the last exit

Hip-hop as “Black People CNN” is the most ridiculous trope. And that’s because black people like anyone else can just watch regular CNN. What I mean by that is that the ghetto (or harsh circumstances) is not the exclusive black reality, nor should it be assumed to be the normative setting for contemporary black life. That’s not to say that this reality doesn’t exist or doesn’t deserve a voice, or that these less than ideal circumstances don’t need to be addressed. They do. But the idea that hip-hop artists are merely “reporting” what’s going on in their communities is wrong. Oftentimes, they’re romanticizing the worst aspects of that reality. They’re distorting that reality. They’re editorializing. If anything, hip-hop is “Black People Fox News