Over the past month or so, I’ve been seeing the video for a California-based rap duo composed of rappers Legacy  and Ben J (government names Dominic Thomas and Earl Benjamin).  Collectively, they are known as the New Boyz.  Their debut single, ”You’re A Jerk,” is a song that highlights a new West Coast dance style called “jerking.”

I’m not here to weigh in on the quality of their music, lyrical content or flow, or their dancing, because I recognize that it’s not made for someone in my demographic.  Although the song is pleasantly infectious, and I find myself amused by the group’s bright, retro ’80s clothing, including Legacy’s Patrick Nagel-inspired t-shirt and the heavy, dyed bangs and doorknocker earrings of one of the girls in the video, what I am about to say should not be taken as endorsement of the New Boyz or their music.  

I consider myself a fairly astute observer of pop culture, so I am merely here to state a simple realization and prediction:   If “You’re A Jerk” is indicative of their remaining body of work, I think the New Boyz could be the vanguard of a new movement in hip-hop that will profoundly threaten the status quo.  Why?  Since the early 1990s, hip hop has been dominated by dark braggadocio and bold, sagging swagger.  ”The Thug” has been the defacto template for the male hip hop artist for nearly two decades.  The Thug believes in conspicuous consumption and misogyny.  The Thug may literally wear his allegiance to these tenets on his body, like Tupac Shakur, add a Southern drawl to it like Gucci Mane, or dress it up with clever wordplay and a gentleman’s charm, like Jay-Z, but if you scratch the surface, you’ll still find The Thug underneath.  Even though artists like Kanye West, Drake or Lupe Fiasco have pushed at the edges of The Thug bubble to test its limits, any such artist who hopes to gain commercial success has had to build his credibility by paying some tithe to The Thug, either by penning a Thug-centric single to establish their street cred, collaborating with a Dyed-In-Wool Thug artist, or getting started on the label of one.  Further, if they push too hard at The Thug paradigm, these artists might become targets of speculation that they are (gasp!) gay, the worst offense possible in the testosterone-fueled world of hip-hop.

The New Boyz, are slight, young, fairly innocuous, brightly attired kids that represent the antithesis of The Thug.  No women are shaking their barely clothed asses in the video; Legacy and Ben J. aren’t counting stacks of cash or standing in front of expensive cars; and they even seem to smile instead of leering lasciviously.  Most threatening to The Thug mystique is the New Boyz’s repudiation of the sagging jeans style that has been the signature of The Thug aesthetic at least since Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (or Snoop Doggy Dogg, as he was known then) released “Dre Day” in 1993.  The New Boyz proudly flaunt their sartorial manifesto in the title of their forthcoming album, Skinny Jeans and a Mic.  My prediction is that, should the New Boyz and their ilk catch on, you’ll see a lot of attacks against them by older, established rap acts, because their schtick will no longer be relevant, or more importantly for the Thuggish Powers That Be, profitable.

- JEP