The biggest difference between old school rap and today’s popular hip hop is the message. The image rappers present themselves with is a contrast between old school rap and the hip hop today. Most rappers today are going for the “thug” or “swag” image. These rappers use brand name clothes, expensive jewelry, and a large entourage to follow them around in order to reinforce the image. These things are so common today that thinking of a stereotypical rapper would include a few gold chains, a diamond grill, wearing sunglasses at night, and having their pants to their knees. Some old school rappers have gold chains, but they were not dressed as extravagantly as what we are used to today. One thing I noticed that some old school rappers wear were …show more content…
The lyrics in today’s hip hop music are completely pointless. An example of this is 2Chainz “Birthday Song,” in which the rapper says, “She got a big booty so I call her Big Booty,” the song continues with “I’m in the kitchen, yams everywhere.” The majority of hip hop songs on the radio involve three main themes: money, drugs, and women. Rappers brag about the massive amount of money they have, along with their intake of drugs. Hip hop also sexually degrades women by labeling them with offensive words, and overall all being very misogynistic towards women. The message that the new hip hop today is sending is incredibly negative for the audience as well. The negative message that the music is sending poses a large effect on the young listeners. Young listeners are influenced by the antagonistic lyrics in these hip hop songs that they are listening to. Unlike today’s hip hop, old school rap music had meaningful lyrics and when hip hop went to the mainstream media the message was destroyed. Old school rap music has lyrical significance. Rappers wrote lyrics about important subjects such as racial inequality, politics, life struggles, and police brutality. An example of a lyric with actual meaning is N.W.A.’s “Express Yourself,” “I’m expressing with my full capabilities. And now I’m living in correctional facilities.” This lyric explains how the very act communicating their beliefs will cause trouble and could possibly lead to
Hip-Hop became characterized by an aggressive tone marked by graphic descriptions of the harshness and diversity of inner-city life. Primarily a medium of popular entertainment, hip-hop also conveys the more serious voices of youth in the black community. Though the approaches of rappers became more varied in the latter half of the 1980s, message hip-hop remained a viable form for addressing the problems faced by the black community and means to solve those problems. The voices of "message" hip...
Certains ideals such as hyper sexuality, material possesions, and hegemonic masculinity found in hip hop certainly highlights some of its negative aspects. Hip-hop in a sense at times can promote feminism in the sense of sexual freedom (at least in the lyrics provided) where certain songs condemn women for the same freedoms. It is suggested that many young people especially young black people begin to monitor and interrupt some of the messages and ideals that are taken in /followed. Personally the ideals in much of hip-hop do not reflect my own values or views on femininity or masculinity although I do listen to most of the music. Being an educated young black man I in a sense can see through most of the gimmicks and fads that of the music portrays and keep to my personal values more times than not. That said there are times that I do find myself reciting lyrics or enacting the same negative ideals that I personally do not believe because I may like a song. This is where education and awareness comes in and I am able to recognize and correct my behavior which is something I would like to see become more popular amongst my
Despite its increasing popularity, hip-hop music often implements misogynistic ideals by portraying women as sexual objects or as helpless beings in need of savior.
It made a dramatic shift from songs with topics such as people 's rights, riots, and the desire for social change, to songs about wealth, drugs, and the power that artists have today. In songs such as “Versace” “Blase” and “Bling Bling” artists Migos, Ty Dolla $ign, and Lil Wayne rap about their fantasy lifestyles that are in some respect, unattainable to the average person. In his song, “Versace”, Migos says “King of Versace, Medusa my wallet my car is Versace, tiger stripes on my Mazi I 'm dressing so nice, they can 't even copy you think I 'm Egyptian, this gold on my body”. By stating this, Migos makes it evident that he possesses expensive and luxurious items such as cars and jewelry and he is bragging about living a life that most individuals dream of. (Introduce this) Soerensen says that, “some [rap music is] definitely about violence, clothes, cars and women, but Kweli says that his music for instance is more used as a social activism tool” (Soerensen). In the 21st century we see more of Soerensen’s view and prior to 2001 social activism rap was more popular. In Ty Dolla $ign’s “Blase”, he states, “ I’m young and I’m rich,” and “ Need a benz like Blasé, Blasé, Blasé, Blasé Whiping Maserati” (Ty Dolla $ign). Similar to Migos, Ty Dolla $ign makes it clear that he is wealthy by bragging about his expensive cars. When Lil Wayne states “Bling bling, pinky ring worth about fifty Bling bling,
Rap Music, a genre of R&B that includes rhythmic poetry put over a musical background. The background consists of beats combined with digitally isolated sound bites from other recordings. The first recording of rap was made in 1979 and the genre began to take notice in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. Though the name rap is often used back and forth with hip hop. The name hip-hop comes from one of the earliest phrases used in rap on the song “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. “I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie, the hip, hip a hop, and you don't stop, a rock it to the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie, to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.”. In addition to rap music, the hip-hop subculture also formed other methods of expression like break dancing, graffiti art, a unique slang vocabulary, and fashion sense.
Hip hop music has gone through many changes since the 1980’s and continues to change today with new artists, styles, and sounds. Over the past forty years hip hop music has been a way for fans to relate to artist through their songs because many hip hop artist lived and experience the same things that their fans did. Hip hop has changed over the years because of changes and improvement of the average American. Hip hop music reflects on the current situation in American life and over the past forty years hip hop changes with the current times and views of hip hop fans in America. The improvement of more Americans since the 1980’s has help grow the access to hip hop music as well as the popularity of hip hop music and artists.
