Keeping it Real

Since its birth in the 1960s, hiphop culture has cultivated an obsession with “keeping it real.” When rappers discovered the importance of building street cred, power, and status, there was a whole new meaning to this realness. Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy E led the gangster rap explosion of the mid-1980s, when they enforced this need to keep it real. I never understood this need until I moved to a school with an African-American population. Their goodbyes were different from the usual waves and “see ya laters.” They would instead exchange phrases like “keep it real, man.” African-American youngsters value realness and use hiphop as a form of discourse in everyday settings to retain their black identities.

Rappers also measure realness based on “who’s badder.” How rappers behave and express themselves artistically affect the target audience. My appreciation for hiphop music is a secret from some of my friends who perceive it as a monolith of unthinking noise. Tricia Rose would have something to say about that. I think there is a personal value to hiphop music; it is a form of cultural expression for the black community. Especially in a society dominated by racialized stereotypes, hiphop music focuses on themes like class, race, and gender to retain its realness. Record companies hire hiphop artists and decide how to sell them based on image. According to such companies, if a rapper has good street cred, has sold drugs, and has voiced these themes, he is real and thus marketable.