« No more sports metaphors | Main | Because it's Friday » Barack v. 50 Cent10 Oct 2008 03:54 pm This an interesting piece, but frankly it scares me. I have respect for the work Byron Hurt has done. Also, I've never been a huge 50 fan. But I worry about the scapegoating of 50 here as much as I worry about making Barack into some sort of savior. One thing that concerns me is that I think many of the people in this piece critiquing 50 aren't actually fans of modern hip-hop. I always thought if you wanted to know what was up with hip-hop in the 90s, and the problems inherent with Biggie or Puff or Snoop, you'd be better off listening to some Lauryn Hill or some Jeru, not talking to (no disrespect) Stanley Crouch. I'm really scared of us becoming what we hated when we were hip-hop heads in our 20s--blowhards who didn't really listen to the music, but feeling the need to critique it. Even the choice of 50 as somehow a representative seems dated. Is he really as "right now" as Barack? I don't know. I want to hear from my under-25 peoples. I'm not seeing many of them speaking in this video. I need to think more before I write anything else about this--the broad sweeping generalizations about "black masculinity" are really worrying. We are headed into a new place here, we need to tread lightly. Maybe think more. Talk less. Comments (43)
No, I don't think 50 Cent is relevant to pretty much anyone except for critics of hip-hop music and culture nowadays. Today it's pretty much all about Lil' Wayne and Kanye West, at least in the mainstream. And really, Wayne is a much more complex and problematic character than 50 Cent ever was. 
I think you mean "inherent" rather than "inherit."
Under 25 here, though I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment... 50 is an odd choice. Though he's making more than any other rapper out there, his money isn't coming from hip-hop. Maybe a black man under 25 would be able to relate more to him, but I'm not so sure. If you take a look at the hip-hop gaining popularity as gangsta rap declines (somewhat), you have the backpack rappers, the "hipster hop," and even the lions, Jay-Z, and Nas, are wearing tailored suits and such. I find this video's take on black masculinity to be really problematic, as well. It seems to suggest that black men are 50 Cents who want to be Barack Obamas? That doesn't quite jibe for me. I think if it had more people closer to my age in it, the narrative would be a lot different. It seems like he knew the story he wanted to tell, and asked questions accordingly.
I am a 30 y.o. AA female. I believe we define ourselves. The path 5o cent chose and the path Obama chose are two different ones. I grew up in the hood. On 156st and Fox Street (Hunts Point/Prospect Ave.) in the heart of the South Bronx. I went to failing schools. So you know what I did. I hiked over to the library, I would read the NYT, the Journal and the Washington Post. I started watching C-SPAN at 13. I would take the little dollars I had and bought books. I came from circumstances similar to 50 cent. I seen people get shot. I seen the worse of the worse. You couldn’t get as poor as we were (homelessness). I decided no I am not going to do drugs and no I am not going to fail in school because I wanted better than that. So I finished high school. Graduation was a rare in my neighborhood. I left the “hood” and joined the military. Now I am married with two sons living attending college and deciding on a law school in Tennessee. The point is we have a choice. Some chose to fail and others chose to succeed. We all know how to do it.. Get good grades and stay in school don’t do drugs and don’t hang out with the wrong crowd. Some people chose not to.. I am not saying I am perfect. I am far from it.. I am just say we chose our fate.. Environment and neighborhood have nothing to do with it.. It’s about personal responsibility. People have to be responsible for the CHOICES they make. We choose to be a stereotype others refuse to be a stereotype. Obama refused. 50 is one.
I agree that 50 is about a year out of date. Kanye and Wayne are far more relevant (and far more complicated). But, man - the closer we get to an Obama presidency, the more I worry about the let-down. He's not a savior, he's not going to cleanse your (or our contry's) sins. He's a pol - a talented pol, but just another in a long line of them. It's not fair to ask of him anything else but putting into place policies you agree with.
The critics almost always have their head up their asses. They were showing Doom clips for 10 years after the game was relevant whenever they wanted to blame video game violence for something.
