Whereas generations of Black Americans literally worked themselves to death, hip-hop adapted to new economic realities and new forms of work.
“Work Ain’t Honest”: Hip-Hop's Black Collar Economy
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
On the track “Other Side of the Game” from her debut Baduizm (1997) Erykah Badu offers a bittersweet tale of a woman trying to justify and rationalize her man with the “complex occupation.” Despite a college graduate and a skill set that was, in theory, of value in the mainstream economy, Badu’s song captured the dilemma of a generation of young Blacks who found that the illicit and often illegal underground economy offered better opportunities than a pursuit of a college degree and traditional forms of work. Rap music, particularly in the 1990s, was reflective of these struggles, while Hip-Hop culture more broadly offered some of the most trenchant responses to what was essentially a labor crisis amongst the Post-Soul and Hip-Hop generations.
When the Isley Brothers sang “Work to Do” in 1970, a year after James Brown famously announced “I don’t want nobody to give me nothin’/open up the door I’ll get it myself,” they reflected the sentiments of the Civil Rights Generation. With the doors of higher education and corporate America opening up, the feeling was that if Black America was simply given opportunities—if the so called playing field was leveled—they would be able to make their own way in the world. For many, this was indeed the case; the 1970s and early 1980s witnessed the unprecedented growth of what sociologist Bart Landry called “The New Black Middle Class.”
Many in that “New Black Middle Class” were the children of parents who toiled in blue collar and domestic jobs, in eras when the working class in America could not only be home-owners but also save enough to send their children to college. The blueprint was simple; get your hands dirty in the only jobs that Blacks were allowed to work in the years before the Civil Rights movement and your children would be able to work the kind of White Collar jobs that you weren’t allowed to. Such a strategy worked for some but as the 1980s emerged, a shift occurred in the labor force as the traditional factory jobs and the industrial workforce, gave way to service, finance and information based economies or what was called by many, the Post-industrial era.
This economic shift had a dramatic impact on Black America particularly among the Black working class and an emerging Black underclass who found themselves outside of the traditional workforce, just as they were making inroads into it. Simply put, the traditional Black worker was no longer necessary, translating into chronic unemployment, under-employment and increased involvement in the illegal underground economies. The latter dynamic was tailor-made for the rise of the Prison Industrial Complex, where the incarceration rates of poor and working class blacks swelled over the past 30 years, often for non-violent offenses directly related to dire economic situations.
“Work Ain’t Honest”: Hip-Hop's Black Collar Economy
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
On the track “Other Side of the Game” from her debut Baduizm (1997) Erykah Badu offers a bittersweet tale of a woman trying to justify and rationalize her man with the “complex occupation.” Despite a college graduate and a skill set that was, in theory, of value in the mainstream economy, Badu’s song captured the dilemma of a generation of young Blacks who found that the illicit and often illegal underground economy offered better opportunities than a pursuit of a college degree and traditional forms of work. Rap music, particularly in the 1990s, was reflective of these struggles, while Hip-Hop culture more broadly offered some of the most trenchant responses to what was essentially a labor crisis amongst the Post-Soul and Hip-Hop generations.
When the Isley Brothers sang “Work to Do” in 1970, a year after James Brown famously announced “I don’t want nobody to give me nothin’/open up the door I’ll get it myself,” they reflected the sentiments of the Civil Rights Generation. With the doors of higher education and corporate America opening up, the feeling was that if Black America was simply given opportunities—if the so called playing field was leveled—they would be able to make their own way in the world. For many, this was indeed the case; the 1970s and early 1980s witnessed the unprecedented growth of what sociologist Bart Landry called “The New Black Middle Class.”
Many in that “New Black Middle Class” were the children of parents who toiled in blue collar and domestic jobs, in eras when the working class in America could not only be home-owners but also save enough to send their children to college. The blueprint was simple; get your hands dirty in the only jobs that Blacks were allowed to work in the years before the Civil Rights movement and your children would be able to work the kind of White Collar jobs that you weren’t allowed to. Such a strategy worked for some but as the 1980s emerged, a shift occurred in the labor force as the traditional factory jobs and the industrial workforce, gave way to service, finance and information based economies or what was called by many, the Post-industrial era.
This economic shift had a dramatic impact on Black America particularly among the Black working class and an emerging Black underclass who found themselves outside of the traditional workforce, just as they were making inroads into it. Simply put, the traditional Black worker was no longer necessary, translating into chronic unemployment, under-employment and increased involvement in the illegal underground economies. The latter dynamic was tailor-made for the rise of the Prison Industrial Complex, where the incarceration rates of poor and working class blacks swelled over the past 30 years, often for non-violent offenses directly related to dire economic situations.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21.com
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