"Call It Ludacris: The Kinship Between Talk Radio and Rap"

You must have heard of Kanye West’s outlandish behavior, or US Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst. Are they symptomatic of the decline of “manners” in today’s political discourse in the US, as CNN would have its viewers believe?

Some interesting parallels between the two (West and Wilson; hip hop and politics) are emerging. This Sunday's New York Times had an article on the "kinship" between political ranting Talk Radio hosts and Rap Culture. Both cultural forms share:
"EGO Extolling your greatness is nearly as crucial to rap as it is to talk radio."
“HATERS You’re nobody in hip-hop until you claim to have hordes of detractors.”
"FEUDS 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule. Lil’ Kim vs. Foxy Brown."

“VERBAL SKILLS Without them, you can’t rap and you’ll never make it as a talk radio opinion-machine.”

How about the gangster culture of hip hop? A veneer for a conservative politics? The journalist argues:

“Even beyond simple matters of style, rap and conservative talk radio share some DNA. Once you subtract gangsta rap’s enthusiasm for lawlessness — a major subtraction, to be sure — rap is among the most conservative genres of pop music. It exalts capitalism and entrepreneurship with a brio that is typically considered Republican. (Admiring references to Bill Gates are common in hip-hop.)”

Just a thought about the nature of the medium!

A. D.