I'm going to have more to say about the mush-headed nonsense that passes for commentary on Barack Obama's relationship to hip-hop and his magical ability to cleanse young black folks of all things older black folks find embarrassing and conservative whites find offensive, but for the moment I want to put up this short documentary by filmmaker Byron Hurt called Barack and Curtis. The short explores two apparently discrete archetypes of black masculinity on Obama and rapper 50 Cent, but rather than endorsing a binary view that is only a tiptoe away from the old "good nigger/bad nigger" dichotomy, it gets at some of the shared qualities that make them compelling. Perhaps more important, Hurt identifies that problematic aspects of black masculinity are rooted in American masculinity, rather than being the result of some unique black cultural pathology:
The money quote here belongs to Jelani Cobb:
It's almost a kind of underdog vitality that you see in both of them. Because neither of them, by any reasonable stretch, is supposed to be in the position that they're in now...As stark a contrast as you find between Barack Obama and 50 Cent in terms of their personalities, in terms of what they present about black manhood and black masculinity, there is a commonality. These are black men who are playing in a game that was not designed for them. And they are playing in a way that has allowed them to be successful against great odds.
Most of the commentary on Obama and hip-hop ignores the uncomfortable reality that Obama has Jay-Z on his iPod, and that Jay-Z snatches Obama's greatness for a lyrical boast as cheerfully as Biggie once invoked Frank White. If there's one thing hip-hop and Obama have in common, it's an unapologetic embrace of American capitalism that nevertheless acknowledges the terrible fates of those who get chewed up in its wake. But key to both Obama and 50's appeal to youth is that they made it. They made it to heights they weren't supposed to reach. You don't need to be a fan of 50 Cent to acknowledge that.
The irony is that conservatives who clutch their pearls at such a sentiment nevertheless cling to the belief that the unrestricted market by itself solves all ethical and moral dilemmas. "It doesn't matter as long as you're making money" is not a maxim that is unique to hip-hop. There are few posts at The Corner lamenting Pete Coors "coarsening of the culture" through his beer commercials featuring scantily clad blondes tending to mountains exploding with bottles of alcoholic bathwater.
But part of the appeal of hip-hop is it's insistence on telling the stories of those who have learned first hand the ugly side of American capitalism. It is a critical embrace of capitalism that celebrates both the American Dream and recognizes the dark shadow it casts, and Obama and the emcees who shout out his name have this in common. They are certainly more honest than those who cope with these contradictions by denying the humanity of those who find themselves at the bottom.
H/T Ta-Nehisi Coates
-- A. Serwer
