VH1: Bling'd, Blood, Diamonds and Hip-Hop

VH1 takes a break from finding New York a lover and the next great white rapper, to tackle a very serious issue… They recently aired a documentary (Bling'd: Blood, Diamonds and Hip Hop) covering Blood Diamonds, Sierra Leone and the bling bling culture surrounding hip-hop. I don’t really get VH1, and think they could do a better job of not sucking, but applaud their attempt at addressing something real and doing something positive.

The show does not blame hip-hop artists for anything going on in Africa surounding blood diamonds, nor do they suggest they are responsible for solving it… but it simply address the issue in Africa and tries to bring the issue to light. So why then should hip-hop be more closely linked with Sierra Leone and blood diamonds. (In the words of VH1… )

But it does suggest that because many black American artists have ancestors who were exploited as slaves, they should be concerned when ornaments of their success come from a system built on similar exploitation.

VH1 takes Paul Wall (grill master and bling connoisseur), Raekwon and Tego Calderon to Seierra Leone to show them atmosphere and some of the horrors that exist, and then film their reactions. Much like taking Jay-Z to Africa to address clean water issues… the show clearly attempts to do two things. 1) Ask for help and donations to aid the areas visited in the documentary. 2) Raise awareness about the issues. But its also raises a serious debate about hip-hop’s responsibility and relationship with “bling bling” and blood diamonds.

I don’t want to even pretend like I am an expert in the surrounding issues… but I will say one thing. It will be interesting to see how (if at all) the hip-hop community reacts to or is affected by the VH1 documentary and the recent spot light placed on them.

Final Thought:
Does hip-hop’s emphasis around “bling bling” even affect Sierra Leone and blood diamonds, or is it simply the symbolic relationship between the two. If you want to think about it like this, the hip-hop community accounts for less then a fraction of all diamonds sold.