If you are from anywhere outside of here or here, you’ve probably had the same thing happen to you once or twice. You are sitting in a dimly lit Wendy’s dining room, merely trying to enjoy your junior bacon cheeseburger, when a group of teenagers walk in. Their styles, not only what they are wearing but how they carry themselves, would make your grandparents shudder. As you are finishing your cheeseburger, they flirt with the underage girl behind the counter while they place their order. You realize that you are the only other person in the dining room and, though there are plenty of empty tables, naturally they sit at the table right next to yours. You wonder to yourself, “I wonder what kind of advice Bill Cosby would give these kids.” You finish your burger, stand up and leave, all the while avoiding eye contact so as not to get jumped. Leaving the restaurant, you tell yourself that you would have handled them if they made a move. You get in your car and drive off…crisis averted.
Those teenagers represented hip hop culture just like a group of skateboarding kids represent the punk or grunge scenes. That situation has played out in front of me dozens of times (though not always at Wendy’s) and the thing that I remember vividly is the apparel, the clothes that these teenagers seem to always wear. From head (Yankee hats) to toe (Jordan shoes) hip hop culture has blended with sports teams, adopted them as part of its own culture and changed the attitude of sports in general.
Its history is not well documented, and its origin has been heatedly debated many times. Like most other pop culture sensations, hip-hop seemed to come out of nowhere overnight. Its sound, criticized by the majority of the public eye, provided a certain voice that blended perfectly with the funky beats that were popular at the time. Soon, hip-hop would even help to tear down the confinements set by disco music and become a driving force in American culture. In addition to becoming one of the most provocative, controversial and moving styles of art, it also became of the most influential genres of modern music. Today, how we dress, talk, dance and even the way we play sports is affected by hip-hop music. Like just about everything else in life, I believe that there are good and bad effects from this. How do professional sports benefit from hip hop influences? Also, what is the negative effect that rap causes sports? Let’s take a look…
THE GOOD
When hip hop artists started rapping about sports in their songs way back in the ‘80s, sports would never be the same. For example, in the documentary “Straight Outta L.A.”, produced by ESPN, rapper/director Ice Cube talks about the good that the clashing cultures brought. The Los Angeles Raiders at the time needed a home, a loyal fan base that would love them and allow them to stay in that area. The racially diverse area of Los Angeles likewise needed the Raiders. The football team not only gave them an identity, it gave them something to rally for, and it allowed them to come together.
In an article written for ESPN.com’s Page 2, Vincent Thomas claims that he actually misses hip hop sports teams. What great memories they provided over the years! It’s easy to root for teams like the ‘80s Raiders and the Fab Five and for players such as Lawrence Taylor and Allen Iverson. Maybe the fact that they had been so heavily embraced by hip hop culture helped their popularity.
You could also say that another good effect brought by the unifying of hip hop culture and sports was that it helped the growing genre gain spotlight. Nowadays, nearly every time an athlete is interviewed after a game, you can hear music from artists such as Nelly or 50 Cent being played by teammates in surrounding lockers. At almost every type of sporting event, rap music (edited of course) can be heard before, during, and after games. At baseball games the PA operators who play walk-up music for individual players, intended to “pump the athletes up,” tend to use rap and hip hop’s Latin twin, reggaeton. Rap’s exposure in sports not only gives players a certain swagger or identity, but also allows athletes everywhere to get their adrenaline flowing. Evidence of this was never more apparent than when rapper and Green Bay Packer fan Lil’ Wayne, in response to the inspiring Pittsburg Steelers anthem “Black and Yellow,” released a different version of the song to inspire the Packers just before the two teams met to play Super Bowl XLV in 2011. Rap music has inspired countless teams, and it appears that it will continue to do so as long as the bass-heavy beats exist.
Perhaps the greatest success story of the hip hop/sports merger is rapper Jay Z, the current principle owner of the New Jersey Nets. He has proven that the two worlds can collide for their mutual benefit, especially for how he provided hip hop with a model of financial efficiency and business attitude.
THE BAD
By late 2007, there had already been a number of incidents in the world of sports that had given the decadent lifestyle of hip hop sports stars a bad image. Many athletes throughout all sports had been arrested for various crimes; some had even lost their careers due to time spent in jail. In November of that year, Sean Taylor, star safety for the Washington Redskins, was shot at his home in South Florida by an armed robber. Taylor died later that night due to massive blood loss from his femoral artery. In the weeks, months, and even years that followed, public outcry from fans has called for an end to the stupidity displayed by many prominent American athletes. The edge that hip hop culture had given the world of sports was now just rough and dangerous. Many sports figures, once role models, were now the model for violence and reckless behavior. They had become a punch line, the object of ridicule for morning talk show banter. When a new star began to excel, the question had become, “How long will this guy last before we find out how he really is?”
One cause of this may be the endless streaming of videos, music, and other media brought about by the advances of technology. Before such advances, music was not only harder to come by but harder to play inside clubhouses and locker rooms. Also, it is impossible to think that all athletes before the youtube era were angels. They may have acted poorly as well, though the media’s inability to cover them compared to today’s standards makes it hard to know for sure exactly how athletes back then behaved. That being said, it is impossible to disagree that the hip hop and sports infusion has produced certain negative effects, resulting in numerous lives being endangered. Some people just take it too far.
In the end, you can decide. Is hip hop good for sports? There isn’t a poll question that goes along with this post, just something to ponder. If you want my opinion, I love sports and I love hip hop. I think that rap music is a useful tool that can help pump our adrenaline. But I also would say that sports figures should be role models as long as they are in the public spotlight. There are many good role models out there, but for every one good person there seem to be ten bad examples. Sex scandals, drug charges, you can go on and on with the stuff that they do. It’s obvious that there are far too many athletes that have lost their grip of reality, and it’s this bloggers opinion that the root of that problem can be the thug mentality drilled into their brains by the music they grew up listening to.
No comments:
Post a Comment