Bridging the Gap

Last night the Atlanta school board voted unanimously to ban students from wearing baggy pants. This has been goin' on all over the South lately, in Louisana and other parts of Georgia. It's been on the radar in New Jersey, Oklahoma and even Yonkers, New York. They also talked about outlawing baggy pants in Baltimore, until they had the good sense to drop it. It's some of the dumbest shit I have ever heard and now it's in my backyard. It's time for me to speak up.

This is basically all about the older generation hating on hip hop. They can't ban it, so instead they're gonna try and turn kids into criminals just for being themselves. Kids have been wearing this look for more than two decades. Since before I first discovered Kris Kross, and they wore their oversized pants backwards, kids have been dressing this way, and all of a sudden local governments and school boards all over America are deciding it's "indecent". So why now?

Well, I have a theory.

Have you ever noticed how if a teenager tries to have a conversation with a grandparent or someone much older than they are, the conversation seems to go left or get misconstrued? The reason why this happens is because the bridge between the older generation and the younger generation - i.e., our parents - was broken.

What do I mean? When I was growing up in the 70s, right at the time of the birth of rap music, my mother and father were there with me to see hip hop come into my life as something positive and not a negative. They saw it touch me like the new wave that it was, which sparked the baggy jeans, the sneakers with no shoestrings, and all the trends that exist today.

When I came home from touring on the New York City Fresh Fest I was wearing Lee jeans with permanent creases and shell toes with no strings. I got sent home for not having shoe strings in my shoes. When the principal called my mom and told her, she couldn't believe it. In my defense she cussed him out and explained to him that what I was doing was no different from his era of high water jeans or, as you may know them, flood pants.

She reminded him that all kids throughout history experiment with their look and challenge convention. Ya'll heard the expression, "everything you kids wear today is the same thing we wore back when I was your age"? That's what my mother told me. Thanks to her intervention, I continued to work my look and never heard another word about it again.

But I was lucky to come up when I did, and to have parents who could relate to my world. By the mid 80s, the biggest epidemic hit the black communities ever...CRACK! And for some reason this older generation that came before the crack era - our parent's parents --seems to not realize how hard it hit our community. These people, the gatekeepers and lawmakers who are in positions of power now, are the parents of my mother's generation, and they just don't seem to get it.

You could say there's some racism in this whole movement to outlaw baggy pants. In people's minds that look is typical of young black kids. There's been a wave lately of nooses, burned crosses and swastikas, popping up all over the country. Bill O'Reilly and Don Imus can get away with being the biggest ass bigots in the universe and still have careers because people don't bat an eye.

But that's not even all of it. In my mind this problem goes beyond race, because it's not just old white people who hate our culture, and it's not just young black kids who wear baggy pants. To me what's going on here is all about the generations. Older black people, folks our grandparents' age, are the ones criticizing us the most. Me and the Bill Cosbys of the world need to sit down and have a conversation.

It's not all their fault. They haven't been educated. But I don't see them asking people like myself to be a part of these boards, councils and committees that are making all the rules. They need to talk to young, hip-hop minded people who understand both worlds. Guys like me need to fill them in, because this last generation hasn't done its job and been the bridge between their kids, and the generation that came before them. They haven't been there, acting as that buffer in the middle. So what we're left with is one of the worst generation gaps in decades, with understanding on both sides getting less and less.

That bridge generation disappeared in the 80's and early 90's, when so many families were destroyed by the crack epidemic. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying all black parents were on crack. But plenty of families got messed up, especially in poor black neighborhoods. A lot of 'em are STILL messed up! The R&B singer Mario and his mom are another perfect example of this. Mario's 19, and his mother's addicted to heroine. He did a show on MTV, where he talks about this, and how he's trying to get her off the stuff and save her life.

Probably the majority of kids in the projects were and are being raised by grandmas and older aunties 'cause their parents were either strung out, in jail, or dead. It's kinda like this generation of black kids now in their teens and early 20's got left on the doorstep, with no one to teach them, and no one to speak for them.

