Megalomania and Shakespeare in Hip Hop

Akala

Contributed by NINO* on 5/12/08

I’m reaching the age now where perhaps I’m too old to do something I’ve been doing countless times my entire life; run away. Fighting and flighting. From everyone and everything, including myself. I have this constant denial of my own humanity, my own mortality and susceptibility to things that affect mortals. I run and fight physically, I make everything drastic and unnecessary. But eventually it turns out I’m going to have to face stuff. And acting hard just won’t cut it. This is the last time I allow sirens to drag me drag in inertia of hate. My gashed personality insanity characterizes a condition known as megalomania.

Megalomania (from the Greek word μεγαλομανία) is an unrealistic belief in one’s grandiose abilities and omnipotence. It is characterized by a need for total power and control and is marked by a lack of empathy for anything that is perceived as not feeding the self. It is often associated with narcissistic personality disorder which is characterized by extremely low self-esteem, compensated for by delusions of grandeur and megalomania. Megalomania is most dangerous when swathed in a charismatic personality (similar to those of many rappers). The line between religiosity and fanaticism, between duty and megalomania, can be a gray one. This is how the term has become part of our culture’s lingua franca. It is an ongoing pattern of extreme lows and extreme highs. During the latter cycle, individuals can undergo mirages of grandeur and infinite capability. They discuss unrealistic plans and goals as if these are within their grasp.

In the aftermath of my most recent physical flight, which escalated into a full fledged fight – I found the need to expose the reality of all this. And naturally, I turned to hip hop as my core focus, my most influential teacher and my most open outlet. I listened to the old school mix tapes, the new school anthems, the underground geniuses and as much fresh new ish I could get my scratty paws on. I read books, I read articles, I read interviews. I thought of my mates, my inspirations and I began to analyse everything. Dissect the reasons, question the questions…Alongside hip hop, Shakespeare was the perfect artist and philosopher to study, together with Fiasco and Driscoll, Malachi and Chang, Williams and Cooper, Malcolm X and Bruce Lee… And I found myself diving into the incomprehensible depths of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. Reading it avidly, seeing it as both a ballet and an intimate theatre production.

The thing about Hamlet that makes it as widely appreciated by literary academics as it does the common soul; is that Hamlet as a character is disturbingly relatable. He is probably the most realistic and accurate portrayal of a human being ever given to us in a play, book, painting or film. We often forget he is a myth, and he becomes a man alive in our consciences. Hamlet is the most popular play ever written and has been the subject of more excited critical debate than any other work of literature. Listening to the soliloquies (speeches given by characters when alone onstage) is like reading a novel. In exploring these novels we find ourselves asking fundamental questions about human psychology, epistemology and the nature of language and performance. All this seems parallel to hip hop for me. Modern raps can just be seen as soliloquies. After all, what’s so different? Real rap is poetry, and Shakespeare is the prophet of poetry. British hip hop MC Akala is currently touring the UK, doing workshops with youth to help them understand the relationship between Shakespeare, hip hop and life. In order for them to develop, discover and understand themselves. For those of you who don’t know the story of Hamlet, I’m not going to brief it for you. If the ideas I’m presenting interest you enough to spark any sector of your soul, then I would hope you might seek it out yourselves.

Hamlet directly tackles the connection between audience and performer. He underlines the necessity and excitement of thinking. The question of power – of seizing and losing control and the powerlessness of individuals in a world which marginalizes them. And he exhibits many traits of megalomania. Megalomania funds an obsession with fame and popularity, material wealth, social influence or political power and accompanying complete desirous and bombastic abandon. Hamlet’s megalomania, similar to my own is nothing to do with fame or fortune. It is a lack of limits and a fixation with conscience. We’re all running from our own self insecurity, and hip hop, and the escape that art as a whole can provide, is the perfect ride to hang on to in order to do so, or we will just get run over on the way.

Looking further into popular literature, art, music and film; it’s evident that megalomania, in whatever form it appears, sells. Zorro in ‘Wild Style’. Personalities characterized in books such as ‘Tsotsi’, ‘American Psycho’, ‘Clockwork Orange’, ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘Prozac Nation’ and the work of Sylvia Plath. ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Macbeth’ as portrayed centuries ago by Shakespeare. As far as modern media goes, ‘This Is England’, ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Poppy Shakespeare’ all seem to fit the bill. Of course, Nino Brown in New Jack City is a drastic yet defined portrayal of megalomania and the effects its overriding can have. In New jack City, no doubt one of the most widely watched films by many members of the hip hop community, Nino Brown’s megalomania detaches Nino from his gang and is the catalyst for their demise.
As we all know, hip hop sells too. Is it the megalomania in hip hop that really sells it?

