Easy.
I’ve been thinking these last few weeks, about penning some thoughts on rap lyrics; specifically, around content, when working in a workshop-type-educational setting with young people; and the type of conflict I often come up against when doing this. So here it is. A bit of-preamble before, though
I’ve been facilitating workshops now for a number of years; mainly around poetry, rap, beatbox and theatre. Sometimes all together. I work on the premise that it’s about people expressing themselves and being able to tell own stories, in their own way. Most of which, I’d come to learn from working with my good pal Conrad Murray (you can find out in more detail about the processes we use in THIS here BOOK making Hip Hop theatre) Regardless of the medium, that’s what I’m trying to do; in a nutshell.
In the world of youth-arts, you’ll often hear the much talked about category of ‘hard-to-reach-young-people.’ Ie- kids that don’t engage with the arts so much, if at all. A lot of the time, these are the young people I’m working with. Sometimes I’m able to engage with them, using a rap context as lots of them enjoy rap music and I’ve been fortunate enough to work on some really meaningful projects.
Rap music has been popular my entire life but gradually over the last twenty years, for a lot of British kids it’s become something that isn’t just a popular form of entertainment in the UK, it’s a thing you can actually do, in the UK.
I can remember being young and loving hip-hop but thinking that it’s something that Americans do. UK Hip Hop was a small niche but UK Garage and Jungle MC’s really helped to break down the idea that a kid from these shores could spit too and in their own accent.
These days most young people I encounter are more likely to listen to British rappers than American rappers, often rappers from their own areas even; so at the very least, it can be a starting point just to get them talking, when I’m initially trying to engage them. Rap is a broad church, I’m 38, I like what I like and though I try and keep an ear out for what’s currently popping, most of the time I don’t know; so I get them to tell me about who they’re listening too. The whole process is anchored on earning their trust and for what are probably good reasons, they don’t tend to give that out easily; hence the ‘hard-to-reach’ tag. It takes time
In this sort of work, there’s normally some kind of loose objective involved (which is often due to funding requiring an outcome and isn’t always helpful) – produce some music, work towards a performance, that kind of thing. Sometimes, it’s enough just to engage them in the street, in conversation for ten minutes, let alone getting them into a building and into some kind of workshop environment, which is what the well-meaning but often naive funders want.
Building up the type of trust required to even get them into a building and into a some of kind of structure can take a lot of time; weeks, months, years even. So after all of that, if you’re able to get even one young person into a room to start writing lyrics, you’ve done well but you’re now into the tricky-waters of content.
I’m no psychologist but particularly with boys, they’re going to naturally want to emulate what their peers, or perceived elders are doing. In the last few years, the most popular form of rap, has been Drill. Which often talks about violence and street-crime. This is their main reference point, it’s what they know (in terms of the music), so it’s natural this is the sort of stuff they’re going to try and create; these rappers, are who they look up to.
A lot of it, to be fair, is just bravado and metaphor, which as far as I’m aware, has been around for time immemorial. Whether a rapper is rapping about how violent they are, or how many drugs they’ve sold, to how many books they’ve read and how much wisdom they have, it’s still just bravado. And it’s part of rap. This is hip-hop after all. (Where the line gets very blurred and serious, is when actual incidences are being referenced but that’s a whole another discussion.)
The problem for me comes when they start writing this stuff and it includes violence, crime and sexist lyrics etc. I operate on the basis that it’s a win just getting them into the room and giving it go. For a lot of them, it might be their first time, so the content, to me, doesn’t matter so much in those early stages. Also, they’re often doing it around their peers, so there’s all those group-dynamics to take into account. But as long as they’re doing something, I think that’s a good thing, regardless of what they’ve said, they’re using their voices and learning the craft of constructing lyrics and rhymes.
The trick is to build their trust over time and work with them, to broaden their horizons a bit and challenge them, but like I said, this takes a long time and often these projects will only run over a short period.
If I started wagging a moral finger at them from the off they’d be gone, never to be seen again; which defeats the whole object of dong this work. Lots of these projects, organisations and funders are well-meaning but naive in their aims and objectives, and increasingly idealistic. Talking to these young people about distant academic concepts, like toxic-masculinity, or heteronormativity, is rarely going to end well, yet sometimes it feels like that’s what some of these leaders in charge want me to do. They can walk in a room, whilst I’m running a session and look at or hear some of the lyrics that are being created and tick me off about it, it’s happened before; which makes me think if that’s all they care about? As opposed to the process of slowly developing a relationship with these young people over time and encouraging them to explore their thoughts and expand their thinking, whilst taking creative risks in a safe environment; without castigating them, which more often than not, is what they expect from adults with any kind of authority.
I’d be interested to hear alternative thoughts on this, as I’m sure there’s people out there who disagree with me. I can only do what I know and what I think works and where I’ve been allowed the space to do this, I’ve seen positive results.
There are times when I’ve had to draw a line. With most young people who are used to engaging in these sorts of projects, setting boundaries is one of the first things you do but with these so called hard-to-reach kids, who already feel like they’ve been written off; it’s never that simple. A little patience and less judgement, please.
So there you go, some thoughts. I mentioned last week that I started writing this article and trashed it, because I thought it was no good. But then I reminded myself about why I started this blog, to put my work out but also to learn and try and take a few risks. I want to get better at writing this sort of stuff but it doesn’t come easily to me, it’s a craft that I‘m learning and hopefully improving.
It’ll most likely be back to the regularly scheduled program next week, ie me just putting up bits of writing that I’m working on from this show, or maybe I’ll start that Peep Show article I was going on about.
Either way, large up for reading / listening. Give it a subscribe if you like, it really helps
Have a great weekend
Peas and taters
Paul
