In the nearly three decades since rap was born, the music has emerged as a cultural force with a reach much broader than the black urban culture that created it. Now, 75 percent of hip-hop albums are purchased by white consumers, and the global market is constantly expanding. While the music is often celebrated for representing the gritty voice of the inner city, some performers come under fire from politicians, religious leaders and even fans for promoting misogyny, homophobia, profanity and violence in its lyrics. The rap industry is fighting hard to fend off government regulation, and the summit included substantial discussion about self-regulation.
On Friday, after the rap stars and other attendees had dispersed, NEWSWEEK’s Jane Spencer spoke with Simmons about the summit-and the future of hip-hop.
NEWSWEEK: There was a lot of discussion at the summit about media coverage of hip-hop-and the tendency to focus on violence, crime and gangsta rap artists. What stories are not being covered?
Russell Simmons: There’s a lot of talk about rappers and their cars, rappers and their guns. There’s no talk about rappers and their charities-and there are many. The rap community gives more back to their community than any music group that you can think of. [Queen] Latifah visits schools all the time. LL Cool J has Camp Cool J. Puff Daddy has Daddy’s House. Y-Clef has the Clef Kids. Master P has a foundation. Some of the burden of the plight of their people falls on their shoulders, and they feel it more than other artists, but this stuff is not publicized. People leave that out. We forget that the biggest rapper in the world is Will Smith. The second biggest-selling-rapper is Lauryn Hill. They’re so many positive rappers out there putting out records.
But there’s a degree of reality to the violence, with the death of Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G…
If you look back over the 27 years of hip-hop, you have these two high-profile people that died. We still haven’t caught either murderer. We don’t actually know that either one is a rapper. They’re convicted right away in people’s minds. I’m not saying there’s not a violence problem. Rappers don’t become shooters. Shooters become rappers. These people come from this difficult environment and bring a lot of baggage. Just because they get a hit record doesn’t mean that their life changes or that their mindset changes. A hit record won’t transform someone overnight into in a model citizen.
How do you respond to those who criticize the artists you produce for condoning violence and sexism in their lyrics?
People attack us from the outside. They don’t listen close enough. I cannot condemn music that’s a reflection of what happens in society. If an artist says f-k the police, that’s fine by me. It’s a protest song. The lyrics were clear on what they felt and why they felt. Sometimes I remind artists to say why they’re saying it, even if the rap community may already know. That little bit may help people outside the community understand it as well. The messages are clear. They’re about the realities these people face and the suffering under the conditions they live in.
Others have criticized hip-hop’s celebration of capitalism and materialism.
The American dream is all the crap they sell you on television, and when you don’t have it, it’s much more attractive. That’s part of what the artists are saying. People want what they see on TV. They don’t want to be second class. The American dream is a theme of jazz and blues. Chuck Berry had an orange suit. He wasn’t into ripped jeans. Elvis Presley had a ton of cars. They’re rebelling because they hate what they’re living and they want to buy into America. When you get these things, and you travel, they realize it’s not everything. JZ says his Bentley just sits in the garage. Puffy’s got a few Bentleys, but he rides around in his Volkswagen.
What about the role of women in the hip-hop community? There were some young girls at the summit who talked about how awful some lyrics made them feel.
The lyrics are a reflection of the sexism that exists in our society. I hope that this summit inspired more people to be respectful of women-and I hope that women are inspired to be more respectful of themselves. I don’t want to judge them either-but Lil’ Kim, and many women rappers are very aggressive. That’s their response to very aggressive men.
One of the resolutions from the summit was a new commitment to the “Rap the Vote” project. What’s the link between hip-hop and politics?
Kids fuel all the revolutions. Who do you think the Black Panthers were? What was Woodstock? Who’s throwing rocks in Israel? Who really is adamant about their fight or struggle? It’s young people. The FCC [Federal Communications Commission] is suing a radio station over an Eminem record. These are the kind of sparks that wake people up. The hip-hop community is going to mobilize. We plan to get the word out about candidates and issues like race profiling and rap profiling. We’re compassionate, we’re concerned about people that are suffering. We want some of the ideals that the Democrats-and a few that Ralph Nader-talks about. Poor people should benefit from the success we’ve had.
Why is it that makes the reach of hip-hop so broad? 75 percent of hip-hop albums are purchased by whites.
There’s a real connection between the trailers and the projects. Kids reject racism. We have this great melting pot in America, and kids are working hard at turning the flame up on it. When you watch MTV, you see that. You can’t use race as a reason to separate poor people who have the same issues with America. It’s also the integrity in the music. All this gangsta honesty. This poetry is about a real lifestyle that people are stuck with-or fortunate enough to have, depending on the record.
Do you see the rawness-the violence and the profanity-as part of that honesty?
It’s a reflection of reality. They want to break the glass, rather than change the society. The truth always has strong redeeming qualities-listening to the way people talk, understanding the way they think.
Do artists and the industry have a responsibility to deliver a larger message or a mission beyond merely reporting or reflecting the problems of the culture?
We talked a lot about how we might make that more part of the music. We said, “Let’s watch the news and say what we think about it in the music.” We hope that people will be inspired to take the lead and change, instead of just having so much about anger and frustration-which is an honest depiction of a lot of people’s plight. But we said, “Let’s talk about aspirations and possibilities.” We want to do more of that. I think people see that there’s that great opportunity. We hope that’s what comes out of this summit. We want to remind people how powerful they are-and to celebrate that power, and then talk about all of their options, in terms of using that power.
What do you think of the Media and Marketing Accountability Act sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton? [The act is intended to penalize companies that intentionally market records with explicit lyrics to kids.]
I’m very disappointed that Hillary Clinton is supporting it, but I’ve had a little dialogue with her recently, and I feel that she would like to see the industry take responsibility for itself. She doesn’t want to go against our rights. She’d like to the industry work a little harder on living up the commitments that we make. They say its about “marketing,” but it’s lyrics. They say “radio-station decency,” but it’s lyrics. It’s all our First Amendment rights. I think [FCC Chairman] Michael Powell is a smart guy, but he’s not very sophisticated about hip-hop.
What will the new labeling requirements proposed at the summit actually change? Will increasing the visibility of warning labels about explicit content do anything to stop an 8-year-old from buying a CD?
What’s to stop an 8-year old from buying a book? Words are not regulated. It’s not constitutional. Other industries can lobby and sell you anything. They can sell you cigarettes to kill. They have such strong lobbies they can get away with anything. And we can’t even sell books-or lyrics, or language. That’s crazy. This doesn’t hurt you-this inspires you, or at the very least, gives you insight.
Conrad Muhammad [a Black Muslim minister who has strongly criticized Simmons and the industry for promoting violence] has suggested that as a producer, you exploit hip-hop for white audiences with “penny-chasing, champagne-drinking, gold-teeth-wearing, modern-day Sambos.”
People wear gold teeth. White kids in projects wear them too. All those things he refers to are cultural subtleties that rappers have promoted. All these things become the language of the mainstream, the language of young America. The religious right criticizes it like they do any of the new ideas of how people dress, or youth language or culture. The way they did all the jazz artists, the blues artists, for the aspirational stuff, the sexual stuff. All that was perceived as terrible and is thought of as great today. Elvis Presley is even OK today. As much as we like Shakespeare, the future’s going to like DMX.
