Listen, Oakland Officials,
to National Debate Over Rap

The national debate over the contribution of rap to the culture of disrespect reaches new intensity with the release of a documentary, "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes."

We discuss Oakland after these excerpts from a report in The New York Times:

Chicago – Byron Hurt takes pains to say that he is a fan of hip-hop, but over time, says Mr. Hurt, a 36-year-old filmmaker, dreadlocks hanging below his shoulders, "I began to become very conflicted about the music I love."

A new documentary by Mr. Hurt, "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes," questions the violence, degradation of women and homophobia in much of rap music.

Scheduled to go on the air in February as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, the documentary is being shown now at high schools, colleges and Boy's Clubs, and in other forums, as part of an unusual public campaign sponsored by the Independent Television Service, which is based in San Francisco and helped finance the film.

The intended audiences include young fans, hip-hop artists and music industry executives – black and white – who profit from music and videos that glorify swagger and luxury, portray women as sex objects, and imply, critics say, that education and hard work are for suckers and sissies.

What concerns Mr. Hurt and many black scholars is the domination of the hip-hop market by more violent and sexually demeaning songs and videos – an ascendancy, the critics say, that has coincided with the growth of the white audience for rap and the growing role of large corporations in marketing the music.

A screening event in Chicago drew some 250 people, including several high school groups.

Another high school student at the Chicago event, Vasawa Robinson, 19, said rap showed "real life" and that "if you try to show a different picture, the kids won't want to listen." The more political, socially conscious rap, Vasawa said, was for an older generation.

Mr. Hurt's film includes clips from a music video by the rapper 50 Cent, from his album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," in which the singer re-enacts a drive-by shooting he survived and boasts in crude terms of his power and readiness to kill his enemies.

It also includes portions of the video "Tip Drill," an extended fantasy of male sexual domination by the rap star Nelly, who has won praise by promoting literacy and bone marrow donations, but, as the film notes, also markets a drink called Pimp Juice. (New York Times, Dec. 24, 2006)

The thugs and potential thugs of Oakland are relatively few in number, perhaps one or two percent of the population, but they make life miserable for the other 98 percent with boom cars, aggressive street dealing, random gunshots, armed robberies, burglaries, and auto thefts.

To be sure, the causes of the thugs' proud disrespect go deeper than popular culture. It is not simply poverty, since most poor people do not become thugs; just the opposite, they are victims of thug crime and disruption. Certainly, steep walls blocking a middle-class career steer some youth in other directions. Massive resources are needed to change a polarized society into one devoted to helping, even insisting, that everyone become all they can be. A city government does not have these resources, but poverty pimps thrive on gestures of small help, aided by councilmembers eager to "do something" on the cheap.

Nevertheless, Oakland officials need to listen to the national debate about rap music. They lag way behind, capitulating to the culture of disrespect that has turned Oakland into a living hell for most of its flatland residents.

• Oakland officials dithered and dallied to avoid the problems at a Jack London Square nightclub. Indeed, one councilmember intervened in favor the club's disregard for public peace and insisted on no real changes. Finally, two shooting deaths within a few months of each other forced the joint to close.

• The city council gave $1.5 million of Measure Y "violence prevention" tax proceeds to the Youth UpRising agency while it promotes sideshow culture, making cruel use of its youth clientele to help gutter rappers make a video.

• Councilmembers Nadel and Quan talk about the "Boston model" of intervening with problem youth, but only half of it, the social programs. Boston authorities understand that both a carrot and a stick are needed, and Boston has twice the number of police, per population, that Oakland has. City officials have no committed plan to raise Oakland to the 1,100 officers we need.

A citizen activist recently posted his pledge on an email list that he will not give up "despite council apathy and spin, severe police shortages, uninformed citizens, and the blurred line between thug culture and youth culture."

It is time for the apathy and spin to end, time for officials to condemn thug culture and take action.

