All the Black Hip Hop Bloggers Be Quiet!

There’s an interesting conversation going on at Hip Hop Blogs about the lack of Black Hip Hop bloggers. But before I get into it I have to straighten out Hashim, who for some mysterious reason thinks knows I’m white. Despite the fact that I have several pictures of myself scattered around my site(s), and despite all the racial issues I’ve covered, including me talking about the LAPD fucking with me because I was DWB, he still thinks I’m white. I’d think that just by the topics I’ve written about, and how I’ve written about them, he’d at least think that I was Black. Silly me. Back to the matter at hand…

This whole thing started by Byron Crawford’s (if that is his real name) coming out of the racial closet and admitting that he’s white. That in and of itself is worthy of its own post, but I’ll try to stay on point. Aww fuck it, I have to go there — So Byron, what’s up with the picture of the brother with the ‘convicted’ caption? When I first came across your site I thought that was a picture of you, so I didn’t trip. But now that you admit that you’re white, that picture takes on a whole different meaning/image/symbology with me. After reading some of your posts I began to wonder if that pic was really you though. Some of the things you’ve said made me think you were a lot younger than that, like you were still in college. Yet other things made you seem a lot older. So I finally just gave up guessing. Hell at this point you could be a 70 year old Asian woman for all we know. Like Matt said in the comment of that post I’m gonna have to go back and re-read some of your posts now with my ‘race filter’ on.

OK, back on point. To answer Hashim’s question, I think we have to first define “hip-hop blogger”. As far as I’m concerned anybody who writes from a hip-hop culture point of view is a hip-hop blogger. As we all should know hip-hop is a lot more than just music. To be clear, I’ll snag some principles from the Temple of Hip Hop:

Hiphop Kulture respects the dignity and sanctity of life, without discrimination or prejudice. We shall consider our duty to protect the development of life, over and before our individual free choice to destroy it or seek to alter its natural development.

Hiphop is the name of our collective consciousness. As a conscious way of life we recognize our influence on society, especially on children, and we shall forever keep the rights and welfare of both in mind.

Hiphop Kulture respects the laws and agreements of its kulture, it’s country, it’s institutions, and those it does business with. Hiphop does not irresponsibly break laws.

Hiphop Kulture encourages womanhood, manhood, sisterhood, brotherhood and family. We are also conscious not to bring any disrespect to the dignity and reputation of our ancestors.

The right to define and educate ourselves shall be encouraged, developed, preserved, protected and promoted as a means toward peace and prosperity.

The elements of Hiphop Kulture may be traded for money, honor, power, respect, food and other resources. However, Hiphop’s Kulture is never for sale – nor can it be bought. It is the priceless principle of our self-empowerment.

Within the collective Hiphop consciousness there are no competing races, tribes, countries, religions, occupations, kultures, nor languages. All are one in consciousness. Hiphop Kulture is one multi-skilled, multi-cultural, multi-racial people.

Hiphop Kulture does not intentionally participate in any form of hate, deceit, or theft at any time. At no time shall Hiphop engage in any violent war within itself.

Hiphop Kulture rejects the immature impulse for unwarranted acts of violence, and always seeks diplomatic, non-violent strategies first in the settlement of all disputes. Revolution is preserved as a final solution, when all other means of diplomatic negotiation has failed repeatedly.

Hiphoppas respect nature wherever we are; on this planet as well as on others.

Hiphop holds sacred our duty to contribute to our survival and salvation as a human race on planet Earth. Native American kulture teaches us to respect Mother Earth as our mother.

Hiphop is shown the highest respect when Hiphoppas respect each other. Hiphop Kulture is preserved, nurtured and developed when Hiphoppas preserve, nurture and develop one another.

So I’d say that anybody who projects some or all of those things in their blog is a hip-hop blogger, even if they never write about rap music. For example, using that criteria I’d classify Prometheus 6 or any number of Black bloggers as a hip-hop blogger. But I know that’s not necessarily what Hashim was asking. He was focused on the music. I have a few ideas about that.

First there’s just the numbers thing. Blacks are what, 12% of the U.S. population. So just based on that you’re likely to find a small number of black bloggers. Then as several people have mentioned in comments on the aforementioned posts, there’s the issue of the digital divide. So that drops us down even more. Then we can slice the number even more when we look at the whiteness of the blogosphere — let’s call it the divide of the divide. (Have you seen the pictures from any of the big blogging events? Can you say ‘lily white’?)

So that brings us to the Blacks that have blogs, whatever that number may be. I suspect that, as Trent said so well, many of us are just too busy on the grind to do much blogging at all, much less about hip-hop music. I know that in my case that’s certainly true. There are a lot of subjects I’d like to write about, and increasingly, as I get older, rap music drops lower on that list. I noticed a serious decline in my interest in rap once I hit 25 year of age, and that was 10 years ago. I don’t know if it was me or the music but one of us changed and I just couldn’t relate any more. I suspect that many of use bloggers have experienced the same thing. So perhaps it’s the younger Black folks who should be stepping up on the rap music blogging tip.

That brings up the question of just who is the representative rap fan these days. I’ve seen stats that say upwards of 80% of rap music is bought by white suburban kids these days. So again (you know I have to take it back to the numbers) it’s not surprising to me to see so many white people blogging about rap music. I know that we do need to have our voices heard though so that hip-hop doesn’t go the route of jazz, rock & roll, and all the other music we created and lost control of. I just don’t know if it’ll happen in the blogosphere.