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The title of this post is a bit overstated, I admit, but bear with me for a minute. As I imagine was the case at a lot of IT Departments across the country today, the subject of recently deceased author Kurt Vonnegut, a legend among nerds, came up at work today. A couple of my co-workers are aware of this site and one of them suggested that there was no way a hip hop blog could have anything relevant to say about Vonnegut. I'm not one to back down from a challenge, so here we go.
A fair amount of you reading this probably aren't too familiar with Kurt Vonnegut, though most of you likely had to read his novel Slaughterhouse-Five at some point during your academic career. And those of you who have read a few of his books are no doubt wondering what an 84-year old white guy who wrote science fiction novels (among other things) has to do with hip hop. My response: Kurt Vonnegut embodied the concept of hip hop better than 99% of the mainstream rappers out today.
How so? Let's start with his views on music itself (he was a huge fan of the blues, which he referred to as, "a priceless gift that African Americans gave the whole world"). While most rappers - and when I say "rappers" I'm referring primarily to the mainstream acts - these days seem to only be in it for the money, heading for the Bentley dealership as soon as their single hits the top 40, Vonnegut's views were much more in line with the early rappers who had no expectation of making a living off of the music, rappers who devoted their lives to hip hop simply out of their love for the music itself. You think Grandmaster Flash was going for that ringtone paper when he dropped The Message? Vonnegut believed that music could serve a higher purpose than just entertainment, that it had the power to educate and enlighten. Real hip hop, from Flash to Public Enemy to The Coup, is about more than just getting the club bouncing. Turn on Rap City and tell me if you hear anything enlightening on any of the songs in rotation.
Vonnegut's thoughts on music could certainly apply to more genres than just hip hop, of course. But Vonnegut was also a champion of vulgarity, and hip hop has embraced the art of cussing more enthusiastically than any other form of music. Like hip hop, Vonnegut had his work censored for obscenity. Yet while today's hip hop artists have given in to the censorship brought about by Tipper Gore and C. Delores Tucker without so much as a word of dissent, allowing their cds to be stamped with Parental Advisory stickers in exchange for major label distribution, Vonnegut spoke out against such forms of censorship as an early member of the ACLU. Just like 2 Live Crew, he was a vocal proponent of "obscenity" and freedom of speech.
These days, one of the most popular forms of hip hop is so-called gangsta rap. Its hard to imagine that 50 Cent, for example, would have had the same career had he not put so much time and effort into promoting the fact that he was shot nine times. Vonnegut, though, saw more violence than even the hardest of hip hop's hardbodies. After being captured by the Nazis during World War 2, Vonnegut was sent to the Dresden camps where he was one of only seven American P.O.W.s to survive the infamous firebombing of the city. That's a lot more gangsta than, say, slapping 14-year olds.
Furthermore, Vonnegut was most likely the first American author to use the word "Motherfucker" in a novel, and certainly contributed to the word's popularity in America. Would hip hop be the same without that word in its vocabulary?
Ok, so upon further review Vonnegut wasn't really "hip hop," but perhaps that's the point. Most of the rappers you see on MTV and hear on the radio have strayed so far from the essence of the music that they really aren't representative of real hip hop either. In any event, Vonnegut was one of my favorite authors and this was the best excuse I could come up with to talk about him. RIP Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007).
Vonnegut once said that, when he died, he would want his epitaph to say:
The Only Proof He Needed
For The Existence of God
Was Music.
When its done right, I can't argue with that. If any of you are interested in checking out his work, I highly recommend Cat's Cradle.
4/12/2007 2:28:29 PM posted by Fresh