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Oct. 26, 2005 One of my favorite albums of all time is Straight Outta Compton by NWA (1990). Universally hailed as the true genesis of commercial gangsta rap, Straight Outta Compton for the first time showed young black men talking about hardcore street life, with it having national mass appeal. They rapped, F* the Police, a track about police brutality from a hood perspective, Dope Man, Dope Man, a hip hop discourse on crack dealing, and Gangsta Gangsta, a hip hop ode to gang banging. Straight Outta of Compton was new, and hardcore, loved by many, and hated equally by many for its gun, drugs, gangs, and sex approach in hip hop. Kids snapped it up voraciously, parents couldn’t believe their ears, and even the FBI got involved, criticizing NWA soundly for putting police in danger. Well there is a new hardcore individual coming Straight Outta of Compton, and that is Bill Cosby. Continuing his national push for blacks to consider their history and struggle for elevation, Bill Cosby went into the metaphorical heart of Gangsta Gangsta land. He pushed for black folk to take more responsibility and accountability, and wrapped it around a message that young blacks can achieve, but they must have big dreams. Dr. Cosby whom I now dub, “Gangsta Bill”, like NWA with Straight Outta Compton before him, is getting national attention, critical acclaim, and vicious criticism for his straight up, direct and real comments on the need for black folks to look at self, fix self and grow self. Although Compton wasn’t his first “Call Out Session”, we all remember the remarks at the 2004 Brown Vs Board of Education NAACP anniversary celebration that touched of the firestorm around Gangsta Bill, to me the symbolic nature of Compton can’t be overlook. What better place to return to the message of stepping up as black folk, than the very city, which produced the album that originally exposed to the nation to some of the roughest and worst things in the hood? When NWA came on the scene, hip hop generally was consolidated to east coast rappers who had regional followings, or the party tracks that got play nationally. But when NWA hit they literally ripped the cover off the roughness of urban hoods and the situations and scenarios that blacks, who weren’t even gangsters, were feeling, and seeing. They exposed the world to some of the more vicious uncut realities of urban life that were not getting any real media exposure and national dialogue. Of course it was opportunistic, as they were trying to get paid, but none the less, it took the “street” from the “street” and made the “street” a national topic. Gangsta Bill over the past year has flipped all that, saying, “We know what is hood, but it is time to change the hood”. No more readily example of the need for people not just to hear, appreciate, or figure out ways to criticize Cosby’s message can be seen than at the Compton meeting. According to the California based internet news sight SignonSandiego.com writing about the Compton event in an article titled, “Bill Cosby exhorts parents to set goals for their children”, At one point anybody who lost a relative to violence was asked to come forward and tell their story. Twelve people did so, including 11 parents who had lost sons. Cosby was ready for them with hugs. So regardless of how uncut Gangsta Bill comes with his message, there is no disputing the need for his message, the same way NWA forced the nation to hear their message of street life illumination in raw form. The question becomes though what will happen with Bill Cosby’s Straight Outta Compton message? We know what happened with NWA’s album, it spawned the gangsta rap genre that we still see in an evolved form today and entrenched ‘gangsta’ in video, radio, and movie life, and dramatically shaped black urban culture over the past 15 years. Will Gangsta Bill’s message get the same play, blow up nationally, and like NWA in reverse shape urban culture for the positive, motivate our kids to get in college, open businesses, and stop the ridiculous killing and self-destructive behavior? Will that be Cosby’s legacy when we look back at this moment 15 years from now? We can only hope. ------------ About the author: Dell Gines is the Founder & President of the Urban Center for Economic Education and Development, Inc. (www.urbanceed.org) in Omaha, Nebraska and is an Op-Ed writer for The Omaha Star, Omaha’s only Black Newspaper, and has published a poetry book titled, “Love, Life and Things in Between”. He can reached at www.dellgines.com Email: dellgines@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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