The debate regarding the petition preventing Tyga from performing at Yardfest misses several important points necessary for rigorous discussion. First, the Tyga scheduled to perform at Yardfest will most likely perform his tamer music that is similar to music performed by recent Yardfest artists. And second, contrary to what those opposed to Tyga think, defendants of Tyga performing at Yardfest do not support his misogyny and are not anti-activist.
Tyga receives some unfair criticism. The Tyga who may appear at Yardfest will probably not perform songs on his mixtapes which contain the most offensive lyrics. Also, the comments attributed to Tyga’s music in collaboration with other artists are often incorrectly cited to the rapper himself.
The sentiments of those in favor of keeping Tyga have also been unfairly characterized. Harvard freshman Colin Diersing argued in an article for the Harvard Political Review that supporters have a “personal prerogative to attack any activist or cause they rate less important or valuable than their own work.” Such is a misappropriation of a more laissez-faire style of protest. As Diersing calls it, the #wehavebiggerproblems argument refers to the line of thinking that worrying about the essentially harmless Tyga takes time away from other activist causes.
The contention of the pro-Tyga faction is: if you don’t like, don’t come. The “voting with your feet” idea has its roots in common economic principles of which N. Gregory Mankiw would be proud. The artist is enabled by popular support for his music that demonstrates a demand for his supply. By accepting his music without raising objections to its contents, consumers are sending the artist a message that they accept and tacitly condone his work.
By not showing up, those who resent the rapper send a larger scale message by encouraging a small turnout or even a large walkout than forming a petulant petition with little chance of success; having already been signed to a $30,000 contract, the University is likely recalcitrant to cancel and eat the cost.
Such arguments allow us to refocus our discussion on more important topics about the role of music in our society in transforming the opinions of our culture. Talib Kwell and Lupe Fiasco recently took to Twitter, arguing over the notion that these lyrics simply represent the poor socioeconomic realities and cultural mores of the rapper’s communities. This argument wouldn’t seem to explain the entire problem, but it would explain in part the preponderance of this kind of language among rap artists.
Artists that have performed at previous Yardfests and other Ivy League spring festivals (Cornell’s Slope Day, Penn’s Spring Fling, etc.), such as Wu-Tang Clan, Common, and Snoop Dogg, are also guilty of misogynistic lyrics. As a post in the Harvard Class of 2016 Facebook group illustrated, the three previous years Harvard has invited artists to Yardfest with similar lyrics and less protest. Whether that was because the music was simply better—another relevant Tyga protest is the incredibly poor quality of his music—or because it was less explicit still raises questions of whether the University condones these sentiments by inviting these artists to play at Harvard.
I tend to side with those who see little value in protesting the Tyga concert. While I find his lyrics horribly offensive, I recognize that his more popular music is tamer and along the lines of things performed by recent Yardfest artists. A more relevant discussion, I believe, is about the purpose of the concert and the transparency of the College Events Board, the organization that chooses the artists to invite. The CEB chooses artists it believes students will like, and Tyga’s popularity is large enough they chose him, cycling back to the basic argument about supply and demand. In the present, the libertarian argument of “if you don’t like it, don’t go” is not incompatible with the anti-Tyga assents. Demonstrating virulent dissatisfaction with these kinds of artists has likely made it enough that the CEB will monitor its choices more closely in the future. Banning him serves little practical or symbolic purpose; discussions should center on productive conversations about the role of music in our society and where these misogynistic lyrics came from in the first place.
Photo Credit: Harvard Crimson