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Raptivism: Beware, Young Girl

Timely and powerful.

Amplify’d from www.feministing.com

In response to the constant objectification of women, the recent gang rape of a 15 year old girl in Richmond, CA, the unjust incarceration of Sara Kruzan and even the highly publicized violence faced by Rihanna, conscientious rapper and activist Jasiri X has put out a track that discusses the injustice and inhumanity of these crimes.

Read more at www.feministing.com
 

More Gangsta Rap & Politics

Worth reading the whole piece, but the clip below is the heart of the argument.  Mark concludes with the speculation (hope) that gangsta rap is on the way out, and some of the looser vibe and cosmic utopianism of the funk era that preceded it - Parliament/Funkadelic, Sun Ra et al - is returning to match a post-neoliberal politics.  Compare to Marc Lynch on rap and IR.

Amplify’d from www.newstatesman.com

Mama said knock you out

Mark Fisher

The stage was set for hip-hop’s embracing of the gangster. Its adherents were fixated on films such as the Godfather trilogy, Goodfellas and (a particular favourite) Scarface, because they presented a kind of anti-mythical myth. The world they projected – of generalised betrayal, distrust and exploitation – was in tune with the capitalist realism of neoliberalism, except that hip-hop’s celebration of the crime lord, its sense that there was ultimately no difference between the tycoon and the criminal, acted as an unintentional parody of neoliberal rapacity. Even so, the left was faced with the melancholy prospect that the dominant form of black popular music was now a celebration of conspicuous consumption and will to power. In hip-hop, as in neoliberalism, economics bullied politics out of the picture.

Read more at www.newstatesman.com
 

Abu Rapjihad

I agree with Marc’s comment below.  Some of the commenters at NPR pointed out that the piece as broadcast came over as hardcore realist - power as conflict, fixed-sum etc - whereas there are analogies such as the one he draws below that could serve a more idealist (whether liberal or constructivist) perspective.  Still - fun stuff for intro IR classes.

Amplify’d from lynch.foreignpolicy.com

The realest (stuff) I ever wrote

 The one point which I do wish I had developed more in the on-air interview, though, is the reason why rap beefs are about soft power and not hard power. And that, of course, is the legacy of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls — two of the all-time greatest rappers, who were murdered in their primes at the height of the East Coast-West Coast feud.  Those murders, which hang over all rap beefs today, could be equated with World War II’s impact on Europe, with new norms of peaceful conflict resolution emerging out of the collective memory of its horrors.  The memory of Tupac and Biggie — reinforced in the shared narratives which define hip hop’s collective identity — are, like the memory of World War II, a profound barrier to escalation to deadly force which puts the premium on the “soft power” side of beefs. 

Read more at lynch.foreignpolicy.com