In the film Beginners there is a brief dialogue between Oliver & his mother Audrey.
While a record is spinning, Oliver complains, ”this music’s old” and Audrey responds, ”It’s black. Black music is the deepest because they suffered the most.”
All debates of human suffrage to the side, there is a truth in Audrey’s passing comment that reverberated throughout my lifetime of experience. I’m white. A multifaceted mutt of European descent. In America, my race provides me with certain access and privilege, which, I’ve become increasingly aware of as I’ve aged. Although, race and class are not synonymous.
Therefore, consequences of my class contradicted rhetoric regarding the rightful role of my race. I’m specifically referring to my childhood & adolescent years.
As far back as I can remember, hip-hop culture has always been home, and rap has always resonated. Because, regardless of what I looked like, I found my experience shared in the culture, and discussed in the music. The cornerstone of that experience and discussion, suffering, is inherent to all of humanity, but hip-hop most accurately accounted for my suffering.
Unquestionably, the suffering of Black people is intrinsic to the foundation of hip-hop, and it’s art. Nonetheless, an element that has enabled an obscure culture from the Bronx to become a Global phenomenon, and sustained it for over forty years, is the reality of how the culture embraces and expresses suffering.
So, as the middle of Black History Month approaches, I’m thankful for hip-hop and the culture’s creators and cultivators. I’m thankful that deep suffering has birthed deep culture and deep music. I’m thankful that this model has informed how I delve into, and deal with, my own brokenness and my own suffering. And, as a contributor, I hope to honor the culture and art that has informed my identity and enabled my understanding of self, only second to Jesus.
With that said, I leave you with this quote, which I discovered in The Big Payback, from the first nationally televised news piece on hip-hop and rap.
“Rap is likely to influence popular culture for years to come. It has tremendous staying power, because it lets ordinary people express ideas they care about, in language they can relate to, set to music they can dance to.” - Steve Fox (20/20 “Rapping to the Beat” 1981) [Big Payback, P. 59]