Think about it. In every era of music and culture, your parents taught you what came before. My generation, babies born in the 70's, is like the last generation to have had that benefit. My mother used to tell me about the shit she used to do when she was growing up -- sneaking out to parties and listening to rock music and Motown - and how her mother didn't approve. My mom would lay down the law and keep me out of trouble. But she also explained me, and what I was doing, to my grandma. And when she related what I was doing to her own time of rebellion, and reminded my grandma of some of the stuff she was into when she was younger, it smoothed the way.

Hip hop's no different from any other movement. When kids grew their hair long in the 60's parents got upset. When Elvis sang black music and shook his hips, the older generation hated it.

But unlike rock, hip hop has been taking the place of the missing parents. The only thing kids are paying attention to these days is rap culture, and hip hop is getting blamed for this. People are putting it on us to be better role models because kids listen to our music. But that's not really our position. Music is music. It's not supposed to be this deep.

Banning baggy jeans ain't gonna solve anything either. Kids will just get mad, rebel even more and go and wear them somewhere else. The ones already at risk will turn away from school and get into something else.

I think the Atlanta school board needs to revisit this issue. I think somebody from the city needs to get on the phone and talk to me. We need to fix the bridge. Creating a law like this is only gonna add more miles to the generation gap, and that won't help our kids.

Jermaine Dupri, who was named the most successful R&B producer of all time by the Guinness World Records 2007, is a Grammy-award winning music producer, president of Island Urban Records and author of Young, Rich and Dangerous: The Making of a Music Mogul (Atria, October 2007). For more information about this blogger log onto http://www.themostaccess.com/index.php?s=Jermaine+Dupri/

Comments

[dd39203]

If I was a parent in any of these school districts, I would be outraged!!! I'm sure there are 101 things that need addressing and all the school boards can come up with is sagging pants...not a problem at all.

[hontonoshijin]

What is broken is communication, as you observe. The natural progress is for older people to gather wisdom and help younger people through the dangerous and tricky early years. Our culture has broken this natural relation, probably for commercial reasons--if you can convince each age cohort that it is unique, with unique needs, there is much marketing to be done. The fact is ALL HUMANS begin as children, age to adults, get old, and die. We all go through all the stages. It is folly to pretend otherwise.

Consider the way we go through twelve years of schooling associating primarily with those who are almost exactly the same age. It aint natural, and it is destroying us.

[fullkelly]

"it isn't just old white people who hate our culture" implies ALL OLD WHITE PEOPLE hates your culture. Maybe you should be more careful in your broad accusations of old white people.

[lcopel3]

the bigger issue here, is that this ban may deter some young black men from attending school.

[mrkim]

look, baggy jeans and shoes without laces comes from jail. the fact that kids dress this way is proof that the jail mentality has taken over the hip hop world - at least in terms of fashion

[Sciguy]

I hate hip hop, but as for baggy pants - I don't care what anyone wears in school, as long as I don't have to see their ass-cracks. That's my limit. (I'm also not keen on seeing genitals overtly exposed; we're not furry critters, and folks might want to think about protecting those balls and boobies from the elements.)

As for hip hop - it glorifies rape and murder. It glorifies severe disrespect for women. The hip hop that doesn't strut that nasty stuff is fine if one likes it. I don't know if the music reflects the living conditions of the listeners or if the living style of the listeners reflects the music, but, at least to me, women are human beings, and rape and murder are wrong.

Note: Even when the Stones wrote "Midnight Rambler," they were *talking* about a rapist, not encouraging their listeners to go off and commit rape.

[Phee]

I'm underwhelmed by hip-hop, and one reason baggy pants are popular is that they make it easy to steal stuff.
Nevertheless, you are absolutely right about the loss of the bridge, and there are many reasons why this has happened, but the main one is that society's leaders have trashed it deliberately, and continue to do so.
On the right, anything new can be denounced to scare people into supporting you.
On the left, the social engineers and radicals tried to alienate youth from middle class society.
And just plain people want someone to blame their problems on, and the damn young people are a good target, even though they have little influence, almost no power, and are not the ones who built the mess they are inheriting.

