Café Society will meet at the Ron’s Barber Shop on Friday, November 12
From The Inherent Conservatism of Hip-Hop by Thomas Chatterton Williams:
“…mainstream hip-hop culture itself is overwhelmingly conservative by nature, a gangsta party that in more ways than one looks a lot like a Tea Party. What the commentators on both the right and the left fail to realize is that on many social and cultural issues that matter, the message coming out of hip-hop is decidedly right of center.
It’s not just that hip-hop is, to put the matter mildly, pro-gun rights (most mainstream rappers could be on the NRA’s payroll), atavistically homophobic (Byron Hurt documented this convincingly in Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, where even a “conscious” rapper like Talib Kweli is unwilling to go against the anti-gay grain) and spectacularly patriarchal (male-female inequality has always been the law of the hip-hop nation) — it is also unquestioningly God-fearing and, not infrequently, proselytizing.”
Questions for Consideration:
Why does it matter if President Obama listens to hip-hop? Is it problematic that the President associates himself with a performer like Lil Wayne who claims gang membership? Why or why not? How is mainstream hip-hop culture inherently conservative, progressive, or both? What are hip-hop values and what does it mean to be part of the hip-hop generation? How is hip-hop a useful political tool or vehicle for social change?
Want to learn more?