What's the point of this video? Is it a specific attack upon 50 Cent or is it an indictment of hip-hop? If it's the former then it's largely irrelevant. 50 Cent is of a cultural time and place and though there are others who have claimed his mantra (Rick Ross and Young Jeezy spring to mind) that style isn't nearly as popular as it was in the late 90s or early part of this decade. If it's the latter than it's intellectually dishonest. There are plenty of complex, multi-dimensional artists working within the hip-hop medium. David Banner, Kanye, Lupe Fiasco, Common and Nas among many many others. I thought one of the more interesting aspects of Nas' most recent album were the bits where he addressed his critics within the African American community, and concluded that this sort of criticism is largely generational and based upon straw man.
I don't think the filmmaker was really concerned with whether or not 50 is entirely representative of hip hop. Instead, he was looking for the most pronounced contrast to Obama that he could draw. There's not nearly enough apparent contrast between Obama and someone like Jay-Z or Kanye to hang such a simple narrative on, and even though Wayne has a rough, tattooed appearance that seems to say "gangsta" he started out so young that he simply doesn't have the criminal or violent associations that 50 has pretty much built his career on. The basic concept of the piece seems to be: "every black man has a little devil (50) and a little angel (Barack) on his shoulders, and it finally seems like more are listening to the angel than the devil." I think most people in the world (including both 50 and Barack) are a lot more complicated than that.
Sorry, forgot to take my meds.
Hey TNC,
For some reason, I feel compelled to point out that Obama has some really good DNA on both sides of his family. Also, he grew up far away from the US mainland mostly under the influence of a woman who was exceptional for her generation. She was intelligent, adventurous, liberal, and decades ahead of her time. Growing up wealthy and privileged opens all the doors, to be sure. The next best thing is probably to have awesome DNA and a parent like Obama's mother, essentially someone who opens doors with assets other than wealth. Let's be real. Obama is extraordinary. He has to be extraordinary to be where he is because he is making history. One day when Americans are used to black presidents and women presidents, those individuals will no longer have to be extraordinary. I'm not saying Obama is a savior, but his peer group in American history will include Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King. That is the significance of the first African American president. Because he is a black man, I suppose I understand why people want to have these discussions about Obama vs. 50 but there is a much larger context here that kind of dwarfs these opinions. Or maybe I've missed something? Ta-nehisi, sorry, I know you didn't want to hear from middle aged white women on this subject.
This is about 50 as an archetype--not as a person. 50 the person is a thirty something entrepreneur who netted over 100 million or so from his collaboration with Coca Cola. His persona represents freedom from fear of domesticity and death itself. The fear of domesticity is one of the main things destroying black people. Fathers who fail to commit and marry the mother of their children, for example. Barack is the opposite of this fearful, cowardly man.
No it's a good point. On a very basic level, Obama and 50 are in two different professions, which ask two different things. Obama isn't an entertainer. And 50 isn't a politician. Also the more I think about the currency thing, the more I think it's a problem. This video has actually chastened me some. I need to chill.
50's image is still relevant to the discussion given how indelibly burned he is into the minds of everyone - black and white people alike. I think you need 50 to talk about Kanye, but the thing that I find a bit troubling about this video is that - to my eyes - it attempts to explain that a binary exists (you're still a 50 style thug or your a Barack wimp), but doesn't unpack in any useful terms so anyone can examine it. We're going back to the whole virgin/whore dichotomy in the age of Madonna that was so popular in the late 80's. Not too useful! However, not talking about Madonna would be a huge mistake and a lot more could be achieved without doing (excuse the pun) a black/white compare/contrast. I don't see this video as an indictment of hip hop, or 50 per se, or even the saviour-making of Barack. I do see it as incomplete and dangerously thin. That they probably started making this video (got the funding, lined up the production stuff) before the age of Kanye or Lil Wayne is not an excuse. Certainly, a missed opportunity.
