We all know that wrestling is a sport and hip-hop is a type of music, yet the two share something that bonds them together. I’m not referring to the love affair that hip-hop has with wrestling as far as lyrics and metaphors involving wrestlers.What I am talking about is the stigma that surrounds them both and the ostricization they both receive from the mainstream. Also, how even if subliminally they both pay homage to one another in some form or fashion and seem to stick together.
Professional wrestling has come a long long way in the past thirty years. At the same time hip-hop has matured a great deal in that same time period. Some will argue hip-hop's birthday and what not, yet both wrestling and hip-hop have made some great achievements in the past 30 years.
Wrestling has broken attendance records and merchandised itself to the point that it’s normal. (Imagine being able to rock a “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers shirt or a BoBo Brazil tee). Meanwhile, we all know what hip-hop has done for fashion. They added the genre to every awards show starting in the 80’s. Wrestling pretty much started the pay-per-view. Hip-hop took over the airways and charts for decades and sold billions of records.
With as many astounding and credible accomplishments of both forms of entertainment, both wrestling and hip-hop have overcome and done more than what most said either could do. Nevertheless, both hip-hop and wrestling, still to this day, are not accredited and given the props they deserve from society and mainstream.
If you break it down and analyze it, the similarities and observations may surprise you. Especially if it’s something you have never thought about or considered. It’s almost like a shunning or a blacklisting or similar to being the bad kid in class that gets punished and blamed the entire time even if he/she excels and succeeds. It’s a stigma, a black cloud.
Do the two cause this themselves with the steroids in wrestling and the beefs in hip-hop? Or is that a result and an example of the mainstream exploiting them both when they are vulnerable? Both hip-hop and wrestling share their fair share of tragedies with wrestlers and rappers both dying at alarming rates even though the reasons for both differ in so many ways. The similarity in the tragedies is eerie. On one side, wrestlers are dying prematurely for drug abuse while many rappers have died from the abuse of hype.
That’s the negative side that the media exploits. Kind of kicking us in the face when we are down. Imagine someone showing up at a family funeral and throwing dirt in your face when you’re feeling down? Not cool. That seems to be the way when the mainstream comes calling when we experience a tragedy in either world.
Always when the chips are down but rarely when things are going great. How about the fact that Hollywood lately has filled its movies with casts including either current or former professional wrestlers and rappers. Hulk Hogan, John Cena, The Rock, Will Smith, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogd and Steve Austin just to name a few.
In wrestling, we have wrestlers that have hip-hop gimmicks or characters or clothing or have entrance themes that involve the music genre. While, as we all know, in hip-hop (as Dan-e-o has written about) rappers use wrestlers and their moves in metaphors and similes in songs all the time.
The life of a wrestler is not always glamorous as viewed in movies like The Wrestler and Beyond the Mat. And such is often the case with the life of a rapper.In both wrestling and in hip-hop, competition is fierce. Staying on top of the game is not easy. Consistently being the main event is not always an easy task. Just ask guys like Kurt Angle or DMX. Both worlds paint a glamorous picture to the life of wrestlers and rappers. What you don’t see is the behind the scenes work. The training and writing and traveling and time in the gym and studio respectively.
Rappers and wrestlers work harder than most people give them credit for. Harder than the average person who has a 9 to 5 and goes home to couch surf. These entertainers work pretty much non-stop to stay on top. When they perform, they make it look easy and as if it’s all glitz and gold. The work ethic is parallel, the performances the same. The top wrestlers and rappers on their game can give you a show like you wouldn’t believe.
The connection in so many ways is interesting to say the least. Is it the bond of two bad brothers? Or the parallel evolution of two forms of entertainment that mirror our society and reflect what’s going on around us? With all the violence and the aggression in the world, even if we try to sugarcoat it, we all still do it or enjoy certain things, good or bad. We are human, but it seems with hip-hop and with wrestling, when something goes wrong the mainstream is quick to point the finger back at us.
I make this connection and realize some of these things because I am a fan of both and I notice how society treats me, labels me, makes jokes or attaches a stigma to either when they come up in my life. I'm sorta starting to take it personal, one because I make hip-hop music with the best of 'em. And two, because I am a die hard wrestling fan and both hip-hop and wrestling have added incredibly to my life. All in positive ways as far as I'm concerned. I can relate because sometimes the stigma attached to hip hop and wrestling I feel has attached to me, forcing me to become a defender of both.Next time the mainstream bashes us or exploits us. Stand up and defend yourselves. Whether you’re a wrestling fan, a hip-hop fan and/or both.
Wrestling is a great sport and hip-hop is amazing music. Both transcend, both touch peoples life’s and both have helped to feed people and help people better themselves in one way or another. Everything in life has a negative side to it.
Let’s try to keep ours as positive as we can.
9 comments: on "Wrestling & Hip-Hop: Bashed Brothers"
I remember last year when the steroid shit hit hip-hop involving 50 Cent, Wyclef, Mary J., and Timbaland. I was like, “Hip-hop and wrestling once again get closer…” Another connection between the two is the prevalence of the internet being used to keep it going. I catch most of my wrestling online and not TV and most of my hip-hop online and not on the radio.
