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I have grown up listening to Hip-Hop just as I did listening to my mother’s blaring Bachata and Merengue every Sunday morning and from what I can recall, the artists I primarily listened to were black, or Eminem. The only Spanish rappers I did listen to were Reggaeton artists, meaning I did not listen to many predominately English speaking Latino rappers. This revelation of my early musical tastes begs the question as to why I was not exposed to more Latino rappers during the late nineties and early millennium. In learning about how Latino’s have participated within the realm of Hip-Hop, one learns that allow Latino’s have played a major role in its foundations, the call for a strong identity has emerged due to various group’s rejections of the Latino presence. In order to understand the distinct contributions of Latinos in regards to Hip Hop and how they have been taken advantage of and such, one must be aware of the areas of Latino influence within the genre over the years. Many early Hip-hop jams, which began to emerge during the late sixties and seventies, were held in primarily Hispanic areas around New York City, such as Spanish Harlem and other neighborhoods (Barco 65). From early on, Latino participation, especially Puerto Rican, spanned various areas, including rap, graffiti, b-boying, breakdancing, as well as being the active listener and performer (Flores, Recapturing History, 63-65). Puerto Ricans in particular have always had a special connection with Hip-Hop in which they were “using rap as a vehicle for affirming their history, language, and culture”, thus making Hip-Hop history theirs as well (Flores, Puerto Rocks 90, 103). When it is said that Hip-Hop history is Puerto Rican history as well, it is suggest... ... middle of paper ... ...fests itself within its own people. Although Latinos have helped build Hip-Hop, many along the way have helped tear apart the much due respect owed to them. Latinos have had to face rejection not only from African-Americans and the media and industry, their own fellow peers have also expressed disdain in regards to being authentic Latinos. My friend commented that African-Americans are not as united as they should be due to the effort put into the Civil Rights Movement and commented Blacks should be as “united” as Hispanics are. However, as Hip-Hop has illustrated, if Hispanics are unable to agree on how important it is to market our heritage in a united force, how are we supposed to unite against larger and more important issues? One can only hope that these artists’ call for Latino unification may be fulfilled, not only in the musical aspect but as a whole.
The movie ‘From Mambo to Hip-Hop’ is a great documentary about a revolution in the entertainment industry. It talks of evolution on Salsa music and Hip-Hop culture in suburbs of New York. South Bronx is a ghetto neighbourhood. The people living in the area are challenged economically. There is a record of high cases of violence that exist in the streets due to high crime rate and drugs being traded as a means of survival (Gordon, 2005). Most of the people living in the area are descendants of African immigrants who could trace their origin in the Caribbean islands with a large number Latin American population too.
Watkins, S. Craig. 2005. Hip hop matters: politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement. Boston: Beacon Press.
The movie ‘From Mambo to Hip-Hop’ is a great documentary about a revolution in the entertainment industry. It talks of evolution on Salsa music and Hip-Hop culture in suburbs of New York. South Bronx is a ghetto neighbourhood. The people living in the area are challenged economically. There is a record of high cases of violence that exist in the streets due to high crime rate and drugs being traded as a means of survival (Gordon, 2005). Most of the people living in the area are descendants of African immigrants who could trace their origin in the Caribbean islands with a large number Latin American population too.
In one of the chapters, ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’ the author reveals how blacks in America use the music to express their anger and commitment to emerge as great people in an unfair community. Most songs are written to educate the society on the negative effects of racism. They encourage the society to love one another and embrace unity. The human nature is founded through a social platform where philosophers claim that people were created to love one another and live with peace and unity. Through this book, it is clear that the blacks in the hip-hop generation are money minded. However, this is expected in a world where the economy is tough. The author claims that the youth are the people who are majorly affected by racism. Many of them have been arrested for pity mistakes which are magnified in the courts due to the impression that the society has on the black people. They engage in dirty activities like drug dealings that that put them on the wrong side of the
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...
