The film I edited, co-wrote and did research for, “Death Before Dishonor”, was featured on “60 Minutes” this past weekend, and on Anderson Cooper 360 again last night. Rumor is clips will be featured again tonight.
It is interesting that mainstream news media is picking this up, in the light of the Don Imus debacle and the fact the Russel Simmons has a new book he’s trying to hawk. Mr. Simmons has been on The O’Reilly Factor this week as well, apologizing to Bill O’Reilly about Hip Hop’s language usage, sorta. It was a strange show to watch, as O’Reilly was gleeful in the extreme - Rosie O’Donnell had announced her departure from “The View” the same day.
I have to say, after spending several long years as a Hip Hop documentary filmmaker, this issue is long overdue a hard look. The documentary covered the issue from the hardcore street perspective of felons and gang members, to the realities of this issue on cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, where violent crime has skyrocketed in the past few years. We spoke to many in the Hip Hop community who were in favor of the slogans, the street code and the street cred/market value embracing Stop Snitching afforded them. The more “hard body” you were, the more likely you were to associate with a criminal element, whether as an abstract artistic message or as the entourage that had your back on the “street”. But for most high paid rappers, the “street” is Rodeo Drive and Madison Avenue, where they shop for bling and sell products for large companies, not MLK Drive or the corner Alondra Blvd and Avalon Blvd in Compton. If you preach the ethos of criminality, shouldn’t you expect society and the authorities to start looking into your business and personal/professional affiliations?
The making of this film is a whole other story. It included everything from working with hard core criminals in the edit suite, scam artists in the collection of video and assets, a producer who was basically MIA most of the time, and the usual Hip Hop drama - drugs, violence and sex. The rumors about gansta (currently mainstream) Hip Hop are 100% true - it’s a smash and grab party, everyone is high or high on their own ego, and the values with which mainstream Hip Hop creates are vacant, shallow and oblivious to their affect on youth culture.
If not for the crew of Rich Murray, Adrianne Simpson, Gabriel Zapatta and myself, this film would have never reached completion. But we buckled down, strapped in and made it happen, as fast as we possibly could.
There are plenty of Hip Hop artists out there now who make excellent quality content, with a real message and purpose. From acts like Common, Invicible, Euphrates, and organizations like Movement In Motion, the Hip Hop Action Network and others, quality content still comes with a message - freedom of speech, freedom from oppression, freedom from poverty and war. Other films I’ve worked on, including “The Art of Love & Struggle”, speak to these issues, particularly from a female urban perspective, where we have Rosa Clemente calling Fat Joe out on the poison being fed to our children through video and music. This is the REAL Hip Hop.
We have to ask ourselves what took mainstream media so long to generate an outcry about the anti-snitching movement, or language and intent in Hip Hop. The honest truth is Hip Hop in its current format sells, and sells well, inside and outside the culture, and the message is being generated top down for successful artists, not from the street up, as is the case with most “conscious” Hip Hoppers. Why hasn’t an act like Common or Toni Blackman blown up as big as a Cam’ron or Ja Rule? Why don’t labels promote music with a message? The record industry is on its last legs and trying to grab as much cash as possible out of their dying monopoly on music distribution, and the effort put into developing real talent isn’t available these days. Quick money, fast turnaround and the cloak of Free Speech has led too many Hip Hoppers down a fairly thorny path toward fame and wealth. Now maybe Invincible or Mental Notes can get a record deal, as the labels will most certainly scramble to clean up their artist roster.
Check out the 60 minutes clip below:
Peace,
Melissa
