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Impact of hip hop
Hip-hop music and its influences in the society
Impact of hip hop
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Hip hop is the most controversial genre of music today. There are many people who think the genre only consists of rappers reciting lyrics about sex and drugs. Although there are indeed a lot of songs that have to do with these topics, most hip hop songs discuss real life events. Hip hop is a genre that is very influenced by the environment that the rapper/songwriter is living in. Of all the genres of music, hip hop is the best at stating something without sugar coating it. That is what makes hip hop so interesting to listen to, but unfortunately, it is also what turns a lot of people away from it. A lot of the language that is used in hip hop can be easily considered vulgar, which some people don’t like. However, there is a larger and more important message behind a lot of hip hop music.
Artists such as KRS-1, N.W.A, and Public Enemy began to make music that spoke about these events from a colored person’s point of view. There was definitely a lot of content to pull inspiration from and that is what a lot of artists did. The Express Yourself music video by N.W.A. is one of my favorite examples. The lyrics talk about how hard it is for people of color to express themselves but they should do it anyways. At the same time, the video shows some of the hardships that African Americans have had to go through, such as slavery and police brutality. These strong lyrics and video clips are definitely send a message to listeners and viewers. But to take it a step farther, the song has a very catchy beat that is fun to listen to, causing people to want to listen to the song and watch the music video. N.W.A. knew what they were doing when creating this song/music video. They wanted to get people to hear about their struggles through their music, and it worked. N.W.A. and other rappers who used these same tactics became very well known and appreciated by supporters of racial
Hip Hop’s according to James McBride article “Hip Hop Planet” is a singular and different form of music that brings with it a message that only those who pay close attention to it understand it. Many who dislike this form of music would state that it is one “without melody, sensibility, instruments, verse, or harmony and doesn’t even seem to be music” (McBride, pg. 1). Though Hip Hop has proven why it deserves to be called music. In going into depth on its values and origins one understands why it is so popular among young people and why it has kept on evolving among the years instead of dying. Many of Hip Hop values that make it unique and different from other forms of music would be that it makes “visible the inner culture of Americas greatest social problem, its legacy of slavery, has taken the dream deferred to a global scale” (McBride, pg. 8). Hip Hop also “is a music that defies definition, yet defines our collective societies in immeasurable ways” (McBride, pg. 2). The
I chose this particular documentary because I am African-American and have personally experienced this issue with myself, my sisters and my daughter. Currently in the African-American community you see that there is a lot of unrest. We see this playing out in the media with the violence that is happening and question how to bring awareness to the issues and to make this better. I feel that this ties heavily to our self-worth and the love and respect that we must have and demand amongst ourselves first.
Hip hop is a form of art that African Americans have been using to get away from oppressions in their lives and allowed their voices to be heard in some type of way. As soon as big corporations seen the attention hip hop brought to the scene, they wanted to capitalize on it. These corporations picked specific types of attributes that some hip hop artists had and allowed it to flourish. The attributes that these artists carried were hypermasculinity, homophobia, violence and sexism. In the book, Hip Hop Wars by Tricia Rose discusses some of these specific attributes. One of the most damaging attribute is when hip hop is used to sexualize and demean everything about being a woman. Tricia Rose writes about this issue in chapter 5 of her book
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...
The video personally affected me in a way that it made me realize that I as a black person
Hip hop is a culture, it is a way many people use to connect to one another, it allowed many African Americans to express their own point of view in their story. But in the early 2000’s it became commercialized and went from storytelling from many perspectives like a party, politics, self-celebration, and gangstas to consisting of mainly of the lives of hustler, pimps, and hoes. Though it has become quite profitable and a successful form of music it cause arguments in American of whether it is more detrimental than beneficial to black community. Hip hop is in fact in a crisis and critics of hip hop believe it is just angry stories of black males and females but do not see it as proof that black behavior was created from the condition of living in a ghetto.
