Gun-toting, drug dealing, Cristal swilling, diamond encrusted misogynists, literacy that extends only as far as cussing is what the world’s youth are becoming through listening to too much hip-hop. Critics of the biggest selling musical genre regularly accuse it of being a malevolent, irresponsible force, eroding the moral fibre of society and exerting a distressing level of influence on our young and vulnerable. Hip-hop’s ability to elicit anger and shock amongst the grown-ups is unparalleled.

Witness the debate during June 2006 sparked by Britain’s Conservative party leader David Cameron who criticised BBC Radio 1’s hip-hop show of encouraging knife and gun crime. His comments were made in response to a question about how the Conservatives would tackle to growing problem of knife crime from June Walton, editor of Good Housekeeping at an event held by the British Society of Magazine Editors. He then continued his argument in the Mail on Sunday the following weekend, a newspaper for which rap music is a favourite whipping boy for society’s ills. During the same week its sister publication said:

I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want any daughter of mine answering to the name of ‘bitch’… [the record companies] have to start acting responsibly, think seriously about the acts they sign and call an immediate halt to the semi-pornographic videos that have made gangsta rap so popular with easily led young men and which portray this unreachable world of fast cars, cool ‘cribs’ and beautiful women. – Shaun Bayley, Daily Mail, 9th June 2006.

For discourse about hip-hop, an axis of Good Housekeeping, the Daily Mail and the Conservative Party might not be the destination of choice for a balanced view. The younger generation has in one way or another outraged and alarmed the elder for decades, challenging, if not mocking their conventions and beliefs. Aligning themselves with sympathetic musical expression, Elvis, punk, rap, is one part of the process.

However, as Martha Bayles points out in the Wall Street Journal’s online magazine, “violence and vulgarity are hardly unique to rap. The mainstream is full of gore and borderline porn.” She’s right, it would be hard to pin charges of promoting ostentatious over-consumption, degrading women as subservient arm candy and encouraging criminal behaviour onto rap music alone.

And so we have 50 Cent Fan, a remarkable piece, by Swiss photographer Anoush Abrar, who regularly collaborates with Aimée Hoving. Shot in a studio in 2005, it presents a small, sideways-looking observation on the influence of not just hip-hop but the pervasive reach of music television as entertainment and its impact on young people.

So seductive, you should see the way she winds Her hips in slow-mo on the floor when we grind. – Candy Shop by 50 Cent featuring Olivia

The video shows poised, self-possessed, 11-year old Adelina, dancing to 50 Cent’s Candy Shop. Immediately the viewer is struck by how much she is a product of our times. Her apparently sexually charged bump and grind, coupled with the seductive yet aloof glances into the lens seem no different to those of a confident twenty-something on the dance floor. We watch and ask, “what is hip-hop doing to our young girls? How could we let this happen? We must never allow them to watch TV or download music ever again.”

Cartier-Bresson once described photography as a “way of comprehending,” a mechanism that holds a mirror up to ourselves and tells the tales of our lives. 50 Cent Fan undoubtedly confronts us with some of the most contentious, sensitive debates in society today, illuminating a particular truth of early 21st century Western culture.

“The problem increasingly is that everything is done with the camera in mind whereas there was a time, up until quite recently, when things happened and then happened to be photographed. Don DeLillo says that if a thing can be filmed then film is implied in the thing itself.” said Geoff Dyer in a recent interview. Here, though, to pit performance against authenticity is perhaps simplistic. In the case of 50 Cent Fan the two are not mutually exclusive, Adelina is without question, putting on a little show.

Having discussed the project with the artist at length, we can view the film armed with some valuable inside information. Adelina’s routine is simply very accomplished imitation, that away from the camera Adelina still behaves like a child rather than a young woman. She has had no formal dance training; instead, she learnt the moves from MTV. Plus her parents are proud of her. Not only that but Adelina is related to Anoush’s girlfriend’s brother-in-law and this familiarity and trust between artist and subject mean we can ditch any notions of voyeurism. However, Anoush acknowledges that we are talking about a delicate, sociological subject. He does recognise a link between 50 Cent Fan and the work of French realist painter Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski de Rola), best known for his disturbing and/or erotically suggestive paintings of young girls on the verge of womanhood, remembering that seeing Adelina dance for the first time evoked a similarly uncomfortable feeling to when first encountering Balthus’s painting.

Whatever links there are between Balthus’ subject and Nabokov’s Lolita don’t apply here. It would be wrong to make comparisons between Adelina and Lolita because Nabokov’s creation is older, and in the [wishful] thinking of Humbert Humbert, more knowing. Anoush is no Humbert Humbert and thus any viewer of this piece shouldn’t strive to not weave their own views of the loss of childhood, early advent of sexual powers into appreciating this piece.

