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Michael Eric Dyson - Know What I Mean?
Article by:
Michael Ivey
 "Know What I Mean", Professor Michael Eric Dyson’s latest offering, is built like a hip hop album, complete with "shout outs," "head nods" and a list of features at the start of each "track" or chapter. Professor Dyson cleverly employs hip hop music's call and response vibe by putting each chapter in Q&A form, making for a clean read. In the intro billion dollar chaser, lyrical avant-garde Jay-Z appears to be most impressed with Dyson's ability to merge seemingly polar conceptual worlds by discussing "Pimping in terms laid out by Hegel, or using "Kant to explain the way that prison fashion moved from the cell block to the city block.." Revolutionary creative genius Nas says of hip hop culture, "We were once the avant garde. We all came from the fringes to take hold of the mainstream. And we all stood at the precipice of urban disaster and moral decay." According to Nas Professor Dyson brings hope to an often nihilistic group.
"Know What I Mean" successfully dissects hip hop culture by digging through the tortured souls of young men and women who seek to, in the words of Nas, "carry on tradition." Professor Dyson’s assessment of the culture as "essentialist" kicks in the door to a problematic section of life for Black American youth: those who clamor for more holistic depictions of themselves and the world around them-in the vain of Nas or Mos Def-are not immune to sexist and misogynistic ways. They join their brothers and sisters, who are unable to digest the concepts laid out in this provocative analysis, in the muck of lust and prejudice. Here there can be no division, only fancy drapes to partition rich and poor. Professor Dyson means that hip hop represents both but would be wise not to lean too heavily on the trappings of either mentality.
In the true challenging spirit of hip hop Professor Dyson swipes a page from the Jay-Z/Nas slam book (circa 2001) when he states that he’ll "Take a Jay-Z over a Bill Cosby…he [Cosby] lacks the courage to speak against the white corporate capitalists who bolster his economic stability as he beats up on poor black people, while Jay-Z talks about his personal and social responsibility while defending the socially vulnerable whose backs are against the wall." One cannot help but think the Professor is simply picking knits with this argument. Didn’t white folks –albeit during different periods in life and stages in time-love "Cliff Huxtable" as much as they’ve embraced Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter? Sure, the two are marveled for much different reasons, but it is possible that the black entertainment aesthetic, and attending ideals, has changed and the white corporate motivation remains the same.
Now 50 Cent's graphic ghetto story can make your company hundreds of millions in a matter of months. The point is a case can be made that, for all his "Minority Reports" and trips to Africa "to give water out to everybody," Jay-Z is the bottom line. Yes he has opened doors for future hip hop executives, but in the corporate realm he is guided by and answers to Mos Def’s sinister "tall Israeli…running this rap shit"- Lyor Cohen, as well as Jimmy Iovine and Doug Morris. These are individuals who skirted any real responsibility during the entire Imus fiasco. Jay-Z is indeed a role model, in the truest sense of the word, who likes to barrow from Bruce Lee; hip hoppers, in studying Jay-Z's moves, should take heed to the late master’s Jeet Kune Do concept: use effectively what you can, discard the rest.
While his various hats allow the scholar/ordained minister perspective and insight unavailable to most critics of hip hop culture, Professor Dyson is way off base with his comparison of an iconic hip hop/Hollywood image (the pimp) to the story of Jesus and Paul. The erudite teacher uses a scene from the hip hop heavy Academy Award winner ‘Hustle & Flow,’ during which the pimping protagonist, DJay, supplies hometown homey turned rap idol, Skinny Black, a copy of Skinny's first cassette tape, thereby urging him to embrace DJay's music and the his own roots. DJay’s cassette recordings serve as Professor Dyson’s symbolic "Mountain of Transfiguration"-DJ is Jesus, Skinny represents Paul. DJay, according to Professor Dyson, evokes Jesus’ admonition to Paul that he may not remain on the Mountain by juxtaposing his humble demo cassette against Skinny’s launch-pad tape. Oooo-k. Jesus may have focused on sinners like DJay, the actor who played him and the moneyed executives who distributed the film, but in today's context of hip hop-under-attack Professor Dyson’s symbolism is futile. This is where, in an otherwise lucid discussion of global hip hop life, he may lose those who bemoan the culture’s flamboyant defiance.
The unsuitable misnomer is, however, an aberration "Know What I Mean" deftly defines ways for hip hoppers to connect the dots and further unearths the soiled path to self knowledge; Professor Dyson’s chapter two discussion of the "transatlantic navigation of black identities" is akin to a hue-man waking up one day to realize his brown skin feeds on the sun. Good morning. Professor Dyson spends much time on Jay-Z but unsung pioneer DJ Kool Herc is the jump off for this most crucial concept. Marginalized youth, by embracing themselves/hip hop, will realize they are by default international citizens-small, yet significant pillars of the Black Diaspora and all its' mores have touched. Hip hop kids, and the "grown and sexy" who still bop to the drum pad, who are unaware of the West Indian Herc’s sway would remain snoring if not for Professor Dyson’s efforts here.
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