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Reinforced Rap Clichés | norient.com 26 Jan 2023 18:17:22
Reinforced Rap Clichés
by Tara Mahadevan
Many clichés exist within hip hop, particularly that it’s a
genre bent on discussing wealth. Sure, that’s true, but the
same can be said for any musical genre or industry. But, in
fact, no one in hip hop wants to talk about money anymore.
In the last years, rap is slowly moving away from being
money-centric to again, being about the music. This is what
Rob Sonic and Aesop Rock aka Hail Mary Mallon completely
miss with their 2014 music video «Whales», an ironic view on
wealth in hip hop culture. From the Norient book
Seismographic Sounds (see and order here).
Take something as simple as the media, which encompasses everything from
social media to print media to television talk shows and the news. Wealth is
everywhere. What extravagant thing did Kim Kardashian buy this week for her
daughter North West? What luxurious, indulgent vacation did Beyonce and
Jay-Z go on this time? Our society is obsessed with wealth, regardless of how
much or little money you have.
From the standpoint of hip hop, the topic of money comes off as cliché. From
hip hop’s outset, the genre has expressed a desire for money. Wealth is a
prevalent theme in the first popularized rap song from 1979, «Rapper’s
Delight» by the Sugarhill Gang, «I got a color TV so I can see the Knicks play
basketball / Hear me talking 'bout checkbooks, credit cards, more money
than a sucker could ever spend», raps Big Bank Hank.
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Reinforced Rap Clichés | norient.com 26 Jan 2023 18:17:22
There remains a flood of critics – both inside and outside the culture – who
continue to chastise hip hop about its attraction to wealth. Hail Mary Mallon,
the duo Rob Sonic and Aesop Rock, have joined those critics. The visuals for
their track «Whales», from their latest offering Bestiary, is a song and video
that rotates on a monetary axis.
Rooting in Underground Hip Hop
Indeed, HMM comes from a different world than Sugarhill Gang and the
group’s successors. Rob Sonic and Aesop Rock are fundamental to
underground hip hop: Aesop has been cited as a leader in the underground
scene, an indie rapper who lit the torch and led the way for many others.
Neither Aesop nor Sonic have found huge mainstream success, but both
prefer it that way.
In 2011, the duo released their first collaboration album as Hail Mary Mallon,
called Are You Gonna Eat That? . They subsequently released Bestiary in
2014. Bestiary’s overall aesthetic and thematic elements fall in line with the
duo’s independent, underground roots, with off-the-wall production and bars
that make you do a double take. Like a lot of HMM’s music videos, the visuals
for «Whales» speaks to the emcees’ idiosyncrasies, and is rife with layers.
«Whales» opens with two styrofoam bums – the bum in the sweatband is
Sonic and the one with the beard is Aesop – sitting on a trash can and
dumpster in an alley. The figures and the surrounding scene are made from a
foam rubber material, and the figures are controlled by puppeteers. The two
bums begin rapping about money; we see actual translations of their ideas
above their heads.
An Escapist Tool to Mask Reality
Most obviously, the song is about wealth, acting as commentary on society’s
need and desire for affluence. The track also takes a huge jab at hip hop’s
fascination with wealth and the multitude of rap songs that focus on wealth.
Sonic and Aesop spit about the things they can buy with their money, and as
the song continues, the items become more and more ridiculous.
The duo raps about getting multiple haircuts and eating Albert Einstein-
shaped foie gras, of castles, yachts, and zoos, and of floors made of scalps;
Sonic and Aesop’s imaginations allow them to travel to far off places like
summers on Mars, and planes full of women and cigars. Throughout the
video, the rappers’ thoughts come to life: for Sonic, money is an intoxicant, as
we see dollar signs sitting on his tongue; for Aesop, money takes the form of
bald eagles sewn into a coat, among other things. HMM shows that money
fuels absurd and fantastical desires, acting as a tool to mask reality.
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Reinforced Rap Clichés | norient.com 26 Jan 2023 18:17:22
And that is a true and poignant matter: money does incite a materialism that
can often reach ludicrous heights, and obscure the truth. The fact that the
two rappers have chosen to create a music video where they have been
reimagined as puppets speaks to society’s fixation on materialism. According
to Google, a puppet is defined as, «A movable model of a person...that is
typically moved either by strings controlled from above or by a hand inside
it», and/or as, «a person...under the control of another». Therein lies the
direct connection: those who are obsessed with money become puppets of
wealth and materialism, and continually hide from the realities of this world.
