DMX: The Cleanest Cat in the Game (Literally)

“Broom, vacuum, mop, whatever … it’s a rewarding experience. What can I say? I like clean sh*t, and the supplies were available.”

DMX is a very fascinating player in the hip hop game. I continue to hear peculiar things about him, see hilarious videos of him on youtube doing the most outlandish things, and listen to an occasional song if I need to acquire an excess of energy and anger.

Well folks, the new development on DMX as of about a month ago is that he is leaving rapping to pursue a career in custodial services. I know, hardly believable right. He was first spotted vacuuming a South Carolina nightclub after a party and when approached about the task he was performing he responded with "Broom, vacuum, mop, whatever.. it's a rewarding experience. What can I say? I like clean shit, and the supplies were available."

 As if that wasn't enough to get the internet community talk, just a few weeks ago he was spotted again in South Carolina mopping the floor of a Waffle House around 4 AM. When questioned about it this time, he said he had just gotten out of a party at a nearby strip club and noticed that the janitor had been working all night so he decided he would take over and finish his job. Also, the janitor was allegedly a big fan of DMX which touched DMX. The dog added that "The minute you get too big to mop a floor or wipe a counter, that’s the exact minute you have life f**ked up." I'm actually impressed with DMX as these few services seem to be redeeming qualities in his ever so controversial personality.

 Well, good news for DMX fans is that he is far from ending his career in hip hop. The dog just decided he would like to do some occasional custodial duties on the side when he can. Props right?

What sort of reactions did you have upon hearing this? After breaking down one of his wildly offensive  songs and essentially breaking down his character, does this make you view the dog in a better light?

REAL as told by Kendrick Lamar!

"I do what I wanna do, I say what I wanna say

When I feel, and I..look in the mirror and know I’m there

With my hands in the air, I’m proud to say yeah

I’m real, I’m real, I’m really really real"

The lyrics above are from Kendrick Lamar's song REAL, which is off of his new album Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City. First off, let me say that I have not been able to stop listening to this album for about the past 3 weeks. I listen to at least one song from Good Kid, m.A.A.d City a day, since I downloaded it, so I suggest you get it! But back to the topic at hand. I thought that our discussion(s) about what is real in hip hop were over, that is until I listened to this song and started thinking about what it means to be real again. Lamar does not rap about a lot of the same things that other hip hop artists consider real. He does not talk about his personal struggles in this song, nor does he talk about all of his money, all of the women that he has, all the people that he may have possibly killed, or selling drugs. The lyrics above are from the chorus, and represent how Lamar feels, he is real because he does what he wants to do, says what he wants to say and can proudly look in the mirror knowing that all of his choices are his. The picture that this songs paints about being real, is completely different than what we have seen, and discussed in class this semester. Here is the song. 

The lyrics of this song are talk more about love than violence. In the first verse, Lamar talks about girls who use love and material possessions to fill voids in their lives, which he later admits is the type of girl that he usually gets with. In the second verse he talks about people who are consumed by the hood, (gang members), and love their city so much that they are willing to die for it. In the third verse he talks about how much he loves both types of people that he just described. What is interesting about this song, is that throughout it, he is asking what is the point of love if you don't love yourself, and he is relating love to being real. This is different from what we have seen from nearly every other artist who proclaim to be real. 

The second thing that makes this song interesting is the skits that are featured on it. There are two skits on the song, both of which come in the form of voice messages left on his phone by his parents. In the first skit/voice message, his dad talks about what is real in his opinion. 

“Kenny I aint trippin’ off that Dominos anymore, just calling, sorry to hear what happen to your homeboy, but don’t learn the hard way like I did homie. Any nigga can kill a man, that don’t make you a real nigga. Real is responsibility, real is taking care of your motherfucking family, real is god, nigga”

Once again, we are presented with a different view of what is real than what we have seen before. Real now means love, responsibility, family, and God.

Questions:

*What in the world does it mean to be real?

*What does being real have to do with love?

*Can we consider Kendrick Lamar "real", or are there certain standards that every artist has to meet in order to be real? 

Spectrum of Black Masculinity

At one point in the video we watched today, Byron Hurt was interviewing a group of aspiring rap artists, and asked them the same question he had been asking throughout the entire film. For the most part this was his question, "Why do young black rappers insist on rapping about black on black violence, killing people, selling drugs, and demeaning other black men as well as women". The answer that the artists gave was that they portray a violent image coupled with violent lyrics on purpose, and because that's what record companies want, that is how you get a deal and that is what is being sold. Essentially, the point being made by both Byron Hurt and the artists in this section of the film was that you have to be one dimensional if you want to make it in the rap game. I believe it was said, "They don't want that conscious rap shit". This is problematic because rap artists only portray one image of blackness, and the record labels that sign the artists push that image into society to be consumed by the masses. Unfortunately for black men, the hip hop/rap image is the only image a lot of people see, and the only image that a lot of people believe. The following clip is from a documentary on black masculinity, and addresses black masculinity by comparing Barack Obama with 50 Cent. Additionally I have posted all of 50 Cent's album covers from 2003 until now to show how much his image has changed. 

