HIP HOP NATION Brooklyn Museum of Art, Sept. 22 - Dec. 31, 2000 This September, opened a multimedia exhibition in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, "Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes and Rage." It is the first time in the U.S. that hip hop is put on display in a museum. The place of the show, Brooklyn Museum of Arts is not an ordinary museum. It has been lingering on the memories for the controversial show "Sensations" that opened last year. Everyone has heard about the museum's defense of freedom of artistic expression against the mayor Guilliani's conservative attack to close down the show for the display of Virgin Mary decorated with cow shit. The museum made its way into public attention by this liberal attitude. Since I first saw the information in Time Out about the hip-hop show taking place at the Brooklyn Museum of Arts, a question has been pastering me: what is the liberal politics of the Brooklyn Museum of Arts doing in putting hip hop for the first time on display in a museum in the U.S.? Of course once a question is raised, there is no turning back, you are attacked by a whole list of questions following the first one. It is the first time in the U.S. that hip hop is put on display in a museum. The place of the show, Brooklyn Museum of Arts is not an ordinary museum. Why would the liberal museum want to display hip hop? What would be the reaction of the hip-ho p crowd to the show, would they embrace it? Why wouldn't Guilliani attack the display of hip-hop but maybe even encourage it? How would the liberal and conservative interests converge in the politics of representing hip-hop as the spectacle? With a friend of mine who is a hip-hop fan, I took the subway to Eastern Parkway to look for some answers. The Glamorous Hip-Hop Going through the five sections of the show - The Block parties, The Roots, The Golden Era, Controversy: Outrage and Rise of Gangsta Rap, and Pop Goes the Culture - I saw that hip hop has been portrayed as a joyous festive event to be celebrated. Even though the show touches on some controversial issues about the violence and obscenity that are contained in the song lyrics, hip - hop is overall portrayed as a cultural wealth of America to be appreciated by a larger crowd than the hip-hop fans. The party handbills, costumes and items of the artists are displayed as spectacles to be remembered and enjoyed by the citizens. Hip-hop is promoted as a fashion to be followed by everyone and especially for those who have not been involved. The web page of Brooklyn Museum of Arts announces the hip-hop show as the display of America's Latest Cultural Revolution. What has been chosen to be displayed and what has been left out in the show tells us intriguing stories about the very politics of presenting hip-hop as the "America's latest cultural revolution". "The exhibition focuses primarily on music icons and commercial aspects of the culture, but is tame in its approach, presenting some information on gansta rap without addressing the harsh lyrics and videos that have given rap its troublesome reputation." On the internet, answering the question of why a political consciousness is missing in some of the recent hip-hop artists, the curator of the show, Kevin Powell says "A lot of people expect hip-hop to be overtly political. Well, we live in apolitical times and the art created in America reflect the times." Yet in a November issue of one of the well known hip-hop magazines, the Source, there is an article talking about the way hip-hop crowd was organized to prevent the Republican and Democratic Conventions in the summer of 2000. In the article, it says "Hip-hop has always been about revolution. From ever-changing political rhetoric of KRS-One to the Black Panther inspired poetics of dead pres, rap music has been our way of telling the powers how we feel about shit." ('Move the Crowd' by Dan Frosch, in the magazine Source, Nov, 2000, no: 134) The curator's comment gives a sense of what has been debated about hip-hop in the 1990's: the debate revolves around how some hip-hop artists enjoy the material wealth and go after hedonism disregarding the conditions of their black communities. Most of the articles and ads in the hip-hop magazines actually reflect the growing materialist tendencies of hip-hop. Nevertheless as Decker conveys in an academic article about hip-hop, "It is not uncommon to find rap artists especially those with explicit political messages in their music and videos, participating in grass-roots events which are organized around the dragged but changing structures of racism in the U.S. Chuck D and Public enemy draw inspiration from not only the Nation Of Islam but also from the vanguardist Black Panther Party. Public Enemy and KRS-One popularized Malcom's philosophy and speeches. ("The State of Rap" by J.L. Decker, in Microphone Fiends edited by Ross, A. amd Rose, T. (101)) What I am trying to get at is not that hip-hop is overall a revolutionary movement only with political concerns. I attempt to convey that even though hip-hop has been integrating faster and faster with commercial culture, hip-hop has always been related with black political activities and has always reacted against police brutality, racism and corporate greed. However