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

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.

wat do u do McWhorter? besides telling the hip-hop world they aren't pro active what do you do to be proactive? dats what i wanna know?

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.

The guy is right. Music helps society if it inspires people to be tangibly better people, study harder, work harder, keep the family in tact, save money, etc... If it doesn't do these things, it's just entertainment, recreation without a higher purpose. And, of course, it may inspire people to be worse human beings than they otherwise would be.

He's rite & wrong. HipHop in its purest form is a cultural-political movement, which can inherently help ALL people see society through a diff. lens, especially through the eyes of ppl who have no voice. 1ce corporate America saw the power of this cultural political movement, they bastardized & drugged it by pushing the decontextualized negatives & downplaying positives. So he's rite 4 saying current HipHop can't help ppl but he doesn't know its pure form. In pure form it starts the dialog.

please, give us an example of its "pure form" since you profess so much knowledge.

ur tone hints of haterism...LOL! now worries here are a few ex:

GmF: The Message ("Don't Push me cause I'm...)
Outkast: Everything
TuPac: Everything
XClan: Everything
Paris: Everything
NWA: Everything
Ice-T: Colors
Mos Def/Talib: Everything
Common: Everything "It's Your World"
PE: Everything
...the list goes on...guy, this exercise is ridiculous. Hip Hop was started as a cultural/political movement 4 those who weren't heard 2 b heard, "Ride of the Valkyries" was not created under such angst.

you didn't read the book did you? He tags virtually every artist you mention. You're right, the exercise is pointless. Repeating "cultural/political" without defining or clarifing those words renders your argument null.

PS - no hate, I love hip hop more than most. But what is its real value, other than entertainment?

No. Reading the book is not necessary to refute his claims. IFF I take what U say is McWhorter's argument (HipHop is merely entertainment), then, again he's right & wrong. Meaningful info/learning that uplifts communities can be drawn from EVERYDAY worldly offerings: Art, disaster, world conflict, speeches, election-rigging, etc. By extension, HipHop has plenty to offer the black community through thought, discussion and eventually value-added action:

examples: self-determination, inc. political acumen, intergenerational $ transfer, freedom, understanding of parental influence, etc. BPs can also reconcile/relate to the angst that forms the underpinnings of HipHop. "Defining/clarifying cultural..." GTFOH! That's public domain clown, & u're not marking a thesis, simple logic. U may hear, "F*ck the po-lice!" I hear, "there r fundamental problems in my comm., my home, with the laws that govern us, they're targeting us, I'm tired of it F*ck them!"