Ben Shapiro and Tim Slagle have engaged in a little back and forth in recent days about rap and whether or not it’s crap. I read the original piece. The response. The response to the response. The myriad of comments. I’m diving into the fray, dancing delightfully through the crossfire of warring factions of the same army. But as you may know, I’m not one to play peacemaker.
Ben Shapiro is a brilliant kid. I say kid, not in the pejorative, not to denigrate him for his age. But he’s 8 years younger than I and he’s achieved stuff that, when we parents look at our children for the first time, hope for them. Smart, good-looking, already a family man and a lawyer, a published author and commentator, Ben is staring down a world in the shape of an oyster. Good on him.
Slagle is a stand up comic who hasn’t had a day job in over 20 years. But that doesn’t mean that he lacks the understanding of the world around him. In fact, he might have more insight into what words mean in the world of entertainment than anyone here. Tim once cleared a room entirely in Minneapolis when he made a VERY funny (albeit poorly timed) joke shortly after the death of Paul Wellstone. People were revolted. They found it disgusting and then they turned on him, as many audiences do (sorry, Tim, I couldn’t resist).
The reason Tim’s insight into the world of rap is correct, despite being in his 40s with very gray hair and ever-increasing liver spots, is that Tim understands the difference between artist and art. Ben’s articles have not only ignored this very important detail, but intentionally blurred the line. It’s true that some rappers begin to believe their own hype and try to live the thug life. But it’s untrue that their art (whether you like it or not) has much basis in reality, or even that it inspires bad actions by the audience.
To wit, if Shapiro’s logic were true, Republicans like Arnold “The Terminator” Schwarzenegger, Sylvester “Rambo” Stallone and Clint “Dirty Harry” Eastwood would have all been indicted for inspiring the murderous rampages of their fans. Maybe you could argue that Stallone and The Governator have inspired a lot of weight lifting and maybe even a little performance-enhancing drug use, but you’d be hard-pressed to uncover any real damage from artists who portray people who have literally murdered thousands of people in cold blood over the course of their cinematic careers.
And I’m pretty sure that Eminem never raped or murdered his now-wife Kim (or his mom, as Shapiro noted). Not in real life. And that’s the difference. Art is often an outlet for anger and rage. Deep, dark secrets and uncontrollable internal pain and anguish are artistic expressions that go back to Shakespeare and beyond. Hell, Sophocles wrote about a dude who kills his father so he can fuck his mom… And then Jim Morrison retold it… sort of.
Sometimes those emotions, including anger can be inspiring. In his Oscar-winning song, “Lose Yourself” Eminem’s anger about constant failure and being “chewed up and spit out and booed off stage” leads him “back to the lab again” in an effort to “write the next cipher” that will help him to “tear the motherfucking roof off like two dogs caged.” To me, those are words that speak to the raw determination that makes this country great. It’s what’s in the heart of every entrepreneur struggling to make it, even if they wouldn’t express it with such fabulous vulgarity and poetic meter.
Rappers are usually fairly harmless. They’re typically short, often ignorant and uneducated (Mos Def proved that the other night on Maher’s lib-fest) and in need of affection, which is why they have big posses to shower love on them. Sometimes, like in the case of TI, they get very, very stupid and try to become the character they created. That’s what the criminal justice system is for.
Sometimes, rap becomes a life-saving endeavor. 50 Cent was a real drug dealer who’d really been shot with real bullets. I guess I’d rather have him making records than drug deals and firing off lyrics than 9mm shells. He’s rich and famous and has diversified his businesses. And that’s something to hold up as the great opportunity this country affords us. You too can achieve greatness no matter how pitiful and lowly you are now.
I once interviewed a big, imposing drug dealer in Harlem for “Michael Moore Hates America” (it ended up on the cutting room floor). I asked him why he does what he does, and he talked about all the same things I talked about. He had children and wanted them to have good lives. He didn’t want them to struggle. Granted, he was peddling poison and killing other peoples’ children with it, but I’m guessing that 50 is happier to be rapping and performing, rather than dealing nowadays.
To me, Ben’s article is the sort of stereotypical social conservatism that makes people afraid to be identified with conservatism or the Republican party. It’s that same old “I don’t like it and I don’t like what I think it could lead to (even though there’s no evidence), so I’ll demonize it.” It’s the same shit Tipper and Al Gore pulled when they hammered a former Marine named Dee Snider about his lyrics, just before getting their asses handed to them by “country boy” John Denver.
It’s also the same thing liberals do to Global Warming “deniers” by demonizing them for destroying the planet even though there’s no evidence they’re right. It’s a hysterical reaction to things we don’t like (rap or SUVs, take your pick), so we make up stories about what it means and how it’s the end of civilization as we know it. We turn it into its own “culture” so that we can identify it and stamp it out. It’s wrong and wrongheaded. I thought we judged people as individuals on their own merits.
Art and Artist are not the same thing. And words are almost always just words.