Now is a tremendous time to be a Hip-Hop fan. Not only is Hip-Hop global, but it’s international. By that I mean not only are we seeing music released everywhere for everyone across the globe, we’re all hearing from artists across the globe and seeing collaborations with artists all around the globe.
Now you might say we always had that, but the level of quality has gone up. The pockets of sound are more pronounced and it’s a beautiful thing.
But with that global reach, comes global exposure. This has been a crazy year for Hip-Hop and a couple weeks ago, when the Chris Brown track was posted, some felt the need to malign him. Hip-Hop is a community that welcomes everyone and Hip-Hop Heads is a community that welcomes everyone, but Hip-Hop has a rich history in speaking out about the injustices that beset the disenfranchised.
If people ever want to criticise someone that’s being spoken of in this community, you’re absolutely free to. But please be consistent and self-aware. You can’t in good conscience shit on Chris Brown and not equally shit on Eminem. They both have chequered pasts. I always implore people to ask themselves why they’re happy to act one way to one artist but not to another.
Hip-Hop is about bringing people together and giving voices to people that don’t ordinarily have voices. Best of all, Hip-Hop is so diverse that there’s something for everyone. Sometimes things just aren’t for us and sometimes they’re just a spectacle. But all the time, Hip-Hop is for the people. Hip-Hop will make you laugh, cry, dance, speak up. For every Eminem verse, there’s an Brother Ali verse and for in reverse, for MF DOOM verse, there’s a Chris Brown verse.
Sometimes, as a community we need to do better and call shit out, but we need to do that as a community and consistently.
Ultimately, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this community and I’m really looking forward to hearing new music and seeing you alls reaction to new music.
I just wanted to say that there are intricacies to this genre, but ultimately it’s fun and I’m glad we can enjoy it together.
I felt I needed to put this out there with some of the allegations that are floating around and I truly hope that should there be any truth to any of it, justice is served. Independent of Hip-Hop or music, everyone deserves to be safe.
Why do you feel the need to defend mediocre artist who has demonstrated that he has a complete inability to learn and grow past his horrific behaviour? Hip Hop is littered with abusive, mysoginistic, violent arseholes and each one of them should be called out.
If you’re specifically worried about people talking about how Chris Brown is an abuser, but not Eminem, you can rest easy in the knowledge that he has justifiably been criticised for his behaviour for the entirety of his career. The difference is Eminem never swept any of it under the rug, nor did he shy away from speaking about his problems with drugs and mental health, and the harm he caused because of it, specifically to the women around him.
The same cannot be said for abusers like Bambaataa, his defender KRS, NAS, Dre, Puff Daddy, Chris Brown or any of the other countless motherfuckers who use their money and position within the hip hop community to avoid criticism and consequences for their abhorrent behaviour.