Last night Cheryl Johnson Watts of the Allentown NAACP was the MC of a free wheeling symposium on Hip Hop at the Allentown Library. A full house was treated to the history, philosophy and business aspects of that genre. While some described hip hop as an urban musical expression rooted in inner city oppression, others saw its cross demographic appeal as an agent of change. Local promoter Mark Hunt, pictured above, promised to bring more hip hop to the PPL Center.
In addition to defining hip hop, the panel was a stage for showcasing local leadership. Pastor James Rivera of Ridge Avenue is a longtime agent of change in the 6th Ward. Rev. Gregory Edwards hopes to represent the community in the 15th Congressional District.
Allentown Police Captain Glenn Granitz explained the challenges of the city providing entertainment and public safety at the same time. John Moser of The Morning Call wrote a detailed report of the meeting. The last speaker, and the only white member of the panel, was activist Robert Trotner. He simply stated that he really knew nothing about hip hop, but learned a lot last night.... I'm in his group.
photo/molovinsky
Classical and Jazz, really don't care about the rest.
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing up Mike @scott Hip hop encompasses all music if you take your blinders off!!! Classical music is heavily used in hip hop. I don't like most new hip hop, but I still respect the game. you should try. your kids probably love it..
ReplyDeleteHip hop and rap are major contributors to gang violence, drugs, guns, misogynistic attitudes, sexual assault and conquest. How anybody could embrace this as art, has no moral compass. Approximately 51% of these alleged artists are homicide victims. [Washington Post 3/25/15]. According to Journalism-Rutgers Ed, 2015, hip hop and rap listeners are more prone to drug usage and aggression. This theory was supported by [MTV.com 4/18/2016].
ReplyDeleteI grew up when Rock-and-Roll was the "devils workshop", but this is nothing like the pure garbage that spews form this form of entertainment.
They would say Rock would be behind biker gangs, suicide, murder, and drug use. Since we are labeling.
DeleteCall me a snowflake or call me a human being, but I think it's important to understand and - horrors! - even enjoy the cultures of the people I inhabit the community with. I listened to and began to appreciate the lyrics of several genres of rap to prepare yesterday.Especially the socially and politically conscious rap songs and the descriptions of daily life in the ghetto.
ReplyDeleteI love you Robert Trotner.
ReplyDeleteYou actually tuned in and turned on.
Were there any discussions as to what steps could have been taken in advance of the violent event in question so as to make it more like performances by The Allentown Symphony Orchestra where, to my knowledge, a fight has never once broken out?
ReplyDeleteThank you Michael for attending and reporting what you heard.
ReplyDeleteFire the Incompetants -- who misspells "incompetent" -- claims above that hip hop and rap are major contributors to gang violence, drugs, guns, etc.
Art forms do not have agency, they cannot contribute to anything. Just like properly secured guns can't kill on their own accord.
A more accurate statement would be that some hip hop artists glorify violence, drugs, misogyny. Some people then make sweeping generalizations about an entire art form that they don't understand. And others make an effort to hear information which might be new to them, as Michael did last night.
The real key as to whether or not hip hop shows will be happening again at the PPL arena is insurance. Can the promoters afford the necessary insurance for these shows? The high cost of this insurance (which is priced based on historical data, not personal prejudice) is one reason why there aren't more hip shows nationwide, despite the popularity of the genre.
ReplyDeleteMark Hunt and other promoters will simply need to run the math before determining if more hip hop shows will be in Allentown's future. Given the sales for March's "Spring Takeover" hip hop show (approx 3000 of the 10K capacity venue), it would seem the arena is too big a venue for such an event.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteI don't need to listen to the music/hip hop to understand the " socially and politically conscious rap songs and the descriptions of daily life in the ghetto." I have it imposed on me routinely from loud car stereos. What I hear is very often offensive and too often the vechicles blaring this "music" has small children in the car. Real positive values being instilled there!
As well because I live in the downtown, sent my kids to the public schools and volunteered there,shop at Aharts... I believe I am already up to speed on the daily life of "the ghetto" and it's related pathologies.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteThe NAZI's, Communist Russia, and China used art as a very effective vehicle to further the aims of the state. Art is as political as anything else and always has been, always will be.
Art was used in the past, is being used presently, and will always be used to insight hatred and violence. That is just the nature of man. Art isn't always beautiful, it isn't always noble, inspiring, tolerant, unifying. Art has been used to lead nations to war and genocide. Again, this is just the nature of man.
ReplyDeleteYes Scott, and the individual artists -- or the governments directing the artists in your examples -- are the ones responsible for the message. Not the genre.
ReplyDeleteNazi use of art doesn't make all art Nazi propaganda. Similarly the misogyny of some hip-hop artists doesn't make all hip-hop misogynist and worthy of scorn.
Commenters...please stay up to par. The event WAS NOT A VIOLENT EVENT.
ReplyDeleteTry reading, or researching before you make your comments.
This was to heal wounds. Not to make any of you LIKE rap.
Ah yes! Hip Hop and Rap, born in the South Bronx, a place synonymous with violence (gang and otherwise), burned-out buildings (by the inhabitants), drugs, and everything bad about the 70s and its dependency culture. But aging hippie white guys are trying to compare it to "Be My Baby," "The Wanderer," and "Love Me Tender." Nice try.
