Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 71

Rap Music Resisting Resistance

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extent oppositional elements of rap can have power beyond
commodification and whether the more controversial groups will
continue to grow or become dwarfed by more marketable groups void of
oppositional messages.
At least one rap artist has begun to address the consequences of
commodification. In his song "Love's Gonna Get Cha (Material
Love)" KRS-1 of BDP makes explicit that under capitalism the
meaning of words are commodified, a claim which Adorno and
Horkheimer also make.^^ Specifically, the song is about how the
word 'love' has destructive effects as it refers to material wealth.
Unlike "Gangsta Gangsta" where the anti-commodity message has to
be decoded from the context of the song, here the text is much more
direct. KRS-1 begins the song by saying:
. . . that word love is a very serious thing, and if you
don't watch out 'love is gonna get you, love, love is
gonna get yow.'^O Because a lot of people out here
they say 'I love my car' or 'I love my chains.' For all
those people out there who fall in love with material
items we're gonna funk the beat a little something
like this . . . .
KRS-1 here makes explicit how everyday meanings become
defined in terms of commodities.
The rest of the story is about how the love of material things
brought about a drug dealer's downfall, and it is here that the second
critical aspect of the song can be found. The song could be understood
as simply telling people not to deal drugs in a similar way to Ice-T's
"You Played Yourself," but while Ice-T ends with the message that
it's the individual's and not society's fault, KRS-1 makes it much
more ambivalent. This is because he describes the conditions of
poverty which brought on the drug dealing. "With one-and-a-half
pairs of pants you ain't cool/ But there's no dollars for nothin' else./ I
got beans, rice and bread on my shelf." The song describes how the
narrator becomes a dealer and no longer needs to worry about money
and then asks, "My family's happy everything is new/ Now tell me
what the fuck am I supposed to do?" The question of this last line
emphasizes the conflict which is faced between living a comfortable
life and staying away from drug dealing. Like "You Played