The Death of Hip Hop And the Dumbing Down of a Generation
In an era in which the Migos are lauded as the greatest rap group ever, I have chosen to refrain for general conversations about the current state of Hip-Hop and rap music, in specific. However, this particular image of a post represents something more than the loss of pure authentic music.
What you are witnessing here is the subtle manner in which history is erased and rewritten to put a far inferior representation of a group of people front and center. This is not a personal attack on XXXTentacion, he was simply a pond being moved around in a game of heavyweights.
What I found amusing about this post was the foolish postulations being made followed by a demand to do research. If the person who posted this would have followed his own advice, he would have found that Tupac was all of those things that he attributed to the younger rapper. That there was a reason for his icon position as a legend in the game.
I am not one to dare mention Pac’s name when discussing past warriors like Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, and Marcus, but he was the ultimate representation of the enigmatic frustration of his generation. On one hand, there was pure brilliance and an expansive awareness of the multitudinous machinations at work against our people. On the other hand, was the lure of materialism and the false validation of the streets. Pac died 22 years ago, and he is still the #1 selling rap artist in history. He died before the emergence of the internet as it is today. There were not streaming channels to help push his sales.
He definitely wrestled with his own demons, as we all do, and I am sure that XXXTentacion did as well. We live in an error in which everything is being dumbed down and massed produced as a form of social conditioning. Honestly, 2Pac would not be someone I would put in front of my son as an ideal role model, but he is definitely someone I would use him to explain the frustration of opposing ideals being embodied in one individual.
Things have gotten so bad that the wife and I decided to pull our kids off of social media and reduced their screen time drastically. I decided to be the ones who would decide what would serve as mental stimulation for our children. Our girls are being influenced by young women who don’t even know who they are, as evidenced by the manner in which they mutilate themselves to achieve a Eurocentric standard of beauty.
There are some who will read this and think this is just some old-school cat ranting about change. The truth is that I am all for change. I teach people how to embrace change for a living. I have enjoyed the evolution of music until I noticed the nefarious intent to dumb it down and in the process to dumb down an entire generation.
Researchers have now confirmed that what has long been suspected is true. Today’s music, including Hip-Hop, R&B, and Pop music is having a negative effect on the brain of listeners. The current music has lowered the level of creativity (invention, problem-solving, and more) in those who listen to these particular genres (North, 2008).
The push to dumb down the American population is not limited to only music. There are a number of college boards who have voted to revamp vocabulary standards, virtually eliminating words that are not in everyday use. A limited vocabulary is one of the most profound ways of generalizing the public. However, because music is rhythmic it has a very powerful impact on the brain and the energy waves it creates. Music can calm anxiety or cause it. It can create confidence or cause fear. Music has the power to nurture or totally disrupt brain patterns and thought processes.
The use of music and media has a long history when it comes to social conditioning and dictating how people think and respond to certain stimuli. The influence of music is so subtle that those it impacts truly believe that they are making their own choices, but even a person’s taste in music is controlled to some extent by the powers that be.
Music, like any other stimuli, elicits emotional responses, which tend to recall past experiences. If the music is light and uplifting, it tends to solicit positive memories, but if it is dark, it will tend to do the opposite.
Get your signed copy of Born in Captivity: Psychopathology as a Legacy of Slavery!
What is more nefarious about today’s Hip-Hop music is that it does not challenge the brain to think. Much of it unintelligible or extremely simple. When the rappers of the past used metaphors and similes it caused the brain to have to think in order to come to the right conclusion. Those old punchlines that are almost extinct now were more than just dope lines, they were stimulating to the brain. These lines nurtured the right side of the brain, stirring our creativity while simultaneously challenging the left side of the brain to engage critical thought.
We now live in a world where the beat and the hook sell the song. Nobody is talking about the lyrics anymore. If you can bob your head to it, then it is considered a hit. Even the engineers that produce the tracks are slacking in their craft because nobody is demanding excellence in the finished product.
This is not just about bad music, but it gets to the heart of a dangerous trend of mis-educating our youth and filling their minds with meaningless and harmful information. Much of the counterproductive behavior in the Black collective that is considered as a part of our inherent culture is actually psychopathological behavior that serves as a legacy of slavery. A substantial portion of the music that our younger generation is listening to is designed to underwrite the ideas and paradigms that support these psychopathologies.
“If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.” ― Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro
When I first saw this post, I saw more than a misinformed opinion. I saw the results of the dumbing down of a generation. We have graduated from the age of information and now we are in the age of experience. Not only is everything you need to know to be successful in life within your grasp, but that information is being automatically funneled to us through micro-devices like smartphones and tablets. Knowledge has become an experience and the experience has a major impact on how we see ourselves and the world around us.
Technology has brought us to a point in which we rarely think for ourselves; we let our devices do it for us.
Dr. Rick Wallace is the Founder & CEO of The Visionetics Institute and the author of 20 books that include Born in Captivity: Psychopathology as a Legacy of Slavery and Critical Mass: The Phenomenon of Next-Level Living. He is a leading contributor to the development of solutions that will lead to the elevation and empowerment of the Black collective.