Cultural Phenomenon: Hip-Hop And Popular Culture

PART ONE A

After reflecting more on my experiences and knowledge of popular culture, I have come to focus on specific questions and concerns that open up and explore a methodological path into my own viewing, listening, dancing and other creative encounters with hip-hop culture. Specifically, I engage the following questions:

Why and how have mass media and consumerism made hip-hop a cultural phenomenon? Are hip-hop lyrics and depictions accurate representations of youth/black people’s values? What is the general image of women and men perpetuated in hip-hop culture? Who are the main hip-hop artists in control of popular culture influence? Why is Kanye West important in hip-hop and popular culture? Has the impact hip-hop culture brought people of different races, gender, sexualities, classes and beliefs together? Does hip-hop culture welcome all types of people? Why do white kids like hip-hop? What in hip-hop allures to white youths? Which race is hip-hop's primary listening audience? Is there a cultural appropriation issue in hip-hop against white rapper? Does hip-hop belong to belong to only black people? What are the marketing strategies used in hip-hop in selling to its consumers? What is the movement or expression behind the hip-hop dance ‘Krumping’? Do rappers use hip-hop as a platform to

promote social awareness? If so, who, what and how have they promoted social awareness? Despite being taboo in mainstream culture, why is the N-word acceptable in hip-hop? Should I be offended if white people say the N-word during rap sing-alongs? Is hip-hop or street fashion part responsible of racial profiling? What does social and economic class have to do with hip-hop? What is popular culture’s preconceived notion about hip-hop culture? Has hip-hop become controversially immune to violent, homophobic, and misogynistic scrutiny?

PART ONE B

While searching through the journal database, I came across an article entitled “Becoming Black: Rap and Hip-Hop, Race, Gender, Identity, and the Politics of ESL Learning” by Awad El Karim M. Ibrahim. The author addresses many dimensions relevant to my own inquiry, which led to a series of questions about its methodology and problematizing ‘identity’ in the reading:

• “At the end of the 20th century, when identity formation is increasingly mediated by technological media, who learns what, and how is it learned?” (pg. 349)
• “What is the ‘critical pedagogy’ required in order not to repeat the colonial history embedded in the classroom relationship between white teachers and students of color?” (pg. 349)
• “What symbolic, cultural, pedagogical, and identity investments would a learner have in locating oneself politically and racially at the ‘margin’ of representation?” (pg. 349-350)
• “In the case of African youths, whose language and identity are we teaching/assuming in the classroom if we do not engage rap/hip hop?” (pg. 366)
• “Whose knowledge is being valorized and legitimated and thus assumed to be worth of study and whose knowledge and identity are left in the corridors and the hallways of our schools?” (pg. 366)
Given these questions, in what sense might hip-hop be described as revolutionary today?

How has hip-hop culture re-appropriated the N-word? How has ‘Black Stylized English’ revolutionized popular culture? How has hip-hop culture transcended ethnic margins? In what ways does hip-hop been identified as influential sites in African students’ processes of becoming black? What are the pedagogical ideas that hip-hop has linked to its culture? Was hip-hop part responsible for the youth’s involvement in Barack Obama’s presidential election? Did hip-hop make politics more interesting for the youth? How has hip-hop culture influenced the youth’s perspective on race and

sexuality?