Big-name rappers such as Queen Latifah and Master P brought inner-city issues into Harvard Law School Friday when they met with long-time activist Rev. Al Sharpton and Source magazine CEO David Mays to discuss the racial profiling of hip-hop as an industry and a culture.
The discussion arose from the need for a code of conduct to be adopted by the hip-hop community. The panel also included Fat Joe, Naughty by Nature’s Treach, Shyne, Ray Benzino and Wu Tang Clan’s Rza.
“These are the people that affect pop culture-both black and white. Hip-hop is not limited to the hood. This music permeates everywhere,” Sharpton said.
The speakers criticized the media for making violence at the Source Music Awards a front-page story. Sharpton alleged that he had seen many disputes at awards shows in the past that never made it into the newspaper.
“Having disputes at music awards shows was not anything new. I’ve seen it at the Grammys. So, now we are not only dealing with racial profiling, but profiling of the hip-hop industry,” he said.
The panel expressed divided opinions on the state of hip-hop, with some saying the industry is healthy and others saying it limits itself and needs to change or it faces extinction.
Treach said there needs to be a more versatile hip-hop, because right now the music is moving in the wrong direction with stations overplaying certain songs.
Queen Latifah said hip-hop has grown tremendously in recent years causing some rappers to struggle trying to catch up and to limit themselves by criticizing each other for their new ideas and lifestyles.
She told of how she grew up in a family full of cops, so she has a respect for the police community. However, she did criticize certain aspects of police work, saying officers do not need to give people their attitude and racial profiling is not “sound science.”
“You can’t have racial profiling if you have racism,” she said.
Others, like rapper Fat Joe, said hip-hop does not need change. He said while many rappers talk about their hardships growing up in the ghetto, they are quick to run away from the lifestyle as soon as they earn a large paycheck.
“How can we change what is going on?” he said. “Everybody’s busy running away. Try coming back home and teaching [the kids] the shortcut to success.”
Rza claimed that everybody emulates the hip-hop culture now except the originators — the rappers themselves. White rockers such as Limp Bizkit wear hooded sweatshirts, backward ball caps and ride skateboards, he said, while rappers now wear three-piece suits and as many diamonds as possible.
“Our culture will be taken away from our hands and displayed by others that never lived it,” said Rza.
Ray Benzino of Boston’s controversial Made Men said politicians, the media and the police have formed a triangle that makes hip-hoppers look violent. Then, they make rappers turn on each other.
“We have got to stop profiling each other. It’s not just black and white. Everybody’s got to check themselves,” he said.
The panel agreed that hip-hop has been used as a scapegoat for violence in America.
“They don’t do it because I rap about it; I rap about it because they do it,” Shyne said.
While all rappers called hip-hop a blessing, helping them make something of themselves, they also emphasized staying in school instead of becoming another statistic on the street.
“Let’s police ourselves, other than have the outside police us,” Latifah said.
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