Ok, good points here, but I can reply to them all at once: yes, there has always been hip hop that does not use drug dealing as a central lyrical theme, but historically, the most visible/popular/controversial/high-selling hip hop has been of the "gansta" variety where violence and drugs are pretty central. Artists like Tribe are definitely legitimate, cool, whatever, and I can see why people like it, but the way I've always seen that sort of hip-hop in a sociological context is more as "college rap" in the same way there's "college rock"--independently released, sometimes with a cult-following, but without the mass appeal that commercially driven major label hip hop has, so that it doesn't have quite the same impact, especially when you're talking about "hip hop" qua the way your average white person thinks about it. I don't "get off" on coke dealing. Coke dealing to me is, frankly, no big deal and, in fact, something that's been omnipresent in my life. I suppose that I am less offended by it--when I hear people talk about it, it doesn't seem jarring, the words and drug slang themselves are common parlance among basically everyone I know. So there's no "shock value" at all. I only take note when it's a particularly clever turn of phrase or sentiment that i relate to.
This doesn't mean there are no good rappers who don't use gansta rap imagery or lyrics. I happen to prefer hip hop that is beat-driven and club-oriented, I never said there are literally none, if you'll note--I said that I would rather not listen to non-beatdriven hip hop or what some people call "conscious hip hop". ["Name one hip hop artist that doesn't talk about coke...and I guarantee you it's nothing I like sonically." That's why I said, but I suppose you didn't finish reading the second half of the sentence.) I don't know why you're all leaping from my stated dislike of conscious hip hop to "there is no hip hop in history that didn't deal with coke dealing," which itself was stated in an obviously hyperbolic fashion to highlight my passionate preference for beat-drive and production-oriented hip hop.
In any case, I do think that in evaluating why gansta rap uses those themes it is hugely important to consider how explosive gansta rap's impact was, and the cultural climate that existed when gansta rap peaked in popularity in the early-mid 90s. This is when hip hop had the widest-reaching cultural significance INSOFAR AS (note the qualification here) its bold use of highly charged language and the refusal of gansta rappers to back down from their exploration of the struggles of the disenfranchised impoverished black urban youth-- along with the attending wild popularity of their music--made it close to impossible for white people to ignore these issues. The Rodney King beating alone serves as a perfect illustration of the kind of backdrop that accompanied this music, and its relevance, in my mind, is brilliantly and deliberately at the foreground of the lyrics. I think this music and the uproar surrounding it was damn successful in raising awareness and really was a step in the right direction culturally. I love that these artists beat out the censors and used negative publicity to reach more people with their message and their music.
I like Clipse for the same reason the others here do. They're fucking brilliant--lyrically, musically, production-wise, in just about any way I can analyze them. I made the point about tropes not because I think it needs defending on this level, but because I think that the people who say this album is "nihilistic" "debased" or "sociopathic" are being ridiculously literalist.
I only brought up my personal history because I don't like the fact that many people seem to assume that white people who listen to this music are buying into some negative stereotype about black people--I've even heard people suggest that white people who like this "get off" on hearing black people talk about violence and negative aspects of life in the ghetto. I think that is extremely unfair and misses the point when people say this, and I'm frankly sick of being accused by journalists left and right of appreciating Clipse on the level of a suburban white prep school teen boy because I'm white.
I also brought up personal history to point out that if you've lived around drug dealing your entire life, when the Clipse talk about drug dealing, or when any hip hop artist talks about it, you do not immediately feel shocked, horrified, or assume that they could only possibly be saying these things for shock value. I am not embarrassed of my past, I'm proud that I've made it so far despite my problems. I refuse to be ashamed of it, and I see no reason why people shouldn't mention their experiences when talking about things like sociology and racial tension. It's the only way we can talk about it, because there is no "objectivity" in these matters. Plus, we are not in a boardroom, I am not in a classroom, or at a job interview. This is a message board, on the internet, virtual paradise--I don't feel the need to hold myself to the same standards I would in reality. That would be boring, and to be perfectly honest, I couldn't give a rat's ass about what strangers on the internet think of me.
The Clipse, in my opinion, use the less savory details of their experience (in a highly stylized way, of course) to point out to people who are shocked that these things are an everyday, banal reality for some people. There is an added layer there of using hyperbole and caricature and fantastically created imagery about a hyperreal coke utopia. It's brilliant the way they work on two levels. I just think trying to use PC piety or accusing someone of being a "sociopath" because the wrote a song about something negative and ugly is ridiculous. I can think of rock music with infinitely more disturbing lyrics about killing women, sexism. There was Eminem, whom many of these same journalists jizzed themselves over constantly. I hate seeing music I love so much get so misinterpreted, is all. Especially when the concerns raised seem hypocritical and pointlessly self-righteous.
PS I should go read those Nas interviews, because I like this idea that you bring up, Sizzle...