When looking at the landscape of Hip-Hop among African Americans, from the spawn of gangsta rap in the mid 1980s to current day, masculinity and an idea of hardness is central to their image and performance. Stereotypical to Black masculinity, the idea of a strong Black male - one who keeps it real, and is defiant to the point of violence - is prevalent in the genre. This resistant, or even compensatory masculinity, encompasses: the hyper masculinity rife in the Western world, misogyny, and homophobia, all noticeable in their lyrics, which is in part a result of their containment within the Black community. The link of masculinity and rap music was established due to this containment, early innovators remaking public spaces in their segregated neighbourhoods. A notion of authentic masculinity arose from the resistant nature of the genre, but the move to the mainstream in the 90s created a contradiction to their very image - resistance. Ultimately, this in part led to the construction of the masculinity defined earlier, one that prides itself on its authenticity. I’ll be exploring how gender is constructed and performed in Hip Hop, beginning with a historical framework, with the caveat of showing that differing masculine identities in the genre, including artists
Hip hop has become one of the most commercially promoted and financially successful forms of media in recent years. But as its profits have risen it has become a scapegoat for the many of the public criticisms of young black people. These topic have been discussed in Tricia Rose’s novel “The Hip Hop Wars What We Talk About - And Why It Matters”. The state of hip hop has fallen because the trinity of commercial hip hop has become main topic and caused a lot of controversy. This book is appealing to a person who want to know how hip hop has changed in the past decade and it points out many different attitudes toward hip hop in the Unites States.
From its conception in the 1970's and throughout the 1980's, hip hop was a self-contained entity within the community that created it. This means that all the parameters set for the expression came from within the community and that it was meant for consumption by the community. Today, the audience is from outside of the community and doesn’t share the same experiences that drive the music. An artists’ success hinges on pleasing consumers, not the community. In today's world, it isn’t about music that rings true for those who share the artists' experiences, but instead, music that provides a dramatic illusion for those who will never share the experiences conveyed. This has radically changed the creative process of artists and the diversity of available music. Most notably, it has called in to question the future of hip hop.
Hip hop is both a culture and a lifestyle. As a musical genre it is characterized by its hard hitting beats and rhythms and expressive spoken word lyrics that address topics ranging from economic disparity and inequality, to gun violence and gang affiliated activity. Though the genre emerged with greater popularity in the 1970’s, the musical elements involved and utilized have been around for many years. In this paper, we will cover the history and
These articles depict the controversies of the hip hop industry and how that makes it difficult for one to succeed. Many of these complications and disputes may be invisible to the population, but these articles take the time to reveal them.
Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop itself often represents through music.
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.
Abrasive rock music has rarely been considered a potent political force in the United States. Punk is no exception to this rule. As a subculture, punk has received much more atention for its hairstyles and caustic sounds than its politics. As Daniel Rosenblat points out, punk rock “Confound[s] our conventional (western) notions of politics by [its] emphasis on maters which we consign to different domains entirely” (1). What he means i s that because punk does not express its political discourse in traditional venues or traditional terms, it is discounted as apolitical or politicaly impotent. To wit, Hebdige argues that subcultures can do litle more than provide a ‘signal of Refusal,’ and should be considered “just the darker side of sets of regulations” (3). Latino punks have countered these claims since the 1970s, with lyrical assertions that their political speech is an essential precursor to political change. In this paper I explore the ways in which contemporary Latino punk self -defines as political, in contrast to early punk bands who refused to be affiliated with politics. By explicitly aligning with political causes, Latino punk establishes a tension between punk’s historical tendencies towards ‘forgetfulness’ and ‘self -fulfilment,’ and new political agendas that push awareness and change. I conclude by asserting that the punk movement is preoccupied with individual fulfilment at the expense of political activism, a tendenc y that ultimately undermines its political import.
Not only is hip-hop a way of expressing ones feelings or views, but it is a part of the urban culture and can be used as a communication tool. Slang originally came from hip-hop music and has become a very popular use in today’s society, especially the urban parts. Hip-hop is a standout amongst the most compelling musical sorts on the globe. There are rappers everywhere that know what amount of an impact their music can have. Some entertainers attempt to utilize that force of impact to do great (Ruiz INT).