C.R.E.A.M. Part 2: Kickin It to the Chicago School

The Chicago School really shook up Sociology and gave us what we know of as Urban Sociology. These theorists were inspired by the work of Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx, and applied their prescription for studying society using urbanization as a focal point. Much of the early shift into the study of urbanism focused on how urbanization was affecting relationships of individuals as people moved to the city. Georg Simmel, who gave us the concept of The Stranger,

completed extensive work studying the metropolis and its resulting influence on societies transition into modernity. In short, The Stranger, is an entire class of people that have been marginalized by the rest of society and forms its own community. Part of Simmel's concerns was that he viewed the shifts social relationships as moving away from intimacy and toward economic based roles.

Louis Wirth takes Simmel's fears a step further. He suggests that “urbanization as a culture would be characterized by aspects of social disorganization” (Gottdiener, 59; 2015). Wirth looks at three factors that he theorized determined the intensity of urban autonomy: the effect of size, the effect of density, and the effect of heterogeneity. Now, other scholars who have tested this work have yet to see specific aspects of urban culture are not results of the social systems not influenced by the same structural factors as smaller towns. Furthermore, theorists like William Julius Wilson, Loic Waquant and Elijah Anderson have re-conceptualized the idea of social disorganization, however, both of these ideas are, at their core, prominent ideas that can be seen within the city. The Wu does give us an account for how urbanism played out in their social space. Let’s return back to C.R.E.A.M, where we left off at the top of the hook:

Cash rules everything around meC.R.E.A.M.Get the moneyDollar, dollar bill y’all

The story being told in the hook is short hand for the longer stories being explained in the verses. In these impoverished neighborhoods, everything becomes about the reminder of the lack of money and the by-any-means-necessary lifestyles trying to get it.  Either way, it’s about money. It consumes, exploits and dictates the culture that is created from their interaction with their space. Like Simmel's theorized class, we see in the next verse how community is actually formed through the shared experience of this C.R.E.A.M. culture. But first, Inspectah Deck gives us context.

It's been twenty-two long hard years of still strugglinSurvival got me buggin, but I'm alive on arrivalI peep at the shape of the streetsAnd stay awake to the ways of the world cause shit is deepA man with a dream with plans to make C.R.E.A.M.Which failed I went to jail at the age of 15

  

As Raekwon does in the beginning of his verse, Inspectah Deck starts of by explaining his interpretation of the space. It’s been a rough twenty-two years and as he looks back on the first time he looked at his neighborhood, he could see nothing be tragedy. He knew the only way to stay alive was to become apart of the norm. He knew he had to be strategic, trying to make money, but the chase of making it big landed him in jail at 15.

A young buck sellin' drugs and such who never had muchTrying to get a clutch at what I could not, could not,The court played me short, now I face incarcerationPacin' going up state's my destinationHandcuffed in back of a bus, forty of usLife as a shorty shouldn't be so ruff

Here he give us the reason for him being arrested, all in the name of chasing money, then describes for the listener what is was like on the bus ride to prison. It’s a small piece, but the last two line of this section always stand out to me. Not only is it tragic to think of forty 15 year olds handcuffed anywhere, but Inspectah Deck makes it clear that these were in fact “forty of us.” Forty kids who got where they were because they too had failed in the life of making C.R.E.A.M.

But as the world turns I learned life is hellLiving in the world no different from a cellEveryday I escape from Jakes givin' chase, sellin' baseSmokin' bones in the staircaseThough I don't know why I chose to smoke sessI guess that's the time when I'm not depressed

  

Time goes on, he’s served his time and is now back in his old neighborhood, but he says it’s not that different than what it was like for him being in prison. He’s still stuck. He’s not being physically restrained by the state anymore, but still being restrained by the social systems that dictate his neighborhood.

But I'm still depressed, and I ask what's it worth?Ready to give up so I seek the Old EarthWho explained working hard may help you maintainTo learn to overcome the heartaches and pain

  

So, he’s at his wits end at this point. Suffering from depression and still feeling like life is pointless. Just when he is ready to give up he speaks to Old Earth, which is slang for his mother, or more formally known as MaDukes. The only advice that she has to tell him is to keep working hard, attempting to push him in the direction of the "traditional" workforce. We will revisit this specific idea in the final chapter of our saga, but for now it is important to see how even the advice of his mother is dictated by C.R.E.A.M. She suggest the solution to his problem is to just earn "honest" money and in the process of that he will be able to deal with the burden of his social space.

 We got stickup kids, corrupt cops, and crack rocksAnd stray shots, all on the block that stays hot

            There are several things going on in these lines. First, he is describing who’s in the neighborhood: kids, who commit robberies, corrupt police officers, drugs and gun violence. Second, all of these things influence the space where not only is all of this going on at the same times, but on top of that everyone is a potential target for conflict. Now, this is where Park would confirm his argument for social disorganization. For Park, this would allude to the detachment from social relationships that upheld a certain level of intimacy that was a precursor for modernity. Again, this is a particular perspective, that is not how I would read the situation, but Inspectah Deck is trying to point to a level of chaos.

Leave it up to me while I be living proofTo kick the truth to the young black youthBut shorty's running wild smokin sess drinkin' beerAnd ain't trying to hear what I'm kickin in his earNeglected for now, but yo, it gots to be acceptedThat what? That life is hectic

After speaking with his Moms about what he could do to make his struggle and stress meaningful, he decides that it is up to him to be a role model for younger kids growing up in this same space, who are also turning to a life of C.R.E.A.M. He understands that his story should be used as a deterrent for youth to make their lives about chasing money. However, these youth are out doing some of the same things that led him into his old lifestyle and, because of that, they aren't focused on listening to his advise. They are being neglected by the same social system that he was neglected by and suffering from the same vices. But, as he ends with, this is what people within this space have to accept, as long as the same social systems are afflicting their neighborhoods.

Then we’re hit with the hook from Method Man and Raekwon comes back at us in the outro.

Niggass got to do what they got to do
To get through—know what I’m saying?
Because you can’t just get by no more—word up?
You gotta get over—straight up and down

So in the end Raekwon tells us that yes, he understands that people in the neighborhoods are just trying to survive in this C.R.E.A.M. world, but that’s not good enough. As a community “we” cannot base our lives just off survival there has to be a way to make real change and “get over.” Now the end here is two fold, first it’s a reference to the way something should be shot at. Although you can’t rule out that Raekwon might actually be talking about shooting, I think here he more means this in the context of determination. Second, he’s also talking about the consequences of no changes. He’s saying the only way that we have to move is either going up, as in making changes, or going down, as in continuing the C.R.E.A.M. lifestyle.

            Although we now know these themes to be much more complex than what the early theorist like Simmel and Wirth once feared to be a consequence of the city, it is sort of undeniable that their theories do still resinate with how social relationships are dictated by urbanization. Now, obviously, one of the big structural conditions that neither theorist discusses at length to is race (Simmel more discusses ethnicity) and how that plays a role with inequality. So, we can now move forward to a contemporary theorist that will continue these same themes, while looking at how race places a role.

Stay tune for the final chapter in C.R.E.A.M. Part 3: Wilson Shows the Stakes is High

links yo:

The New Urban Sociology (Fifth Edition)

C.R.E.A.M. by Wu Tang Clan