Megalomania can be seen as a good thing. A powerful driving force. Sanity is weak. What is sanity anyway? Who measures intellect? I trust most of the national ‘IQ Tests’ about as much as fucking Robert Yerkes Army IQ Test which suggested that the mental ages of First World War army recruits didn’t exceed thirteen. This all leads us to ethical implications, social control and the immigration debate. It seems obvious that I should point out here that the support for the British National Party (effectively the Bastard Nazi Party) is growing so rapidly now in the United Kingdom it’s sickening. My own megalomania is partly the result of being hurtled through so much racism and identity confusion my entire life, which has been a jumble of England, Germany and Asia (it’ll take too long to explain each place there).

I’m not trying to use megalomania as a way to group or stereotype anyone. I’ve been grouped, stereotyped, spat at and stamped on my entire fucking life so it’s the last thing I’d want to do. Individual differences and the diversity of hip hop itself defies generalisability. All I’m saying is that the characteristics associated with megalomania seem to be a common personality trait for many mainstream artists representing hip hop to the masses. And it’s a trait the general population now associate with hip hop and many hip hop heads have consciously or sub-consciously, somehow incorporated into their own behaviour and attitudes.

Our society is fueled by apathy. You don’t have to be a psychopathic mass murder (i.e. George Bush) to be apathetic, just as you don’t have to be one to be megalomaniatic. Like megalomania, apathy is regularly present in the most successful, exciting, dangerous, controversial or intellectual circles of our society. As well as skitting about commonly everywhere else. The thing is, apathy and megalomania don’t necessarily create this community, however they fuel it, they mould it, and often, when rap comes to slap; they destroy it. As Hamlet says ‘conscience does make cowards of us all.’ Apathy is an escape from conscience. Hence Gangster rap vs. Conscious rap. But apathy nourishes the biggest cowards of all.

I never met a talented artist who has told me they fully love their own work or perceive themselves as ever being good enough. In fact, a common response I’ve got is that as soon as they feel that way – it is time to give up. But in reality, if you honestly thought you were shit, you wouldn’t get up on stage with a mic, you wouldn’t go to the publishers with a book and you wouldn’t go raise a can to a wall. Don’t give me any of this, ‘well other people seem to like it’, or ‘I just like the way it feels when I’m doing it but I always hate the final product’ bullshit. Cos although you’ll never think your own work is perfect and you will always seek improvement. You don’t think it is completely hopeless. Or you wouldn’t waste so much fucking time doing it in the first place. In the past six months I have been approached by four separate MCs, all part of different crews of MCs, all talented, some very accomplished; all claiming to be so sick of the sound of their own voices that they want to give up. And for some reason they thought I should know first. Because for some stupid fucking reason they think that I give a shit what people say when I know for sure they’re bullshitting, to me and to themselves. The fact that they’re so full of themselves, they claim to hate themselves, so they can just isolate themselves from their own MC crews is absolutely piteous. I can only hope they see some sense soon. How many MCs have left major label crews on the same note, only to come out with multiplatinum solo projects? Why has no one else clocked on to this yet. They’re creating this false illusion that by separating themselves from their crews, they are attempting to help them. In reality, they just want to be up and above. Can I really criticise that? Isn’t that what we all really need to do in order to really achieve anything? All I’m criticising here is the full frontal lies that come hand in hand with attempts of self evolution. What is the fucking point? This is why megalomania is also known as superiority complex and victory disease.

Hamlet’s megalomania also leads him to exhibit a sexist, misogynist attitude common in hip hop. He allows himself and others around him to use and confuse the girl he supposedly loves, which eventually leads to her own suicide. Hamlet also labels his own mother as a whore for remarrying after his father’s death, as opposed to considering her own innocence and loneliness. He makes the well known statement ‘frailty thy name is woman’, which has made him a common train for feminists to spray over.

I recently interviewed Joe Driscoll - undoubtedly one the most talented artists in any field of the 21st century. He is the kind of conscious yet realistic performer that hip hop is so thirsty for. When I asked him about the whole issue of disrespect of women in hip hop, his reply was the most honest sobering one I have received. “People seem fascinated by thugs and gangsters, sexist men of violence. Indigo Girls have a line ‘ The darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable, and the lightness has a call that’s hard to hear.’ We seem drawn to this persona of the violent angry pimp, and the big corporations are happy to make millions off of it. I think it’s a shame, and we all (definitely myself included) take share in the blame for being drawn towards and tolerating this attitude.”(britishhiphop.co.uk)

Some of my own attitudes towards relationships and the way I treat men (even when I was thirteen – I’ve never really had any interest in boys) are apparently megalomanic. I use, confuse, manipulate, disarm and abscond whoever I fuck. It’s about as simple as that. Although I hate them, I am attracted to dangerous, arrogant, idiotic thugs. As pathetic as I know many of them are. As much as I say ‘never again’ in the short hangover period they all leave me with. I can’t really help going for the next one I see.