Meh. Like a number of people have noted, this is a rather crude oversimplification. But mostly, I am not sure what the point of it all is. How does it mean to move the conversation on race and masculinity forward exactly. The every end has this tag about white patriarchy but it seems entirely tacked on to me. Strange.
I have problems with the broad generalization of "black masculinity". That's not the masculinity that was exhibited by the black men in my family. Admittedly, I grew up in the South in the 70's. The men in my family weren't very educated or very rich but they loved and took care of their families. If they are talking about the media generated narrative of "black masculinity", it might be more believable. Overall, I don't understand the purpose. Black men are complicated individuals not simple caricatures as exhibited in the piece.
Pssh, generalization of this nature are weak and boring. It takes very little energy or effort to make them. This is little more than a covert anti-black male racist peice and yet another way to do the whole Barak ain't black enough bit combined with a little real black people live in the gutter to keep it real for good measure. Masculine and Black? 50 cent vs. Obama. First they both are and should be seen that way but to compare the two is freaking rediculous. Obama is laying the smackdown of the century on American politics in ways we have never seen before and not even breaking a sweat. That folks, is pure manhood.
wow... jelani, ras .... all on ta-nehisi's blog! the mecca is really represented well today. and all a week before homecoming! that is all.
28. I don't know that 50 ever held that high of a place in the eyes/minds of the younger black males who listen to the music. He was never viewed as that tough (all the rumors about him getting stabbed and "snitching") and his music was always kind of, popish.
Like an earlier poster, I may not be so qualified to post, either (24, white, living in the UK -- but born and raised in Chicago!), but I'm definitely with you in that 50 isn't really much *right now.* Let's agree on one thing, though: Barack may like Jay-Z, but his greatest window into modern music, hip-hop or no, can be easily seen in the new "behind the scenes" video he released today, which shows him making a crack backstage at the convention -- he talks about teasing his daughters about meeting the Jonas Brothers. Barack is a father; he knows what his kids like. When I was growing up, my dad was much the same; he knew who the Smashing Pumpkins, for example, were, even if he'd rather listen to old Irish folk ballads. So you're right in that, to a certain extent, 50 is being scapegoated. At the same time, I'm not sure I agree that your fear of becoming exactly what you hated when you were, say, my age is necessarily accurate. I'm a huge hip-hop fan, but that doesn't mean I like all of it, or that all of it's good. As far as acts going right now, I'm a bit of a homerist -- I'm HUGE into Lupe Fiasco. Common's gone a bit to poppy for my taste, but he's still got a great flow. My all-time favorite rapper is Q-Tip, ever since I heard Tribe sample Lou Reed. See, I think hip-hop has reached a point of artistry that can now start being compared with, say, the 1980s as far as rock goes. Thirty years ago, the roots of hip-hop were at a stage rock 'n' roll was at in the '50s. It exploded, got popular, got mainstream, got corporatized, and now is being processed and manufactured like nobody's business. But something magical happened in the '80s, and something magical has been taking place in hip-hop for the last five or six years: the underground has come above ground. Now there's going to be the pop crossover acts that get all the hype in the mainstream press, which is where I think 50 falls in; but there will also be tons of things that go unnoticed by all but the most discerning of fans. It's a great time to love hip-hop. Oh, and if I could just give a plug to Q-Tip's new record "The Renaissance," dropping on Election Day. Sweeeeet.
