McWhorter on (Hip Hop) Music: All About The Beat

McWhorter discusses his book, All About The Beat: Why Hip-Hop cant Save Black America

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• MovementMaterial
• John McWhorter
• All About The Beat
• Hip-Hop
• Rap
• Music
• Black
• African American

[FloorOfTheForest]

Hip Hop has failed its people. I don't mean "except people like Commnon". I mean especially people like Common. Not enough rappers educate themselves past the Bible, the Kuran and black nationalist literature.

[FightDPower]

No need to be proactive. I'm of mixed race, mostly white. I choose not to be proactive, because I don't need to be. I've never owned a slave, and neither did my great-grandparents. You were never a slave, for that matter, and neither were your great-grandparents.

I shouldn't be punished for the misdeeds of my ancestors, and you shouldn't be punished for the stupidity of yours. In today's world, with the appropriate natural intelligence, one can be great. Don't turn the clock back.

[sifstarr]

@shaddowmoses91 dude my youtube got hacked by my faggoty brother lol

[shaddowmoses91]

To any idiot calling him an "uncle tom". You are wrong. He is a Black American, and you are a nigger.

[shaddowmoses91]

@NowRenaissanceGroup Yeah but it doesnt "work" for everyone in that way.

[shaddowmoses91]

@sifstarr He looks educated. He looks classy. I'm not gay, but hes a very handsome man. How does he look "faggoty"? He sounds a little "nerdy" but hes brilliant.

[shaddowmoses91]

@Sagefrakrobatik Exactly. "those" songs. Think big picture. Dont use "good" songs with "good" messages as templates for Rap.

[shaddowmoses91]

@FightDPower Well put. How are you mostly white though lol?

[ForChangeMovement]

@Sagefrakrobatik Why they are put on the radio? Like I said before, they are catchy tunes done by artists who sell millions of records anyway. Dead Prez has had one or two semi-catchy tunes themselves, and those tunes were made into singles by their labels. Unfortunately, people didn't gravitate to those songs in huge numbers. Why? Cause Dead Prez didn't deliver the message in a way that was as universally appealing as Nas, Eminem, & Black eyed peas, obviously.

You cant blame media.

[ForChangeMovement]

@Sagefrakrobatik Neither Nas, Black Eyed Peas or Eminem are promoting conscious messages throughout an entire album. Plus, each of the songs you have noted here are all fairly catchy. And, I never said that good music couldnt have a positive message. In fact I think people would purchase positive messages if they were presented in a nice package. What I do believe is that this is not the norm.

The Artists who do this kind of material on the regular dont do it in such a way that it is as catchy.

[Sagefrakrobatik]

@ForChangeMovement Then how do you explain songs like Nas's "I Can" Eminem's "Stan" and Black Eye Peas "Where is the love?" getting airplay? Why are these songs in particular put on the radio that have conscious messages

[sifstarr]

he looks so faggoty