A race issue that occurs within the rap and hip-hop musical genre is the racial stereotypes associated with the musical form. According to Brandt, and Viki rap music and hip- hop music are known for fomenting crime violence, and the continuing formation of negative perceptions revolving around the African-American race (p.362). Many individuals believe that rap and hip-hop music and the culture that forms it is the particular reason for the degradation of the African-American community and the stereotypes that surround that specific ethnic group. An example is a two thousand and seven song produced by artist Nas entitled the N-word. The particular title of the song sparked major debates within not only the African-American community thus the Caucasian communities as well. Debates included topics such as the significance and worth of freedom of speech compared with the need to take a stand against messages that denigrate African-Americans. This specific label turned into an outrage and came to the point where conservative white individuals stood in front of the record label expressing their feelings. These individuals made a point that it is because artists like Nas that there is an increase in gang and street violence within communities. Rap and hip-hop music only depicts a simple-minded image of black men as sex crazed, criminals, or “gangsters”. As said above, community concerns have arisen over time over the use of the N-word, or the fact that many rappers vocalize about white superiority and privilege. Of course rap music did not develop these specific stereotypes, however these stereotypes are being used; and quite successfully in rap and hip-hop which spreads them and keeps the idea that people of color are lazy, all crimin...
Since hip-hop has expanded from the undergrounds in Bronx in the 70’s it has grew into a popular accepted music genre. Consequently, as it progressed from the golden age it gradually grew away from its original roots. If one were to evaluate the change of lyrics in hip-hop, they would see a difference between early hip-hop and today’s hip-hop. The current state of hip-hop is in a stage where things like hey young world are outdated. Instead of broadcasting out a positive message, hip-hop sends out a message of sex, drug, and violence. The early musicians who helped solidify hip-hop, by producing music that told stories on subjects of race, respect, or even music that had a positive message.
Both movements use “rhythm and poetry” (Gladney 291) to address social issues affecting the black man, including racism, education and drug use. These movement can both be linked to extreme examples of frustration and rage felt be a large part of the black community, like “the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968” (Gladney 292). However, Gladney observed that the Hip-Hop genre has developed more of a focus on commercialism and only in the underground rap world do we still see the idealist who is in touch with the pulse of the black communities. Many rappers in the mainstream lack the political, racial, and social tone of the black community. The notable exception being the groups who use shock and a sold ghetto theme to crossover to the commercial market but maintain their artistic
Rap music from the 1990’s to the year 2000 is known in hip hop as “the golden era”. This era is all about individuality and innovation of creating music in one of the newest musical art forms. Rap music started out as the expression of young black youths in the inner city of New York. Rap music is rhymed storytelling accompanied by highly rhythmic, electronically based music. It began in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx in New York City as a part of hip hop, composed of graffiti, breakdancing, and rap music. From the outset, rap music has articulated the pleasures and problems of black urban life in contemporary America. Rappers speak with the voice of personal experience, taking on the identity of the observer or narrator. Rap music has lost a lot of it purity and essence due to the multimillion dollar business. Rap music is always critizied because of it’s violent and sexual nature but its just reporting what is views in this cold world.(Rose, 1994)
Whips and chains have played an important role in Black American’s oppressive history. In the days of slavery, chains were used to dehumanize us, restrain us and keep us from escaping our oppression, while whips were used to reinforce the oppression and our inferiority as a race. Today, literal whips and chains no longer represent the oppression of Black Americans; they have been replaced with the drive to obtain modern day “whips and chains”, or simply put, material possessions- a new, slightly self-imposed slavery. This is evident in the unifying factor of hip-hop music, which glorifies a lavish lifestyle sometimes at the cost of morals, values, and self worth.
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.
It is a culture borne of poor, inner-city life in America that has evolved into the rallying cry of those unable to negotiate the nuances of the mainstream.” hip hop culture besides being just a music it has the same power as the religions people have on people. It’s the culture of the people who lived in the poor part of the Americas and didn’t have the power to negotiate their feelings. I agree hip hop is not just a music its a culture or religion, but it filled with the emptiness and doesn’t go to the right and humanity direction and as Hicks describes "Hip-hop culture deadens the drive toward civility and legitimizes
In order for people to understand hip-hop, they have to move past the misconception that all hip-hop music is derogatory. There are hundreds or more songs and artists that send positive messages.... ... middle of paper ... ... August 2013.
But what about hip-hop am I trying to talk about, you are asking. Honestly, I would respond, would be anything; from the rhyme schemes and themes used in various sub genres of hip-hop to it being a political tool to some. At first when I interested in writing on the subject it seemed like something that I wanted to do just because I am really interested in the topic, which is true. I did not think about what exactly there was to write about, but as I was listening to some music, I took a conscious effort to really listen to the music.