My article in The Philadelphia Inquirer…
Debate through a hip-hop lens
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Movie trailers are great for sparking the imagination. Believe it or not, as I watched the trailer to The Great Debaters, a movie based on a true story of how a debate team from a small black college defeated a top-ranked white debate team, I found myself imagining the merger of debate and hip-hop. Yes, hip-hop.
The movie, released on Christmas, stars Denzel Washington as Melvin Tolson, a dynamic debate-team coach at Wiley College who takes his team to unchartered territory - a square-off with Harvard’s debate team - and wins.
Some have hope that the movie will help revive Wiley College. I do, too, but I’m less interested in it having this kind of impact than how it might inspire black youth enamored by hip-hop culture to consider academic endeavors such as debate a worthy pursuit.
And why not? The spirit of debate is very much in accord with the braggadocios and confrontational spirit of hip-hop culture.
For instance, take how James Farmer Jr., a civil rights leader who was a member of the Wiley debate team, talked about his debate with Malcolm X during an interview: “I debated Malcolm X four times and beat him. I’d think, ‘Come off it, Malcolm, you can’t win. You didn’t come up under Tolson.’ ”
Tell me that’s not a display of the same kind of “This is why I’m hot” attitude you hear in hip-hop music today. Farmer’s expression could easily be substituted with the language of hip-hop, “Come on son/dog/dude, you know you can’t hang - I’m reppin’ Tolson!”
At their extremes, are the sentiments expressed in debate and rap all that different? Similarities run all through the trailer as Denzel is for sure thuggin’ it out. In his words as Tolson, “Debate is combat, but your weapons are words.” And his more bellicose line, “Debate is blood sport! You must destroy your opponent - not only verbally but physically.”
That’s some gangsta debating if I’ve ever heard it. If you can look past the content of the two, hip-hop music and debate begin to seem quite similar.
Take the presidential primary debates as the best example of this parallel. The key elements: giving yourself major props, sending shout-outs to your people, and delivering smackdowns to your opponents. Even those who support Barack Obama’s “let’s all be friends” platform were calling for him to rough up Hillary Clinton. And don’t be fooled - despite his complexion and stature, Dennis Kucinich is a bona fide O.G. (original gangsta).
How great would it be if the spirit of hip-hop merged with the academic rigor of formal debate? Indulge me, will you, while I dream?
I imagine black boys and girls on America’s street corners debating the merits of Bill Cosby’s and Michael Eric Dyson’s views on the condition of blacks as much as they discuss who is tops in rap lyricism. I imagine black youth reppin’ their worldview and philosophy as much as they do their ‘hoods. I picture urban kids being able to recite passages from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech just as easily as they do The Game’s “Dreams.”
OK, we’re far off from that fantasy and this is just a movie, but a brother can dream, can’t he? In reality, I mostly hope the movie at least lays a seed in youth or at best pushes just one kid past the tipping point toward academic excellence.
The overinvestment in and glamorization of hip-hop for some black youth certainly acts as one of the many impediments to this kind of excellence. However, rather than throwing hip-hop out the window, it makes more sense to capitalize and build on the value it does possess.
The real value in hip-hop is in the entrepreneurial, speak-your-mind and hold-your-own spirit, not its content. Take this main ingredient and mix it with the discipline, prestige and intellectualism of debate and you might just have a recipe for success. A very spicy dish it would be.
4 responses so far ↓
1
L
// Dec 31, 2007 at 5:06 am
I won’t wake you from your dream, but I disagree that “the real value in hip-hop is in the entrepreneurial, speak-your-mind and hold-your-own spirit . . .” The real value in hip hop is that it is among the most innovative, impactful, and forceful modes of self expression. I agree that a debater and a rapper (when did rap become hip hop? Are rappers hip hoppers?) are similar inasmuch as they both benefit from rhetorical flair and self-confidence. However, what made me and my peers love rap music was at least as much about the content as it was about the style and force of the message. If rap was really about what you said it is, then there would be little difference between “Rapper’s Delight” and “Criminal Minded.”
What remains of rap music is a sad reminder of its promise. As it is, rap is the embodiment of form over substance, where an artist really can “Make a million dollars saying nothing on the track.” This is why rap is whack and why kids who know the Game’s lyrics would not be attracted to debate. For them, a dope beat and a catchy hook make a hot song. That is the same as memorizing the dictionary and wearing a tailored suit to a debate. Neither is enough, because both lack the force of substance.
