How Touré Failed Hip-Hop AND America

On July 14th, the Washington Post published a piece by Touré titled “How America And Hip-Hop Failed Each Other.” Touré’s editorial quickly made the rounds through the Hip-Hop blogosphere. I personally read it and have to say that I have a few issues with his article. The data that Touré used regarding the war on drugs, the incarceration rates, unemployment rates and the books he brings into the discussion to help hammer home his conclusion was not the problem. Oddly enough, where Touré’s entire piece fell apart was when he discussed anything regarding Hip-Hop. Let me explain why…

Basically Touré’s entire article hinges on how Hip-Hop went from having a majority Black audience in the 80’s, when it was largely Afrocentric and fairly conscious/uplifting, to possessing a mostly Caucasian audience that reveled in criminal/gangsta archetypes in the 90’s. Touré attributes this changeover directly to America’s war on drugs, begun by Richard Nixon but kicked into overdrive by the Reagan administration and its by products and aftereffects. My issue is that while the FBI’s anti-drug funding increased exponentially and crack’s growing presence in the inner cities obviously affected the culture of Hip-Hop, those outside influences weren’t the key reasons Hip-Hop’s aesthetic and core fanbase switched between the 80’s and 90’s .

“If you were an outsider to Hip-Hop culture you’d simply take Touré at his word, seeing as how he’s the ‘expert.’ That would be dangerous & ill advised.”

Let’s get to the meat of the issue here. The switch-over Touré is referring to in his article actually did occur. I saw it happen firsthand and I lived through it. Why did it happen? Not exactly for the reasons that Touré alludes to, they were far more organic and internal. Between the years of 1986 and 1993 Hip-Hop had this change in core fan base. What happened in Hip-Hop itself during those years holds the key to everything. The first part of this era includes the first Hip-Hop Golden Era which spanned the approximate years of 1986 to 1989. During this era advances in sampling technology, production techniques and a new focus on lyricism all emerged.

MCs like Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap and afrocentric/conscious groups like Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, Gang Starr, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, among others, all came into prominence. What we tend to forget is that hardcore/gangsta acts like Schooly D, Just-Ice, Ice T, N.W.A, Geto Boys and many others were popular as well. This is where the naturally fickle nature of urban music reared it’s ugly head.

In urban music (such as Hip-Hop) generations occur in three to five year segments. If a particular style or sub genre of Hip-Hop is hot in 1991 it will fall off sometime between 1994 and 1996 in most cases. Take into account the rise and fall of once super successful acts like Fu-Schnickens and Das-EFX, for example. The first Golden Era of Hip-Hop came to a natural end after four years and settled into crucial space that gave rise to the second (and last) Golden Era of Hip-Hop which lasted between 1992 to 1996 (some include 1997 while I contend it’s part of another era entirely). During the years of 1990 and 1991 the changeover Touré attributes to outside influences other than byproducts caused by internal cultural turmoil occurred.

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Photo: MetroLyrics.com

We’ve entered 1990, the Afrocentric/Conscious Era of Hip-Hop music is already on it’s last legs. A perfect indicator of this change is the group X-Clan and the Blackwatch Movement lead by Professor X (Lumumba Carson). In 1990, their album To The East, Blackwards was successful enough for individual group members to record solo albums between 1990 and 1992. By the time X-Clan released their sophomore album in 1992, interest in the group had dropped significantly and shortly thereafter they broke up. What happened in 1990 that initiated this change? The answer actually lies back in 1989 and Touré missed it completely…

“The BDP crew & several affiliates rushed the stage, tossed Prince Be off and KRS-One rocked “I’m Still #1” for a frenzied audience.” 

How did Hip-Hop’s fan base gain so many White fans between 1989 and 1992 anyways? Let’s examine that issue by looking at Hip-Hop itself. In 1989, several crossover hits that ended up on Rock & Pop radio, got aired on MTV’s Yo! MTV Raps and gained popularity with young kids that weren’t initially Rap fans were made. Among them being Young MC’s “Bust A Move” along with Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina” as well as MC Hammer’s “Turn This Mutha Out.” All of these songs and more people across the country getting cable access to Yo! MTV Raps led to a perfect storm, spawning a wave of hits in 1990 that changed Rap’s destiny forever.