Another thing is that people are afraid that they are fans of the two.
“You watch wrestling? Isn’t that fake?”
“You listen to rap? All they talk about is drug and talk crap about women!”
As soon as you tell someone you’re a fan you have to be ready to defend yourself. I defend wrestling the way I defend my brother I don’t like much. I can say what I want but don’t you say shit unless you’re ready to defend yourself. I defend rap like a chick I used to love but she moved away and we don’t talk the way we used to.
Its easy for the media to bash wrestling and hip-hop because the biggest names don’t defend it. We didn’t see Undertaker, HHH, or HBK on Fox News talking about the steroid scandals. We saw guys that haven’t been important in the sport in years and were bitter. The loudest ones are usually the most ignorant. With rap as soon as someone defends it something stupid happens to reinforce what people were saying in the first place. T.I is doing shows to help the youth? That’s nice but he’s going to prison for a year. Kanye has a program for the kids involving music (G.O.O.D). But didn’t he attack that photographer?
Someone says wrestling is fake do what I do and ask them their favorite movie and explain that its fake. Someone says rap is shit play some Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC, Talib, or Busta Rhymes.
Hmm, gotta say, an interesting read but there's a lot of comparisons made that...well... aren't really that comparable.
Like comparing jam and a postbox as they are both red, but then elaborating to say "and the jam is nice and receiving post is nice", or "a postman takes the letters to a post office building and jam is made in a factory building". Not meaning to diss hugely, like I said, interesting read, I just didn't follow the thread of it too well
One major difference... Wrestling oves White Boy Humor / Gay jokes and Hip Hop does not play that shit.
Krunko,
With all due respect, your analogy was weak.
Simply put, both hip-hop and wrestling are artforms widely enjoyed by fans who often have to defend their love. Mainstream media aren't kind to either hip-hop or wrestling.
This is a comparison that I have made often being part of BOTH industries. I think the similarities are evident.
Any part of mainstream media faces this kind of backlash to varying degrees. Look at baseball after the 1994 strike, or hockey after the lockout. Celebrity industries are under constant scrutiny anytime a bonehead move is pulled; this is not an issue strictly related to hip-hop or wrestling. However, I will agree with you that, in spite of all the positives that exist in both, hip-hop and wrestling do tend to have the highest number of boneheads who create these negative PR storms.
As for having to defend your love of the business, you'll find that anywhere. Fans of reality TV have to defend themselves. Fans of country music have to defend themselves. Fans of Frank Fronte very often have to defend themselves. It's present in every niche of culture.
Don't get me wrong, this was a very interesting and thought-provoking read, and the comparisons were spot on, my point is merely that this is across the board, and not just an issue that is solely reserved for hip hop and wrestling.
Eh, Chris, I think you missed the point..The "villification" of these industries,those who participate in them, and the hurdles created by this stigma is the point. Not that you have 2 struggle to achieve, or that celeb's have to endure scrutiny. The negative stigma (violence, drugs, etc.)attached to Wrestling and Hip-Hop is not shared by other mainstream sports and music genres respectively.
Perhaps not that particular kind of stigma, but this is a very judgmental society for celebrities. Anything you do that is perceived as negative, you will hear about. The news industry makes this worse; they love to stir the pot and report on anything negative that they can, so for people who don't follow a particular industry, the only news they hear about it is negative.
This is largely what causes these problems for niche entertainment, specifically hip-hop and wrestling. Does the news report about a rapper or a wrestler who gives a lot to the community? If so, usually it's only a local news outlet close to where the wrestler/rapper performed said deed. If John Cena paid in full for a state-of-the-art hospital to be built in Boston, bet your ass that nobody other than Boston people and wrestling fans would hear about it. A guy like Will Smith gets made fun of regularly because he's "too clean". Yet everybody knows who Chris Brown and Chris Benoit are.
In my mind, it ultimately goes back to the age-old issue of stereotyping. People, places, and even businesses get stereotyped, and these two particular industries happened to be on the short end of the stick. If one of them becomes wildly popular, those stereotypes may dissipate, or at the very least, wind up being contained behind closed doors (much like what MMA is experiencing).
Either way, if u agree or not. Its got us talking. Now how or what can we do as fans and the community of these forms of entertainment to change these stigmas and stereotypes???
I actually do agree, my point was merely that this is a widespread issue.
I can't speak for the hip hop industry, but in terms of wrestling, I think it ultimately comes down to this-the best way to remove the stereotypes is to find a posterboy (or series, preferrably) who embodies everything that goes against the stereotype. For wrestling, find a series of guys who are family friendly and not on any kind of drugs, and push them to the moon. There is a severe lack of compelling characters on television, and those who are portrayed as being compelling are also known to be steroid users. Find guys who can work and aren't on the juice, and overhaul your company by giving them a spot. A guy doesn't have to 6'8" and jacked to be able to work or be compelling. In fact, a lot of those 6'8" guys can't work at all anyway.
Does this mean that the industry as we know it will go through a radical transition? Most assuredly. But removing a stereotype (or at least reducing the degree to which it is believed) takes a lot of time and effort.
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