When Ice-T used to rap, it was about drugs, sex, money, and killing cops. John McWhorter mentions the excessive violence behind one of Ice-T’s songs “Cop Killer” in his article How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back. While this “gangsta” rap song is explicit and aggressive, it is also very ironic. Currently, Ice T is most well known for playing the TV persona Detective ‘Fin’ Tutuola in the television series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. While Ice-T used to rap and boast that he was going to “dust some cops off”, he is currently portraying one on TV.
When Ice-T first arrived on the rap scene, he was seen as intense and hostile. This was common because many rappers were making themselves appear as thugs and ruffians due to a plethora of rap songs being about death threats, the mistreatment of women, and other aggressive actions. Since this music began to start selling, and these musicians were making a profit, it meant people wanted to see and listen to thugs, so rappers kept acting as such. Today, as Ice-T has gotten a little bit older and stopped selling records, he has cleaned up his image and focused on acting. His current gig is his reoccurring role as a police officer. Since he is no longer a rapper, he no longer needs to constantly uphold the rough image he used to have.
Rappers tend to feel the need to regularly maintain the image they represent themselves as in their music. If they are going to act “gangsta” and tough, their audience needs to seem them as “gangsta” and tough. However, rapping is a form of entertainment and the compulsion they feel to preserve this image could be seen as unnecessary. Actors do not stay in character once films are released; they go back to being their normal selves. So why do rappers stay as the characters they depict themselves as in their music? When going to the movies, viewers are aware that actors are pretending to be the characters, but an artist's music comes from his soul. It is supposed to be an honest outlet for his emotions. If a rapper is not dressing and acting like what his music portrays him as, then he is a fake. Listeners do not want to hear a phony rapper, they look for real emotion in the lyrics and true passion in the beats. Without a consistent image, the rapper will not sell records and will not be successful.
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ReplyDeleteI think you mention a good point that listeners do not want to hear a phony rapper. I believe this is the critical reason that rappers stay in their role as a gangster day in and day out. Actors are actors for a reason, they pretend to be something they aren't. But rappers sing about what they know and what is close to them. They know what its like to be shot, to do drugs and to have no money. This alternative reality that many of us have never seen entices their audience. We can not relate to it the least bit but are intrigued by their experiences. You don't see a black man from Orange County rapping about his hard life. It would be a huge lie. I feel like rappers are gangster because it is truly who they are not a role they are playing.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It is true. Listeners can tell whether you were faking it or was that genuine emotion of yours. Therefore, rappers have to constantly put on this image of gangsta-like in order to get accepted and attention. However, it that worth it? Having to constant living in a lie, pretending you are somebody you’re not until you yourself believe in that lie. It’s debatable.
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say that until recently, I had no clue that Ice-T ever rapped. I have always known him as Officer Tutuola from Law and Order. Today, he no longer creates albums about killing police officers, instead he plays one on tv. It is perplexing that he was so easily able to portray a police that puts thugs like the one he originally claimed to be behind bars. Is it because he got older and realized that killing police officers was not the best life decision, or was it because he did not actually rap about his own life? It makes me question the legitimacy of other artists from the genre. Are they real, or are they just singing prewritten lyrics to sell albums and get money?
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