n the Sugarhill Gang’s song “Rapper’s Delight” sold millions of copies and rose to the top of the charts, establishing hip-hop as a true commercial force. (Rose, 6) The economic triumph of “Rapper’s Delight” also gave evidence to the fact that demographics of hip-hop consumers were growing to encompass more than just urban blacks. Hoping to profit from the commercial success of hip-hop, the six major record labels (CBS, Polygram, Warner, BMG, Capitol-EMI, and MCA) started purchasing the independent labels, with the hope of reaping the benefits derived from the toil of these smaller labels that originally brought hip-hop to prominence. (Rose, 7)
After the major labels bought out the smaller independent companies, there was a noticeable shift in the lyrical content of hip-hop. (Hurt, 2006) Whereas, previously the lyrics focused on social, political, and cultural issues, the lyrics now were becoming more hyper-violent and hyper-masculine, eventually coming together as a new genre known as “Gangsta Rap” which rose in popularity and sales while being heavily promoted by the major labels. (Hurt, 2006)
Along with the major label’s growing interest in hip-hop, MTV’s decision to air “Yo MTV Raps” in 1989 helped mark the emergent influence and commercialization of rap. This moment is significant in hip-hop history, as prior to this show, MTV had never devoted much airtime to hip-hop or black artists in general, fearing its predominately white teen audience base would not be receptive of the content. (Rose, 8) “Yo! MTV Raps” became highly successful and confirmed that hip-hop could be especially “marketable to white suburban teens” as well as the original black audience base. (Rose, 8)
The premiering of “Yo! MTV Raps” influenced a monumental shift in hip-hop culture as now music videos became a major factor in hip-hop. By airing music videos on MTV, hip-hop artists were able to gain visibility and expand the genre’s audience base to an ever-growing white market. With the growing importance of music videos, there was an “increased focus on how a singer looks rather than how he or she sounds” and soon rappers and their music labels were crafting images to go along with the musical content. (Rose, 9)
Prior to the success of hip-hop on MTV, the genre’s music videos frequently “functioned as a snapshot in the lives of the artist,” and generally depicted the rapper hanging out in his neighborhood (generally “black urban inner-city locations”) with his or her “posse.” (Fitts, 221, Rose, 10) However, after the commercialization of hip-hop, the major labels had more control of the creative process and soon music videos became a “quasi-cinematic, sensationalized illustration of the persona of the artist” in order to appear more marketable to Top-40 demographics. (Rose, 13, Fitts, 221)
The generic, industrial standard of hip-hop videos of this modern era often display rappers “ego-stroking” by making glorious displays of wealth and power. (Fitts, 212) While watching a standard contemporary music video, one will often see scantily clad women parading around the rapper’s mansion, entertaining the rapper and his “posse.” One anonymous music video director has even stated that it has gotten to the point where “it’s all about the hot girls” and the social and political messages behind the lyrics have taken a back seat. (Fitts, 218) Violence and hyper-masculinity were once again major themes present in the videos produced by the major labels.
When given the choice to air a cutting edge music video or a generic one that makes use of these violent and sexist elements, record labels will generally use the latter for fear that the audiences would be unreceptive of deviations of formulaic rap music video. (Fitts, 224) Hip-hop appears to have gone away from the socially, culturally, and politically critical messages dealing with the plight of generally voiceless blacks to an expression of wealth, power, and hyper-masculinity. In an interview featured in Byron Hurt’s documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Mos Def commented on the presentation of ra