The main points that were made about 50 Cent’s first album cover were that he was portrayed as a hyper masculine black male, who was invulnerable, and capable of having control in any situation. Additionally we learned in class about homo eroticism, and how it operates in hip hop. Even though his second album cover is less realistic than the first one, I would say his first two album covers are prime examples of it. On both covers you see a greased up, shirtless black man who is powerful at the same time that he is exposed. Both of these covers show a 50 Cent that is a tough-guy from the streets.This is the exact image that record labels want to sell and the exact image that is consumed by those that listen to hip hop. 

Get Rich or Die Tryin', 2003

The Massacre, 2005

Beginning with The Massacre and ending with Curtis, you see the biggest shift in the image and identity that 50 Cent portrays. He is no longer presenting himself as a one dimensional man and rap artist and he is no longer presenting himself as solely dangerous and invulnerable. 50 is instead presenting a different side of himself, toning down his masculinity and being more intentional with the lyrics he uses in his songs. On this specific album the lyrics of his songs and his songs in general switch back and forth between a hard street sound that is more traditional to his career, and a softer deeper sound that he has not expressed before. This is perhaps caused by the fact that he is more of an established artist at this point and has become more successful than average rappers. 

Curtis, 2007

Finally there is his most recent album to date Before I Self Destruct. On this album cover you see a 50 Cent that is in the process of self destructing and exploding. Perhaps he is referring to KRS-One and his song Self Destruction, which is an upbeat hip hop song aimed at stopping violence in poor communities. Or perhaps 50 Cent is feeling the pressure of maintaining a certain image, and this pressure is causing him to have identity problems. Either way the image he presents a vulnerable image on this cover which he did not do with his first two covers.  

Before I Self Destruct, 2009

Images of black men who have more in common with Obama than they do with 50 Cent are not produced and seen. Street is the only image seen in the media, it is the only image we see of 50 Cent, and for those with no relationships with black people it is the only image they know. There is no mass media produced image that is either the complete opposite of what 50 Cent represents or close to the opposite of his image. The media does not produce images of black men with professional jobs, wearing suits and ties; the CEOs, lawyers, doctors and lawyers are not seen. This is harmful to the black community. 

Questions:
*Is there a little bit of 50 and a little bit of Barack in every black male?
*How do the limited images of black men affect the development of their identity?
*How does their identity development affect black women?
         

The "Real" World

            When picturing a rapper’s identity we seem to always focus on certain traits: black, hyper-masculine, threatening, sexualized. This is the expectation for a rapper entering the genre. When we talk successful rappers we talk of an identity that has fully realized itself. A rapper is one who uses their confidence to a degree in which it becomes their persona. Being “real” in hip-hop is what it takes to make it and be validated by fans and a market alike.

         

     A rapper like The Notorious B.I.G can make claims such as, “…Used to sell crack, so I could stack my riches, now I pack gats, to stop all the snitches”. We don’t question Biggie's boastings because we have already validated him as “real”, even more so postmortem, being shot in a drive by, the ultimate testimony to ones “realness”. Even before his untimely demise, Biggies credibility was unquestioned. Hailing from Clinton Hill, an ethnically and financially diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn, Biggie dropped out of a private high school to attend a public counterpart in the surrounding Bed-Stuy neighborhood. Biggie was forever attracted to a life of crime. He began selling crack and was later arrested for both the dealing of crack cocaine and possession of a firearm. This helped Biggie establish an image, which would later be forever written into hip-hop’s history. These themes became the basis of Biggie's identity in the world of rap.  Through his words, Biggie’s identity became that of a drug-pushing thug. Because of his lyrics, we assume Biggie was raised in a poor broken home and choose to not draw focus on the fact that his childhood was much different than we initially perceive. Biggie was able to carry this image into his adulthood because he was strategic with all of the images, lyrics, and persona that he put out for consumption by his listeners and critics.  Maintaining an image like this is just as important as establishing it.  For Biggie to ensure success in the rap game, he would have to perpetuate the image and persona of “real”. His violent death permanently cemented his “realness” in the narrative of rap.

            “Realness” is based on the belief that a rapper’s self identity is somehow synonymous with the audiences perception of the rapper. This is an impossible ideal. Self-identities, according to Stuart Hall, “…are never completed, never finished…Identity is always in the process of formation”(47). We are never fully ourselves, as humans, we are always coming into ourselves, eternally discovering who we “really” are. The true self is one that is continually doubting and reaffirming trying to find a inner, deeper, "real" self. This push inwards is described by Hall, he narrates that there is always "some real self inside there, hiding inside the husks of all the false selves that we present to the rest of the world" (42). It is this inward motion that falsifies the rap persona. How can a rapper be true to himself and therefore "real" if the outside or exterior image of the self is always false?

by Leo Murphy, Fritz Pfaff & Samson Stilwell

Questions
1.) What is the audiences role in a rapper's identity?
2.) Is it possible for content to overrule identity?
3.) Is it more essential for a rapper to establish credibility or maintain it?