In January 1990, MC Hammer released the inescapable pop Rap hit “U Can’t Touch This.” It became one of the first Rap songs to hit the #1 spot on the Billboard charts. In July 1990, Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” became the next #1 Rap song to hit on Billboard. Between the success of MC Hammer’s Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em and Vanilla Ice’s To The Extreme they brought Rap to a wider audience then ever before  thanks to spins on Rock and Pop radio plus the support of MTV. The success of these two albums forced many Rap artists and Hip-Hop labels to attempt to make crossover hits much in the same fashion. This led to much internal turmoil in the Rap world as rappers began to call each other out for attempting to “sell out.” As would be expected, there was a backlash against what was deemed “Pop Rap.”

So how did we get from MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice dancing on stage in sequins and endorsing every product under the sun to everyone being “hardcore,” “keepin’ it real” and representin’” by 1993? It’s pretty simple. Beginning in 1991, labels began to seek out “alternative Rap” groups or “alternative Rappers” to cater to these fans that would be turned off by harder more aggressive Rap. What happened next? Acts like P.M. Dawn emerged and became successful. P.M. Dawn’s success led to Arrested Development getting signed. By then, a huge segment of Hip-Hop fans and artists became very irritated with Hip-Hop/Rap’s recent Pop leanings and there was a great backlash against it beginning in 1992.

The event that is often cited as the tipping point when the Pop Rap Era ended and the second Hip-Hop Golden Age began is the night P.M. Dawn did a set at Sound Factory and previously Prince Be said some less than flattering (and downright stupid) things about Public Enemy and KRS-One in recent interviews with the music press. KRS-One, the BDP crew and several affiliates and artists that supported him rushed the stage, tossed Prince Be off and KRS-One rocked “I’m Still #1” for a frenzied audience. The backlash against Pop Rap and Alternative Rap came to a head and ushered in a new Golden Age of Hip-Hop as numerous seminal and classic Hip-Hop releases would drop in succession in the following months.

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The cover of issue #39 (December ’92) of The Source declared 1992 “The Year Of The Underground.” From that point on if you weren’t hard, reppin’ the streets, keepin’ it real, smoking blunts, drinking 40’s, playing ceelo, selling crack, bustin’ guns or just keeping it raw or gutter you were seen as not being down with “real Hip-Hop” by 1993. Touré completely glossed over these occurrences in the world of Hip-Hop making it seem as if these changes in Rap and it’s culture occurred almost overnight and they were directly affected by the government’s so called “War On Drugs.”

Touré didn’t even mention how the Time Warner/Cop Killer Controversy or the LA Riots in 1992 affected labels staying away from signing conscious rappers and Rap groups in the following years (case in point, Paris’ Bush Killa LP being released later as Sleeping With The Enemy on his own Scarface label after being dropped by a major). If you were an outsider to Hip-Hop culture and weren’t a fan through this tumultuous time you’d simply take Touré at his word, seeing as how he’s the “expert.” That would be dangerous and ill advised to say the least.

Let’s finish with Touré’s constant mention of Katheryn Russell-Brown’s “criminalblackman” and it’s application to how Hip-Hop artists (and by extension all Black men) are viewed. The thugged out image that pervaded Hip-Hop actually began as an adverse reaction to the Pop Rappers in gaudy sequined outfits that supposedly sold out the culture. From 1992 to 1996, Hip-Hop went in the opposite direction with it’s sound, look and overall aesthetic (as I previously established it always did naturally). That’s NOT to say that corporations and labels didn’t exploit this supposed “criminalblackman” image, focus on it, leading others to adopt it and reap untold fortunes from it.

In conclusion, Touré admirably found a way to simultaneously simplify and complicate the shift of Hip-Hop’s fanbase and focus during a crucial phase “at the same damn time.” For that he failed.

One.