In hip-hop circles it is often said that rap has won over the market; in reality, the process was the opposite: the capitalist market appropriated rap.
By Hertz Dias*
“While stimulating the progressive development of technique, competition gradually consumes, not only the intermediary layers, but itself as well. Over the corpses and the semi-corpses of small and middling capitalists, emerges an ever-decreasing number of ever more powerful capitalist overlords. Thus, out of “honest,” “democratic,” “progressive” competition grows irrevocably “harmful,” “parasitic,” “reactionary” monopoly.” (Leon Trotsky, Competition and Monopoly).
The scandals involving P. Diddy are among the biggest in the history of the culture industry. The renowned rapper, entrepreneur and world-renowned music executive has been in prison since September 16. Celebrities such as Rihanna, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Jennifer Lopez make up the list of those named, as well as artists such as Eminem and 50 Cent making serious allegations against Diddy.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is being charged with sex trafficking, conspiracy and promoting prostitution. In addition, there are allegations of bribery, drug trafficking, rape, beatings and even murders of celebrities such as 2Pac Shakur and model and ex-wife Kim Porter. There are also conspiracy theories circulating that attribute the deaths of celebrities such as Michael Jackson to Diddy.
However, few link these scandals to the decadent nature of capitalism and its monopolistic culture industry, which made Diddy one of its leading exponents. This article seeks to show that the monster behind P. Diddy is a product of this monster factory called capitalism, especially monopoly capitalism.
P. Diddy’s methods are the methods of monopolies
In the hip-hop world it is often said that rap has won over the market, but in reality the process was the opposite: the capitalist market appropriated rap. This process gave rise to huge monopolies, such as Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Records. Jay-Z’s net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion. P. Diddy’s net worth is $600 million.
As mentioned in the epigraph of this text, everything indicates that the development of these monopolies, especially that of P. Diddy, occurred in a pernicious and reactionary manner.
The testimonies of Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis, arrested on charges of murdering 2Pac in 1996, claim that P. Diddy ordered this death that shook the global hip-hop scene. Keefe D claimed that Diddy offered $1 million for 2Pac’s death and that he said things had to change, even if it meant the death of the rappers.
2Pac was from Death Row Records, the label that released iconic albums such as ‘Chronic’ and ‘All Eyez On Me’. Meanwhile, Bad Boy Records represented the East Coast of hip-hop. If P. Diddy is accused of having 2Pac murdered, Suge Knight is accused of killing Notorious BIG, seven months after 2Pac’s death.
It is clear that P. Diddy used the methods of the big monopolies to eliminate competitors and build his entertainment empire. Diddy’s empire was built on racketeering, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, rape and murder. The mainstream media sold this as a war between two regions; however, it was a war between two bourgeois empires.
P. Diddy was not just another black man who became a bourgeois in the ‘land of dreams’, but a mega-bourgeois who, like all mega-bourgeois, made the state and bourgeois justice his means of doing business. His influence was never limited to the world of music, it extended to politics and drug trafficking. Donald Trump once said he adored Diddy and considered him a good guy. Diddy also called him a friend.
They lobotomised hip-hop to make it less dangerous
It is important to remember that such monopolies are not built on violence and bribery alone. P. Diddy and others are key parts of the process described by Public Enemy’s Chuck D as lobotomy: the destruction of hip-hop’s historical memory. the influence of ‘dark money’ was essential to lobotomising hip-hop culture.
Hip-hop was born under the strong influence of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. 2Pac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, was one of the great women leaders of this movement. After the death of Malcolm X and the physical and political destruction of the Black Panther Party, hip-hop became the common thread of the ‘black nightmare’ that the American bourgeoisie feared so much.
In order to incorporate hip-hop into the monopoly capitalist market, it was necessary to hollow it out politically, to carry out a lobotomy operation that transformed some of its members into mega-bourgeoisie.
Before that, it was the bourgeois youth who listened to rap to understand life beyond the walls of the luxurious condominiums. Today we see favela residents trying to imitate bourgeois lifestyles inspired by the likes of P. Diddy.
It is increasingly common to see favela youths rapping as if they were entrepreneurs without capital or owners of luxury cars without money to take a bus. Machismo and ostentation have replaced class and race hatred. This behaviour is a product of the ideology constructed in this process.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Brazil imported hip-hop as an important political and cultural weapon for black and favela youth. However, from the second half of the 1990s onwards, all the cultural rubbish produced by the completely lobotomised ‘hip-hop business’ came into the country.
What is coming to light in the case of P. Diddy is not a product of the decline of hip-hop. It is a reflection of capitalism in its most decadent phase – monopoly capital – which is the Midas of human decadence, rotting everything it touches.
For the young people who make hip-hop in the quebradas [poor neighbourhoods], this can be an interesting moment to reflect on their artistic practices. No one should accept rules in the art world; otherwise, culture ceases to be culture.
However, much of what is present in today’s hip-hop is not a natural product of the slums. It is an imposition of the worst that the monopolistic culture industry has to offer in the guise of evolution and modernity.
However, if it is not possible for free art to exist under capitalism, it is necessary to destroy this form of social organisation in order to give art the wings of freedom.
*Hertz Dias is a member of the Secretariat of Blacks of the PSTU and vocalist of the rap group Gíria Vermelha.
Article published in www.opiniaosocialista.com.br, 7/10/2024.
