When Hip-Hop Republicans Attack
Posted on June 18th, 2009
by Daniel McCarthy |
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Michael Steele’s dream — “We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings” — comes true:
“Three things taught me conservative love / Jesus, Ronald Reagan, plus Atlas Shrugged.” Rappers “Serious C.” and “Stiltz” are students at Dartmouth. They’ll be lucky if Jeffrey Hart doesn’t cane them. (Of course, I had no problem getting down to this last year, so perhaps I’m not one to talk.)
Hip-hop is perilous for conservative-movement types because, especially where white rappers are involved, it’s a medium fraught with irony. Note that the successful white rappers have not been those who take themselves seriously (think Vanilla Ice) but those who have a high degree of absurdity or irony in their lyrics (think Eminem or the Beastie Boys). Here we get two Dartmouth prepsters rapping, which is ironic, but the message they’re trying to get across, although poorly conceived, is not meant to be ironic at all. When your form clashes with your content this badly, you only wind up with kitsch.
There’s plenty of awful left-wing hip-hop out there, but lefties have been better at navigating the currents of the medium. Obama in particular seems to have an affinity for it, making Steele sound extraordinarily gauche by contrast, not because Obama is more “authentically black” than Steele but because his Hawaiian/Indonesian background immersed him in cultures where identity is complex and fluid. That, I suspect, gives him a keen feel for the interplay of irony and authenticity.
See George Hawley at PostRight for more.
Filed under: Conservatism, non-culture
You know - that’s probably the best explanation of why that rap is so entirely awful that I’ve read yet. Which is ironic on one level because I certainly didn’t expect a clear concise analysis of what makes rap (of all things) good or bad here. And also because it so perfectly says exactly what I’ve never really been able to quite vocalize or hammer out on my own regarding hip hop in general, which I’m admittedly not too fond of in the first place.
I suppose content and form can clash if done properly, but this is certainly not an example of such….
So…who’s going to break it to them that Jesus wasn’t a conservative by any definition & Ayn Rand was an atheist?
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There actually are quite talented “conservative rappers”. Have you heard of John Reuben?
Haven’t heard of John Reuben. I’ll have to check the YouTubes.
My friend Reggie Jones, who’s in the entertainment biz and drums with some funk groups, gives talks on college campuses on the theme of “How Hip-Hop Beat the Welfare State.” His point was that early rap and hip-hop had a very entrepreneurial spirit (he wasn’t talking about bling), quite free-market and libertarian-ish. He was not, however, suggesting that rappers were conservatives or that conservatives should start rapping.
Mr. McCarthy, I have I have a new blogpost up dealing with the traditionalist and dare I say “paleocon” aspects of Reuben’s music.
Steeles overall message was reaching out to urban and inncer-city youth and minorties. The term Hip-Hop Republican was first used about 8 years ago in reference to Steele himself when he was running for Marylands Senate seat.
His ability to attract young people and urban folks with a message of personal empowerment and community involvement was one factor for the paper refering to him as such. I actualy reffer to myself as a Hip Hop Republican, I live in an urban area, my neighbors are all minorties and the term makes sencse to me. There is an actual movement movement online of Urban and Inner-City Republicans & Libertarians.
I think we may be missing the bigger point that is finding alternate ways to getting our message to an often hostile enviroment to conservatives and Republicans. In his, article “The Blueprint for Urban Conservatism?” Brandon Brice, a Harlem resident and self-described “Hip- Hop Republican,” noted that the economic power of Hip Hop culture has created more African-American entrepreneurs than any other industry in America, which gives partial credence to our adoption of the name.
The mission of the Urban Republican movement is to highlight and provide solutions for real issues; health care affordability, fiscal responsibility, solutions to better inner city schools and job creation. Let us think about the trends of economic activity in urban America.
According to The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, only 10.3 percent (learners included) of 18-25 year old blacks actually identify with the Party. The Republican Party’s best prospect for improving their African American support was through the younger cohort.Further, the study went on to say that, the alienation of young African Americans from the GOP does not mean they oppose Republican principles. A sizable proportion of these young voters-between one third and one-half-are sympathetic to Republican Party issue positions.
As such, The Center’s 2002 national survey actually suggested that the GOP might expect to be more successful appealing to younger African Americans than older because according to studies “25 percent of this population are self-described conservatives, and 66.4 percent support school vouchers for public, private, or parochial schools. On the issue of Social Security which is a signature issue of the Democratic Party, 61.2 percent of young blacks believe they will get back less from Social Security than what they pay into Social Security, and a substantial 79.3 percent favor partial privatization of Social Security”. On the values front, the study says, “a majority (52.9 percent) of these young African Americans attend church at least once a week.
Check out there social networking group http://hiphoprepublicans.ning.com/.
You mean this isn’t a parody? You mean these preppies are actually serious? Oh my God…
This was truly the most ignorant thing I’ve ever seen on YouTube and that includes the Leave Britney Along rant, yikes. ‘We can achieve because our soldiers bleed’ - how bout those pop-cons suit up and fight the Long War and bleed to achieve with the rest of us. God Save the Republic.
As much as I had read about the awfulness of this video, I wasn’t prepared for how truly awful it was when I finally watched it. My wife and I couldn’t make it through the whole thing - it wasn’t even “so bad it’s funny.” It was just bad.
Anywho, given that this “rap” is essentially the modern movement conservative platform, never again do I want to hear about how conservatives and libertarians outside movement conservatism are really just a bunch of Ivy League elitists with no experience in the real world. Because clearly that’s exactly what these two are.