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Disarm hip-hop, reclaim it by Michael Paul Williams |
Hip-hop verses were spread across the floor, and teens were asked to pick up the words that spoke loudest to them. Marcus Gordon, a sophomore at J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico County, selected this rhyme from Mos Def's "Thieves in the Night": The deadly ritual seems immersed, in the perverse Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts Long barrel automatics released in short bursts The length of black life is treated with short worth Why did he select that verse? "It seems like African-Americans are always trying to shoot each other up," he said. "Our lives end up being so short." Gordon was among the participants in "Hip-Hop: A Movement for Social Justice," part of Saturday's Youth Peace Summit at Fifth Baptist Church. Hip-hop, no stranger to blood-soaked imagery, would seem to be an unlikely teaching tool. The slayings of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. and an embrace of thuggery, from the "no snitch" ethos to baggy, prison-inspired attire, make hip-hop a fat target. But speaking as someone who has taken occasional aim, it's also a convenient one. The genre shouldn't be defined by the wannabe thugs and misogynists pushed on us by TV, radio and record companies. And reflexively blaming hip-hop when brutality strikes lets the rest of us off the hook. Indeed, the Richmond Youth Peace Project, which organized the summit with help from the Richmond Peace Education Center and activists/performer A sixth-grader at Fairfield Middle School in Henrico was beaten so severely by schoolmates recently that his jaw is wired shut. In another high-profile case, a high school junior from Spotsylvania County was stabbed to death by an 18-year-old during a melee at a dance party last year. With young people bombarded with aggression, "Many are thirsting to develop their toolkit of responses when they're in a dispute with somebody," said RPEC director Adria Scharf. "In a city where the teen homicide rate is off the charts and thousands of young people are experiencing violence on a daily basis, this is an issue young people should take ownership of." Toward that end, Iman Shabazz and Duron Chavis, board members at the Richmond Peace Education Center, engaged about a dozen youths in how to reclaim ownership of hip-hop as a means to better society. First they laid down the ground rules, including no profanity. They schooled the youths on the origins of hip-hop before commercialism and vulgarity veered the genre off course. They said the culture can be returned to its roots. After all, "hip" means awareness and "hop" represents movement, Shabazz said. Shouldn't hip-hop be a movement of awareness? The rap lyrics that carpeted the floor included references to Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina and undue media influence. One participant noted the prevalence of alcoholic beverage references in the lyrics. "When do you stop drinking and start trying to make a change?" Chavis asked. Shabazz said after the session that the approach is about "getting them to see that they can use [hip-hop] as a tool other than what's popularly perpetuated." Or as Chavis put it, "We just want them to think deeper about what they're listening to." Let's hope the teens can reclaim hip-hop as a movement of awareness -- and in the process, increase the peace. Contact staff writer Michael Paul Williams at mwilliams@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6815. |
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Editorial Page Last Update: 05/08/2007 |