[ForTheChildren]

Mr Dupri, I hope that you recognize that Hip Hop culture has been appropriated by the corporate sales force. Many artists are struggling with this, fighting to redeem their art from the prison of pervasive, ignorant materialism. Look at the slick, glossy hip-hop magazines and you will see what I mean.

You seem to be arguing that the blame for all the bad stuff rests with the crackhead baby boomers who didn't do their part as parents and further, were not there to perform the needed mediation between the older power possessing generation and their young, irreverent and rebellious subjects. That argument is not without merit, but it ignores a lot of stuff.

Finally, the English teacher in me must observe that bad grammar leads to poor communication. There has to be a balance, in the development of a dynamic language, between the adoption of colloquialisms and the requirements of sophisticated communication.

[Penrose]

I'm with you that kids need to do what they think is fashionable, however, I just don't want to see their butts! I don't like looking at white girls' bellies showing either. Us old folks just can't take that kind of stimulation without getting all frustrated and cranky.

[blahber]

"because it's not just old white people who hate our culture, and it's not just young black kids who wear baggy pants. "

its the baggy pants the define a culture. Um, come to think of it, I don't see too many Asian parents allowing their kids to walk around with their pants around the knees, or for that matter philophino's, eskimos, aboriginals, hell, I don't think Africans allow for that...

but again, its the "old white" people that are bigots. it certainly is true, stupid is that stupid does, i thought i'd never resort to using that phrase, but it's apt.

[ang4ever]

.
I do not oppose to baggie pants nor hip hop, but am oppose to parents letting their children dressed in a manner that the pants shows their undergarments, and producers of hip hop like you that denigrate women, specially your own race.
.
Hip hop is poetry, but the likes of Tupac Shakur, 50 cents etc - they used the medium it's a medium that embraced murder, raped and hatred.
.
And you, the producers and parents whining of the negative outcomes. Regretfully Mr. Dupree, what you are is a purveyor of of murder, rapes, hatred, and most of all, you help denigrate your own race. And, for that reason, your long self-serving diatribe lacks credibility, and is just a ruse for young black kids to crime in the name of money.
.
Shame on you !

[rucognizant]

I don't think clothing should be legislated! It should be self directed out of maturity!
It's just sad that kids want to look so lame!
In Downeast MAine there is no "hood", there isn't a black within hollering distance.........
The white kids with the baggy pants and trailing shoelaces look just as lame!
As for "ARTIST"? That title has been STOLEN from we who wield paint brushes!
But, IF you have studied art hitory, then in the decline in every empire through history, the creative output in the last stages, is lacking!

[Giglawyer]

A school board has every right to tell kids how to dress. Its not facism - its discipline. This isn't a war on hip hop, its an attempt to promote self-respect.

This is not a black thing or a white thing - I have ssen kids of all races dresing like this, and they all look like buffoons. Maybe 1 in 10,000,000 will "make it" in the hip hop world. For the rest, they can all get jobs at McDonald's some day, because I doubt anyone else will ever hire them looking like that.

[avicenna]

Fashion trend change - as to priorities. It is a mistake for both the pro and anti school dress code groups to make this a major focal point of educational system and what matters in the overall scheme of things. It may be an even greater harm to equate trends to racial profiles - regardless of whether their is sentiment of truth to the assertion because it just ends up building up walls and instigating feelings of hostility which only serve to hold one back from reaching their full potential. Generational angst will always exist as the old will always think that youth is wasted on the young - but there should be a focus to break the vicious circle so that there is upward mobility through the classes. This - more then anything else - will help all wearers of baggy pants feel big enough to fit the pants they have.

[situationcritical]

Sorry, what I meant to say was - do you think that Bill Cosby does not resent white americans? LOL...ah huh.