Claiming Our Music
Black Americans have to get used to claiming our things again. We have to stop acting like other people are so powerful they just took what we had. Other groups only take what we leave behind. Although they try, they haven’t taken Hip Hop (Rap) music. That’s because we haven’t left hip hop behind. Their first attempts were the beastie boys and vanilla ice in the late 80s early 90s. Black Americans stood up to the attack and it failed. They tried and failed again with Eminem. They haven’t been able to take it because we still sitting on top of it. Other groups will never successfully claim Hip Hop music unless Black America moves on and leaves Hip Hop behind.
They generally pick up only what we leave behind. I’m not all the way mad at that because we as a people we tend not to support our own when they’re no longer at the top of their prime making hits. It’s almost like when they’re done making hits we’re on to the next and we forget we forget they ever existed. Case in point Toni Braxton. Toni Baxton was everything in the 90s. But she decided to have a child against the wishes of the music industry. The industry pulled their support from her, and with the rise of Beyonce, so did most of Black America.
The answer here is to cherish our creations. Stop marginalizing artists that were one hit wonders. No more minimizing an artist that had a 3 year run versus an artist that had a 10 year run. Thank those artists for their contributions to the world of music. When a genre is old and we are on to the next, take time to support artists of the past. Rock bands from the 1980s sell out arenas because the generations that grew up on those bands support those bands every time they come to their city. We have to do the same. We have to teach our children the great musical creations we made. Let them know there is more to music than contemporary Hip Hop. Take time to learn the history of our music. And after you learn the history pass it along.
Lastly, whenever our youth create a new sound, embrace that sound. Let’s not make the mistakes the Swing generation did with the Bebop youth. The same mistakes the Funk/Disco generation did with the Hip Hop youth. Welcome the new sounds our youth make. Adults don’t have to like the new sound. Just don’t crap on the new sound. Crapping on the new sound creates a generational divide. The generational divide between hip hop and the Soul/Funk/Disco is what created an opening for groups outside of America to lay claim to Hip Hop. The generational divide between the swing generation and bebop is what allowed white America to sweep in and claim swing. We can no longer afford to play generational divide games. Our music is all a child of the blues. We need to claim it all and Stand on it.
