Capitalism in a Modern Communist Society: Hip Hop In Vietnam

In its brief history, it's easy to see why Hip Hop has quickly become the cultural paradigm that it is. With its visceral yet fragmented sonic aesthetics and verbally self-aggrandizing, masculinized freedom of expression, it correlated and accentuated precisely a new American perspective growing up and being groomed in a Reaganomics-MTV-Tech Age on the cusp of hitting next gear.

And we haven't looked back since. I mean, we have, but only to commodify and fetishize nostalgia. But that's for another time. Bad pun. Anyway, our way of life sped up and Hypercapitalism and Hip Hop were both the harbinger and beneficiaries of this culture shift. But times change and musical styles evolve self-reflexively.

Obviously, in America, we're relearning a little humility these days. And though the bravado is still there, because we are after all American, the best Hip Hop artist today (if you still even want to asininely categorize into genres) counter the next line with a self-effacing yearning. Kanye or Drake, for example. There's a wave of younger dudes doing it with an R&B tinge a la Frank Ocean and The Weeknd , and that softening points to a much welcome reactive tempering to the overt masculinization cultivated over the last 25 years.

But as Hip Hop has traveled the sea and trickled onto different shores, the influences have not necessarily varied. Rather, I suppose, like any other paradigm that has peaked and transcended boundaries, its reductive elements penetrate first.

Not avoiding anthropologically speculative generalization, there's distinctive qualities in which Hip Hop has reached and influenced different Asian regions. To note, it's fascinating in itself the susceptibility that Asian cultures as a whole are drawn to the Hip Hop bravado. But, perhaps, there is something enmeshed in each individual culture that draws out a different idiosyncratic manifestation. For the Japanese, is it similar to their sexuality, a means of outward expression in a traditionally repressed culture? In some way, most likely. And why is the love of basketball so closely intertwined with Hip Hop in Japan? (There is the obvious answer there. For that, simply watch ESPN's 30 for 30 on the Fab 5).

Juxtaposed with that is Vietnam. A country just unshackling some of its inhibitions. In their case, more ideological and economical. It's a little newer to the world game. The stringency of the older generations' (or at least those that subscribed the communism) are seeing their wall of economical status quo being 808'd by the sheer attractive force of Capitalism and, more importantly, its weaponization of Freedom of Expression.

So Hip Hop in an older form has taken center stage amongst Vietnamese youth today. And B-boy culture instead of Hoops is the intermediary. ... it's true, intrinsically, the Vietnamese just have more flava than most Asian cultures.

I don't have any conclusive argument here. I also apologize for how poorly written this is. A Saturday morning blurb. But, I do wonder about Freedom Of Expression moving forward. I wonder, with fingers crossed, as our society is moving away from Hypercapitalism to a yet-to-be defined sustainable model, if Freedom Of Expression in a world that has all the information at its distracted fingertips can find something sincere and extricate itself from all the saturated, unfiltered talk that hypercapitalism has allowed to infiltrate our train of thought.

I also hope that the many that are seen wearing Spike Lee a la Mars Blackmon tees go watch Spike Lee flicks. Hollatchaboiiii