the show at the Brooklyn Museum chooses not to display the political claims of hip-hop but emphasizes the phantasmagoric aspects of hip-hop. The show displays hip hop as a cultural wealth to be invested and consumed. With the support of Brooklyn Museum, the liberalism extends itself treating hip hop as a spectacle to be incorporated and coordinated. Even the New York Times comments on the way in which the museum chose to represent hip-hop as a spectacle without putting any emphasis on the political attitude of hip-hop; "The exhibition focuses primarily on music icons and commercial aspects of the culture, but is tame in its approach, presenting some information on gansta rap without addressing the harsh lyrics and videos that have given rap its troublesome reputation." In the article, Mr. Minott, one of the museum go-er is quoted; 'Especially right here in our neighbourhood, I was hoping it would be something we could come to and feel connected to. But I do not feel connected to. This is giving us the glamour of hip hop, but it does not give any of the political message and the political struggle that the music is about". (The New York Times, September 27, 2000. "For Some, Hip-Hop Exhibition Is Not Hip Enough") When we take a closer look at the sponsors of the event we get a better view on the reasons for packaging hip-hop as a glamorous youth culture. At the entrance of the show, the visitor finds the display of Hip hop outfit with the note saying "hip hoppers created a new fashion adopting commercially available clothes and altering them to fit urban sensitivities. Clothing company PNB nation has introduced a line based on styles of 1982." As would be expected PNB Nation is one of the sponsors of the event. And so is Levi's. Hip hop presented as the expressive youth culture perfectly fits the urban capitalism's desire for expanding the investment possibilities. The show displays hip hop as a cultural wealth to be invested and consumed. With the support of Brooklyn Museum, the liberalism extends itself treating hip hop as a spectacle to be incorporated and coordinated. Monumentalizing Hip Hop Closely related with the liberal interests in showing hip-hop as a spectacle, is the conservative satisfaction in monumentalizing hip-hop as an American cultural product. I have earlier suggested that mayor Guilliani would probably not react against hip-hop show in Brooklyn Museum. The reason becomes clear when we see that hip hop is being presented as a product part of American cultural heritage. Being promoted as a New York based American cultural asset, hip-hop is on the market to be consumed by the whole world. Even though there are many 'ways in which rap music uses the language of nation to re-articulate a history of black oppression and struggle which can energize the movement toward black empowerment and independence', in the show one encounters neither the African centrist tendencies of hip hop nor the relation between rap singers and black nationalist movements. The hip-hop arts has become 'America's Latest Cultural Revolution". There is more to feed the satisfaction of conservative mayor of New York in the Hip-Hop Show in Brooklyn Museum. Once Guilliani saw the quote which summarizes the show, he would enjoy his day probably: "Now a billion dollar industry hip hop has transformed itself into global youth culture." Being promoted as a New York based American cultural asset, hip-hop is on the market to be consumed by the whole world. Hip-hop presented as the joyful festivity becomes one of the "spectacular attractions" of the New York City. This image fits perfectly with the project of marketing New York city as the "city of global youth culture". Advertising New York city as the global center of youth is where the liberal and conservative interests meet to celebrate the consumption capacity of millions of tourists drawn into the city every year. Brooklyn Museum serves the desires of the tourists to consume more of the coming attractions of the New York City by "offering visitor the opportunity to explore the history and evolution of hip-hop as the global culture, crossing racial, ethnic, gender, class, language and geographical boundaries." In Tricia Rose's words, there is "the already existing relationship hip-hop has always had to the commodity system. Hip-hop Dj frequently produces, amplifies and revises already recorded sounds, rappers prefer high-end microphones." (p 82) (Rose, T. "A Style Nobody Can Deal With in Microphone Fiends) Nevertheless, the relation between hip-hop and consumption culture is much more complex than just the celebration of this culture, as is the way Brooklyn Museum treats hip-hop. It extends the limits and scope of this article to talk about the complexity of the relation. Maybe my next step will be asking questions about the love and hate relationship between hip-hop and capitalism. Anyway, I found it unavoidable to take a peek into the attitude of a black animator on the internet: "peoples...don't let this corporate superstructure get you down, we all need to live with it, we all need to realize there's no changing it, we just have find more ways to work around it. Working within the system to identify its loopholes??? Capitalizing on its flaws??? Let's do this playas!!!"