My first introduction to Classical Music came from developing interests through the annals of Black Music, and not in distinct contrast (or opposition) to it. This perspective is very different from the perspective of, for example a White music elitist.
I am generally opposed to unrealistic elitist-racialist opinions about music genres fixated in this seeming mockery of appearing to have high-classed monocular aristocratic tastes. In short, it is trolling, because people with this opinion have no knowledge of music, or an instrument learned in the bag to make such statements. Music is very much part of me, as it may be for you as well. I have had conversations with my fiancée who sings and makes music about our individual philosophies of music.
There was this nasty comment once, that read “There’s nothing good in the black culture, there’s no greatness, no value, no virtues, black music don’t elevate, it just downgrades man, and women.”
We know this is an extremely ignorant take of probably a child with no actual knowledge of the history of Black music.
When I was a pre-teen and then teenager, I listened primarily to these main Rap groups: RocNation, Dipset (or The Diplomats), G-Unit and Three Six Mafia — each of which employed beat makers to sample soul, R&B and orchestral instrumentals for their lyrics. We called this “Hip-Hop Opera.” Juelz Santana was my teacher. He often rapped about his rebellion against school and the teachers that hated and laughed at him. He spoke often about his pain and realization of his aspirations. He spoke against the Bush administration and military interventionism in the Iraq war, though mixing this with the fact economic downfall is affecting street drug business.
“Fuck fightin the war, catch me fightin on tour / Atleast I know who I’m fightin and what I’m fightin um’ for / They say we shouldn’t fight for colors on a rag — well we shouldn’t, like we shouldn’t fight for colors on a flag / America, open your eyes to the fact, it’s a war goin on, and it’s not in Iraq.” (Juelz Santana, In Da Army)
I was raised in that environment, and I was taught by those in that environment not to go the path they went. This is a side of the experience, that is not shared. An experience, that has to be lived. Therefore, we who have understand it in a different manner. Racists should not be speaking for me, or Black people. When I was young, I sought wisdom in everything. Wisdom, that would enable me to fight my way through this world in an environment that preyed and ate the kind-hearted.
I adapted in various ways, without falling to the kind of troubles that are stereotyped, and primarily because my peers, relatives and adults in those troubles wanted me not to. They in many ways saved me, and so did the music save and teach me to combat a world, where the rules of the gang and thug were embodied in the corruption of our own governments, and I take that worldly wisdom with me to the grave and beyond.
“A child of the ghetto, nobody explain it to me
Livin’ the scripture, the picture they painted for me
Knew what it wasn’t, it wasn’t the game or the greed
Rippin’ it, runnin’ and gunnin’ and aimin’ for me
A child of the ghetto, nobody explain it to me
Livin’ the scripture, the picture they painted for me
Niggaz is gamin’, they ain’t who they claimin’ to be
Niggaz that know me they told me the game could be crazy.”G. DEP, CHILD OF THE GHETTO
It was all blended into the period of my political awakening when September 11, 2001, happened, and is part of me.
Juelz Santana would convey my very emotions through his music to this world and against bullies and those who doubted me. He taught me about brotherhood, and handling the stresses of life under the weight of socioeconomic difficulties and domestic problems at home. I listened.
Juelz Santana and other artists would speak to me through their music and tell me to wake up.
I have dealt with many experiences, where White and even Black people themselves would compliment me and create a stark contrast between me and “those guys in the streets, with their pants hanging.” This framing immediately came off as weird, because I am one of those “guys.” This is not trying to play up to an image. I was different, as all individuals are unique in ways through their lived experiences, but I am still that young Black gothic teen with their big black hoodie and headphones on tuning out the world and murmuring lyrics quietly under their breath.
I might dress quite well and all in my later adult years, but I am still that kid.
I had a mystical pull to music and instruments, but I never learned an instrument. I would like to learn guitar. I could hear the sounds within the sounds and scratching of sounds against others creating a harmony. My father is a music head. He likes all kinds of music, including international. I grew up in the home of my grandmother who greeted us with howdy — an Alabaman woman who loved Tina Turner, House, Soul and Rock-Rythm & Blues music genres. When I was in my mother’s space — it was Aaliyah, Tupac, BabyFace, Genuine, Joe, etc. In my old stepfather’s space, it was Michael Jackson, Madonna, etc. The airwaves in the nights on the long drives from the South to downtown were filled with the sounds of The Cranberries, Bjork and Stone Temple Pilots.
