Artists and parents bear some responsibility for Bluesfest mess

I hear more people talking about drugs than black success, says Kevin Bourne.

The relationship between Bluesfest and hip hop is being discussed heavily in the media and on social media.

The Citizen recently published an article in which the writers stated racist myths are behind the complaints about hip hop at Bluesfest.

The Ottawa Sun also published an opinion piece in which the writer stated the problem isn’t hip hop, but intoxicants and inexperienced festival goers.

The Citizen opinion piece is correct in highlighting a measure of prejudice by pointing out that the majority of the kids at the Bluesfest hip-hop concerts weren’t actually black — they were white.

As someone who worked in one of the most at-risk neighbourhoods in Toronto, I’ve found black youth in Ottawa to be pretty well-mannered for the most part. I go to a lot of events where black youth are present and they’re pretty respectful compared to other youth I’ve interacted with.

But as a black man who has been listening to hip hop for almost 30 years, and will continue to do so, these recent opinion pieces are also a reason to sit down and reflect.

Where did this association between black people and criminality come from? And when it comes to this mess at Bluesfest, who is at fault? These young inexperienced festivalgoers? Drugs? Parents? The artists themselves?

Responsibility needs to be taken on a few fronts. First, as black people, we need to take responsibility for the fact that we’ve probably contributed to furthering the negative stereotypes. Like any other genre, there are positive elements to hip-hop culture and there are negative ones, and at times we don’t always paint the best picture of ourselves in our music.

During slavery through to the 1960s, black people were demonized and considered savage and it was unwarranted. But what about today? I hear more people talking about dracos, molly and Percocets than black excellence or black success.

Second, artists need to take responsibility. You can’t have artists talking about molly and Percocets, then act like they have no responsibility when young people are intoxicated at their shows. Young people are impressionable. Case in point: when I was a teenager I went through a brief gin and juice phase.

Third, parents need to take responsibility. There are some concerts you shouldn’t be bringing your kids to. There are some concerts your 13-year-old kid shouldn’t be going to on their own. And smoking weed with your young teenager at a concert just isn’t cool.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that both artists and parents — the people who have the biggest impact on our youth — aren’t taking responsibility for their respective roles in this mess. Maybe youth aren’t the culprit. Maybe they’re the victims. I find it hard to chalk this all up to these young people being bad, while placing no responsibility on the two groups who have the biggest impact on their lives.

Now, should hip hop be banned from Bluesfest? No. Hip hop is vast and there are positive aspects to the culture. Every genre has positive and negative aspects to its culture. Going to the Toby Keith concert, I noted how similar it was to a hip-hop concert. Keith sang about drugs, the people in the crowd were doing drugs, and there was even a little pushing in the crowd. If you get rid of hip hop you also have to get rid of artists such as Toby Keith.

In my opinion, the first step to fixing this mess is for both the artists and parents to admit that they both have a level of responsibility for where our youth are at.

Secondly, as black people, we need to start telling the world better stories about ourselves and celebrating other aspects of the black experience — in our music and not just once a year at Black History Month events.

You can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Kevin Bourne is editor of the Ottawabased online magazine SHIFTER.