Imagine that you know only what you have seen on MTV. All experiences and education you might have previously had are moot, only pictures and pixels of television form your memories.
MTV and would be your only source of music. You would see the glamour, guns, girls and bling-bling on MTV, and believe those items represent the goals hip-hop culture revolves around.
Most fans with more then a passing interest in the genre obviously have a lot of favorites that don’t make the corporate cut, groups that for one reason or another can’t make the profit that would justify video airplay. For instance, I wouldn’t have seen the hip-hop show I saw last Saturday night in an abandoned dollar store on Milwaukee Avenue. It was a benefit for the October 22nd Coalition (www.october22.org), an organization planning a nationwide protest against police brutality. No doubt, P. Diddy would not have fit on the bill, nor would MTV news have ever said what went down.
The show was filled with intelligent rappers, lacking none of the charisma of our big-budget MTV spectacles, but preaching a gospel of creative, socially conscious rhymes. With a lineup of such b-boy social critics, it was inevitable that the recent exploits of Dubya and the changing face of America would, like a full record crate, be dug into.
“We are here to get the word out,” called out the emcee as I entered the cavernous retail space, dimly lit with graffiti on the walls. As poets dug deeply into the role America has been playing since the attacks, as DJ dug into their record crates, rappers asked questions that I am still pondering. As a member of the group Prime Meridian said, “They’re bombing over there, we’re raising conciousness here.”
“We are only looking forward to vengence, not backward to context,” said a member of the group Typical Cats.
“Like marrying the first person you screw, Americans are just picking up flags and waving them and loving that feel of being part of something without really knowing what that something is,” he continued to say.
If I had only the television view of the world, without the benefit of first hand experience, I would not have discovered some great musicians. I also would only have the expert opinions of Carson Daly and Sway to give me a perspective on Sept. 11th.
This musical example demonstrates what is happening as the nation reacts to the terrorist attacks. In many ways, people are only seeing the war through the lenses of CNN. The media is not covering every aspect of the attacks. Nor can we expect one media outlet to accomplish that task; news organizations, especially those on television, can only fit so much information onto the air. Stories will always be cut.
However, that doesn’t mean that these stories disappear or don’t matter. There are many other sources of information that contain vital information that we should listen to. The Guardian, a non-for profit paper in England, has had extensive coverage of the Afghani point of view. They also have the advantage of not having to alter their coverage to appease advertisors. As a journalism professor once told me, the freedom of the press is controlled by who owns the press.
America is supposed to be governed by the power of a well-informed electorate (though recent election results have shown that increasingly isn’t the case.) While Americans never had an excuse to be ignorant of what politicians in Washington decide, nobody has an excuse to stay ignorant when our country is at war. After all, if we take the easiest route, all we get is some wack rhymes from P. Diddy.
