"I Just Like the Beat": Identifying the Future of Black Music

I'm beaming with pride this week as my brother Malcolm releases his first mixtape "The Rat Packt Adventure" with his group The Rat Packt. It's quite the accomplishment, and as a man familiar with the triumphs and tribulations of chasing your dreams, it makes me happy to see him dive right in. There are many lessons we'll discuss, a number of them being shared already. Our paths are slightly different, however, and there are some situations about the music game I do not understand. When Malcolm and I (or like the classic Nickelodeon show, "My Brother and Me") discuss various elements of modern music, there are commonly clashes between regarding the quality and depth of the current songs out. It's bound to happen; we're six years apart. While "Johnny Quest" possesses a great knowledge of music genre and history, he is of a younger generation, the "SnapBack and Tattoos" generation. In this era, the song writing is no longer as crucial to a song's success; if the beat is tough, a tune will get played no matter its content. 

It sounds very geriatric and hater-esque of me to call this generation's music worse than mine; every era had their share of misogynistic songs and controversial artists. Likewise there are many great artist landing on the music scene. This landscape is very different though; the industry continues to push the envelope on language and themes performed in front of a mass audience. Artists are getting younger and younger to reflect the target market, and the airwaves are flooded with dozens of "musicians" whose shelf life is shorter than NFL running backs. The sole goal behind these actions? To make money. The effects? The music quality suffers.  In addition, there have been less songs created with the ability to live beyond their generation (they barely last beyond a month) and earn the label "classic". It will be hard to find classics moving forward, placing faith in the Hip Hop royal family (Jay-Z, Beyonce, and "Uncle" Kanye) and a host of others.  The rest appear to be lost, reduced to releasing songs of simplicity, hyper-sexual behavior, chauvinism, and what I call "rich man's fashion".

Simplicity 

With songs like "Round of Applause",
Waka challenges us intellectually...I need to stop.

As a youth, we were taught the acronym KISS (keep it simple, stupid). Well music artists must be French "kiss"ing, because they are taking that phrase to a new level. Have you heard the rhyme game recently? It's ABYSMAL! "My main chick super hot...morning breath." Song hooks from the late 90s sounded like this: "I love it when they call me 'Big Poppa'; throw your hands in the air if you's a true player." Though easy to follow, Big and Puff are commended for not subjecting us to "N*gga, I'm faded, faded, faded..." as a chorus line. Don't patronize us as listeners; more importantly, don't kill my faith in the creativity of music.

It is impossible to listen to the battle between intellect and arrogance of Jay or Kanye, and be satisfied by..."That's that ish I don't like!" (Which West is ironically featured on). After receiving audio foreplay from the likes of Jill Scott, B, Melanie Fiona, and more recently my crush and songbird Elle Varner, finding depth in "I just wanna see you strip..." is more difficult than originally perceived.

As a fan of Chris Brown's music, it is easy to acknowledge his talent, but it is easier to demand more after the hits he has provided in years past. In some ways Brown and many "R&B" singers are transitioning from singing about love to primarily sex in growing up, which is interesting because you would think you become more familiar with love as you become older.

Hyper Sexual Behavior

"Pop That", "Cake"...Meek has a single titled, "Face Down"; I'm sure he's not talking about cards. The music scene promotes the image of...well, Black people as wild, extreme nymphomaniacs who sandwich sex between partying, smoking weed, and bull...acting a fool. What about the black people who seek knowledge? What about...the brothers and sisters who eat healthy? What about my homies that find good mates, fall in love, and get married? Nobody knows about these people, because they (or music about them) are never on the radio. This state is compounded by our behavior on television as reality shows detail women in the African American communities whose sole value and claim to fame is whom they slept with. This fuels our genre, and our rappers brag of the millions(...and millions) of women that gravel to sleep with them, the R&B singers tell us all the freaky stuff they like to do, and the girls talking about how much they want it. The scary thing is...these are the singles! At least hold it 

It's...a little awkward.