The "Positive Rap" Game

Smart businessmen polish their image with spoonfuls of charity, and commercially successful gutter rappers use the same tactic. They do it by occasionally lecturing young people to do the right thing and by sponsoring sessions of "rapping and singing about positive community themes." That's the phrase a newspaper columnist got from the managers of the Youth UpRising agency. A hyphy rapper "will work with youth at the center's recording studio and come up with a new record label." (Chip Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 26, 2006)

E-40, who made a hit video promoting the degenerate, disruptive, and disrespectful sideshow culture, also makes appearances at the Youth UpRising facility.

It is a clever tactic until you think about it for a moment:

• Youth UpRising trains eager youth in the technical work of making music videos, and the rapper businessmen make contact with them. Result: guaranteed labor force. Of course, the odds are ridiculous for someone to make a long term, steady career in this work. Why are "youth at risk" steered into dead ends like the vicious music biz? At Youth UpRising, the connection was extremely direct: the instructor of a "Street Hop" class ran a business supplying young people as dancers for music videos – and Youth UpRising boasts of youth from its Center being in E-40's video glorifying sideshow culture.

• On the surface the message to the audience is "positive." Yes, rap can be a form through which oppressed people express outrage at injustice and voice demands for real economic equality. But when E-40 drops in to Youth UpRising, everything about him says, if you want to make money like me, peddle a culture of disruption and violence, cuz that's what sells. Youth know the real message. Only gullible adults miss the wink.

Oakland, already unlivable many hours each week for residents throughout the entire flatlands, is on the verge of a complete meltdown of public safety. Meanwhile, Youth UpRising management engages in a modernized form of poverty pimping. They do so with the approval of Oakland public leaders, which only shows how ignorant or how cynical the latter are. Take your pick.

Police Shut Down Rapper's Liquor Store Show

Police shut down an appearance by rapper Too Short, a favorite of City-funded social agency Youth UpRising, to promote Remy Martin cognac at the Uptown Market on Friday night, Jan. 19, 2007.

In a promotion arranged by billion-dollar southern California liquor distributing company Young's Market Co., the self-style "pimp MC" rapper brought a mobile sound system and began blasting his CDs through the speakers. About 50 fans gathered. Too Short and his entourage encouraged them to buy a bottle of Remy Martin in the store, which Too Short would then autograph. Children too young to buy the cognac could get Too Short's signature on a poster.

Poster on liquor market walls

According to Abdul, owner of Uptown Market for about three months, the appearance was the eighth by Too Short at an east Bay liquor store. A rap gossip website reported Too Short's tour with a posting Oct. 24, 2006. Unconfirmed reports say that the distributor, Young's Market, paid Too Short $50,000 for the series of liquor store appearances.

Police informed the owner that, lacking a permit, he must shut down the event or risk losing his liquor license. He complied.

The Youth UpRising agency hosted Too Short and fellow rapper E-40 on Dec. 22, 2006. While Too Short specializes in the pimp theme, E-40 makes money with a CD promoting sideshow culture. The two co-sponsored Youth UpRising's second annual End-of-Session Showcase and Holiday Party. Too Short then got a glowing newspaper report from San Francisco columnist Chip Johnson. The rapper said, "I felt a calling back to the streets of Oakland, where it all started, to come back and help, be a presence." (San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 26, 2006) According to another report, Too Short announced at the party that he would soon join Youth UpRising as a "career counselor." (East Bay Express, Jan. 10, 2007) Apparently, for Too Short, a call back to the streets of Oakland means disturbing a neighborhood with a huge stereo trucked in to a liquor market in order to promote cognac to youth – then recommending that youth pursue the same career.

Uptown Market, 5635 Shattuck Ave. at Aileen

The Oakland city council gave Youth UpRising a $1.5 million grant, even though the agency promotes sideshow culture. A north Oakland resident, commenting on the Uptown Market event, asks, "Can anyone think of a worse combination than neighborhood corner liquor stores, kids, gangsta rap music, and cognac?" He urges "that the city send a powerful message to the Young's Market fools." While this resident and the police are trying to contain the disruption, Oakland's top leaders shower money on agencies that get in bed with these rappers. When will Oakland leaders stop supporting the culture of disruption and degradation?