Midnight Skylark
|
7/3/2007 6:32:05 PM
The Hipper Hotter Part 3
IS HIPHOP THE NEW HARLEM RENAISSANCE? (Part 3 of 3)
It may surprise some to learn that the more scandalous examples of rap were also around during the Harlem Renaissance when the vinyl phase of the recording industry was just developing. Back in those cultural revolutionary days comedic acts like Butterbeans and Suzie employed rap with heavy sexual innuendo as part of their regular routine. A number of uncensored unrated all-the-way-off-the-chain blues singers did the same.
While there are major similarities between the Harlem Renaissance and modern Hiphop there are also major differences. The Harlem Renaissance has sometimes been described as elitist due to the educator and human rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois’ call for a “Talented Tenth” among African Americans to help the race advance socially, economically, and politically. By contrast, popular Hiphop is more grass roots oriented and tends to be fueled largely by folk and street culture even after proponents of it manage to become millionaires. The very raw nature of that street culture does not always come across as entertaining to those unfamiliar with it.
Another major difference is public awareness of the two movements. The great author-poet Langston Hughes noted famously that if there was a renaissance going on in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s, most folks were too busy trying to earn a living to know anything about it. On the other hand, those who ascribe to Hiphop in any context tend to be very much aware of it. Whether as a form of entertainment, object of media scrutiny, fashion, visual art, personal style, linguistic cool, academic subject matter, or object of controversy, Hiphop is both highly visible and influential. Moreover--in this case very much like the Harlem Renaissance--its impact has not been restricted to the United States but influences lifestyles around the globe.
The private and public awareness of Hiphop also ties into a third major difference between it and the Harlem Renaissance. One defining aspect of the Harlem Renaissance was a geographical migration that took African Americans out the South to the North, Midwest, and West. Rather than a physical migration, Hiphop seems to consist more of an inner journey that initially, in the late 1970s and afterwards, served to help define a generation, but evolved to comprise a crosscultural identity.
In his superb book, On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance, celebrated athlete and author Kareem Abdul Jabbar proffered that the Harlem Renaissance never really faded from history as so many have maintained. In his eyes, the humane principles articulated and championed during the Renaissance simply took on different forms and names like Negritude and the Civil Rights Movement. Whether we consider Hiphop as an evolved manifestation of the Harlem Renaissance or something completely new under the sun, it clearly has moved beyond the stage of just entertaining lives to that of informing and empowering lives.
by Midnight Skyark Aberjhani
|
|