the cultural hypocrisy of the hip hop critic
Never thought that I would feel a ScHoolboy Q song, ever again after everybody’s favorite Q emotional deep cut. But ayo that, “this that FUCK the blogs”, hit different last week when I was revisiting my TDE playlist. The aptly titled TorcH which is the intro to Blank Face - a Grammy nominated album of his for the uninformed- is a firecracker that starts with yet another expletive cracked at the bloggers…which is now me…I’m a statistic now.
This offense took me down the rabbit hole of overthinking and obsessive researching to understand what did I (and bloggers) ever do to Q, the Odd Future nut house escapees Tyler the Creator and Earl as well as Childish Gambino pka Donald Glover plus Rick Ross and the Queen Nicki Minaj. I asked myself the very same question the once famous rapper Thugnificent asked.
Which brings me to this cheekily titled article, that is the result of several conversations I’ve had with fellow creatives and my own mental deliberations. As my career in media takes its baby steps, I find myself asking early on what it means. What does it mean to be an objective cultural critic in this reactionary media world of clout chasing, click baiting and influencer-led social media fandoms? Is it all just for entertainment or it’s deeper than that?
The Audacity of the Hypocrite
Do you know what exactly it is that you hate about hypocrisy and hypocrites by extension? No, it’s not the weakness of character or their glaring lack of Naruto’s absolute will and determination to embody lofty principles and ideals. It’s not even that they had the audacity to put Jesus to the test as documented in the Bible.
It’s simply that, you and I hate hypocrites coz they have this way with words that is able to lead us to believe that they are morally superior to us, and the grating fact that their word is treated as gospel truth can be socially justified. You see how in Mark 12:15, as Jesus calls out the Pharisees for the hypocrites they are, the parallels between the artist-blogger relationship and Jesus and the Pharisees’ relationship become most subtle but distinct.
You ought to remember the respect and weight, Pharisees commanded in the religiously strict and politically tense society they thrived in during the Roman Empire’s occupation of Jerusalem. For the culturally in tuned, they should be connecting the dots by now that, a party of religious legal experts aka Pharisees represented cultural commentary of the highest order. The Pharisee of today is now the modern day problematic cultural critic who speaks for the culture with all the one sided views and fleeting relevancy of a social media fan base. Who comes to mind, you ask? DJ Akademiks, DJ Vlad, Scoop Makhathini and football pundits speaking on Manchester United players — I’m looking at you Graeme Souness and José Mourinho. Who is Jesus by the way? Well not all the artists but some special ones I’m sure you get the point.
Isn’t it ironic how the word ‘Pharisee’ which during ancient Israel defined, a man who had given his life to the keeping of the oral tradition of his belief system and culture, is now forever synonymous with…well you know your African pastor stereotypes. Funnily enough, the Pharisees were the more sensible bunch as opposed to the Sadducees when it came to preaching the gospel, as they used their oral history and evolved legal reasoning to interpret religious culture according to the spirit of the law. But due to one historic moment in time (well not just one), which is now history, an overzealous group of what were supposed to be culturally sensible men were on the wrong side of history, as they attempted to test Jesus with basic tax law. In their defence, they didn’t know Jesus was born with all the super powers so He knew the right answers to a basic commercial law exam they even couldn’t pass.
The parallels between Jesus, his hypocrites and hip hop criticism by modern day bloggers, is that artists deep down find themselves asking where these bloggers get the audacity to speak on their art the way we do. You think rappers are rude to journalists? Look at this holy diss verse of burn dem with the fire, that Jesus spat to the Pharisees when he caught them slipping one time in the streets of Jerusalem. The Holy Badman was caught off record freestyling this sanctified ether:
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.
So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
“Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them `Rabbi.’
“But you are not to be called `Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers
And do not call anyone on earth `father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
Nor are you to be called `teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
The greatest among you will be your servant.
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, `If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
You also say, `If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’
You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
And you say, `If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Look, your house is left to you desolate.
For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’
Lyrically speaking I can hear this trampling a drill beat with Shakespearean vocal switch ups meant to educate and pontificate on the opps with self righteous vindication and that’s only facts. I mean the Man said, “you strain out a gnat but swallow a camel”. Bars bro, bars! Jesus was ahead of His time man, that’s why the Second Coming is taking so long lmao. Just imagine if the disciples were a boy band with Jesus making the beats but only spitting whenever He is feeling charged up, in fact it’d explain those feeding the multitude miracles. They were probably benefit concerts that had poor planning you know how logistically dramatic massive church trips can be, and Jesus couldn’t let management mess with the brand.
What Artists Can’t Say Out Loud
This New York Times article speaking on the instinctual and behavioural responses to hypocrisy, helped out in providing statistical data to just how many people don’t liked being bullshitted by succinctly putting it as.
It’s not simply that he fails to practice what he preaches or that he criticizes others for transgressions he, too, commits. It’s that his outspoken moralizing falsely conveys his own virtue, earning him undue reputational benefits — and at the expense of the individuals whom he publicly shames. He would be better off if he simply admitted that he sometimes falls short of these ideals himself.
