Hip-hop is everywhere, in commercials, TV shows, the movies, on the dance floor, and online among other places. This week, the series Independent Lens (on PBS, WETA in DC) showed an episode entitled “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.” This documentary explores America’s culture of violence as reflected by the hyper-masculinity of contemporary hip-hop. It’s a really good commentary on what it means to be a man and how that’s fronted or twisted by some performers and viewers. It starts with gun violence and death, in lyrics and in real life then turns to the sexist lyrics and objectification of woman in videos and at various gatherings.

One factoid that caught me by surprise was that 70% of mainstream hip-hop is consumed by young white men. This was followed by a clip of a redneck white guy from Columbus, Ohio. Playing hip-hop on his dad’s SUV radio while in Florida, the filmmaker approached him to talk. In the ensuing interview, the Ohio guy says about hip-hop that “it’s my style, i mean, you guys, colored people, can say that it’s their music but I can get down to it just as much as they can.” WTF! When asked if he actually said “colored people” he responds “I don’t know, what term do you want me to use, I mean, I’m trying to be, I’m not a racist at all.” Where the hell did they dig this guy up? Then again, maybe he’s the mainstream and me, a white kid born in Philly, educated in Western NY and living b/w Baltimore & DC, is the outlier. That point was pretty much driven home by the next segment.

Cut to four white kids sitting around a table in Moline, Illinois. A young woman wearing a Ramones t-shirt says she likes hip-hop since it allows her to explore other cultures. “I’ve never had to worry about drive-by shootings… [hip-hop] appeals to our sense of learning about other cultures and wanting to know more about something that we’ll probably never experience.” Okay, how many African Americans experience drive-by shootings?!?

Her comment is surprising since the whole group replies affirmatively when asked if hip-hop reinforces stereotypes. Obviously they missed the fact that they’ve bought into the stereotypes that they say they don’t think are good. They start off saying hip-hop is their window into black culture, that’s how they learn about other cultures and peoples, then say that hip-hop reinforces stereotypes. So, who’s interpretation of culture are they getting a look at through this music?

One thing that’s missing, especially for me, is what about other types of hip-hop? The documentary at times conflates all forms of hip-hop into the one genre of misogynistic gangster rap. Groups like Public Enemy that started out talking about structural violence in the forms of economic and racist policies are mostly absent from this discussion. With the rise of politically-aware hip-hop traditions in Palestine, France, and other countries, the music hopefully will grow out of the gangster tradition. But, as the narrator/director says at the end of the film, he’s “thinking about an American culture that mythologies and mass produces hyper-masculinity… hip-hop, in that regard, is pure Americana.”