You Forgot it in People: Considering Hip Hop Punditry
Recently, WNYC's Soundcheck addressed the hip hop steroid/HGH scandal. Host John Schaefer interviewed investigative reporter Bob Port from the Albany Times Union, the upstate paper that broke the hip hop steroid and HGH abuse story, and founder of a hip hop think tank Bucknell College Assistant Professor James Peterson. Port relayed the who and the convoluted how of securing performance enhancing substances and Peterson commented on the why. Both guests annoyed by peppering their commentary with irrelevant or unsupported information but Peterson took the cake when offering his opinion on the hip hop generation's knowledge of or concern for the side effects of HGH use ("the facts" to which Schaefer refers below).
John Schaefer: And James, how widely dispersed are those kind of facts in the community? I mean how much do young people know of any of this?
James Peterson: I would say little or nothing. I think there is a way in which young people from the hip hop generation kind of have a very different relationship with body image and with technology in general so the concept of like performance enhancements as being something that's ethically wrong I don't think really exists for this generation. This is a generation that's like by all means necessary and you combine that with like the focus on youthful appearance and on youthful energy in general and I think its kind of like a ticking time bomb for hip hop in certain ways.
What Schaefer's question demands are facts, not thoughts, and the thoughts Peterson provides seem not only useless but potentially recklessly misleading. Who exactly comprises the hip hop generation to whom he refers? What are these "very different relationship(s)" to body image and technology? Where have they been documented? And what evidence is there that this hip hop generation doesn't see anything ethically wrong with performance enhancements? Referring to a so-called "by any means necessary" ethic only undercuts his dubious point as that phrase peaked over a decade and a half ago and although X caps have made a comeback with some cool kids that doesn't lend his characterization any credence.
Now, Peterson is not alone in this offense. The media is rife with opinionated commentary on current events instead of historical context, informed analysis or detailed reportage. It's so commonplace as to draw even the most cautious and informed commentator in. "Bill Moyers Journal" touched on this issue in his documentary "Buying the War" available on iTunes as a podcast. He called attention to how many talking heads on network TV lacked relevant knowledge of the subjects they were called on to unpack. Just look to the columnists who weighed in on the war and the dearth of military and Middle East knowledge any of their CV's display. Peterson was presented as an authoritative commentator on hip hop and I'm certain he holds some expertise but I still needed him to cite a study or two.
I am compelled to mention a larger problem I have with many hip hop panels and pundits. Seated on a rostrum are often authors, activists, academes and journalists who don't always feel the need to prepare or engage in any relevant research in advance of their appearances. In fact, how many of us recall sitting in the audience listening to panelists proclaim that they don't even listen to hip hop any more, repudiate the current crop of artists and reminisce on the good 'ole days. How can you provide any insight on a culture that you have abandoned? I say this not so much as an indictment, although there may come a time for that, but as a challenge to take ourselves and our work much more seriously, to understand the impacts of broad sweeping statements, and to practice rigor in our work and skepticism in our consumption.
Tags: Academy, Hip Hop, Journalism, Music
de.licio.us
digg
Furl
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Comments
1.
professorf says:
i usually runaway from anything prefaced by the term "hip hop" that does not include turntables, breaking, rhymin' or some graffiti.
That said, some friends and I are opening up a hip-hop bakery in Fort Green.
01/26/2008 at 8:48 PM