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aslouie -> RE: :: Alicia Keys : Gangsta Rap is Government Ploy (4/17/2008 5:05:24 PM)
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Personally speaking, I could almost agree with Keyes: key words; almost.
I've been opining that in many ways, gangsta rap could actually service the proverbial "Man," much in the same way as say, slavery and segregation--only more subversively. By dressing up old school injustices as "urban expression," never mind the fact that a lot has changed since Biggie and Tupac expired--maybe earlier than that, it seems all of the bombastic posturing about "street cred" no longer is about the horrors of the street. Instead, it's all about the bling, and the cutthroat means to obtain it all, sort of like that opening battle royale scene in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, except with more modern methods of slaughter, i.e. Kalashnikov rifles, TEC-9's.
And given how much then, and maybe still now, that the greater rap industry is financed, if not still owned by white entertainment corporations, it kind of begs the question how much of what constitutes urban expression today, is really about urban living--much less if it's really being creatively controlled by anyone from the urban areas! Seriously...
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