Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Father Absence theory in hip-hop   posted by agnostic @ 10/22/2008 11:12:00 AM
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I've been somewhat out of the loop of hip hop music, though I'm catching up. A club that I go to regularly has been playing a song whose lyrics argue for the Father Absence theory of why some people grow up to be wilder than others. (See the video here.)

It used to be that art referred to theories that weren't even plausible on their face -- Freud's idea of the Oedipus Complex being one. Whether Teairra Mari's song "No Daddy" reflects a shift over time to more plausible ideas, or simply the contrast between moronic intellectuals and those who believe their lying eyes, I couldn't say. Also unknown is whether she's read Harpending & Draper (1982) or just figured it out on her own. If the latter, she must have been pretty perceptive, as the song was released when she was 17.