What 50 Cent Fan shows are a girl dancing with a combination of conviction and naivety in a way that merely reflects her current interests and likes. Under the gaze of the lens, her lack of inhibition while dancing is joyful. Her confidence, although appears ahead of her year’s allure, springs from the pleasure and fun she derives from doing the routine and she finds being filmed liberating rather than making her feel self-conscious – the luxury granted by childhood before adult self-awareness, if not vanity quashes any ability to let go.

The first time Anoush saw Adelina was at her birthday party. Not unlike in the times of Jane Austen when the young girls of the family were encouraged to show off their ‘accomplishments’, her parents asked her to dance in the middle of the living room. Most of us can recall our parents insisting we play piano or flute in front of them and their friends – we were just more embarrassed.

Aside from lighting and studio hire, 50 Cent Fan is as uncontrived as possible. Using video rather than having to art direct specific poses allows the least amount of interference. Standing motionless and with a steady gaze, there are a few seconds when nothing happens but as soon as the bassline begins to punch, Adelina instantly slips into character. The initial idea of working with a choreographer was rejected as unnecessary, if not counter-productive, as early on it became clear that Adelina is a great mimic and it would be essential to retain both naivety and spontaneity in the performance. The result is pure and uncomplicated.

Anoush says, “She is totally a product of Western society but her naivety makes her beautiful. I think that is the most important part for me. She thinks it is a cool thing to do and her parents are proud of her so she has that kind of ‘green light’ to continue what she is doing. She loves music, loves performing, constantly plays the SingStar® karaoke game and is a big fan of MTV and Pop Idol. So like the majority, she isn’t immune from the all-pervasive spread of celebrity obsession. On the other hand, like many little girls, she still believes in fairytale princesses.” He stresses that the film celebrates Adelina’s innocence, “she is uncorrupted, only 11 years old! Maybe when she’s 14 it will be another problem. People see her as a kid and not like a young girl and that makes a difference.” Whilst something in the film testifies to the theory that girls are believed to mature faster than boys, at 11 though Adelina isn’t conversant in the powers of seduction. No matter how convincingly adult the performance seems, it is just that. All the difficult questions it raises come from viewing it from an adult, 21st-century frame of reference and from not knowing of the back-story. Of course, it makes us uncomfortable, but the artist is also showing naivety and innocence and how these can be beautiful. He is interested in a child’s refreshing lack of awareness of any issues, questions or of the significance of your behaviour.

The lifestyle imagery portrayed by 50 Cent and other mainstream rap stars is very much aspirational and biased towards males’ success with the female role being more of a decorative accessory. The videos are a visual illustration of the role of chick, ho and bitch assigned to women in the lyrics. Hence, they become caricatures of male fantasy, writhing in the tiniest bikini and hotpant combos.

On the flipside, female performers make a point to retaliate. Rebellion and anger feature regularly, remember a furious Kelis screaming “I hate you so much right now’ on Caught out there and more recently Pink’s Stupid Girls in which she rails against women pandering to traditional male desires, being subservient, betraying their own intelligence? Of course, there is the counter-argument of empowerment and liberation which goes something like we know what we’re doing, we’re choosing to use our physical attractiveness to get what we want.” Either way, in hip-hop women are employing their own sexuality or simply turning the tables to objectify men and projecting their own strength, independence and power.

Not just fascinated with how women are positioned in hip-hop videos, part of Anoush’s artistic practice investigates the power of contemporary popular culture in a wider context. 50 Cent Fan connects with another ongoing project in which he explores notions of desirability and pressure to conform to a prescribed look. Called Californication, it is an attempt to understand aspiring young actresses in Los Angeles and their quest for Hollywood glamour, asking how far would they go to achieve celebrity.

Returning to 50 Cent Fan, Anoush concludes, “Some of the girls are playing in hip-hop videos, some of them are stripping… I don’t know if Adelina is one of these future girls, I hope not! For Adelina it is just a ‘game’ but one day this game will be ‘seduction’. It is like a sociological study; is she going to arrive at that point one day? How and why will this happen?”

We began by wondering “is it OK for Adelina to learning to dance like this from watching music videos?” but which 11-year old doesn’t like pop music? And if she’s only doing this in front of friends and family for their amusement and for the pleasure she derives from using her natural talent for imitation to entertain them then perhaps at this stage, there is no need to worry.

Apart from Anoush Abrar’s clear technical competence, 50 Cent Fan is an honest and unjudgmental recording and succeeds by not projecting middle-class insecurities on the direction of our society. Yes, it provokes, and asks awkward questions but isn’t that what art is for?