In the highly competitive and at times violent world of New York hip-hop, it is anything but unusual to hear rappers attack each other verbally in forceful terms. But seldom do they go as far as the writer of a new song that calls for fellow rappers to be lynched.
The song, enjoying busy play on black music websites and radio stations, begins with the declaration: ”To all you bullshit MCs, you are on notice. Pay very close attention.”
It singles out what the author calls ”you fake-ass gangstas” and says ”y’all should all get lynched”. An accompanying video shows pictures of black men swinging from trees.
For a black rapper to use the word ”lynched” — the ultimate image of racial violence and bigotry to emerge out of the dark days of the segregated American south — is in itself controversial. But to apply the word to other black people, as a metaphorical punishment for the sins of certain hip-hop stars, jolts the act on to another level.
The rapper in question is NYOil (pronounced ”NY oil”), a Staten Island-based artist who has posted the song Y’all Should Get Lynched on his MySpace web page. The song has been downloaded tens of thousands of times and highlighted on hip-hop radio channels, provoking lively debate among listeners.
The accompanying video, showing shocking images of real lynchings as well as dead bodies floating on the waters of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, has been withdrawn by YouTube on the grounds of inappropriate content. NYOil’s site has been hacked into and disrupted, and some bloggers have decried his use of language.
But he insists his use of the word is careful and justifiable. ”Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire,” he said. ”I’m a rational, educated guy, not overly emotional. But I recognise that I have to talk the appropriate language.”
Messages
His beef is with well-established rappers such as 50 Cent, Jim Jones and Flavor Fav of Public Enemy, whom he accuses of spreading irresponsible messages to black youth. Most hip-hop lyrics, he believes, glorify selling drugs in the ‘hood, doing time in prison, gang violence and murder for money. They also objectify black women as ”hos” (whores) and ”bitches”.
NYOil has also written a song bemoaning black people’s use of the N-word in self-description, called What up my Wigger. In it he argues that by failing to show themselves respect, black people are opening themselves up to the disrespect of others.
Y’all Should All Get Lynched makes the point that while black leaders laid down their lives in the struggle for civil rights, contemporary rappers have failed to put hard-won freedoms to positive and responsible effect. The lyrics say: ”Because Martin Luther King died for you to act like this/ This is the best you can come up with?”
The New York neighbourhood where NYOil grew up has changed from being a vibrant community to an area of drug-riven hopelessness, he says — and some of the blame lies, he believes, with the negative messages being pumped out by moneyed rappers.
”It makes me mad when I see kids who don’t care about education, for whom mediocrity is all. We have to take some of the responsibility: every song you hear tells you about this woman’s a ho, or he’s selling this drug, or I’m going to shoot you if you don’t do that.”
Though his use of language may set him apart, NYOil’s critique of mainstream hip-hop strikes a mood that is steadily intensifying. Fellow New York rapper Nas recently hit number one on the Billboard chart with his new album, Hip Hop Is Dead, on which he rhymes ”Heinous crimes help record sales more than creative lines” and ”Everybody sound the same/ Commercialised the game”.
Support
NYOil has yet to gain the backing of a music label or producer, but he has attracted the support and interest of prominent figures such as Muhammad Ali’s daughter, Maryum Ali, the veteran Bronx rapper Afrika Bambaataa and ”Paradise” Grey of X-Clan. Comments posted on his website are largely positive.
But some have been critical. One post on his MySpace page says: ”I feel the message, but I don’t think that ‘lynching’ ignorant black fools makes sense when you could possibly turn them to your side. To say that you’re eager to lynch blacks is not what’s good.”
He has also come under criticism for refusing to divulge his identity, posing for a Guardian photograph behind dark glasses. All he will say about himself is that until four years ago he was a computer-network expert but then lost his job; that his mother was formerly a staff sergeant in the military, which is where he gained his respect for strong women; and that his passion has been rap since the age of 12.
He says soon he will reveal all, but until then he dismisses the accusation that he is being a coward, hiding behind anonymity. ”What’s more cowardly — going along with the status quo and making fame and money, or saying ‘No, I don’t dig it’ and taking the consequences?” — Guardian Unlimited Â