This article focuses on what happened when the corporate world made Hip Hop mainstream and inspired the Hip Hop gangster fairytale.
The Gangster story was not invented by the Hip Hop scene, but has inspired artists imagery since the corporate world came to play.
Since the 1930’s, Gangster films have glamorised the lifestyle with moguls/bitches, (trophy women), guns, expensive clothing, cars, houses, drinks and authority over every day people and the law.
With a desire to increase record sales, the glamorisation of the gangster fairy tale was sensationalised and prioritised and the fall of the gangster-demoralised.
Major labels and advertisers encourage consumers to believe in material wealth via the gangster lifestyle and there are no prizes for guessing that impressionable youths will mimic they’re idols and thus, are easily swayed to commit crimes only to find the process is not as alluring as seen on screen. Yet the persistence to achieve the goal of their idol encourages them to keep on.
One finds that Americanisation has taken a hold of British, urbanised culture, namely with the gangster fairytale, which may play a role in the state the youth is in now.
For example, Ice Cube who is a former member of late 1980’s Compton rap group, NWA, had a track titled ‘The Gangster Fairytale’, which takes street colloquialisms and the harsh realities of gangster life and turns a sequence of nursery rhymes into corrupted images of murder, prostitution and disrespect and suggests getting arrested and poverty is inevitable for a young Black child living in the projects. Yes, for some, it is a harsh truth, but for Ice Cube, it was not. He was raised in a Black middle class community and was an aspiring architect.
Similarly, South London Garage Group, ‘So Solid’, were amongst a lot of controversy within the topic of Brit Hop and youth crime. Members like Ashley Walters, AKA ‘Asha D’ were placed under a microscope and used as a sacrificial lamb for the sins of British society.
Although Asha D was not of a suburban background, he did have a successful acting career, staring in drama’s like ‘The Bill’. Yet, a combination being part of a ‘crew’, his powerful influence over youth’s and his time in prison, arguably reflects the Brit Hop gangster fairy tale.
So why was poverty so appealing and success taboo?
Possibly because both Ice Cube’s and Asha D’s background would be satirical to tough streetwise crew members and even the major record labels who are reliant on the something- from- nothing- story’.
To conclude, the gangster fairytale has not derived from Hip Hop, but ignorance and misunderstanding on the corporate world’s part has created a false image which is not without its repercussions. Moreover, Hip Hop/gangster lifestyle is not suggested purely via music and lyrical content: In this zeitgeist, music cannot make a bold enough statement without a video. With the voyeuristic gaze (the gangsters ‘arm candy’) emphasised, the doors for misogyny and exploration of sexuality are now open.
Join me next year (its sooner than you think I promise) when I'll be exploring Hip Hop visuals, sexuality and misogny in further detail: "What does misogny have to do with youth crime let alone Hip Hop?" You ask. Keep reading to find out.
Stay blessed,
Nadia Gasper.