Panel Considers Hip Hop’s Place in Politics

In a year when hip hop artists are applying their music to political speeches, the Black Students Association (BSA) in conjunction with the Institute of Politics (IOP) hosted a panel last night to discuss hip hop’s political and cultural effect on the current generation.

“Hip hop is important because of its influence; in that way, it has political power,” said co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records Damon Dash. “There’s an awareness that can be brought from hip hop.”

Last night’s panel featured a diverse group of participants, including a Boston pastor and community leader and a prominent race scholar.

Brandon M. Terry ’05, a former Black Men’s Forum president and moderator of last night’s panel, said that hip hop should not be disregarded by scholars because of its cultural significance for African Americans.

“Any serious historical study of black politics and culture will note that the two will spill into each other,” he said. “Culture will influence the way blacks do politics.”

However, not everyone in attendance shared Terry’s views.

Tricia Rose, a professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, said that hip hop has lost its political potential due to its commercialization.

“The ghetto has become a product; something to be consumed, something to be worn,” she said, adding that hip hop has become an enterprise that exploits its environment.

Rose also said that hip hop—while it is not the cause of homophobia and misogyny—aids in the distribution of these attitudes.

But Dash said that hip hop culture is changing.

“The younger black men are a lot more evolved than people give them credit for,” said Dash.

Reverend Eugene F. Rivers III ’83, a Boston-area pastor and co-founder of the National Ten-Point Coalition, agreed with Dash, saying that consumers are moving away from buying violent rap music.

“There has been a shift in the consumer market that cannot be denied,” he said, adding that consumers are now more likely to buy an album made by Kayne West than 50 Cent.

Dash also said that critics over-emphasize the negative aspects of the music while downplaying its positive impact on the black community, such as Russell Simmons’s and Sean Comb’s voter mobilization efforts.

“Our culture needs some positive reinforcement,” he said.

Rivers echoed Dash’s sentiments, saying hip hop has filled a void created by the failure of black elites to address the problems of poor blacks of the inner-city.

“The black elite left black people to die,” he said.

BSA President Sarah O. Lockridge-Steckel ’09 said that she enjoyed the event which incorporated “a diverse array of opinions from the community level all the way to the industry level.”

“I appreciated the candid dialogue between the panelists,” she said.