Rappers like Takeoff are murdered. It’s more than their music
At a Wednesday morning press conference, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner had little news about rapper Takeoff’s death the previous night at a downtown bowling alley. But after confirming the identity of the rapper (Kirshnik Khari Ball) and the fact that a suspect had not been arrested, he had something to say.
Addressing a crowd of reporters in the room and the millions of fans that Takeoff and his band Migos had amassed, Finner warned the public against demonizing the hip-hop community over the loss of one of most famous names in the genre over the past decade.
“Sometimes the hip-hop community gets a bad rap, and I know…a lot of great people in our hip-hop community and I respect them,” he said.
“We all need to come together and make sure no one destroys this industry.”
The choice to insist on this point has to do with the perception of hip-hop and an enduring problem that seems to perpetually plague the genre – the untimely deaths of some of its most promising artists.
But as Finner also pointed out, there was no indication that Takeoff himself was involved in any criminal activity and was more than likely just an innocent bystander caught up in the violence swirling around him.
Along with this, a heated debate has emerged over the cost of authenticity in the hip-hop community, where artists might feel pressured to live up to the lifestyle they portray in their music. Others say the kind is unjustly a scapegoat and that violent words do not translate into violence in the real world.
Hit rappers aren’t immune to violence
Following news of Takeoff’s death on Tuesday, the music community mourned the 28-year-old artist who, as a member of rap trio Migos, pioneered a new sound in rap and hip hop .
But while fans have expressed grief over Takeoff’s passing, the level of surprise is unique in the world of hip hop. While the death of celebrities at the top of other genres, like Drake or Taylor Swift, would be extraordinarily unexpected, this year seven rappers have been killed – giving fans a column on how to react when one of the biggest stars of the hip-hop is killed.
Migos’ impact on hip hop and culture in general is impossible to ignore and has far exceeded expectations since their debut.
They are like the Beatles for rap [world]”, the Toronto rapper Pressa told CBC News, referring to how they influenced both the music industry and pop culture.
However Versace didn’t hit the top of the charts when it was released in 2013 – peaking at 99 on Billboard’s Hot 100 – it proliferated in Atlanta clubs and eventually rose to international fame when Drake added an extra verse.
All the while, frontman Quavo and Offset — one half of a power couple with fellow musician Cardi B — have captured the public’s attention; the quieter and younger member, Takeoff, meanwhile seemed to take a step back in interviews and performances.
But in reality, it was he who largely piloted their creative process — and whose mastery of their triplet flow first caught the attention of Kevin (Coach K) Lee and Pierre (P) Thomas, co-founders of the management company and the Migos label. Quality control.
“The Migos are their thing,” Pressa said. “You know, they had their own culture. They had their own sound. And I feel like a lot of people are taking their sound and kind of integrating it.”
WATCH | Takeoff’s death raises concerns about gun violence:
The fact that it was the more reserved Takeoff who was killed seems to underscore the danger that some hip-hop artists face, even if their lifestyle is free of violence. But the group’s perception has previously separated from its nature – dating back to the start of their career, the men behind Migos were often plagued with criticism for apparent dishonesty in their music.
As music journalist and poet Hanif Abdurraqib wrote in a 2017 article for the National Post, some fans took issue with the fact that the three members, who grew up in a suburb outside of Atlanta, would rap about the drugs and crime.
That feeling, Abdurraqib explained, drove them to behave more in line with their music, like when Offset was arrested in 2015 – then attacked a fellow inmate in custody.
“Like Johnny Cash in the mid-60s, they spent time getting too close to the fire,” he wrote. “It’s hard to build such a vast myth without being part of it.”
And in hip hop – a genre that values authenticity and self-documentation like few other art forms do – they are far from the only group to be touched by violence. Since 2018, more than a dozen high-profile rap artists have been gunned down.
Among them is Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was shot dead outside his clothing store in 2019 – despite being best known for his community building, general kindness and poetic, heartfelt lyrics. A year later, Toronto rapper Houdini was killed while shopping; Memphis-based Young Dolph was killed while buying cookies in 2021; and PnB Rock (real name Rakim Hasheem Allen) was murdered this year while having lunch with his girlfriend at a diner in Los Angeles, in an unprovoked robbery after an unknown man apparently saw his position in a message published by the rapper on social networks.
After praising Allen as a pleasure to work with, rapper Nicki Minaj implored other artists in the genre to stop making themselves so available to their community.
“You are not loved the way you think you are,” she wrote. “You are prey! In a world full of predators! What’s wrong ? »
The people around these rappers earn so much. It’s time to really start reminding them & more!!! AT LEAST TRY to put your foot down if you care! Tell them!!! You are not loved as you think !!! You are prey!!!! In a world full of predators!!!! What’s not clicking???!!! https://t.co/wpfxtnkBU6
“It’s just dangerous as an artist there,” agreed Pressa, who said he was with Migos member Offset at a separate event the night the filming took place. “I don’t like to broadcast and tell [my followers] where I’m going, and that’s exactly what it is.”
“It didn’t happen overnight”
But the discussions around the causes of these incidents are not straightforward. AR Shaw, an Atlanta-based trap music historian who wrote a book titled Interrupt historytold CBC News that gun violence “ripples” into communities of color because it’s a larger problem in the rest of North America.
“I kind of want to convey that this didn’t happen overnight; that it’s been years of neglected communities and abuse that’s happened in communities of color, in particular, and it’s the repercussions of that,” Shaw said.
“We have seen this pervasive violence that is happening [among] artists and within the hip-hop community,” Shaw added. “But it’s also indicative of what’s happening in communities nationwide.”
Gun violence is generally on the rise in Canada and the United States. Between 2018 and 2019, the criminal use of firearms increased by 21% in this country, according Statistics Canada.
Shaw said the issue of gun violence began many years before rap and hip hop became cultural forces. Where some would see the violent messages in certain subgenres of rap and hip-hop as further fueling violent behavior, Shaw said it’s often a documentation — and a way of working — effects of long-standing trauma in these communities.
Rapping about crime and violence isn’t the cause of the problem, he said, it’s identifying it. “I hope we can change the narrative, but first we have to understand what the source is.”
On the other hand, some in the hip-hop world see it differently. Kiana (Rookz) Eastmond, a Toronto music executive and former rapper, said that while rap evolved as an outlet to deal with this trauma, as a genre it also pushes its artists to constantly focus on the difficulties. Other genres allow artists to talk about their lives to move on.
“We would like to see them, you know, grow and evolve in a space where they don’t have to share their trauma or [where] they are not defined by it. We’re not asking that of rappers,” she said. “We’re not asking them to find peace one day. We never ask them to move on.”
Comparing it to the NFL, which for years ignored concussion damage before finally bowing to public pressure and changing the game to protect athletes, she said the same should happen for hip hop.
Instead of demanding that rappers spend their careers exploiting the most traumatic moments of their lives – and then rewarding them for it – the industry and fans should set a higher standard and demand music that demonstrates the growth of the gender.
“Artists are people. And I think the same way we expect our stories to be humanized in black culture everywhere else, we should expect that from hip hop now,” she said. declared. “It’s to be expected from rap.”