provide a universal
voice of reason as the “entire expressive culture of hip-hop resonates not only
with the anxiety of youthful social rebellion, but extant global
socio-political inequalities as well”[4]
whereby audiences are able to be positively impacted by his commentary.
Axiomatically,
Kendrick Lamar's music video is a clear representation of black lives,
commenting on social and political themes throughout the video stylistically,
impacting audiences through self-identification. The ‘Black Lives Matter’
campaign is an international activist movement, initiated in America, catalysed
from the 2013 Trayvon Martin case. However "the social movements which
have sprung up in different parts of the world as evidence of African
dispersal, imperialism and colonialism have done more than appeal to blacks
everywhere in a language which could invite their universal identification;”[5] in
Manchester thousands attended a solidarity march and “sang the Kendrick Lamar
song Alright,”[6]
emphasising the significance of Lamar’s music as a form of identification for the
audience, thus reinforcing Blumler and Katz’s “Uses and Gratifications theory”[7] of
both personal identity and personal relationships, due to the empathising and
sympathising of audiences. Furthermore, conventional hip-hop videos are merely
a path for diversion and entertainment, in terms of the latter theory, as “the
success of artists within this multifaceted genre depends on how easy it is for
everybody to understand their lyrics and relate to their content.”[8] Music
videos are significant as "much of the particularity of music video
editing lies in its responsiveness to the music. It can elucidate aspects of
the song, such as rhythmic and timbral features, particular phrases in the
lyrics, and especially the song's sectional divisions,”[9]
illustrating the importance of music videos.
The
alternative hip-hop genre focuses on originality and creativity; Lamar’s video
is therefore crafted purposely in order to heighten his own social and
political ideologies. The monochromatic video subverts the stereotypical colour
scheme and could symbolise the theme of police brutality and racial
discrimination through the literal and metaphorical meaning of black and white
imagery - focusing on the conflict between the two races. The chiaroscuro
lighting juxtaposed with the low angle shots of the sky and rising of the sun,
portrays the idea of hope being surrounded or perhaps even consumed, by the
darkness and the corruption of the world, emphasising Levi-Strauss’ idea of “binary
oppositions,”[10]
- the good and the evil. Evidently through the stylistic element of the
colour scheme alongside the lyrics juxtaposed with the
cinematography it reveals the paradox within society, thus highlighting the
dichotomy in terms of racial discrimination. This apocalyptic sky is
complemented with the soundtrack of Lamar's ‘U,’ which precedents 'Alright' on
his album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly.’ The screams from ‘U’ relate to the depressive
state Lamar was in but how “with money and being a celebrity how can [he] use
it, how can [he] pimp it, can [he] pimp it negatively or can [he] pimp it in a
positive way.”[11]
There is light in dark situations however a change must be made in order to
find this light which is reinforced by the low angle shot of the church juxtaposed with
his lyrics, ‘Lucifer was all around me.’ This low angle shot reveals
the height of the church, the importance of religion to Lamar and also “reveals
the primary ethical and semantic influence of the Bible on new world black
cultures."[12]
In this case perhaps the 'evils of Lucy,' which is a line repeated several
times through ‘TPAB’, are the police force. The devil is a mythological figure
yet the evils of him are everywhere; this could relate to the idea of the
corrupt law enforcement within the postmodern society, which Lamar is
implicitly addressing through stylistic devices.
Furthermore,
there are connotations of police officers as societal princes and in terms
of status are of a higher authority, thus the fact that they are carrying
Lamar's car may heighten the extent of Lamar's reign of authority. This links
to Gramsci's idea of “hegemony”[13] as
the law enforcement are positioned at a high status yet subvert the
stereotype through the corruption of their leadership. Alternatively, this
could represent the theme of police brutality and the historical
context of slavery as there is a contrast between the white officers and
the black males, revealing the paradox within the history of slavery;
this also relates to Frantz Fanon's idea of “Black Skin, White Masks”[14] and
how Lamar may in fact be trying to appropriate and imitate the
culture of the coloniser through this flip of roles. The car could perhaps
symbolise a coffin as there are four males carrying the car like a coffin therefore
implicitly suggesting the effects of police brutality and how the law
enforcement, who are supposed to be the heroes, in terms of Propp’s “stock
characters”[15],
are the ones leading these men to their deaths. This is further reinforced by
the officer holding the car being the same one who shoots Lamar at the end of
the video, suggesting that this image foreshadows police brutality.
