Definition of Real

In the ongoing discussion of “authenticity” and hip-hop there is always a discussion of preferred representations and inferred representations; the former being a meaning that the artist desires the consumer to adopt and the latter being meanings that can be logically consumed from a text. The visual aesthetic serves as a complex collection of meanings that without artist input can be construed in a myriad of ways. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
In this vein, one interesting text to offer discourse on is the hip-hop album cover. Besides the video, this is one of the strongest visual offerings that an artist can use to convey essentially what their music is about. Let’s first take a look at other artist’s choices

Ozzy Osbourne

Here you have Osbourne, dressed in all black, walking away from a lake of fire. These visuals automatically evoke motifs of the anti-Christ, darkness, and immortality. Appropriate.

The Jonas Brothers

Simple. Three attractive young white men...waiting…for something…presumably the 15 year old girls that the CD is marketed to.


Let’s talk about Plies.

But first we have to tend to this whole “Definition of Real”. For our cases let’s look at the definition of real according to the great scholarly text Urbandictionary.com:
Real
1. adv: The action of being true to the code of ethics of one's self, culture, and environment

Dictionary.com:
1. true; not merely ostensible, nominal, or apparent: the real reason for an act.

So, we have the hegemonic representations of real. What is Plies definition? Let’s refer to the visual text. Here we have Plies crouching, donning a black ski-mask, wearing a large chain with a caricature of himself, pants sagging to the point of showing his undergarments, iced out with a watch and bracelet, and a scowl on what little bit of face we can see. Notably, Plies’ chain (Goon) is placed in the very center of this visual and in between the text Definition of Real. It is therefore reasonable to deduce that the preferred meaning of this visual is that a goon or street thug is the authentic and that Plies exists as the symbolic moniker of this existence.
Stuart Hall would argue that Plies is adhering to hegemonic stereotypical ideals of black masculinity as well as his perception of “real”. It is obvious that Plies doesn’t walk around wearing black ski masks in his everyday life, in fact there is a statute in southern Florida that prohibits such action
Therefore, it would seem from straight textual inference that Plies believes his base persona isn’t the definition of real but rather this characterization of a Goon is the real definition of real. As Hall would state, Plies is reinforcing these stereotypes of black southern underclass constructions into the realm of commercial marketability and effectively essentializing these constructions for consumption. Almost directly in line with Bogle’s study Plies presents the authentic to be that of the Bad Buck ”physically big, strong, no-good, violent, renegades.”

But my major point here is that it is through this very stereotypical representation (or “common sense” acceptance of the Southern rapper) that one can see the influences of hegemony on what is “real” and what isn’t. Would mainstream America accept Plies as a rapper wearing a polo shirt and khakis, talking about “keeping it real”? No. The talk has to match the walk, and in this case authenticity exists in detrimental connotations of a Southern rapper. One listen at any of Plies’ albums will show the listener that he has some very real things to say, and a collection of powerful social discourse. But not even Plies himself can get away from the visual constraints that society constructs as “the definition of real” for a rapper.

-Hip Hop Monk