THE MISEDUTAINMENT OF OUR YOUTH

Hip Hop has the potential for growth or it can cause damage to the psyche of our youth

Written by Courtney Thomas for Defculture.org

I vividly remember listening to Boogie Down Production’s Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop album for the first time in 1989. I remember cutting the front and back yard to earn my $10 weekly allowance that I immediately used in its entirety to purchase BDP’s new cassette tape, followed by the slight disappointment that Kris wasn’t holding a gun on the album cover. I also remember thinking why did KRS-ONE marry Ms. Melodie; she can’t rap and she kind of looked like the “don’t nobody bring me no bad news” witch from the Wiz. But what I remembered most was the enthusiasm with which I ran into my mother’s room, put the television on mute and made her listen to my favorite song on that album, “Why Is That?” She responded by saying, “That’s nice.” That’s nice! Did you even hear the chorus?! “The gov..the gov…the government we have elected is inoperative. “ How could anyone not see that Hip Hop was an unstoppable movement that was bound to change the way we view the world? After that day, I vowed I would never be like that… I would never lose touch with Hip Hop, the music of the youth, the music of the streets, the music that had its finger on the pulse of the inner-city struggle.

Fast-forward twenty years. Now, I am a psychologist working with inner-city youth and KRS-One still gets heavy play in my IPod. However, the greater part of my days are now more likely to be spent listening to an adolescent male explain to me why throwing a chair at his teacher is the appropriate response to the question, “Do you have your homework?”
Just recently, one of these aforementioned chair throwing adolescent males rushed into my office brandishing a blank CD, asking whether I had ever heard of the New Boyz. My response of “who?!” was all the opening he needed to slide his blank CD into my computer and play their hit single, “You’re A Jerk.” At which point, he immediately started “jerking” in my office. Thankfully…”jerking” is a dance which primarily appears to be a cross between doing the “running man” in reverse and a bad 1980’s touchdown celebration. My immediate response was “that’s wack.” After explaining to him what “wack” meant, we agreed to disagree about the merits of the New Boyz and their overall contribution to Hip Hop.

I share these experiences not because my life is particularly interesting but rather I am beginning to wonder have I outgrown Hip Hop. Have I, a self-proclaimed head, lost touch with the music of the youth? When I talk about Hip Hop nowadays, I feel like the angry old man telling the kids to stay off my lawn with their ringtone raps and new fangled auto-tune machines. My argument that any artist whose name begins with “Lil” or “Young” should automatically be disqualified from any discussion about the best rapper alive usually falls on deaf ears. But there is no doubt in my mind that Hip Hop continues to touch the lives of many youths the way it touched mine.

Hip Hop is an art form that has the potential to generate large-scale political, social and emotional change among children and adults. It also has the same potential to be a malignant, destructive, force capable of causing irreparable damage to the psyche of young adults. But maybe it’s the responsibility of those of us who have known Hip Hop longer to bridge the generational gap. Maybe it’s our job to find new ways to use Hip Hop as tool for self-empowerment and progress, as well as allowing it to be a fundamental mechanism in the illustration of how to perform the latest dance moves. Or maybe the New Boyz had it right from the beginning and I really am a jerk, who just can’t seem to let go of the past...