Sorry for the length. I should prolly get my own blog. 50 Cent is a result of the rejection of young black men from the mainstream economic system. Black men do not expect to be able to compete fairly for real power in the economy. They are outnumbered. If they do everything right, graduate high school, go to college, build a career, they still expect to attain at most a mid-manager position. If they are exceptional and more talented than their white counterpart, they expect to encounter the anticompetitive tactics used by McCain this week – using his whiteness – to gain a competitive edge. These tactics work more times than not out of the media spotlight. A common ethos in rap is: “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees”. Integrating into the American economy is seen as living on your knees. To a certain extent, everyone must serve somebody. Businesses that provide great service last. But, if your pay off for good performance is lower than everyone else’s just because you are black then there is a tacit acceptance of your inferiority. You’ll still be able to take care of your family. But, you won’t be the head of a Fortune 100 unless you are twice as good as your white counterpart and expect to leave your culture at home. 50 represents the other way. A “dignified” way to be a man: working for the Columbian drug lords. The Columbians will invest in young black males. Columbians provide the product, start-up capital, franchise loans, insurance, protection - a diversified range of services to both wholesale and retail drug dealers and they don’t care if they are black or white. The pay is or can be phenomenal. In the 80’s you could net $500 k a week; Default penalties steep – i.e. your life; Occupational hazards – turf wars, crooked cops, armed robbers, etc – are many. But, you can be your own boss. Run your own enterprise. And if your are smart you can minimize and manage the risks – negotiate with your rivals, buy off cops, get talented lawyers, build a fierce rep to scare off stick up artist – so that there is a certain since of job stability. You can dress how you want to dress. You can not only take care of your immediate family, but also employ your extended family. You become a local king in a sense. You rule. Rap is only a reflection of this economic reality. Almost all the real gangsta rappers sold drugs before they became famous rappers. It’s probably the largest employer of black men for the reasons explained above. It’s not a black thing though. It’s circumstantial. My theory is that the Columbians sell products for which they have a competitive advantage. The US so dominates the region economically that the smaller countries must accept US terms or find their own competitive advantage and market. Usually those terms are not to their benefit. And often they are exploitive. That’s a choice that those that are behind in the competitive economic race must make. Barack’s symbolic message will not substantially affect the choice of young black males. He will only affect it if he can increase the real economic benefits of fully integrating so that the Columbian deal looks less valuable in comparison.
hurt (the director) only had ten minutes to work with. but yet and still the stark dichotomy he presents misses perhaps the most interesting dynamic. let's say he sticks with 50. this is 50 too. Or rather, is Curtis Jackson. That movie with Deniro and Pacino? 50 Cent didn't costar. Curtis did. How does this alter the dynamics under study?
This piece reminded me a bit of the Daily Show's "Rapper or Republican" segment.
Im a white irish guy (literaly - Im writing this from Ireland) so maybe my opinion here mightnt be of much relevance, but it seems to me that the comparison made in the video is a very powerful one. Obama is a strikingly refreshing new role model for black masculinity. I watch a lot of american media and it struck me a few years ago how the images of powerful/succesful/cool black men have become uniformly homogenised into the sort of "gangsta" caricature that 50 seems to personify. I remember realising that, at least here in Ireland, we very rarely see depictions of regular middle class American black people - where are they all? I know they must exist. I think that it was a interview from Will Smith (who is admittedly a, pre-obama, one-man massive exception to what Im talking about here) that made me think of this - he noticed that while filming Ali in Africa that even there he saw local kids idolising Tupac and Biggy and he questioned if this was a good thing. Barack Obama is showing that there is pride and honor and masculinity in being academic, non-threatening and, yes - mainstream. Though I can see the positives in the example of 50 and the rest (subverting the stereotypes and making them something that people can identify with and feel proud about) Obama offers a example of less polarising yet powerful (hell he will hopefully soomn be literally the most powerful guy on the planet) black masculinity that has been sorely absent for a long time.
Everytime I see one of these specials I feel like I am in Mr. Gilchrist's 7th grade science 30 years ago having to Dissect frogs but now it is Black Men in America. I wish that Black Liberals and Conservatives and White People leave us the FUCK ALONE. I could care less what any of these people think of me and it's time Black Men do the same thing. 50 Cent is just as relevant as Obama and white america created these sterotypes so let them dismantle them, It's not my job to be a racial ambassdor.
50's not right now at all. Wayne and Kanye and Jeezy are all what's now, as they say on Sportscenter, and they're all somewhat comic figures. I also think they're caricaturing 50. I mean, he mean-mugs a little in his press pictures, but he's far from Mr. Aggressive Angry Thugged-Out Black Male.