Regardless of the legitimacy of the aforementioned claim, obsession with
materialism and money, and escapism, is not something that can solely be
ascribed to hip hop. Certainly, celebrities use their wealth as a means to
escape their realities – they purchase things to fill a void or to prove to the
world that they can continue to afford such excess. On the same note, we –
the viewer, the listener – use our obsession with wealth to hide from our own
truths; we also use it as a sort of escapism from our own worlds.
No One in Hip Hop Wants to Talk About Money Anymore
The song is satirical in nature: Sonic and Aesop employ rap to criticize hip
hop culture, using humor, irony, and exaggeration to expose hip hop and
society’s obsession with wealth. Certainly, many emcees rap about money,
regardless of whether or not they are rich; and yes, we do indeed live in a
society that is increasingly obsessed with wealth and those who are wealthy.
But our obsession with money trumps most people’s disapproval of wealth;
«Whales» stands to either be wholly relevant or completely irrelevant.
While hip hop is steeped in a fascination with wealth, it is also immersed in
reality; the genre is continuing to prove this day by day. As rap continues to
progress and meld with other genres and sounds like R&B, EDM, jazz, and
blues, so too has hip hop’s topical scope.
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While yes, emcees still spit about money – and while yes, there are many
emcees who still largely rap about wealth – the newest generation of rappers
who are breaking genres don’t solely focus on materialism. The line between
genres like conscious, alternative, and backpack rap – where rappers focus on
our social and political landscape – and mainstream rap, gangsta rap, and trap
– where emcees focus on wealth, women, and violence – are blurring. Many
emerging rappers instead direct their music on their experiences, spitting on
the realities of relationships, family, wealth, emotions, love, and struggles. It
doesn’t seem to be one or the other anymore. And honestly, it never was.
Sonic and Aesop have simply missed the point. No one in hip hop wants to
talk about money anymore. We know who is wealthy and who isn’t – we
ridicule, criticize, and uplift those who have affluence and those who don’t.
Money is no longer a talking point in rap, both for the rappers and for the
listeners.
At this point, we have to ask ourselves, are Sonic and Aesop living in the past?
Are they aware of the progress the genre is making?
From Underground Hip Hop to the Concept of Internet
Artists
Both emcees have been on the hip-hop scene for almost twenty years: Rob
Sonic has been active since 1998, while Aesop Rock has been around since
1996. Aesop Rock started out as an independent artist and continues to be
one to this day – he financed his first album Music for Earthworms in 1997.
Rob Sonic’s career has not been as outwardly independent, however, his work
is quite underground. A lot has changed during their time; even the indie and
underground hip-hop scenes that they spearheaded have changed. The duo
still fly under the radar and aren’t heavily involved in the goings-on of current
hip hop, so maybe they aren’t cognizant of hip hop’s forward momentum.
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Of course, the industry is still fueled by money, as every industry is,
especially music. But now, the interaction and connection between social
media and music has become paramount: the concept of the Internet artist is
at its peak. The Internet artist is what an artist is today, no matter how big or
small your following, because that’s how people consume music, via the
Internet.
The Internet artist didn’t exist during the height of Sonic and Aesop’s careers.
Now, you don’t need piles of money and major label backing to make music
that people want to hear and care about. Music has come to a point where
you can be an independent artist and have an extremely solid fanbase.
Twitter has done that for us, SoundCloud has done that for us, and the influx
of online publications have done that for us. Emcees fund their music by
themselves, record at in-home studios (recording technology is only getting
better), and hold crowdfund campaigns for tours and albums to collect
money from fans.
Again, none of this existed during the height of Sonic and Aesop’s careers.
They would have benefited from social media and SoundCloud. Rap is slowly
moving away from being money-centric to again, being about the music.
«Whales» is a retrogression to early 2000’s hip-hop, when rap was less
substantive. Now rap is pushing forward sonically and lyrically, melding with
other genres to create something new. Hip hop is no longer stuck in the
position that HMM assign to it.
In the end, the bums, destitute and moneyless, are brought back to their
reality in the alley. Lost in Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic’s critique on rap and
wealth is that idea of escapism, or using money as a departure from reality.
The duo could have teased that theme out of the song, instead of showing
their lack of awareness of rap’s current landscape.
A shorter and edited version of this text was published in the second Norient
book Seismographic Sounds.
Tara Mahadevan is a New York-based freelance music journalist. She studied
English and Creative Writing at New York University and Writing at School of the
Art Institute of Chicago.
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Seismographic Sounds – Visions of a New World
€15.00
The second Norient book «Seismographic Sounds – Visions of a New World» introduces you
to a contemporary world of distinct music and music videos. Written by 250 scholars,
journalists, bloggers and musicians from 50 countries.
printed version sold out, purchase PDF
→ published on july 07, 2017
→ last updated on september 16, 2020
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