What does it mean to get crunk?   To many, crunk is an advanced state of intoxication from alcohol, to others, it’s a musical genre.   Some people want to live and die crunk and this is where things start to get really interesting.

I think crunk can be much more than music.   Crunk can be a design choice, a lifestyle, a philosophy.*

What does a crunk philosophy look like?   To answer that question I want to broadly divide hip-hop music into three conceptual movements.

“Being crunk means giving a nod to those who came before and the way they thought, but represents a desire to formulate one’s own community and sense of reality.”

Most, if not all, popular hip-hop has originated focusing on identifying areas of oppression in society and speaking out about that oppression.   Groups like Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash developed nuanced and powerful criticisms of systemic forms of white supremacy that often functioned invisibly.

This is not to say that revolutionary rap music is gone.   Far from it; there are still excellent groups like Dead Prez or The Coup that continue the legacy of PE and KRS and formulate incisive criticisms of traditional politics.

Dominant forms of hip-hop shifted rapidly from the Public Enemy model.   In the early nineties, rap went mainstream.   Many artists abandoned a focus on social justice and rapped in a way that reproduced dominant political ideology in the United States.   Artists like R.Kelly and Sisqó helped shift the discourse of popular rap music to being about cash, cars and ho’s.

This isn’t to diminish the important and beautiful work of artists like L’il Kim and Missy Elliot, but rather to suggest that they did not significantly alter the prevailing discourses and often contributed to them.

The latest stage of rap is exemplified in L’il Jon’s “D***” when he says “If you don’t give a d***, we don’t give a f***.”   Rather than focusing on making revolutionary change or integrating into dominant societal structures, L’il Jon just wants to be crunk.   Being crunk means much more than sippin’ Patrón: It means that we have already won.   Crunk is community.   It strips down the beat and has no respect for its elders.

Crunk is frequently criticized by high-minded Whitties and others as degenerate, inarticulate and violent.   Well, if you don’t give a damn, I don’t give a fuck.   Crunk is a voice that is oriented towards the future; towards friends and family; towards having a good time; towards gettin’ low.

Being crunk means giving a nod to those who came before and the way they thought, but represents a desire to formulate one’s own community and sense of reality.

So awrite Whitman: let’s get crunk.

*Thanks to Nicholas Brady, a friend I have yet to meet.