What’s So Important About Hip-Hop?
April 1, 2004
by Michael Walls

Hip-hop music is hard to ignore. Catchy rhythms, pounding beats, hypnotically rhyming lyrics...and can be heard on every damn stop of the radio dial! So why do we need another hip-hop program on the radio?

A polite young lady by the name of Shayla Diaz has been hounding me for several weeks to help her promote a brand new radio show called “Block Radio” being broadcast on WDRE (also known as Party 105.3) across the eastern end of Long Island, New York.

“Block Radio” is a 2-hour hip-hop program that runs every Tuesday evening from 9-11pm, and will feature the sounds of hip-hop along with guest DJs and special on-air guest interviews.

I initially told Ms. Diaz that we don’t really do promotional-type features, especially for the sake of just promotion. We prefer to write about things we like or dislike and let the commentary do the promoting or discouraging. But Ms. Diaz insisted that we take a look at her press package and I agreed to look it over.

After reading it, I immediately decided I needed to write about this new radio show. Unfortunately for Ms. Diaz, it’s going to be for the exact opposite reasons she hoped I’d write about it. But, like they say in the PR business – “There’s no such thing as bad press.”

Attached to the bottom of this article is a link to the press release for “Block Radio”. Feel free to read it in its entirety, but it isn’t necessary, as I will be highlighting most of the important elements from it.

Let me just state for the record that I am not a big fan of hip-hop. This isn’t to say, I’m not familiar with it, as hip-hop is nearly impossible to avoid, and has managed to cross-over into other genres of music. And I also don’t “hate” hip-hop, as there are a few artists I listen to and enjoy. But on a whole, hip-hop isn’t something I go out of my way to seek out or listen to.

But that’s just me. I respect and appreciate the fact that everyone else has their own taste in music, and think this is what makes the world go ‘round.

But do we need more hip-hop music on Long Island? Especially since our beloved alternative music station WLIR has recently been replaced by Latino hip-hop. (See End of an Era: WLIR 92.7 "Long Island Radio" says goodbye.) Hip-hop has become such an integral part of popular radio, that nearly every pop music station plays some hip-hop as part of their regular rotation.

Since winning multiple grammys this year, Outkast has become so mainstream, that I recently witnessed elderly people at a Long Island wedding ripping up the dance floor to “Hey Ya.”

I can’t flip past MTV or VH1 without catching a glimpse of P. Diddy sitting in a hot tub full of bikini-clad sistas, in a Busta Rhymes or Nelly music video.

And working out at the gym is like going to a hip-hop rave, as Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliot and Ice Cube all make an appearance over the health club sound system and television monitors in front of the cardio machines, sometime during my workout.

Hip-hop is everywhere.

So why do we need another hip-hop program on Long Island? We don’t.

But it looks like we’ve got one anyway. Which is fine. Just another radio station to avoid, as far as I’m concerned.

What bothers me about this whole press release is the concept that hip-hop is being ignored or neglected – that hip-hop is something to be taken seriously, as an important social genre.

Here are some excerpts from the press release about “Block Radio”:

"…Eastern Long Island will have the opportunity to hear the sounds of the streets."

"'Block Radio' is going to break the barrier between the corporate and urban world to unite them…"

"'Block Radio' is going to be a great thing for East Long Island, to break all the barriers and bring everybody from everywhere together."

"…urban music is the most listened to in the world and it's a shame when people of all ages who truly love, enjoy and connect to the music, are deprived of it."

Sounds of the streets? Unite the corporate and urban worlds? Break the barriers? Deprived of listening to hip-hop music?

The only people deprived of listen to hip-hop are the deaf.

As far as “connecting” to the music, and “uniting” the corporate and urban worlds, well, tell me how the people of the Hamptons are going to “connect” or “unite” to this:

“What you niggas want
Wanna talk slick
Wanna do shit, try shit, new shit
Who you fucking wit'
You and your weak clique
Bitch you creep wit' got you in some deep shit
You coppin' pleas now, it ain't a secret
Trying to be niggas you can't even speak with
You can't run, you can't hide
Bad Boy 'till the day we die” – from Puff Daddy’s “What You Want”

No music is more important then the next. As soon as a genre starts portraying itself as something other than the simple concept of musical notes vibrating off the eardrums of listeners, then its lost its focus and main purpose – to entertain.

Political messages and social responsibility within music is fine. R.E.M. and U2 and countless other bands have done it for years. But if the music sucked, then no one would listen to it. Michael Stipe mumbled anti-war, anti-government messages throughout the 80s, but I dug the music for the music, not the message.

The above lyrics from Puff Daddy (err...P. Diddy), is only one example. I know there are serious socially-conscious lyrics within hip-hop music, but for the most part, hip-hop is like any other music form that people enjoy. And the reason they enjoy it, is because it entertains. It pleases our ears. It gives us something to dance to, to sing to, to meditate to, to take us away from reality for a while.

To treat hip-hop like it is something special, or some sort of social bridge between cultures and classes, is to take away from the real reason people listen to it.

I listen to Outkast because I enjoy the music. I haven’t received a deeper understanding of the “streets” or feel like I’ve “connected” with anybody. I just like the music.

Next month I might come across a country music song I actually like. It won’t mean I understand country music better or understand where a country artist is coming from. It just means I like the way a song sounds. That’s all.

So, I’m sorry, but I can’t see anything “ground” or “boundary breaking” about a new hip-hop radio show. And I especially can’t take seriously the idea that Eastern Long Island needs hip-hop to help “break barriers” between worlds.

Want to give Long Island something different? How about playing the music of unsigned artists, from all genres, who aren’t compromising their music and profits to record labels. And while you’re at it, try not to run commercials. Now, THAT would be “ground breaking.”

(Michael Walls is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine and spends his summer weekends on the east end of Long Island)