Many city officials and the local police department have pointed fingers at the younger “hip-hop generation” for the many incidents that have occurred downtown recently.

It isn’t the music that causes disturbances; it is a lack of understanding of the hip-hop culture and consistent profiling of the genre.

In an attempt to exclude this genre of music and its large group of followers, many downtown night clubs are bidding for more live acts. These would replace the typical format of the last five years, where many local clubs allowed local DJs with turntables to perform.

On the night of Feb. 6, a Mardi gras-like celebration was held in Old Sacramento. At some point, the large crowd, mostly youths, began a small riot, equipped with bottles and guns.

As a long time listener of hip-hop, I am part of the MTV generation, much as I don’t want to admit it, but I don’t think the problem is rap music. I am a strong supporter of the scientific revolution and its belief that people are rational enough to make their own decisions. When you turn on hip-hop, it is to enjoy the drum line that pounds in the background and follow how the individual that is rapping runs parallel to that drum line. The music doesn’t want you to go out and throw bottles or shoot guns in a violent rage.

Trying to defend hip-hop has never been an easy quest, due to the views of prior generations and the people who grew up on grunge. Classic rock listeners are the tough ones. They have it all figured out when it comes to determining what is music and what isn’t. The difference with me is I am a genre-hopper. I love a guitar solo in a Jimi Hendrix song, the late night smooth jazz played on 88.9 FM, the grunge of Nirvana and the punk heads of Green Day. Yet none of these genres have convinced me to turn my back on the phenomenon of hip-hop.

When it comes to the crowds that each of these genres attract, things aren’t exactly calm all of the time. I don’t think many of us can forget Woodstock in 1969, along with the Woodstocks held in the 1990s. Massive amounts of drug usage and incidences of arson don’t exactly fall into the category of civilized. Henry A. Rhodes is a teacher for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public School District. Rhodes teaches American history and incorporates the evolution of hip-hop music into his courses.

In an essay course description, titled “The Evolution of Rap Music in the United States,” Rhodes supports his theory that hip-hop is not just a fad because it is part of a culture. This is a culture that consists of an art form, which includes graffiti, dance techniques, freedom of expression and an instrument known as the turntable. When the turntable is used correctly, it can be a percussion instrument.

“There are areas that I have not even attempted to explore that rap music has begun to influence, which leaves me to wonder how long it will be before other types of music in the United States such as country music embraces rap,” said Rhodes in his essay.

The collective decision by city officials and the Sacramento Police Department to encourage club owners to fade hip-hop style music out of the downtown area is both restricting freedoms of a culture and preventing upcoming talent to be recognized.

Onsite Public Relations Officer for the London-based online hip-hop magazine TheSituation, Usman Sajjad feels that the idea is negative.

“No one should be restricted from enjoying their favorite genre of music, and I feel this is not freedom,” Sajjad said. “A majority of the people generally enjoys themselves at rap concerts, and 98 percent of the time nothing happens.”There are risks at any club or musical venue for an act of violence to occur. When alcohol is involved, tempers can flare and individuals can grow wings. In the case of the Mardi Gras incident and others like it, I feel a stricter curfew law should be enforced for many of the minors who loiter and cause disturbances. The people who are over 21, in my opinion, are rational enough to separate the views of a rapper from their immediate thought processes.

Hip-hop is going to be around for a long time, and to those who denounce the explicit lyrics I must say that sex and violence sells in America. Until people can accept it for its underlying messages and social aspects of truth, its culture and ideals will forever be labeled as violent.

Blake Ellington can be reached at [email protected]