Stanisland Magazine

Opinion: The new album Missionary might risk negative stereotypes, but it’s overall a fun ride.

Just watched the jaw dropping trailer for the new Dre & Snoop album Missionary – it’s got it all, guns, girls, gangsters, glamour and of course two platinum OGs. I’m spellbound by the slick presentation that still manages to stay true to the raw street culture that birthed the game.

But looking deeper into the video I’m troubled by what can be seen as a continuation and amplification of a negative stereotype that paints us as two dimensional sex and violence characters.

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That is one way to reflect on it, however on greater more informed reflection it reverts to my first impression of a spectacular modern day gangster and cowboy mashup capable of throwing shade on any spaghetti western or Dirk Bogart flick.

Negative Charms

Leaving aside for the moment the obvious ills of crime, the portrayed black gangsters are no different to the cowboys and mobsters decades or centuries prior – usually hailing from communities that were frozen out of legitimate ways of making large sums of money. Black gangsters do as they did, however with 1000% more style than their white predecessors. 

Gone is the horse, in is the souped up whip, gone is the ‘lonesome Bill’ self pity guitar dirge, in the super confident head nodding energising rap track, out the tired worn out chaps and million year old cowboy boots, in the Gucci garms and fly sneakers. The list could go on. And when it comes to the exploitation of women, which I will not deny is a failing of hip-hop to be improved, remember cowboy films were set in a backdrop of saloon bars and hotels that doubled as brothels where the women were passive (if occasionally shown as crass and feisty) exploited prisoners of that establishment and its owner. 

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Ask Trump’s grandpappy about that. Donald’s still living large off its financial legacy. Hip hop videos still do have some way to go in this area, but the women in them are usually portrayed as strong with a degree more agency than in celebrated cowboy movies. 

Historical Retrospective 

Taking a look back in history; if not for the contribution of black Americans, cowboys could better be described as dynamically as cow shepherds.  

From the introduction of the guitar blues, created by freed black slaves who became cowboys in the 1860s, to the macho confirmation ritual of steer wrestling introduced by William Picket the five foot seven inch son of slaves who was the first to show white rode audiences how to subdue a steer using your bare hands. These people and no doubt many other hidden black contributors helped turn the cowboy into a legendary figure. 

Resources and opportunities are still short for many black people in America, so the methods white Americans used to survive and get by are still being used by black people today. So, although we must strive to bring this inequitable chapter to a close by pushing for more and better, we should also beat ourselves up a little less and take time to appreciate the flare, resilience and creativity present within the musical defiance of hip-hop.