by Marcquita Brown

Created on: October 29, 2009

First off, let me say this. I am not a fan of the sagging pant trend. I've never understood the appeal, and likely never will. But, I don't believe that the government should have the authority to determine a person's clothing choices. As long as they aren't nude, what a person chooses to wear, or not wear, should be left to their discretion. If we start letting them interfere in something so mundane as what we wear, where will it stop? Besides, considering the state of the economy, I would like to believe that our government has far more important things to be concerned with.

Having said that, I also do not feel that 'banning' sagging pants would destroy hip- hop culture. Why? Because hip-hop culture is far more than a genre of music, and it is certainly far more than a pair of sagging pants.

I'm not saying that sagging pants didn't find its roots in hip-hop. There are still several male hip-hop artists that like that fashion statement. But even so, sagging pants is hardly the defining element of hip-hop culture. In fact, I'd be willing to wager a bet that a large majority of the people wearing sagging pants today probably have never listened to a hip hop album in their lives. And furthermore, you'd likely find just as many hip-hop fans living and working in corporate America, not one pair of sagging jeans in sight.

Hip-hop has produced some of the music industry's most influential artists. Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and T.I just to name a few. Are we to believe that their success and popularity was based on something so trivial as the type of jeans they wear? I would hope not. And in the case of Mary J and Beyonce, it would be entirely untrue.

Facts are facts. Clothes are clothes. People dress the way they want to, listen to the music they love, and one doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the other. Assuming that placing a ban on sagging jeans will kill the hip-hop culture is idiotic.

Hip-hop is about people. No matter their race, gender, or sexual orientation, hip-hop manages to reach all types of people. Young, old, black, white, and every color in between. And in doing so, hip-hop will continue making an impact on the world far more powerful than any pair of pants, sagging or otherwise, could ever hope to do.

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