Milwaukee Hip Hop: A Rebuttal

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On January 28^th, Tarik from Radio Milwaukee, posted an incendiary blog entitled, “Is Milwaukee Afraid Of Hip Hop?”. So far The Onion and The Shepherd have posted their respective, but misguided responses to Tarik’s question, so now The Coup is throwing their hat into the ring, and we are definitely in Tarik’s corner.

The truth is promoters and venues in Milwaukee continue to spend a disproportionate amount of money and time on pop music as opposed to hip-hop. For example, of all the announced shows at any of the Pabst Foundation venues, now through May, only one concert is a hip hop show (coincidentally, that show is being sponsored by Radio Milwaukee). To say this is an issue of race is almost a cop out, but in this instance, it is pertinent. In fact, apart from that solitary show and an African dance fundraiser, the only African-American musicians scheduled to appear on any of the Pabst’s stages are Booker T. and B.B. King. Apparently Milwaukee will only come out to see over-the-hill blues artists who have been commercialized to the point of harmlessness.

Not to take away from either of those legends of music, but it’s clear who those shows are intended for, baby boomers with expendable incomes: tickets for B.B King are either 45 or 55 dollars a head, while Booker T. commands a more modest 25 dollars general admission. There aren’t very many people outside the 40 to 60 years-old demographic that are willing to pay 55 dollars to watch the twilight of a career play guitar while sitting down. This is all calculated. Venues do not want to risk a legion of young people of color descending on their concert halls.  It’s as if they expect the dance floors of their storied institutions to devolve into the lewd chaos of a music video, pistol muzzles and dicks grinding against exposed asses while a cloud of single dollar bills and a mist of Cristal settles over the libidinous heaving mass of young people.

Another venue to consider is The Rave. Of all of their announced shows through April, only one is a Hip Hop show, well really one-and-a-half if you consider RJD2 Hip Hop.

The only venue taking hip hop seriously in Milwaukee is Stonefly, but they can only do so much, and asking a national act to come perform on a stage smaller than broken down cardboard box is both an embarrassment and impossible.

About a year ago, Detroit emcee Elzhi performed to a crowd of just under 30 people at Stonefly, and many use this failure as an example for Milwaukee’s failure in Hip Hop promotion. Firstly, no one knows who Elzhi is, the reader probably doesn’t know who Slum Village or Black Milk is, and that’s because most people don’t. We shouldn’t expect a sell-out crowd for an emcee that is unknown to even the most ardent of music lovers. If the indie music demographic doesn’t know who you are (the indie music demographic being one that name drops the anonymous in order to assert coolness, authority, erudition) then you should be thankful that you even got 30 people to show up. We don’t want to seem like we’re insulting Elzhi, but this is the truth, prowess on the mic doesn’t always equivalate to  a swaying roomful of sweaty-kids.

Another instance that the opposing camp is using in the argument against Tarik’s tyrade is the infamous Ludacris show at the Marcus. The Shepherd response to, “Is Milwaukee Afraid of Hip Hop?,” states that booking rap acts simply isn’t worth the bad press, and cites the tongue lashing that Summerfest received from Milwaukee’s right-wing radio after the festival’s organizers booked Ludacris for the Marcus Amphitheater. Being afraid of right-wing radio hosts isn’t a viable excuse, and it’s laughable that a respected entity of the press such as the Shepherd would even suggest that venues beware a legion of sophistic mic-holders. Charlie Sykes doesn’t care if Mr. Metal Face himself and Mos Def come to Turner Hall.

The A.V. Club makes a good point in saying that Hip-Hop is based on localism, but they go on to say that, “…perhaps it’s time for the Milwaukee music audience to appreciate what we have (and build on it) rather than rue what we don’t,” which seems reasonable until you realize that they just suggested we rest on our laurels and wait for the big acts to come to us. Yes, localism is the heart of every hip hop scene, but for the general public, only after you discover the big names do you discover what’s going on in your own back yard. No one started out in life listening to Operation Doomsday, but we all have at least one Wu-Tang album, or even, sadly, a Ja Rule disc. We need to build what we have here, but we also need to bring talent to us. It is unlikely that the young and talented crop of the Milwaukee Hip-Hop vanguard (Prophetic, JC Poppe, Kid Millions, House of M, Haz Solo) will gain any exposure in this scene; a scene that won’t let them book shows, a scene that shuns even some of the biggest names in the industry. One of Milwaukee’s biggest exports will become our musicians if we continue to ignore the quality in the 414.

The Milwaukee complex is one of underachievement and little to no self-belief. Potential dies in this city, that’s the truth, but some of us are trying to change that, and it’s not going to change if we refuse to champion the movement out there in the below-zero wind chill. We’re sick of failure, we’re sick of naysayers, Hip-Hop is the music of the generation, and if a few small minded, and frightened people can’t separate the popular image from the reality, they are going to contribute the Milwaukee’s cultural death.