October 4, 2008
Hip-hop is a subject much talked about in the El Paso press since the wounding of 11 people at Graham Central Station (a local night club) on Sept. 21. "Whenever you have a hip-hop night ... it attracts gang members,” El Paso Police Department spokesman Chris Mears told KFOX news. Sgt. Reggie Moton, gang investigation supervisor for the EPPD, told the El Paso Times that hip-hop events provided an opportunity for gang members to gather together and confront one another.
The Avocadoan, which regularly satirizes El Paso news, politics and culture, spoofed the police statements with an article titled Hip-hop still at large as EPPD continues investigation. “It seems that after a week of investigating ... the authorities still cannot locate the whereabouts of hip-hop,” the article stated.
With less humor, many local hip-hop artists believe it highly unfair to blame a musical genre for an isolated criminal event. In response to the issue, the Del Pueblo Alliance, headed up by Reyes Mata III, simultaneously had a radio show, press conference, and panel discussion Thursday at the Percolator downtown.
The event was hectic, with people darting back and forth between the panel discussion and radio debate. The radio portion took place on "Charlando con la Gringa," for which El Paso Media Group editor Lisa Degliantoni is host. “It was a great show,” she said. “I had over 20 people in the two hours come and talk.”
At first the panel discussion oscillated between the heated and the ridiculous. Moderators had to leap onto the floor several times to calm things down. A few silly things were said. The question of whether or not Tupac was still alive came up. (My personal beleif is that he is holidaying with Elvis in Alaska where, every now and then, Mr. Putin replenishes them with fresh supplies.) One gentleman exclaimed that “the thing America fears the most is an educated black man.” The polls seem to suggest otherwise.
But once things settled down, some really intelligent things got said. Border journalist Rafael Nunez expressed his belief that hip-hop artists drew on the circumstances that surrounded them, in much the same way as the narco-corridos. “It’s not like there promoting it. It’s already there. ... It’s not like the music is causing the violence,” he said.
Most artists agreed and were rather eloquent is doing so. One pointed out the ludicrousness of the idea that hip-hop was some sort of organised conspiracy to submerge the nation in violence. “Do you really think a song made someone pick up a gun and make something happen?” questioned another. Most artists were annoyed that alcohol, gangs and drugs had not been brought up. Instead hip-hop was being abused as a catch-all term for all things bad.
“Violence isn’t caused by music. It is caused by social disorders” commented Donelle More, who called hip-hop a “new form of American music … the voice of the people.”
But what if hip-hop was a social disorder? Or at least, the processes of production associated with it? After all, how many hip-hop artists have you heard of who make millions rapping about the joys of raising a family or community organizing? “Sex sells” was the response of one lady on the floor, missing a great opportunity to say nothing.
Nunez brought some order to proceedings by pointing out the breadth of the term “hip-hop.” Most agreed that there were different kinds of hip-hop and that “gangsta rap” had no monopoly on the meaning of the term.
But from where I sat, there did seem to emerge two distinct understandings of the term that went beyond beat-styles or lyrics. Did hip-hop exist to entertain or educate? Was it about mentoring young people into adults or consumers? Did hip-hop have a conscience or did it not need one? These aren’t questions I can answer.
“Hip hop is what has made us into men,” reflected one member of the panel. Perhaps in neighborhoods where kids don’t have much else, hip-hop has a parenting function whether it like it or not. Perhaps it is a youth minister by calling rather than by choice. Again, these aren’t questions I can answer.
But there is one thing I must add before finishing. A lot was said about hip-hop reflecting rather than constructing its surroundings. But a diagnosis isn’t a cure. Marx’s criticism of philosophers seemed apt here: they had “only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point is to change it.” Hip-hop, of all stripes, could yet become what many of the artists at the Percolator dreamed it might be, if it was to take a leaf out of Dr Martin Luther King’s book. Now there’s a man who both interpreted the world and changed it.
There is an American prophet who offered not only diagnosis and cure, but treatment also.