The gold standard of hip-hop

On April 11, 2017, Princeton Garden Theatre welcomed Darryl McDaniels as part of visiting associate professor Amy Herzog’s spring course on visual arts and music. McDaniels’s might not be a recognizable name, but he fundamentally shaped the sound of the late 20th century as one of the founding members of the superstar group Run-D.M.C., who opened the doors for the golden age of hip-hop. At the lecture, McDaniels ended one of his responses by saying, “Art succeeds where politics and religion fail.” All forms of art carry a responsibility. Here at the University, we’re much removed from the South Bronx, but most of us are artists in some way or another. We don’t simply create art for the sake of art, but rather for the sake of something greater.

The art that we create sends a distinct message, whether we anticipate it or not. Implications and deeper ideas surround everything we do. Art is a powerful tool; it can make change and speak truth in a way that not much else can.

And yet, modern hip-hop has lost the sense of authenticity and activism that propelled it to prominence and artistic importance at the end of the 20th century. Today’s rap music is devoid of the political involvement and social commentary that transformed hip-hop from simply another genre into a cultural movement of the people, by the people, and for the people.

While the early formative period in hip-hop’s history was defined by music that populated clubs in more of a disco sense, the golden age of hip-hop of the ’80s and ’90s was characterized by an imaginative diversity of sound, true dedication to the artistic endeavor of the genre, and the use of hip-hop to convey messages that were culturally, socially, and politically pressing.

Artists like Eric B. & Rakim and the Beastie Boys pushed the boundaries of what was previously defined as “hip-hop sound” and infused in their music a sense of political urgency and social protest that transformed the art form into an active form of engagement with society. There existed a deep relationship between hip-hop and the society that the genre inhabited — a sense of hip-hop’s duty to convey meaningful, subversive, and deeply urgent messages that seems to be fleeting in the modern hip-hop culture of our time.

Today’s hip-hop is by no means devoid of creativity or innovation; such artistic projects still exist and bring about the same experimentation of sound and meaningful subject matter as the golden age. But the difference is that today’s landscape is saturated by other artists who don’t foster such an intense devotion to the craft. This new pattern of disengaged “mumble rap” substitutes intense rhyme, lyricism, and influential messages for club hits and party songs whose primary goal is commercial success.

It’s in part because of this new direction for hip-hop that society criticizes the genre for being a bad influence for younger generations. In large part, it has lost the sense of powerful and poignant societal and political grounding that old-school hip-hop had. Art is beautiful, daring, and enjoyable, but creation should also spur activism, meaning, and change. Art should send a message to the masses — a concentrated push to stand up for the marginalized and give a voice to the voiceless.

It seems like — at least in the context of today’s landscape of hip-hop — artists are putting out the torch of passion, activism, and societal truth at the moment it’s needed most. Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 masterpiece “To Pimp A Butterfly” and recent release “DAMN.” both show the power of the genre in the modern context. Don’t fall into the pattern; ignite the flame again. We’ve seen the sparks of this renaissance slowly happen. “To Pimp a Butterfly,” a lyrical and artistic masterpiece, opened the door again for what hip-hop could and should be, reigniting the flames of conscious music that confronts the evils of society, the struggles of the weak, and the shortcomings of humanity in the face of oppression. Lamar’s opus not only revolutionized today’s hip-hop landscape through its fusion of sound and production, but also reinstated the essential importance of lyrical storytelling and mindful subject matter. “To Pimp a Butterfly” is simply one example of what hip-hop can aspire toward and of what art can actively achieve in the hearts and souls of those who consume it.