"Cash Rules Everything Around Me" - Wu Tang Clan

We live in the age of economitis. America�s distorted promise of capitalistic gain frames any pursuit one may seek� educational, emotional, and even spiritual (ATMs in a church? Really?) Commodification and trends often dictate our self-understanding and those who are not a part of our daily experiences. Therefore, it is no surprise that black American culture is often exploited for monetary gain. Has there ever been in a point in African American history or culture where it has not been commodified or sold? Even during slavery blackness was commodified � black bodies were the commodities! What about today�s society? In the realms of popular culture, African American life provides a getaway from the humdrum reality of white America. Blackness exists within a realm of fantasy that is accessible through an exaggerated narrative constructed outside of the black community. While African American culture may be C.R.E.A.M.Y., its current cycle points to its aesthetics being dangerously close to bankruptcy.


The search for the perfect blend of standards to evaluate and absorb blackness through artistic expression seems never ending. While Harlem Renaissance scholars like Alain Locke and W.E.B. Du Bois called for blacks to use self-definition and politics to dictate their views of and appreciation for art, other critics like George Schuyler suggested the non-existence of African American art. For Schuyler, black artists were Americans who happened to be colored. Schuyler argues that there is no distinguishing characteristic between black art and white American art. The heavy white patronage of African American authors and artists during this time period could demonstrate Schuyler�s observations. Because their white patrons paid them to reflect upon blackness from an angle of their choosing, African American artists did not pull from their own peculiar experiences as foreign bodies in America. Instead, their economic reliance on whites muted and further marginalized their experiences and cultural expression.


The Black Liberation Era of the 1960s continued to struggle with the establishment of a uniquely black aesthetic. Larry Neal heavily chastises the efforts of the Harlem Renaissance because of their loyalty and dedication to their white patrons. Hoyt Fuller and Addison Gayle suggest the role of the black artist as a rebellious entity against white patriarchy and westernization. Gayle goes as far as to argue that the black artist is at war, calling for artists and writers of color to create their works from an untainted spectacle of blackness. What is most fascinating about Gayle�s untainted lens theory is the call for voluntary de-Americanization of black people who happen to reside in America. What�s ironic about this call to arms is the fact that African Americans are, in a sense, already de-Americanized because of the racial injustices faced as a people. How do blacks voluntarily marginalize themselves from western influence when we are already considered removed from (functioning) American society?


The Black Aesthetic 2.0 � Rap Aesthetics?
Fastforward to present day black culture. We are in the age of Hip Hop, a global phenomenon birthed out of black performance and identity. Is rap music an assimilationist culture? Black Nationalists would probably grudgingly agree. A large chunk of rap music and culture caters to those same ideologies that black nationalist critics fought vehemently against: the majority of Hip Hop consumers are white (contemporary white patronage); many rappers consider themselves in hot pursuit of the American (Materialistic) Dream; instead of uniting as a monolithic body, rappers often war with themselves and each other instead of joining forces to combat white prejudice and uplift the black community. Many aspects of rap culture coincide with the characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance. Both look to an urban setting as its epicenter of activity. Both use the city to validate their experiences. Investigating the interspacial politics of sexuality and normativity provide a framework for their art. In so many words, popular rap�s characterizations are updated versions of those same sentiments from the 1920s � primarily white patronage and the pursuit of self-expression through an Americanized lens.


Changes in the social climate of the United States, its black community, and a shift away from a Black Nationalist agenda raise the question of whether or not we NEED to establish a black aesthetic. Keep in consideration that African Americans still own a marginalized and peculiar experience. Blacks sustain visibility within the public spectrum because they overlook constructing blackness and identity from a self-definitive viewpoint. Instead, they opt to fulfill social expectations (no matter how erroneous) of majority society. There is still a desperate need to find a balanced frequency of visibility, a view of blackness in America from a space untainted from stereotypes and the rigidity of external racial bias.