Lamar also raps using the semantic field of death, ‘R.I.P’ and ‘write
another eulogy’, perhaps Lamar is simply trying to compete with other rap
artists here or maybe this semantic field is used in relation to the police
officers holding the car as these are the ones essentially guiding black men to
their death. Artists convey their thoughts on this explicitly; Cole voices his
opinion on the 2014 Michael Brown case in his single ‘Be Free,’ and he’s “tired
of being desensitised to the murder of black men.”[16] The
media have essentially created a norm out of the murders, “Gerbner argues that
the drip feeding of similar negative media messages influences the viewer’s
perception of reality and makes them susceptible to adopting a negative view on
the world, Gerbner calls this Mean World Syndrome,"[17] thus
the idea of inoculation is present. Therefore through the works of conscious
hip-hop artists such as Cole and Lamar, universal audiences are positively
impacted by their music through both sympathising and empathising with the
lyrics.
Lamar also
adopts a nostalgic tone within the extended video and references influential
artists such as Tupac and Eazy E, who were similarly socially and politically
charged; this emphasises the zeitgeist and rebirths traditional political
hip-hop to impact contemporary audiences. Following the title of the video the
song initiates with silence, which forces the audience to simply marvel at the
mise-en-scene. Four black males are within the car that Lamar is driving, all
of which belong to the independent record label ‘Top Dawg
Entertainment’; the shot pans from the passenger seat round to the
front of the car to Lamar, whilst doing so we see the TDE logo as a sticker on
the front window; beneath this there is a ‘STD's F*** YOU!’ sticker, perhaps in
relation to Eazy E and how he died of aids. This subtle iconography may
be embodying the nostalgia that Lamar and Co are going through as they may be
'taking a trip down memory lane' here. To further reinforce this
idea, Lamar says, ‘R.I.P Pac Doe,’ this post-production sound is
almost like a backing echo and a pastiche of Tupac. This is further emphasised
when Lamar conveys his personal ideologies in a 2015 YouTube video; “when are
we gon’ understand that we are put on earth to love, that’s all it’s about.
Everyone wanna figure out how complicated life is and break it down […] it’s
gon’ keep going on. War gon’ keep going on, frustration gon’ keep going on,
anger gon’ keep going on until we go back to this one word.. love.”[18] Lamar
almost mirrors Tupac who believed that “everything wasn’t meant to be
analysed,”[19] life
should be simpler than it is now and he believes that adults are the ones to
complicate the world. It almost becomes a memorial and a commendation of
the rap legends as he recites 'on my dead homies,' he mirrors Tupac through the
idea of the “ghetto lullaby”[20] which
could be in relation to Tupac's ‘Ghetto Gospel’ and could emphasise the
mirroring of both 'Alright' and 'Ghetto Gospel' through the idea that both are
an outcry to end the war on the streets; the racial discrimination and dichotomy
in society. Tricia Rose believes “if the late Tupac Shakur were a newly
signed artist today, [she believes] he’d likely be considered a socially
conscious rapper and thus relegated to the margins of the commercial hip-hop
field.”[21]
Artists
today are producing music that meets societal expectations, however Lamar
arguably subverts this as he socially comments through his music on a similar
level to Tupac, or perhaps even further. At the beginning of the video “Cartoon
and Cereal”[22]
is played over the rioting of black youths, portraying very defiant
behaviour. Lamar recites, ‘making myself realise what my foundation was,’ before
the introduction of the hook of 'Cartoon and Cereal' initiates; here this may
relate to the idea that this song was the foundation for his first major
studio-debut album ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,’ however this failed to appear on
his debut. The theme of this song relates to Karl Marx's idea of the “Opiate
of the Masses,”[23] as
the idea of sugar and cheap entertainment is something that consumes our
society and an audience lets them enslave their mind. This 'opium,' and this
idea of being a slave to the media relates to societal issues as Lamar is
attempting to reveal the issues within society through his video, 'Alright.' It
almost bases its idea around Stanley Cohen’s “Moral Panics”[24]
as the media is effectively providing audiences with the view that
all black people are defiant; however the power of the mass media has
created this problematic state, through the idea of the ‘Hypodermic Needle Model’
and how the media constructs the image of the “decivilised black man.”[25] Literary
texts such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved convey similar themes such as slavery –
the novel is fragmented into 3 parts highlighting the cycle of slavery; “this
is not a story to pass on”[26]
and one that cannot be repeated but can never be forgotten, like the character
of ‘Beloved’ herself, thus the historical commentary within Lamar’s music,
addressing the issues of slavery and “the emancipation of a real n****,”[27]
highlights the importance of remembrance. New and digital media also offers the
cultivation of the hip-hop genre as “the Internet provides copious sites across
the map where one can travel to diverse international hip-hop scenes at the
click of a computer mouse in the comfort of one's own home.”[28]
This highlights the significance of hip-hop music and the intertextuality with
other music emphasising the zeitgeist and how Lamar is an artist who can
successfully comment through his music, providing a positive influence for audiences.