By my estimation, 50 is pretty much pop. Hip hop is deeper than the man will ever delve. But I'll willingly admit that I'm not the most unbiased observer.
I'm not 25 & under, I'm 29 but I am also not one of those condescending "hip hop" heads. I loved 50's 1st album. His last few, eh. I think I can speak to what a lot of 25 & unders are listening to though. I am always looking & listening for the some new rap sh-t. 50 is not now, he hasn't been in about 3 years. Don't tell the trad-med that of course. Like others have noted, it's mostly Kanye & Lil Wayne who are "now" I just moved out of NY for the 1st time in my life a couple of months ago but when I was there I went to a couple of shows cool kids & mickey factz. I could have been daddy to some of the kids in those crowds. It's acts like this that the under 25, especially under 21 crowd is following. Look 'em up. I think they are really good, the cool kids are retro sounding definitely big beat types mickey is a little futuristic & out there.
53 yo white female. Don't know anything about this topic; but I loved this - "Maybe think more. Talk less." Excellent. This should be the mantra for everyone in this country on every subject. I'm going to make a sign and put it up on my cubicle at work.
Hey Ta-Nehisi, I'm a 22 year old black female from St. Louis. I read your blog everyday, but I'm always afraid to comment because all the older, wiser, and more angry commenters on the site. :) However, you asked for the under-25 opinion...so here I am. 50 Cent is SO not now. I would have rather (thought I despise their music) have seen Lil' Wayne, Young Jeezy or even T.I. as the comparison to Uncle Barry. These three provide some of the more "heavier" content and the social commentary that many of my black male peers listen to today. 50 Cent was like five, six years ago. They went in too deep using a side of the comparison that's currently pretty much irrelevant in the urban culture. And I agree these generalizations are a bit ridiculous--first of all, young black men in London and young black men in America are not quite the same, past & current oppression-wise. You can't quite compare the two. And it seems like all the critics are generalizing the perception of black men from this "hood" perspective---when there are a LOT of black people who don't live in the hood and/or just don't have those views about black manhood.
The video's central thesis - that at any point the public at large is only able to hold in their collective imagination a single image of black masculinity, and the best we can hope for is for that position to be embodied by someone more intellectually distinguished and with a more stable value system than the money-grubbing sexist thugs on mtv - is absurd.
50+ yo AA/Hispanic female. Ella and Marvin are more my stick than hip hop, but both Barack and 50 can be looked at through the prism of 20th century American cultural mythology. Both are archetypes--50 is Jimmy Cagney in the 1930's Depression era gangster movies that were so popular they literally built Warner Bros. studio and Barack is Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith.." and "Destry Rides Again" and just about every other movie role Stewart ever played (tho' in the last debate, especially when he was sitting down Barack so looked like Cary Grant in "North by Northwest") The difference of course is that all White men were never consigned to one or the other of these archetypes but all Black men are.
Way up-thread, Ann wrote: I believe we define ourselves. The path 5o cent chose and the path Obama chose are two different ones and nvironment and neighborhood have nothing to do with it.. It’s about personal responsibility. People have to be responsible for the CHOICES they make. We choose to be a stereotype others refuse to be a stereotype. Obama refused. 50 is one. The problem is, Barack Obama wasn't raised in the environment or even culture that 50 Cent was. Obama was raised by a white, rather academic family, with the patterns of pedagogy and values that kind of environment creates. Which isn't to say that he wasn't black, or that he didn't experience the realities of American racism: of course he did. But there's a lot going on in the different family systems people grow up in that has real consequences in not only their available choices, but even their temperament, the structure of their attention, their communication, etc. It exists in the very uncomfortable intersection between race and culture.
