The
gentleman in the above picture unfortunately represents many of the
stereotypes, unfounded and concrete, associated with Hip Hop music and
culture. To the hip hop uninitiated, i.e. corporate media and your
parents, the picture likely sums up all of their fears in one neat 8×12
frame. The ostentatious display of money, guns, and gadgets evokes
images of hustling, violence, and materialism. Sadly, the floppy disks as bling
only reinforce the digital divide for minorities. The young man
certainly provides fodder to the debate whether life imitates art, or
vice versa. Is he posing because he’s a thug? Or he is imitating
pictures seen in countless album liners, such as The Game’s 2005 “The
Documentary” seen below?
These
images reinforce these negative stereotypes and strip rap from its
rightful appreciation as urban poetry. The thug image sells just as
well as sex does these days, and that’s why photos of young, tatted men
with guns proliferate. The reality is that while much of rap speaks to
the truth of hard living in urban America, it appears that there is a
flipside. One cannot argue that much of the fronting, boasting and
beefing is more about image and record sales and less about life. The
Game, previously known as Jayceon Taylor, is seen above in his kitchen
with an AK-47 and a box of Smacks. Before his hip hop career took off,
he was the loser on “The Dating Game” sometime in the 90’s. Not meaning
to mock one’s lamest moments, the picture serves to illustrate what the
rest of America could learn from hip hop. These aren’t individuals one
should fear, but rather try to understand.

Just
as Stanley Kowalski from “A Streetcar Named Desire” was an angry,
scared, and sensitive man, trapped by the shortcomings of his
upbringing, the same can be said for many rappers. Marshall Mathers,
better known as Eminem, has shared his stories of childhood struggle,
from parental drug abuse, to claims of Munchausen Syndrome.
Eminem’s vicious rants against his sometime wife Kim echo the words
Tennessee Williams penned for Stanley. Each exhibits a personal turmoil
that bubbles over in cruel diatribe towards others.

Next
time you see a rapper flexing and preening in order to convey maximum
“alpha male,” think 50 all the time, remember what the former NBAer and
openly gay John Amaechi had to say about locker rooms:
“The
NBA locker room was the most flamboyant place I’d ever been. Guys
flaunted their perfect bodies. They bragged about sexual exploits. They
primped in front of the mirror, applying cologne and hair gel by the
bucketful. They tried on each other’s $10,000 suits, admired each
other’s rings and necklaces. It was an intense camaraderie that felt
completely natural to them. Surveying the room, I couldn’t help
chuckling to myself: And I’m the gay one.”

Taken in 2006, the
photo of Lil Wayne and Baby apparently kissing near the lips, created
an uproar in hip hop. As the below article explains, sexuality and the
machismo are on a collision course.