Perhaps the most...disturbing element is the obsession throughout the music industry with sleeping with other people's beau. Why are you so happy about that? You like being immoral? Do you enjoy breaking happy homes? The hell is your problem?! You don't need a top ten single...you need Jesus. That's ignorant. How can you enjoy being evil? We are more than our hormones; while sex is a great activity to share with some one you care about, it (like most things in life) is just a slice of the whole pie. 

Chauvinism

"Mom, why is Lil Wayne pushing you on a
skateboard with no clothes?"

In between the simplicity and sex, our music artists find ample opportunities to belittle the lay-dies. In earlier days, there was a larger voice from the female community pushing for the exploitation and degradation to cease (or at the minimum, decrease). Currently however there are few female voices (specifically in the Hip Hop culture) even around; worse, the voices still able to be heard participate in the labeling and portrayal of woman as second class citizens, good for nothing more than lying on their backs.
With the incredible contributions of women in business, media, politics, and much more, we cannot continue to be satisfied with acting like cavemen. While I believe that females could take a more active role in curbing this behavior by standing up for themselves, at some point males have to say, "Dude, what if a buster called my mom this?" 


I like to change the lyrics in some of these misogynistic songs, substituting important women in where the derogatory names are and see if it's offensive to me. MMG, try it just once. "It's a lot of bad b*tches in the building...your mother." You're not saying "Amen" to that, are you? 

Rich Man's Fashion

She can dress like this. You work in an doctor's office.

Commonly you may see me tweet about people rocking the "rich man's haircut". This is defined as a haircut that is only appropriate if you are a celebrity, absurdly wealthy, a high school or college athlete, or have no plans to be a responsible human being.  Such cuts include the brohawk (Usher), the s-curl (John Legend, Diddy in the late 90s), colored hair (Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa's single strand, Sisqo, The Game) and the peasy fade (Kevin Durant). This trend is not only sported by men; the multicolored manes (Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj) and lace front wigs (Beyonce') are just a few styles adopted by high profile females. 

We are provided a lot of haircuts, and on a broader scale, styles that are best suited to stay in Hollywood. Men are wearing extremely tight pants (and still attempt to sag), getting nose rings, and drawing tattoos on themselves like human coloring books. In some instances, we are in a modern era of androgyny. But nobody's dropping music like Prince, so...why are we dressing like y'all? Matter fact, no offense to the Purple One, but I don't wanna dress like him either! In the real world, dressing like Lil Wayne will get you embarrassed. It works for him, but...we're not him. Ladies, wearing 3 colors in your hair and blinking unceremoniously will not garner the same attention as it does for Ms. Minaj. Imitating the stars is nothing new; your dad probably processed their hair to look like the Temptations. But we are not afforded the same tolerance as stars, nor should we seek that. You have to be the top model version of yourself, perhaps drawing inspiration from the celebs, but not replicating them. 

Jesus...oh yeah my bad, the music.
Artists like Elle Varner (above) give
hope for future generations.

In this era where the songs appear to blend together, we turn to shooting stars to light our path. Will artists like Varner, Fiona, Frank Ocean, Miguel, and J. Cole rejuvenate the soulful genre we have come to love? As I try to offer my brother and his group some form of guidance, I highlight these elements as areas of opportunity. These can be points of emphasis that help push them to the forefront of their respective genre. More importantly, it is my wish that they possess social accountability. The era has been given much more lenience and room for creativity. To quote the Bible, "to whom much is given, much is required." Consider your local and national (global for some) impact as you write, recite, and record. We live in a society where often the personalities of music and film are the only contacts other ethnic groups have with African Americans. We should stress showing off more of the positives of our culture than are currently offered. When they hear our music, they should hear, feel, and love US...not just the beat.


For more on writer Cedric Perry and "Confessions of a Big Dreamer", like the page at www.facebook.com/cedsconfessions.