26. Black male. Completely agree with Eric Daniels and Mitch. The whole premise is problematic to agree with. And will black and white liberals, and white conservatives PLEASE STOP trying to categorize, analyize and examine us. We are PEOPLE. We're not a paradigm. We're not exhibits in a zoo. It's ridiculous. Is the dumb redneck spouting racist nonsense or Al Gore the closest approximation of a white man? One's a white, male, effette liberal and the other is a tough, masculine but currently waning example of a white man. What does this mean for white, male masculinity? Is it a result of their socio-economic backgrounds? The lack of promise in one's economic conditions versus another? How do we reconcile these two? Why is it that George W. Bush who is, essentially, a draft-dodger who shirked out on his military duty seen among "other white men" as somehow manly, but John Kerry, who served honorably, is seen as "effete, liberal and thereby somehow not a real man." What does this say about white men? And their need to "feel" masculine. You've never heard that one have you? I'm sick TO DEATH of this stupid conversation. People need to stop feeding into it. Here's an idea: black men are what all men are, individuals and complicated.
We are not the same. I am a Martian.
What nobody here is really ready to say openly is that hiphop is not designed to handle the intellectual content of full-grown adults. It is the soundtrack for the complex mating rituals of young urban Americans, period. There's a reason that nobody over 25 has anything to say about 'modern hiphop', it's because nobody over 25 cares or has to care. Hiphop is an entertainment commodity, and the best it can be is excellent entertainment.
33 year old black male. Phd in engineering. MBA from ivy league. Grew up listening to hip hop. Still listen to hip hop. Most of my 80GB iPOD is hip hop. Much of this hip hop has been published in the last 3 years. Yet I never listen to the rappers mentioned in this thread. (Maybe if I flip channels and happen to see a video, or hear music from someone's cranked-up car system.) I travel the world on business and for pleasure. I have been in some off-tourist track venues in china, and stumbled across b-boy groups performing. I have browsed hip hop sections in asian and east european music stores and heard rappers I couldn't understand flowing to exotic--yet familiar--beats.
Let me also say that one clear benefit of a President Obama (god willing) is that (FINALLY) the image of the black male dominating the mainstream media will be that of an astute, educated, strategic thinking, serious, family man.
Cobb, Rap Music has always been entertainment just like Jazz, Blues, Rock and any other musical genre. Sometimes the moments we live in compells an artist or artists to speak out in a voice that people will say "Voice of a generation", Hip- Hop as you well know is a culture, Rap Music is a genre with many other subgenres that can be anything you want it to be. In other words it's as American as apple pie, guns, and materialism. 50 Cent is an entertainer playing the Mandingo/ Black Buck/ Criminal Thug for entertainment and mindless consumption. Neither he or any other commerical Rapper represents the full scope of Black Manhood, if the mass media wants to promote that idea and some brothas will run with it just like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Bessie Smith who played those same roles along with the other side of the coin with Duke Ellington, Dizzy, and Miles dressing with class.
This isn't about hip-hop. It's not about 50 Cent. It's about masculinity, as is explicitly says it is. If you ever had to deal with teenagers who ape this style and decide that now it's somehow a mark of realness or whatever to be uninterested in books etc. - if you had to deal with this, you would not have any patience for this pose AT ALL. Believe me.
First of all I'm not sure why the film is so focused on 50, who hasn't been relevant for a long time. Secondly, its portrayal of black masculinity is a stereotype and an oversimplification and obviously isn't true for many if not most African Americans. On the other hand, I would say that in the poorer urban black communities there does exist an attitude that education is not masculine or is "not black". This attitude is a real impediment to black advancement and Barack Obama does provide a powerful role model for black youths in troubled communities. This isn't an indictment of black culture: all youths regardless of color can and should be inspired by him to seek higher education, but maybe Obama will convince some poor black kids who might have otherwise given up on school to stick with it.
50 was chosen because he is a greater household name than the other potential "scapegoat" candidates (Kanye West or Lil Wayne), thus making him more relevant for a larger audience. The video isn't aimed at our hip-hop community, but our black communities.
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If MSNBC held a Who's Now? thing ala ESPN's nonsense, it would be Barack be a landslide.
Posted by Henry Casey | October 10, 2008 4:08 PM