As much as many of us criticise it, we all imitate some of the negative behaviours which glaze the hip hop culture. Acting gangster or saying and doing things which benefit us in no way are just a way of making us feel better about ourselves. In the words of Mike Shinoda – ‘it’s just like a cigarette/nobody’s really fooled/I don’t want the truth/I want to feel fucking cool/ maybe we are idiots, we buy it anyway…and everything they say has got the truth twisted up but twisted up is what I want, I can’t get enough.’ Byron Hurt’s documentary pointed out the fact that many of us listen to hip hop partially because ‘it makes us feel hard.’ I’m as guilty as anyone. But I know there are bigger issues to address, making what I wear, how I talk and what I pop all seem fairly insignificant. Life is more about accepting standards of action as opposed to focussing on a loss of ideals.

Everyone in hip hop is trying to get off the streets, trying to keep off the streets or just trying to get out of stereotypes and limits and expectations of society. The megalomania develops together with this eternal fight. It’s the only way things really get done. If Kool Herc thought, ‘people will think I’m crazy and rip me up if I take my decks out onto the block and tell em to come party’…if he thought his beats were wack, and his personal presence and community status was worthless. Plus if he had nothing to get out of it, no purpose. He wouldn’t have bothered. And like everything contributing to hip hop, no matter how small or big, this would have had a detrimental effect.

Of course I’m going to have to bring up my martial arts fervour and its connections with hip hop somewhere here. An anonymous 14th century Samurai Warrior’s Creed suggests many ideas that, intentionally or not many hip hop artists seem to follow. It’s a creed which also exhibits textbook attitudes associated with megalomania. It about having no talents, but making ‘ready wit’ your talents. Of having no principles and instead making ‘adaptability to all circumstances’ your principles. Of having no tactics, but making ‘emptiness and fullness’ your tactics. And of having no sword yet making ‘absence of self’ your sword. Hip hop is presented as the path to fudoshin (the immovable heart).

This mentality could achieve a whole lot as it suggests we won’t worry about things that aren’t worth worrying about, and we can just get on with doing something important. Again, going back to Hamlet ‘though this be madness, yet there’s method in’t.’
But everyone spends too much time acting cool, building their egos, satisfying their testosterone; to actually do anything purposeful. The people who have reached a level where they can influence masses and make a positive different should be ashamed of themselves for putting such little effort into doing so. I’m talking about world famous US ‘superstars’ claiming to be righteous, revolutionary and anti system, when in reality they are working for and feeding the system – as well as being fed by it. But I’m also talking about a few British artists who I really feel have let us down. Don’t get me wrong, there are so many peeps I know doing fantastic, incredible things. People who will only grow and gain, and I’ll be behind them all the way. But there are also many I followed from their starting days, from when they were full of reasons and actions; and now I see them on the mainstream channels and stations and they have lost their roots, lost their integrity, completely stopped thinking for themselves or doing anything hands on to help out the people they left behind or the kids who still look up to them and cling on to their every word.

I look at a man like Russell Simmons, an old school icon in music as a whole. Yet his lack of empathy or general interest in the addressing misogyny in hip hop has lost him a lot of respect from the real hip hop heads. Apparently there are bigger issues, such as words. Right? Am I the only one who finds it strange that he can hold conferences about getting rid of a few words and when asked about misogyny he didn’t even bother saying ‘yes, it’s bad’. As an influential character, that would have done something at least. Apathy or megalomania? Or is he ashamed of his own misogyny? Would it be hypocritical for him to criticise it even though so many other rappers have stood up and apologised? Can we blame him for his megalomania after we sent him on his ego trip by putting him up on his pedestal in the first place? Maybe it’s not megalomania I’m referring to in any of this. Maybe it’s just the hip hop community trying to hold onto our self pride and dignity, being as it’s all we started with; and if they take away everything else, it will be all we are left with.

I am constantly going AWOL. Running from the facts. Sticking up to people who don’t really deserve it. I’m used to jumping out of my window in the middle of the night and running until the sun comes up, in no direction in particular. It seems everyone else is doing the same thing, but not in a ‘put one trainer in front of the other’ kind of way. Currently, I am a complete melting pot of anger and analysis. So much so that I don’t even know if I have made a clear enough point for anyone to be able to agree with, should they want to.

Hip hop has turned into one big sharade of statements. Vast, gallant, litigious, statements. The people who make these statements, through whatever medium they choose, and the people who live through listening to these statements are insanely sane. Ümwalzung (Revolution) is needed. It’s a tall hope, but it’s a hope. And the diversity, integrity, originality and purity encompassed by hip hop remain unbeatable. Making hip hop as an art, and the entire hip hop community; the closest we have to making the most of whatever we have and completely overturning whatever disrupts, divides and weakens our society as a whole. However the unrestrained megalomania, the egos and the gangster front that becomes more and more a part of the hip hop lifestyle everyday is not allowing hip hop to fulfil its own potential. The biggest problem with megalomania is that it divides us. The whole power of hip hop lies in the equality and openness of a worldwide community.

Self-belief is healthy.

As long as you’re not the only person you believe in.

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