2
Mike
// Dec 31, 2007 at 11:15 am
I agree that rap has lost much of it’s substance (I thought you said you wouldn’t wake me from my dream). In today’s age you make rap records about making records. (BTW, no, rap and hip-hop are not the same thing but the same spirit/flavor runs through them). But I also believe that part of hip-hop’s soul is still in tact and there is still much potential there despite the fact that this potential is currently not being lived up to. Call me a dreamer.
Regarding your comment about Rapper’s Delight vs. Criminal Minded… I’d say the content is very different but the “style and force of the message” is very similar.
3
E
// Dec 31, 2007 at 11:17 am
Mike,
I agree whole heartedly with your position, and join ebulliently in your dream. The marriage of Black culture and Western debates is only natural. Rap is the extension of our natural inclination to “shine” with words. In African cultures the use of proverbs is essential to gaining the moniker of a learned man. A great proverb, like a lawyer’s use of poignant precedents, easily silences an amateur orator. I’ve seen debates in my native country where an orator’s speech is belittled and destroyed by a more seasoned orator’s invocation of just one proverb. Recently when my younger brother received his third promotion at his job, he exclaimed at length to my father how happy he was that his hard worked paid off. He talked of all he did to make sure his talents were seen. He talked and talked of his forthcoming masters degree, etc. My father listened, and to remind him of the true origins of his success, he said to my brother: A lion cannot give birth to a goat. That was it.
I find the preceding invocation of African proverbs and oratory, no different that the rapper MiMs use of “This is Why I’m Hot.” As such, I disagree with my brother L, who states “[a]s it is, rap is the embodiment of form over substance. Rap, I submit, is the effort to marry delivery and depth. The journey, or process to achieve this, is as worthy as the destination, or success. A rapper with great depth but lacking in delivery is easily reminded by MiMs that without the union of the former (which MiMs lacks) and the latter (which MiMs has in abundance) one’s substance gets lost when debating a rapper whose delivery enables him to “make million saying nothing on a track.” As examples, Jesse Jackson has delivery, but the absence of substance often compels me to search for a vein to rupture while listening to him. Al Sharpton on the otherhand, while I don’t always agree with his positions, he has both delivery and substance…making him one of our generation’s
greatest orators.
In Jay-Z, I see Martin, and in Nas I see Malcolm. In Biggie I saw Martin and in Tupac, I saw Malcolm. Martin made us feel good, and debated the powers that be in a manner that brought together people of all walks. In Malcolm was a more forceful and practical message, often as divisive as it was necessary. I write this to say Brother Mike, yours may not necessary be just a dream. You write:
“I imagine black boys and girls on America’s street corners debating the merits of Cosby’s and Dyson’s views on the condition of blacks as much as they discuss who is tops in rap lyricism. I imagine black youth reppin’ their worldview and philosophy as much as they do their ‘hoods. I picture urban kids being able to recite passages from King’s I have a dream speech just as easily as they do The Game’s Dreams.”
I think Jay-Z’s buttoned up, too old for rims on my car, buy a night spot rather than buying the bar, approach is akin to Cosby’s scolding…albeit more indirectly. I think Li’l Wayne & Co’s defiance to maturity and conformity mirrors Dyson’s rebuke towards Cosby. I think in “reppin’ their hood,” we learn of most rappers worldview and philosophy. In most rapper’s I hear a libertarian message, asking the powers to be to just let them be. I hear the call for those that are not musicians to fall back and desist from being arbiters of what constitute music. While not necessarily reciting King’s I Have A Dream speech, I hear in today’s youth and their recitals of what’s been called “the CNN of the Ghetto,” …dreams of a better way. The Bling Bling generation are the 80’s babies, born in the crack-era, absent fathers to show and tell them what the right way is; their cries for instant wealth are cries of the desires for a life better than the present.
Much like the anachronistic language of Shakespearean prose, they speak in a language necessitating deeper analysis to ascertain its meaning.
4
Mike
// Dec 31, 2007 at 2:20 pm
E,
Thanks for keeping my dream alive. I must say though, your view of hip-hop is even more positive than my own. Although I know you were making a loose analogy, I find it hard to make such comparisons between the artists you mentioned and Martin and Malcolm. I get the point though.
I do think you were right on the money with your point about hip-hop holding the same kind of power as a proverb (or a lawyer’s use of a “poignant precedent”). I love the example of your father’s referencing the proverb with your brother. When the words in rap speak to important truths they can have the same kind of punch. You also make a great point about hip-hop being about “shining with words”–much like debate. A great reason for them to be together.
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