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I�m surprised the idea of street still has such relevance as a gauge of authenticity in Hip Hop Culture. This is a capitalistic era where experiences are manufactured and imagined for a consumer audience who often does not have a clue. Street culture and music can make a profit. For the most part, today�s idea and interpretation of street music is often subjected to trend and demand � what was once representative of inner city black America is now also synonymous with manicured lawns in the �burbs. To be street is an option, not a requirement; a business move instead of an experience.
Initially, street music that was released or absorbed into mainstream American culture spoke to the chaos and anxiety African-Americans were facing. The street was a designated space of struggle and survival, often negative but always a marker of one�s authenticity and reality. Street rap, like its predecessors, provided a space for discussing the dangers of being black. Cue Public Enemy�s 1990 release Fear of a Black Planet, with the anthems �Fight the Power,� �911 is a Joke,� and �Welcome to the Terror Dome.� They defined street rap as protest music, speaking to tragedies of police brutality, poverty, and why being black in America was such a damn raw deal.
What I applaud Young Jeezy for in his interview with Rondell Conway was his acknowledgement of both his personal experience and the business aspect of his music. While referring to his �way of life,� Jeezy also points out that he has to sell his �brand.� As Conway points out, �he [Jeezy] is confident that his brand of trap music has permanently impacted hip hop and made him one of the last authentic street dudes in rap.� Jeezy�s branding of his life and music represents a fairly recent trend in rap music to trademark one�s experience in order to observe and authenticate them � �If I verbally and entrepreneurially claim rights to what I�ve been through and put it on wax no one can test me.� There is a dual need to prove one�s lived experience in the literal street and that of the public imagination. Often these two space conflict and cause friction for the artist personally and otherwise � look at T.I.�s T.I. vs. T.I.P. (2007). Jeezy appears to have mastered that delicate line and it suits him well.
Shyne, however, is extremely unique for two reasons �he is international (literally) and was most active in the previous decade. What was most intriguing about Shyne�s interview was not only his brutal honesty about his situation but his dedication to the resuscitation of his home country of Belize and street culture. His answers read like a throwback black nationalist, (re)dedicating his life and music to represent �doin� what�s right for sufferers and for poor people and for muthufuckas on the bottom.� Shyne�s international perspective is especially intriguing because it aligns most closely to the purpose of street culture from the 1960s in America and that ideology of �by whatever means necessary� (cue your power fist, folks!). Even more gangsta about this man is his refusal (inability?) to distinguish the barriers between his music, his persona, and Hip Hop as a business. There is no distinction between street and reality. One has to wonder if Shyne�s brand of music even fits into today�s scene because of how, dare I say, authentic he seemingly proves himself to be. If he never comes back to the U.S., he can always get Wood Harris to perform for him. You know they�re twins, right?
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