What If Conscious Rap Isn’t Mainstream Because of Conscious Rappers & Not The Industry?
Listen, I love conscious rap. I do. I teach it, analyze it, play it while I clean, write, and think sometimes. Conscious rap is essential to hip-hop culture and intellectuals who like listening to music analyzing everyday life creatively. I think the form is brilliant. Rappers who use this genre to express their inner feelings are geniuses. It’s not easy to put abstract concepts over hip hop beats, use perfect timing, rhyming words, and dissect ideologies while making it look and sound effortlessly good. However, no matter how brilliant these artists are, they might be the reason conscious rap isn’t at the forefront of mainstream music.
Last night, I was listening to a virtual panel discussion about 2020 hip-hop. The moderator started an argument that I hear way too many times. He explained that hip-hop today isn’t what it use to be. He discussed that conscious rappers don’t get enough airplay because of an industry that wants to publicize Black degradation. He argued that conscious rap was still underground because it highlights Black intellectuals, and the powers that control the industry would rather keep Black people uninformed and “stupid.” He explained that the industry only wanted to see and promote Black death, murder, and Black ignorance.
Just then, I wondered, is the industry that powerful in 2020? Maybe it was a thing back in 2003 or 2004 or perhaps even 2005, but 2020? How can the industry dictate who is celebrated in hip-hop when independent rappers are millionaires with millions of followers on social media? We live in a time where one viral video can turn a homeless person into a rich and famous influencer. Kids are becoming rich just by starting youtube pages with millions of subscribers to watch them play with slime. The industry of ‘labels’ still exists but are they really powerful enough to dictate which rappers are the forefront or most popular? Then I wondered, how can there be a scheme to publicize Black ignorance during a time where Black activism is celebrated? How can Ta-Nehisi Coats or Ava DuVernay be relevant? What about tv shows like “Black-ish,” “Dear White People,” “Woke,” “Grownish,” and other television shows and movies highlighting Black life profoundly.
On the same panel, someone chimed in, agreeing with the moderator and adding that rappers in the forefront are just braggadocious, rapping about the things they don’t have. He ended by adding that these rappers were fake for rapping about a life of riches that most of them didn’t have.
Typically, when we discuss why conscious rap isn’t trendy, we blame it on non-conscious rap’s success. We create theories around mass brainwashing or groupthink.
What if the issue is energy and frequencies?
I’m a fan of manifestation. I’ve manifested everything I have in my life (the good and the bad). Sometimes I manifest on purpose; other times, I do it unconsciously. Here’s a quick example; years ago, I ran into a brilliant artist friend. She told me that she had just gotten back from Ghana. She told me about the work she was doing there. In my head, I thought about how much I would like to go to Ghana, not just to visit, but to do something pertaining to the work I do with creative writing and youth empowerment. After that conversation, I kept thinking about going to Africa.
I imagined the emotions I would feel when I got there, how the people would receive me, and the work I’d be doing. Every time I thought about it, I felt positive and joyful. I told people about it, “one day, I’m going to do poetry workshops in Africa.” About a year later, the college I attended put out a call for creative writers to teach in Accra, Ghana, for about two months. They were willing to pay the majority of the fees, but I still needed $1500. I kept thinking about going. I was a full-time student with a part-time job at the YMCA. Somehow, the universe came together, and I ended up having the $1500 and spending money for the two months.
So, what does manifestation have to do with hip-hop? Consider this, when the panelists talked about rappers bragging about a life they didn’t have — full of riches and millions, he called them fake and arrogant, but what if they were (knowingly or unknowingly) manifesting that life? What if we argued that a person saying how rich they are over and over and over again (with joy and excitement) could will riches? What if rappers claiming to be the most famous and most popular could will fame and popularity? The fact that we call mainstream rap “mainstream rap” creates energy for it to be mainstream. It works the same in the negative.
I’m from Chicago, and Chicago rappers are murdering and being murdered. However, that scene of rap continuously focuses on murder and death in their raps. That’s energy. The only thing energy needs to manifest is an intention and high-frequency emotions. If you intend to promote death and your emotions are at a frequency to create the spark, it manifests. We’re powerful like that.
On the flip side, conscious rap doesn’t glorify popularity or millions of dollars. It rarely talks about parties and good times. Conscious rap is depressing for the most part. It wallows in poverty and hardship. Conscious rappers repeat time and time about how hard life is. Of course, there are some exceptions, depending on the rapper, but for the most part, conscious rap is pretty much “woe is me.” What kind of energy does this create? If a rapper talks about poverty over and over again, then that rapper will witness poverty. Poverty is what he is manifesting. If a rapper talks time and time again about how they are rejected by mainstream, then that rapper manifests rejection. If you take typical conscious rappers and mainstream rappers and hold them side by side, they both exhibit different manifestation energies. The mainstream rappers are happy. They are bragging about how much they have (even if they have absolutely nothing). They are throwing money in the club and creating a millionaire facade.
Simultaneously, the conscious rapper is stressed, depressed, in constant wars about being undervalued, and angry at the mainstream rapper for making more money or angry with consumers for buying into mainstream rap.
I understand that honesty and integrity in rap songs are important. Still, we have to consider making an album about how depressed you are and then touring for months reaffirming that depression won’t manifest riches. A rapper can have all the intentions to be rich and famous. Still, if stress and depression are the emotion he/she is using with the intent, that rapper can’t manifest a financially wealthy life, no matter how talented a rapper they might be. The intent has to be met with high-frequency emotions like happiness, joyfulness, positivity, love, etc. So, while I love conscious rap, and while I think it’s lyrically ten times better than mainstream rap, even I have to turn it off regularly to keep my space positive and (for lack of a better term) happy.