Following
on from this idea of the ‘zeitgeist,’ Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power”[29]
music video perfectly demonstrates social and political commentary through
their lyrics; their style being somewhat different from Lamar yet conveying the
similar message, audiences are therefore able to become impacted by the themes
explored within the video, such as racial discrimination. “Public Enemy
undoubtedly pushed political hip-hop to a new level. Their intense,
in-your-face rhymes promoted a historical revival amongst black youth
previously separated from prior cultural developments and struggles of the
past.”[30]
Chuck D voices that “once [he] realised that [he’s] a voice that people listen
to, [he] realised [he] had to fill [his] voice with something of substance”[31]
and his “goal [was] to be used as a viaduct, as a dispatcher of information,”[32]
proving their ideologies to provide a positive influence upon audiences.
Therefore “we decided that rappers like Chuck D and Tupac had the preapproved
pedigree to offer criticism and insight; they’d earned a certain amount of
cultural real estate, in that regard, because they’d always embraced commentary
in their music.”[33]
Like 'Alright,' African Americans are being presented in both music videos. The
video begins with a news-type clip about the 1963 march on Washington. This
provides the video with verisimilitude and emphasises the political commentary
that Public Enemy embodied, the extract also finishes with 'The End' almost
like a traditional cartoon would. This may therefore represent the irony of the
situation and reveals Public Enemy's ideologies as they believe that this march
did not change anything as African Americans are still being discriminated,
therefore could represent the negative aspect of the situation. The zeitgeist
is clear to notice here as this 1989 text embodies the idea of hip-hop being a
political platform for artists to express themselves, which Lamar explores in
his own work. The use of the Jazz beats at the end of 'Fight the Power' is also
mirrored throughout the whole of Lamar's album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ and this
referral back to the roots of hip-hop, through these Jazz beats, reflects the
political commentary within hip-hop music today and how artists are more
socially able to explore political themes. Chuck D raps, "our freedom of
speech is freedom or death,"[34] the
original slogan was of Revolutionary-era France, "Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity, or Death,"[35]
which dates back to the 18th century, highlighting the historical
impact upon artists. The difference between the way that Public Enemy express
themselves and Lamar does is the main focus on love of everyone; Lamar's
ideologies revolve around the idea of God and love of everything, whilst Public
Enemy were against cultural appropriation as they had radical views on Jews,
women and gays, which jaded their message.
There are
arguments to suggest that not all hip-hop music has positive effects on
audiences. Through the glamorisation of the “rich, luxurious lifestyle”[36] that
Dyer highlights, artists become mere slaves to the industry; however artists
like Lamar who belongs to an independent record label, comments on the negative
effects of institutionalisation and how fruitless artists are merely corrupted
by the idea of capitalism. “When America desegregated, the music business
itself remained one of the most segregated industries in the country;”[37]
the music industry is the controller of artists who "had to rely heavily
on record labels, which agreed to sell an artist's music, under certain conditions
which usually gave the record label more money from each sale than the
artists.”[38]
Mainstream artists fall victim to the fame and believe they have to commodify
to the stereotypes of rap and hip-hop therefore are dominated by the
institution as they believe “the only way to blow up and become megastars is by
presenting themselves in a negative light,”[39]
linking to the Marxist idea of alienation as the artists are no longer
responsible for their music. The underground rapper, Immortal Technique, highlights
“the opposition between the major label ‘super powers of the industry’ and the
‘underground third world of the street.’”[40]
It is believed that “corporate capitalism, aided by neoliberal deregulation and
privatization, have stolen the culture, sterilized its content, and reformatted
its image to reflect the dominant ideology. Independent, political rap
containing valuable social commentary has been replaced with shallow, corporate
images of thugs, drugs, and racial and gender prejudices filled with both
implicitly and explicitly hegemonic undertones and socially constructed
stereotypes,”[41]
reinforcing Fanon’s idea of the ‘decivilised black man.’ But the bricolage of
hip-hop has changed significantly with artists providing a positive impact on
audiences; Lamar’s song ‘i’ has been used in the “Find Your Words Campaign,”[42]
focusing on mental health and depression. Eminem also portrays his struggles of
penetrating into the hip-hop scene and this is evident within ‘8 Mile.’ Rappers
have become a slave to the industry and those that have not become consumed
have been able to become insightful. J Cole’s album ‘4 Your Eyez Only,’ “channels
‘Be Free’, finding a new niche and renewed purpose as a mouthpiece for black
frustrations, throwing himself headfirst into rap activism,”[43]
whilst Ab-Souls’ ‘Do What Thou Wilt’ album portrays political commentary,
basing itself around the law of Themela. Although most mainstream hip-hop
artists are consumed by the fame and fortune, conscious rap activists such as
Lamar, Cole and Ab-Soul are able to provide audiences with positive political
commentary, enabling an audience to become enlightened by the lyricism within
their artwork.
