Can I get real, and I mean really, really real, with yall for a moment and ask this question: Is anybody else irked by Steve Stoute and his mission to whitewash, or at the very least tan, black culture?
He seems to be on a mission to present this Kumbaya version of current race relations in this country, which doesn't jive with the reality of America. And truthfully and honestly, that gets under my skin. Like his new book, The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy, Stoute, who started out as a Sony executive and is now an award winning marketing whiz, discusses how what he sees as the impact that Hip Hop has had on how people in globally spend their money.
To help promote his book, recently Stoute has produced a series of videos with Hip-Hop’s biggest names to discuss ways in they all realized that Hip-Hop had fully crossed over to white, mainstream audiences. His first video installment features Jay-z, who is not only a client of Stoute but also business partner to his Translation Advertising, an ad firm specializing in connecting huge corporations to "urban" celebrities for ridiculous amounts of money. Together, Stoute and Jay-z discuss how Hip-Hop has brought the world together and more importantly, has enable them to see their brands across a wider demographic, thanks in part to the new generation that no longer sees color. Also, they suggest that the concept of ‘selling-out’ just does not apply anymore because more and more black folks are invested in the new aspirational culture of the Hip-Hop.
Well I give both Stoute and Jay credit for recognizing that authenticity, creativity and in some cases talent have certainly given way to a more materialistic and denigrating aesthetic in hip-hop.
But this whole idea that Hip-Hop has somehow changed the global landscape is nonsense. First off, white people gravitating to what some would call as black music is not a new phenomenon. Likewise Black culture, more specifically musical culture, has and will always be popular around the world. Prior to hip hop, there was Jazz, Rock & Roll, Soul and Reggae – all with roots in the black community – which had and continue to have wide mainstream and global appeal. But while white folks, as well as folks of other colors, have gravitated to the music, never really meant much for race relations. That’s why the James Browns and, Chuck Berrys, as well as many black artist before them, used to have to enter and exit through the back door just to play to all white audiences at white only establishment. In other words, just because people enjoy our music doesn’t mean they like us. Furthermore, selling our art form to corporations, whose sole purpose is profit, hasn’t really help to mature the art form itself besides making Stoute, Jay-Z and a few other acts here and there rich. Before profits became the motivating factor within Hip-Hop, the music and the culture around it was much more political, much more relatable and more importantly, much more empowering. All we have now is a bunch of white boys calling each other niggers and that somehow we are supposed to see this as progress? Negros please.
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