Hip Hop 101 for Baby Boomers

I've talked alot about the sexual and racial issues in rap music but I realized there's so much more ground to cover. For example I don't think I've even talked about violence, specifically gun violence. You know, shooting people and what not. Hip Hop's birth in the gang-ridden, post-Panthers, South Bronx meant that guns and murder was etched (for better or for worse) into it's aesthetic DNA from the beginning. Even in the old school which is often romanticized as being party centric and fun loving, the guns were there:


KRS-One probably regrets the fact that he made gun play so important to MC credibility, but he definitely played his part. The line from this...




to this...



...is pretty straight and direct with bodies of Tupac and Biggie between them. In the mix, the source material was forgotten:



And though KRS tried desperately to atone for it...



... it was too late. Guns and rappers are linked inextricably and no ammount of "positive" or "conscious" rapping is going to change that fact.

Here are two newish rap videos about guns that have interesting takes on the classic gunrap imagery. First there's El-P's Deep Space 9mm where the gun becomes a metaphor for agression, opression and the interpersonal violence we all do to each other on a daily basis:



And now here's the exact opposite take on the gun image. Gun for gun's sake. The pure joy of bang bang bang. Here's the Clipse havin' fun at the shooting gallery: