Every weekend at work a co-worker and I get into a battle over the radio. Every time he passes the radio he puts it on an urban station. Likewise, every time I pass it, I switch it to an oldies or classic-rock station. It’s a back-and-forth that never ends. It’s almost ritual in nature. But the main reason why I switch the station is because I’ve come to the conclusion that what’s on the radio is offensive. And it’s offensive on multiple levels.
As a black man, I find it really offensive that these aural images are being broadcast and consumed by a white audience. It’s almost like the critique and dismissal of jazz as “jungle music”, only this time there’s really no defense against it. I mean, T-Pain is no Cab Calloway.
Where jazz was/is an actual art form, hip-hop, as heard on the radio, has become every bit as shallow and mindless as its detractors in the ’80s said it was. It’s sad to say, but I can remember when I used to actually defend hip-hop when I was in the company of its critics. But now my only defense is “well, that’s only what’s on the radio,” and that makes me uncomfortable.
I miss the time when “artists” like Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, artists who everyone knew had finite careers, were in the minority. But now, I’m willing to bet that 90% of the people with popular songs or popular ringtones won’t be around in two years, much less a half a decade from now.
I also find what’s on the radio offensive as a fan of hip-hop. I do know that I live in Las Vegas, a notoriously shallow place (but it’s where Tupac was killed so I’ll happily call it “home”) but the fact that Kanye barely gets on the air out here troubles me. I completely realize that radio formats have changed drastically in the past dozen years since I was a regular radio listener, but having to listen to song after song featuring artists from south of the Mason-Dixon line rhyme about their dance or jewelry really turns my stomach.
I think my test of “hip-hop” is this; if I think I’d be offended if a white person covered or interpreted a song, then it’s bad. Case in point; the Barenaked Ladies version of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”. Yeah, it’s ironic, but it’s not offensive. But can you imagine if someone tried to cover “Walk it Out” or, heaven forbid, tried to pull a Zach Galifiankis and make a video for it? It would undoubtedly make me write something for Moodspins.
And I’m not trying to get all Jason Whitlock or post-Don Imus—I’m not calling for a radio ban on certain words. But I am saying that I know if someone white were acting as coonish as some of these rappers it’d be an issue. And any self-respecting black person should probably make it an issue right now.
That’s why I change the station. Because my coworker is endorsing those rappers, songs and station by singing along and turning it on. So I’ve got to do my part to balance the scales.