I took it all in and loved it.
And it hit me differently than others! Profoundly! Along the way, I developed a taste for Post-Black Metal and even Martial Industrial through orchestra. My favorite genres of music are Soul, Folk and Shoegaze, and my favorite artist is Richard Hawley. I have a highly varied taste.
Since I was little, my father would teach my brothers, cousins and I the entire history of Hip-Hop, which he had in the form of tapes, CDs and his own knowledge. He would speak about the times when Common was this cool cat in Chicago, and all the different forms and styles of Rap.
It was just poetry, and I loved that. He would play this or that tape as an example, while we all rode the streets and the stereo turned all the way up to Easy-E, A Tribe Called Quest, etc. He takes the same depth of interest in styles of Hip-Hop and Rap as he did in East Asian Martial Arts, showing us how sounds and genres flow into each other. I came to just as easily love all these things as well.
Through Black music, I learned to feel all music! Through rap, I felt the soul, struggle, aspirations and story of living in this country. Our Black Soul and Rap music led me to Symphony, Orchestra and Opera — and never have I adopted an elitist position, that places the three against other genres as a superior form of music. I have said many times in conversations about music; it is absolutely impossible to be honest and not have a contradictory opinion about Rap music.
So, you hate Rap, because it denigrates women. Your view is not a novel one. I can and have critiqued my own culture and the dominance of rap subculture as since the early 90s acting aggressively as the only embodiment of Black culture — as “The Culture.” This has documented evidence. I am free to do this with other Black people, and as we do among each other, but it is different in the perspectives of other people who adopt a musical elitism as a weapon of their ethnonationalist and racialist propaganda. Facing the machine of hyper-capitalism is not simple, and such views do not help us, nor ourselves.
There are religious explanations within all cultures against the habits of using the sacred nature of speech (logos) to denigrate or speak into existence words that “harm the soul.” Even in the most extreme law or opinion, music is prohibited as ḥarām, because of its corrupting influence.
However, I felt soul in all the music I came to deeply appreciate! It began in highschool, in my sophomore year, when my music teacher played some symphonic music. It blew my mind and changed me forever. I went to him and asked him after class, “what music is that! It sounds familiar.” He said with surprise and a slight raise of one eyebrow, “you like that kind of music?” He offered to provide me with CDs full of all the best classical music of the West. I went home and played the music. “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” played and I was seemingly lifted to the third heaven. These genres of music led me to the history of the classical and folk music of many other cultures, like China, Korea, Japan, Bulgaria and so forth.
I knew, I had come into early contact with this music through children’s movies, e.g., Fantasia.
Things take awhile to put itself together and fully impress itself. I know, that so many Black youths lack training in music and instrument, and would have loved to have in our many underfunded schools, devoted programs to learning musical instruments outside of just the soundboard. I learned the history of Black music and instruments in this country share Irish roots. We could and should find any way we can to bring a new era of music and bring back musical groups to display each of our individual talents when they are combined to create soulful music. There are many Black artists who are highly talented, vocal and diversified in their musical skillset. The problem is we just say, “that’s interesting” and stay in what we are each familiar with. There is a breaking down of community, and this is a modern phenomenon affecting the entire society.
Many things could be done to give birth to a new renaissance of musical creativity, which could only come about through new thinking, new philosophy, community, organization and great funding on state-level and national scale. But unfortunately, our government and political leaders do not have such ideas and priorities, so it is left up to us and our mentality. It is easier to leave the Americans crippled and mired in racial jealousies and corrosive animosities, that impede the People in this country, and our inner soul.
I cannot stand the stink — the stench of the real odor of racialist takes on theories of music in the air any longer. I hear nothing but frauds and high-noses — only in their own heads.
We cannot all have the same experience in life, but I believe you do understand me. This is why the film, Sinners hit so hard for so many of us.
Rap and Hip-Hop can also often be combined together, and not strictly separated, and it taught me to express my poetry and write about my experience in this world. I grew up in a family of church singers on my dad’s side. Choir, Acapella, Opera, Orchestra and Symphony taught my soul how to fly. I thank my music teacher in my mind for kindly introducing me all those years ago to Classical Music, and I have taken it and drawn it into who I am as much as the other genres.
The American Minervan 
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