Undue reputational benefits or what we call “clout” over here in the culture is basically the social network benefit a hypocrite is able to ride off on to solidified success if they have a smart plan. So as you wonder now, where does hip hop criticism come into this. I want you to fix in your mind how many artists are famous for not liking journalists. Kanye West better be topping that list. With that juggling act in mind, consider that for a musician or any artist a critique is a hypocrite for a multitude of reasons, but attempt the impossible I will by listing objective reasons.
a) the natural emotional response to hypocrisy
b) the audacity of the hypocrite’s taste level
c) hypercritical delivery in a hypocritical tone
My research led me to the understanding of two words, hypercritical and hypocritical whose relationship is deeper than the good stuff in a bunny chow sandwich.
Now check this, someone who’s “hypercritical” is excessively critical while someone who’s “hypocritical” is insincere. But as capable English speakers, we can put together that a “hypercritical” person can be also be “hypocritical.” African parenting! Am I right or am I right?
The English prefixes “hyper” and “hypo” are derived from the Greek prepositions hyper (over) and hypo (under). The “critical” part of these words ultimately comes from the classical Greek verb krinein (to judge, decide, etc.). So someone who’s “hypercritical” is overly judgmental. But why, you’re probably wondering, is a “hypocritical” person insincere?
In ancient Greek, according to the Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, hypokrinesthai meant to play a part, hypokrisis was acting on the stage, and hypokrites was an actor. How did the classical terms hypo (under) and krinein (to judge) give the Greeks the terms for act, acting, and actor?
Well, it is said the Greeks recognized that actors had to subordinate their own judgment to play a role. Now how did hypokrisis, the Greek term for acting, give English “hypocrisy,” a negative word for well basically capping? Research says that in classical times hypokrisis also had an unpleasant odor to it, according to Chambers. In addition to meaning acting, the term referred to pretense and dissimulation — that is, insincerity.
The word hypocrite ultimately came into English from the Greek word hypokrites, which means “an actor” or “a stage player.” The Greek word itself is a compound noun: it’s made up of two Greek words that literally translate as “an interpreter from underneath.” That bizarre compound makes more sense when you know that the actors in ancient Greek theatre wore large masks to mark which character they were playing, and so they interpreted the story from underneath their masks.
Whereas hypokrisis applied to any sort of public performance (including the art of rhetoric), hypokrites was a technical term for a stage actor and was not considered an appropriate role for a public figure. In Athens during the 4th century BC, for example, the great orator Demosthenes clowned his rival Aeschines, who had been a successful actor before taking up politics, as a hypocrites whose skill at impersonating characters on stage made him an untrustworthy politician. This negative view of the hypokrites, perhaps combined with the Roman disdain for actors, later shaded into the originally neutral hypokrisis. It is this later sense of hypokrisis as “play-acting”, i.e., the assumption of a counterfeit persona, that gives the modern word hypocrisy its negative connotation.
Why Criticism Matters
Why it matters to everyone for it to be authentic, simply because as a consumer of culture you trust not only the news and media content you consume to keep you informed, relevant and entertained. You rely on your local cultural king makers to elevate your taste and keep you in sync with your heritage as a person of culture. The sum of the good things you can genuinely mention and share about your country comes to down to what you know about it. That’s why as a consumer it matters to you for Zimbabwean culture to be spoken on with respect, collaborative energy and people getting paid for their work like this ain’t a banter ting blud.
Anyway…😑
Why it matters to the journalist for it collaborative, simply because art is not an objective sport like football where even the beauty of a single moment can be quantified down to the last progressive breathing rate and jumping power a player can exert. What I am trying to say here is what Jesus said, ‘Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God’. In Ubuntu speak, what I’m saying is respect the art and the craft enough to feel the desire to add positively to its conversation. Give your roses with thorns and all, but remember a bouquet of roses is accompanied by what?
Why it matters to the artist for it be organic, simply because in our field respect is earned, shared and paid forward. Your art has to move me to write in the first place, let me let you in on a secret, I don’t hate writing but tryna come up with the right words to talk about someone else on digital paper is hard. Why? Ego inflation is at all time high in the motherland, without quality journalism boot licking it for one. On a real though, purposeful inspiration is difficult to keep steady in this era of short attention spans and on demand long form quality content. It’s easy to write a bad review or a scathing piece on art that that doesn't satisfy my taste levels, too easy actually. I just simply don’t write about it or talk on it beyond a conversation that doesn’t commit me to putting out negative energy. Instead I focus on organically reaching out to my favorite artists’ favorite artists and earn each other’s respect.
What’s the point of all this rhetoric?
Cultural commentary should be sacred coz that is the holy grail to our society’s identity. When you speak for the culture remember you speak for yourself, your people and its moment in time. There’s a whole lot more to my point but for now we end the rant here. Ayo forgive me, I’m a media man with an agenda too. Mine is being #PROUD2PAY for Zimbabwean art in the meanwhile whilst my friends and I fix the creative industry by shifting the culture and bringing respect to the craft, not just the art.