Artists
who are able to socially and politically comment through their music
axiomatically receive controversy and Lamar is no exception to this; however
the bricolage associated with the genre is formed from media representations
and the definitive ‘binary opposition’ of the black man that is seen throughout
the media industry; the good and the bad. Most predominantly, within journalism
two black men are constructed and “for every threatening image of the black
subject as a marauding narrative, menacing savage or rebellious slave, there is
a comforting image of the black as a double servant, amusing clown and happy
entertainer,”[44]
linking to two of Alvarado’s representations – ‘humour’ and ‘danger.’ It is
also interesting to note that “black success stories do not counterbalance
images of black deviance [...] In many instances Black superstars are not
perceived in terms of their blackness”[45]
they essentially “become colourless, while those blacks who conform to the
criminal stereotype remain ‘black.’”[46]
However it could also be argued that the media cannot be blamed for the
stereotypes as “we do not come to the experience of mass media and popular
culture as blank slates waiting to be written upon or voids waiting to be
filled,”[47]
but undoubtedly audiences are influenced by the images reflected, creating
‘Moral Panics.’ Unjustifiably, “rap music also glorifies drinking, and sex. Two
things which happen to be a major problem among many children today,”[48]
and David Cameron also voices his opinion, posing a question to Radio 1,”do you
realise that some of the stuff that you play on Saturday nights encourages
people to carry guns and knives?”[49] These
are clearly ignorant assumptions of hip-hop music being an advocate of violence
as there are no statistics to provide evidence for this, according to ONS
figures “teenage pregnancies continue to fall,”[50]
therefore the correlation is non-existent. FOX news hold very conservative
ideologies and Lamar’s BET awards performance caused a great deal of
controversy through his performance atop of a police car; Geraldo Rivera
comments on this by voicing, "this is why I say hip-hop has done more
damage to young African-Americans than racism."[51] This
is a perfect example of the “Reception Theory”[52]
as the audience failed to correctly decode the message and this has been
considered as an oppositional reading, highlighting the inability to accept the
issues within society. Lamar then counteracts Rivera’s comments by passionately
saying "how can you take a song about hope and turn it into hatred."[53]
Audiences are therefore able to understand the positive message that Lamar is
portraying through his music and how he is attempting to provide positive
social and political commentary through his music to impact an audience in a
beneficial way.
Undoubtedly,
Kendrick Lamar is a rap activist, a conscious rapper and one that influences
audiences substantially. Surely, if Lamar’s commentary had a negative impact
upon audiences he would not have inspired a college course in Georgia, where
the teacher of the class realises that “hip-hop is about immediate feedback to
the world people observe around them;”[54]
he also would not have impacted upon the former president of the United States,
Barack Obama, to believe “his lyrics are outstanding, his last album was
outstanding, best album of the year;”[55]
he would also not be part of “The National Mentoring Partnership”[56]
or the “Find Your Words Campaign.”[57]
These are not the actions of an artist that provides a negative impact upon
audiences and therefore highlights the importance of the genre as something
more than just music but as an art form that has healing powers, impacting
audiences through social and political commentary. "Hip-hop has been named
the most influential musical genre to emerge since 1960, beating the British
invasion of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles"[58]
emphasising the significance of hip-hop music as a genre whose varied artistic
qualities provide a positive impact upon audiences.
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[2]
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[6] Pidd. H.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/11/black-lives-matter-solidarity-march-protest-manchester.
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[11] MTV.
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[16] J Cole. Dreamville
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[17] Bateman,
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[18] Kendrick
Vs Pac. (2015). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpoeDYNHEUw.
[19] HisLifeAsTupac.
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[20] Kendrick
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[21] Rose, T.
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[22] Kendrick
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[23] Marx.
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[24] Cohen,
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[25] Fanon,
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[26] Morrison,
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[27] Kendrick
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[28] Osumare,
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[29] Public
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[30] Ide. D.
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[31] Chuck,
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[32] ibid.
[33] Williams,
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[34] Public
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[35] Four
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[36] Dyer,
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[37] Charnas,
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[38] Mcleod,
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[39] Chuck,
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[40] Ide, D.
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[41] ibid.
[42] Kaiser
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[43] Pearce,
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[44] Hall, S.,
Evans, J., & Nixon, S. (2013). p. n/a.
[45] Russel,
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[46] ibid.
[47] Rome, D.
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[48] Davey, D.
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[49] BBC News.
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[50] BBC
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[51] Geslani,
M. (2015).
http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/06/fox-news-says-kendrick-lamar-has-done-more-damage-to-young-african-americans-than-racism/.
[52] Hall, S.,
Evans, J., & Nixon, S. (2013). p. n/a.
[53] TMZ.
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[54] Jones, J.
(2014). http://college.usatoday.com/2014/09/01/georgia-students-study-kendrick-lamar-for-class/.
[56] Platon,
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[57] Kaiser
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[58] Radowitz,
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