ReplyDeleteBob, You wrote Art forms do not have agency. What I wrote proves they do and could provide many more examples.
ReplyDeleteJust to set the record straight "agency" as I presume you meant it, to paraphrase Webster, is a vehicle through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.
If you have some other definition of "agency" then please let me know. By the way no where in my posts did I write that all "Hip Hop" is worthy of scorn or that it is all misogynist. I wrote that many of those who listen to that music are unabashed about sharing it by blasting it from car stereos and they are unconcerned about community standards of decency. They also appear unconcerned about what type of music is appropriate to blast in the company of their children.
These are my observations of living on the 15 hundred block of Turner Street in Allentown for over two decades. That said, if people want to meet at the library to discuss "Hip Hop" then I have no problem with that.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteAs you attended the "Hip Hop" event last night did any of the speakers address the negatives messages, violent themes, misogyny, profanity... that is apparent even to non listeners?
Were there any discussions as to what procedures might have been implemented in advance of the recent event at the PPL Center that culminated with what some call chaos so as to make it more like the performances put on by the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, who have never had eight people arrested outside their home arena immediately following any of their now almost four full seasons' worth of American Hockey League games?
ReplyDeleteThis despite the fact that the Hamilton Street Heroes easily led the entire 30-team AHL in penalty minutes during their first term here in Allentown. 'We prefer all our fights remain on the ice,' was the overwhelming consensus opinion of the people who are members of the Phantoms Season Ticket Holders group of Facebook in the wake of the widely discussed Spring Takeover event. So much for ALL negative influence / copy-cat behavior theories, then.
Just for the historical record, I would like to state that, now that the place has been built, I believe that the PPL Center simply can not host enough events over the course of any given calendar year. Hip hop concerts, tractor pull competitions, national Junior Achievement conventions, whatever. I fully understand that I am not obligated to buy tickets for any given event I do not wish to patronize but, nevertheless, also thoroughly understand that each and every night the arena is empty is not a good thing for the City of Allentown, as a whole.
ROLF OELER
my takeaway was that hip hop is very important to a large sector of the black and latino population, and considered by many of them as a life style.
ReplyDeletescott@6:36, the profanity issue was discussed. although pastor jimmy rivera and another older man spoke out against it, the general consensus was that it was an expression of freedom, freedom of expression and reality.
rolf@7:06, some thought that the media overplayed the post concert fights and that they were unrelated to the concert. however, one gentleman felt that the fights were provoked by the police, because of an excessive show of force. I considered his remark as victimization and an excuse, which IMO doesn't help the cause of more hip hop concerts
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI know Pastor Rivera, he is a good man. freedom of expression allows us to be vulgar, hateful... people. That doesn't make it right or beneficial to the community.Hope he made that point.
I'm completely willing to acknowledge that many people on social media express a belief that the local media completely blew the whole incident out of proportion ... but then I'd also have to acknowledge that many people on social media also expressed a belief that 'this sort of thing happens all the time at hockey games, too, but it just gets covered up'.
ReplyDeleteI am also happy to acknowledge that I, myself, was not present at that event nor was I in the Potemkin Village for which the now disgraced ex-Mayor Pawlowski is often given credit on the evening in question. I did see some fascinating video footage on YouTube. And I also understand that that was merely a limited segment from just one camera angle - certainly nowhere near enough to give me a comprehensive picture of everything that went on throughout the entire length of the incident.
I find it important to refute urban legends that tell tall tales of hockey having its share of problems, too.
I believe Hip Hop might learn a little something from professional hockey, which definitely had image problems here in America for literally decades, thanks in large part to the Philadelphia Flyers' very own cult heroes of titanic proportions, the Broad Street Bullies. Hockey started tinkering with its very own rules in order to dramatically curb fighting several years ago. Now, enough time has passed to be able to say that hockey has 'cleaned up its act', so to speak, rather noticeably.
Basically, hockey executives decided one day to get serious about peddling more tickets to a much broader audience. So, like any good salesman, they identified the major objection to their product and set about effectively eliminating the objection once and for all. As far as I know, Hip Hop are interested in selling tickets, too, although, as Mikhail Gorbachev also told East German crowds back in the fall of 1989, I can only advise Hip Hop that they will have to choose their own destiny all by themselves.
ROLF OELER
Scott,
ReplyDeleteWe are in agreement that car stereos which can be heard outside of the car, through closed windows, should be turned down until they can't be heard.
We are in agreement that art can communicate all manner of messages. I was using the term agency in the sense of "the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment." If the actor is aware of his surroundings and can act to change them, he has agency. Art is not aware of its surroundings and cannot act. It's paint on canvas. So it doesn't have agency. The individual artist does. Hip hop in and of itself has no agency, but hip hop artists do. Some express misogyny, others don't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy)
You didn't write that all hip hop is worthy of scorn. Plenty of others have scorned the genre on this thread and elsewhere in the wake of the A-town concert.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteWithout "man" art does not exist so your point that " Art is not aware of its surroundings and cannot act." seems to give it a life of its own that it does not have. Art is a product of mankind, therefore it can be uplifting, uniting, inspiring, beautiful... or it can be the opposite and often is. I'm sure this applies to Hip Hop as well. Perhaps we can agree on that.