Hip Hop and neo-colonialism and Hip Hop’s connection to oppression and social justice movements

I don’t know the details of what the Black Panthers in the 1960s stood for, but my guess is that their message would make more sense to me than that of prominent mainstream rappers or hip hop artists who seem to celebrate a materialistic and individualistic perspective.
I am interested in rappers who can clue me in about the lives of ordinary people who hold on to their dignity and their fidelity to their communities in a system where race still matters and where wealth is continuing to concentrate in a few hands.
People who complain about the negative message of mainstream hip hop are only partly right. Yes, the message may seem politically self-defeating and seem, in at least some respects, to facilitate the ‘prison-industrial complex.’ Also the materialistic individualism seems at odds with having a shared political consciousness among historically under-served communities.
But it’s not hard to understand how the multi-millionaire mainstream hip hop artist may feel that they are more or less seizing their version of the American Dream by playing the hand their dealt.
My guess is that at least some hip hop artists are being leaders in the communities they grew up in and/or the communities that are historically under-served—once they’ve gotten rich from playing the game of mainstream rap which involves celebrating individualistic materialism.
Critics of the crass materialism and sexism of some elements of mainstream Hip Hop shouldn’t just focus on the Hip Hop artist. How about a critique of the social system in which mainstream Hip Hop operates ? Why is it that a select few rappers can cash in on producing a media product that seems politically select-defeating to historically under-served communities ? Why is it that those rappers with an astutely political message tend to be ‘underground’ and not getting rich ?
Perhaps the book The Decolonization of the Mind is relevant to this inquiry. I have not read the book yet, but an idea I have is that colonization is and has been not just something the ‘developed’ nations do to ‘developing’ or ‘under-developed’ nations, but is also something that one class of people can and is doing to another class of people within the same nation.
Not to overgeneralize and ignore the common humanity that binds us all, regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, and whatever other way we may categorize ourselves as individuals and as groups, large and small, but in some ways, the rapper who gets rich from propagating a message that is politically self-defeating to people in under-served communities, reminds me of situations in which the elite in some ‘under-developed’ nations have enriched themselves and promoted their own narrow self-interests, while repressing the ordinary people of their nations, a process in which they tend to do the bidding of the governments and corporations of ‘developed’ nations.
My guess is that many of the journalists from the ‘developed’ nations, and many of the historians propagate an incomplete picture of world affairs by focusing on the corruption of governments in ‘under-developed’ nations, and not focusing on how that corruption serves the neo-colonial interests of the ‘developed’ nations.
Similarly, though not identically, some social critics and leaders, along with parents, have tried to protect youth from the profanity-laden evils of mainstream rap, all the while saying little, if anything, about the political and economic system that makes such ‘negative’ rap infectiously popular and lucrative in the firs place.
It’s similar to the ‘developed’ nation journalist, scholar, or politician self-righteously criticizing corrupt governments in Africa without calling attention to how such corruption tends to serve neo-colonial interests.
Does this excuse, necessarily, rappers from social responsibility or excuse African governments from accountability? I’d say no. But let’s fill in the details often missing from or national narrative.
Regarding the accountability of African leaders, I am referring to their accountability to the common people in that nation, and not necessarily to their critics in ‘developed’ nations who may have gained from such corruption.
Regarding rappers, I am referring to their social accountability to the people in historically under-served communities who tend to be more affected by ‘tough on crime’ policies, the ‘war on drugs’, and the ‘prison-industrial complex.’ My guess is that rappers’ social accountability to white middle class and wealthy critics ought to be further down the list of priorities, if on that list at all.

Hip Hop and neo-colonialism and Hip Hop's connection to oppression and social justice movements

I don’t know the details of what the Black Panthers in the 1960s stood for, but my guess is that their message would make more sense to me than that of prominent mainstream rappers or hip hop artists who seem to celebrate a materialistic and individualistic perspective.
I am interested in rappers who can clue me in about the lives of ordinary people who hold on to their dignity and their fidelity to their communities in a system where race still matters and where wealth is continuing to concentrate in a few hands.
People who complain about the negative message of mainstream hip hop are only partly right. Yes, the message may seem politically self-defeating and seem, in at least some respects, to facilitate the ‘prison-industrial complex.’ Also the materialistic individualism seems at odds with having a shared political consciousness among historically under-served communities.
But it’s not hard to understand how the multi-millionaire mainstream hip hop artist may feel that they are more or less seizing their version of the American Dream by playing the hand their dealt.
My guess is that at least some hip hop artists are being leaders in the communities they grew up in and/or the communities that are historically under-served—once they’ve gotten rich from playing the game of mainstream rap which involves celebrating individualistic materialism.
Critics of the crass materialism and sexism of some elements of mainstream Hip Hop shouldn’t just focus on the Hip Hop artist. How about a critique of the social system in which mainstream Hip Hop operates ? Why is it that a select few rappers can cash in on producing a media product that seems politically select-defeating to historically under-served communities ? Why is it that those rappers with an astutely political message tend to be ‘underground’ and not getting rich ?
Perhaps the book The Decolonization of the Mind is relevant to this inquiry. I have not read the book yet, but an idea I have is that colonization is and has been not just something the ‘developed’ nations do to ‘developing’ or ‘under-developed’ nations, but is also something that one class of people can and is doing to another class of people within the same nation.
Not to overgeneralize and ignore the common humanity that binds us all, regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, and whatever other way we may categorize ourselves as individuals and as groups, large and small, but in some ways, the rapper who gets rich from propagating a message that is politically self-defeating to people in under-served communities, reminds me of situations in which the elite in some ‘under-developed’ nations have enriched themselves and promoted their own narrow self-interests, while repressing the ordinary people of their nations, a process in which they tend to do the bidding of the governments and corporations of ‘developed’ nations.
My guess is that many of the journalists from the ‘developed’ nations, and many of the historians propagate an incomplete picture of world affairs by focusing on the corruption of governments in ‘under-developed’ nations, and not focusing on how that corruption serves the neo-colonial interests of the ‘developed’ nations.
Similarly, though not identically, some social critics and leaders, along with parents, have tried to protect youth from the profanity-laden evils of mainstream rap, all the while saying little, if anything, about the political and economic system that makes such ‘negative’ rap infectiously popular and lucrative in the firs place.
It’s similar to the ‘developed’ nation journalist, scholar, or politician self-righteously criticizing corrupt governments in Africa without calling attention to how such corruption tends to serve neo-colonial interests.
Does this excuse, necessarily, rappers from social responsibility or excuse African governments from accountability? I’d say no. But let’s fill in the details often missing from or national narrative.
Regarding the accountability of African leaders, I am referring to their accountability to the common people in that nation, and not necessarily to their critics in ‘developed’ nations who may have gained from such corruption.
Regarding rappers, I am referring to their social accountability to the people in historically under-served communities who tend to be more affected by ‘tough on crime’ policies, the ‘war on drugs’, and the ‘prison-industrial complex.’ My guess is that rappers’ social accountability to white middle class and wealthy critics ought to be further down the list of priorities, if on that list at all.