Response

Jeff has responded to the PSA video I posted a couple weeks back. What I want to do now is to paste in his response/comments, interject ideas of my own, and invite others to continue commenting on the video below or any idea that comes out of this Jeff-Will dialogue. Jeff's words are set off as block quotes and my responses are left-justified.

Funny, well-executed parody of a lot of commercial hip-hop - mindless, repetitive barking. Sounds like the artist is annoyed with something I know you and I have been annoyed with forever: the state of commercial entertainment and the way the masses will consume any drivel emptied onto their plates, with no patience for anything thought-provoking or challenging. ("I usually do songs with hooks and concepts and shit, but fuck that man, I'm trying to go blacker.")

Yes. I think that after the shock of the video's boldness dissipates we very quickly realize the core issues at stake. In the core of core is the notion that commercial entertainment, produced by what Adorno calls the culture industry, has become so pervasive and loud that it is very hard to hear ourselves think. The obverse of the culture industry, which pumps out white noise and schlock at a break-neck pace, is certainly the hegemonic masses who lap it all up. The worst part of this duo (culture industry/masses) is that the consumers know perfectly well that what they are getting is superficial garbage. For a more detailed explanation of this thought, check out the book THE DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT by Adorn and Horkheimer.

As for the lyrical content, seems pretty straightforward. He's fighting against the ills of black urban society, and he's calling out the hip-hop industry's glamorization of an inner-city culture he considers rife with problems, including issues of literacy, parenting, financial responsibility ("buy some land, fuck spinning rims"), health and hygene.

Very well said. But let's think about all the layers presented here. On the surface is the "straightforward" antagonism, the explicit calling-out of hip-hop and those who consume it. The artist must be familiar with this well-worn argument that posits "the ills of the black urban society" on one side and the call from various members caught up in that branch of society to clean up the streets. That argument, however, is as old as the GREAT TASTE/LESS FILLING slogan. The artist seems to have calibrated his tone so as to achieve a volume that more people will hear. The swearing and the grotesque images recalling black-faced vaudeville characters makes it so that people can't push this video aside. The people who attack this video for being racist don't seem to have a good grasp on the complexity of race relations in this country. There's a lot more going on here than a bold-faced, racist discourse.

I imagine he views these social problems as ways that an underprivileged class helps to keep itself oppressed, and thinks that commercial hip-hop works as a tool to that end. It's hard to disagree with the sentiment--who doesn't benefit from literacy, strong family ties, physical well-being, and land ownership? It seems to be his opinion that black urban culture is especially lacking in these areas, and that commercial hip-hop, like most commercial art these days (or so it often seems to me), encourages vapidity and reinforces the status quo.

This is what I mean when I mentioned the hegemony of the consuming masses: faced with a dearth of choices, the lower classes choose between the promise of a glamorous life offered by hip-hop, the extremely difficult path of entering into and competing within an educational system that favors the white upper-middle and upper classes, professional sports, religion, etc. What does Biggie Say in READY TO DIE? You either sling crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot. Moreover, I think the artist presents more than just the problems that activists harp on. He presents solutions: educate yourself, take care of your health, buy land.

It also appears that he is trying to knock down the glamorized self-image a lot of rappers put forward. "You're a tough guy? You're too cool for school? How about this: you're uninformed, you're a shitty parent, and your breath stinks." Snotty. Reminds me of Pavement.

It's also interesting how he uses the form to criticize the form (I'm assuming that's what caught your interest?), and airs it on a channel that might reinforce some of the images he's fighting to destroy...

Again, I agree. The form he chose for this Public Service Announcement is the driving force. The Artist certainly risks reinforcing the very images and mechanisms that he's struggling against. The productive element in that risk is that he raises the stakes by calling out the specific aspects of hip-hop culture he sees as damaging. It's a direct address, much in the same way that rappers start feuds by dissing other rappers on their albums. In the case of this video, as well as of the rappers' feuds, there is an intellectual motor whirling within the formal criticisms. This PSA is smart and wickedly sharp. Eminem's words are equally biting.