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/
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"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."
i love how you say that without any irony. so the hip-hop music that is created alternately by "entertainers" or "artists" (depending on which title suits them at the time) that is overwhelmingly homophobic and misogynistic doesn't give hip-hop artists a career? i don't see any poor rappers complaining that they can't afford to buy their big bad escalades because no one is buying their records. in fact, i think the violence in the hip-hop world that is often advocated, and the hateful lyrics against women and gays makes them pretty damn rich. and besides, if we're gonna be using your term of calling hip-hop performers as "entertainers" then the same can be said about bill o'suckass and don imus--who BOTH make their money trying to shock people. and they BOTH have an enormous amount of critics, so don't act like everyone thinks they're amazing. you're all trying to make whatever money you can, whether you're a bill o'reilly being a disgusting bigot or a rap "entertainer" calling his girlfriend a stupid bitch.
re the rest of your post, i don't understand why banning baggy clothes would mean so much. schools have the right to regulate things within their walls that distract kids from being educated. just like gang colors are banned in some schools in LA and NY. or wearing really short skirts. it's the same concept. school should be a safe place for kids to LEARN, not a runway show. if parents allow their kids to wear prison pants or skirts that barely cover their daughter's asses, then they can do that on their own time. and besides, you trying to make it a deeper issue of race and/or personal freedom of expression really goes against your whole point: "Music is music. It's not supposed to be this deep." --so perhaps then this whole issue isn't as deep as you're making it.
These clothes Nazis trying to legislate fashions are stupid and ineffiient. The folks 20 to 30 years older than the kids they are getting so apoplectic about, should just copy the kids look, NOTHING kills a young fresh look faster, than seeing it on some dweeby old f*ck.
I'm your Mom's generation, gay without children of my own, but close to my nephews and neice and now their kids.
I agree, kids dressing like idiots is not something we should legislate. Kids have always had a tendency towards dressing like idiots, as I and everyone else in America did when we were there age. Perhaps Atlanta should be spending more time figuring out how to deal with the unprecedented drought before worrying about children's pants.
The denigration of hip hop culture is the result of marketing. We all know that sex and violence sells. Especially among the young and
ignorant who have been raised on television and
movies.
We all did the same stuff the next generation is always worse. the best way forward is talk and challenge the next generation(s) to help make this earth ride better than it is now.
The more parents fuss about clothes, hair and music, the more their kids are compelled to embrace what is driving Mom & Dad nuts. As long as their not hurting themselves or others, let them go. A non-judgmental attitude by the parents will soon lead to rational thinking and mature behavior from the kid. My son (now 19) outgrew rap and baggy clothes by the 9th grade. It was his decision. Now he likes Pink Floyd, Yes and the Moody Blues. And a bunch of other modern artists I can’t name. Again, it was his choice.
Those Atlanta school board people would have been better served requiring uniforms for all students. It takes the pressure off both the parents and the kids and keeps the focus on studies rather than wardrobe. Plus it affects all kids and not just a segment. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
Baggy pants are a crime against the state. Remember that time on the Mary Tyler Moore Show when she told Lou he had baggy pants and he got all mad?
There's something naturally sinister about baggy pants. Wars have been fought over for less.
One last thing; I never claimed that my "culture" is perfect; it's messed up too. My way of life barely infringes on anyone else's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, though.
Where'd the Omaha kid hide the AK?
When most youth were sprouting their own look it wasn't already being owned and sprayed by convicts and drug sellers on MTV.
They like the idea of being a gangster rapster. Its not a culture. Its a fashion associated with the owners of it. Gang bangers who sell drugs to your children and rot the poor communities into oblivion.
So keep defending the fashion. It's like watching cheerleaders cheer for the losing teams jersey.
Its rebel so the more society as a whole attacks it, the more it will solidify into youth fashion. That part is normal. What's not normal is dismissing all the negatives that it brings to the community as well as the positives. Excusing a fashion that disrupts the LEARNING ENVIRONMENT for the vast majority of youth is abnormal.
When I was in high school (back in the 80s) they used to send us home if our shorts were to short. One time they sent a girl home because whe had died her hair green for St Patrick's Day. On a couple of occasions kids were made to go home and wash gel and stuff out of their hair because their mohawks stood too high and were "distracting". I am sure for my parents generation there was something else.
My point is, it isn't new and it isn't racial. You are right when you say it is generational, but I think you miss the boat when you say that it is simply with the grandparents generation. You yourself point out that every generation has struggled with the norms of the culture that proceeded it.
I so don't understand the thing with wearing baggy pants. To me it looks silly. But it is not threatening in any way, just silly. Attempting to ban any teenagers from wearing a certain style of dress is a waste of time and resources and creates unnecessary ill-will.
All of that said, my son won't be going out of the house dressed like that. When you can't walk across the parking lot without holding your pants in one hand so they won't fall off, you are at a distinct disadvantage in life.
Its not about baggy pants. Its about saggin. Its about men and boys wearing their pants around there knees so their ass is hanging out. It has nothing to do with hip hop. The only reason it has anything to do with race is its black people doing it. Old people don't like it including old black people. In time it will be accepted and white people will be doing it. People will say - back in the day men and boys didn't walk around with their ass hanging out.
well... ya gotta take a stand on something, i guess...
Yes, one stand would be against a school implementing a rule that says you can't walk around with your pants down to your thighs with your ass hanging out.
I guess this is what is meant by "We Shall Overcome."
talk about choosing your hills to die on, die indeed
When I see some guy with his belt below his ass, his hat on sideways, ruining a perfectly good pair of Timberland boots and his ANKLES by not wearing laces, I just think he's an idiot. There's weird, there's stupid and then there's the modern day minstrel show.
I'm sick of the "it's only entertainment" BS. It's supposed to be art! I'm not a censurious sort of person, but people disrespect music when they say stuff like this.
It seems to me that many in the hip-hop world want to be "entertainers" when they want to deflect responsibility, and "artists" when they want to be taken seriously.
I'm not foolish enough to think that gangsterism is ALL that hip-hop or black culture is, but I'm too smart to think that the goth culture is as dangerous as young men glorifying violence and stupidity.
A lot (not all) but a lot of rap music does more than simply reflect violence, it perpetuates it. The thing that bothers me most about rap music is not the thuggishness or the criminality in the lyrical content, it's the willful stupidity and selfishness. It's as if dumbness is a form of rebellion.
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