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
This implies at the end of the 1980s and mid 1990s focus on criminal and hoodlums lifestyle in hip hop mixed in. Various gangsta rappers brag of their criminal activity and the unforgiving substances that were put in their verses . This demonstrates there were diverse styles and expressions all through hip hop evolution. In the 1970's the start of hip hop it was about Dj's and how they combine melodies to raise a decent or energizing feeling to the gathering of people at parties. Utilizing sound impacts, Learning diverse techniques on the best way to dee-jay,learning how to read a group of people by picking the best songs to make the party more fun .In any case, in the 1990's it was about Gangsta's portraying their life about criminal action
Across the world teens feel like they’re losing their voice. In an Independent article, a magazine I found online, Geraldine says “Rates of depression and anxiety among teenagers have increased by 70 percent in the past 25 years” With such a high percentage teens feel like no one can help them and that they have no one to talk to about their problems so they tend to start breaking away from their families and depend more on music. Hip Hop gives teens a chance to feel like they have someone to talk to or someone who understands what they’re going through because a lot of what the artists rap about are life situations that they’ve gone through throughout their lives. Not everyone will understand the message of Hip Hop. “Over the years the instruments change, but the message is the same… They’re telling us something. Our children can hear it” (Mcbride 11) Rappers all have different skills, but it’s all based on telling a story. As long as Rappers tell a story all they need is the right people to listen to those stories, in this case, teens are the people that really understand the message. Hip Hop does sometimes talk about violence but it’s not always about violence, it’s what people make it seem like and if the older generations don’t listen to rap or Hip Hop then they will associate rap with gangs but what they won’t know is that it’s also about
In Stanley Crouch's view, the only messages that rappers put in the minds of todays' youth is that they need to have sex, kill people, and do drugs all the time.
The most popular new music to emerge from the ‘80’s was rap music. It first developed in the mid ‘70’s in New York City, and soon in other urban areas, primarily amongst African-American teen-agers. It became very popular with the urban public that it soon began to spread throughout the United States and much of the world. It replaced rock music as the creative force in music of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. However, as popular as it was then and it is now, the lyrics of many rap songs have caused controversy. Many believe and have charged that these lyrics promote racism and violence and show contempt for women.
This is because during the 90’s, rappers such as Tupac Shakur helped ignite rap music into a mainstream genre. This, however, did not come without some controversy. In Carl S. Taylor’s article about hip-hop and youth culture he spoke about the initial outrage of Americans when songs such as “I get around” became popular. This song, and others like it, were scrutinized because they contained vulgar language and promoted immoral behavior. However, at the time of the article Taylor had no definitive evidence of the music actually impacting people’s behavior. Almost exactly 15 years after Carl Taylor’s article was published, a writer by the name of Gretchen Cundiff wrote a scholarly journal entitled, “The influence of rap/hip-hop music: Analysis on audience perceptions of misogynistic lyrics and the issue of domestic violence.” During her research, she analyzed the lyrics of 20 rap/hip-hop songs included in Billboard’s year-end “Hot 100” singles list ranging from 2000-2010. Of the 20 songs, 40 percent were coded for the use of some sort of physical violence in their lyrics, and another 15 percent were coded for referencing rape/sexual assault. This proves not only that the lyrics in hip-hop songs are vulgar, but also that people are still enjoying it anyways. These facts, however, do not provide proof that the music is actually affecting culture. Just because someone listens
While the two are often combined for convenience within music stores, they, in themselves, are actually not equivalent. Hip hop is a culture, a widespread phenomenon that has spread across the continents with a variety of different elements - one of those elements just so happen to be rap. While one fourth is a considerable part of a culture, it is not the entirety of it. According to Flavor Flav, even the small portion of the culture that is rap music “has slowly lost” the hip hop element, becoming “a slow tempo” instead of “something that makes you wanna get out there and breakdance” (Shaw). Whether or not this opinion is agreed on, it’s understandable noticing the disconnect between a music genre about outlandish and materialistic things, and a revolution to uplift and make a name for
This leads to some artists “selling out” in order to get as much money as they can and abandon songs that provide positive and somewhat controversial messages to shallow messages because that's what sells the best. In modern hip hop, there are many artists who try to draw attention to the issues in this country, however these are the same artists who are not played on the radio. -. not only delivers a deep message about poor people who have no power because of their class, but it also tells the listener what's going on in the poorer sections of the United States. People are forced to turn to selling drugs to make a living in the inner cities.
In the eyes of the general public, all of Hip-Hop is usually categorized in the same way. Labeled as the poison of the Black community because nowadays, most Hip-Hop lyrics all sound the same generic way always talking about money, women, cars, drugs, or some type of beef that all these rappers sooner or later continuously have with one another. But what this new generation doesn’t know about are the positive and creative flows that were spit not so long ago in the 80’s and 90’s. Rappers back in the day like Tupac and Ice Cube both had times when they had to show off their thug sides but they both had reasons or a call-to-arms for that, and indeed were in tune with that era’s problems as well as the society where they were raised. Moreover, even though some new school songs actually look promising, old school songs are still always great classics that anybody in this day and age will most certainly vibe to.