The Past, Present, and Future of Asian Rap

2487 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Rap music history

Hip-hop is a massive cultural movement originating in New York City in the 1970’s. According to Oxford English Dictionary, the four components of hip-hop are rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti writing. This culture is commonly associated with African-Americans and Latinos because they were the ones who pioneered this movement in the 70’s. If one were look back at some of the early hip-hop innovators, such as The Sugarhill Gang, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, and the much-loved Run DMC, one similarity that they all shared was their African ancestry. Because of this, hip-hop was identified as a purely African-American art form for a short while. However, as time progressed, by the 1980’s hip-hop was embraced more by the mainstream. As a result, musicians from other different races were trying their hand at hip-hop. Presently, it would not be accurate to say that hip-hop is an art form for black people by black people. However, as of today there is still no place for an Asian rapper in the archives of hip-hop history let alone in modern American mainstream media. Asian men are commonly emasculated in America by stereotypes. Hien Dang, a published Vietnamese writer, said in an article featured in the International Examiner that racial generalizations include, but are not limited to: Asians being very short, good at math, nerdy, bad at driving, and lame with women. Lastly, the most damning stereotype for Asian men is that they all have small penises. With an image like this, it’s no wonder why Asian men aren’t often accepted in the mainstream media unless they’re fighting dozens of men unarmed in movies like Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Asian rappers are currently overlooked in hip-hop primarily because of these stereotypes... ... middle of paper ... ...an rapper to find success by paying homage to New York City hip-hop? I can’t say for sure when the Asian Invasion will occur or if it’ll happen at all. But what I can say is that if you look hard enough, you can find some good Asian rap. As soon as stereotypes are overcome in America, talented musicians of any race will have an easier time to flourish and become successful. Stereotypical eyes are truly the ones that are closed, not Asian eyes. Anybody of any ethnicity can rap extraordinarily. Case in point, the Blue Scholars. Seriously, they’re good. Really good. The issue of masculinity in hip-hop must also be addressed. This image creates an unrealistic portrayal of the life of rappers. It is a cheap way to exploit women and empower men. As long as this image exists, Asian rappers will find a hard time overcoming such powerful stereotypes to find success in music.

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Race, Space, And Place In Rap Music By Murray Forman

    217 Words  | 1 Pages

    In his essay Murray Forman, Represent: Race, Space, And Place in Rap Music. Forman talk about how rap music went from national to regional and locally. He argued that territories were claimed through the ongoing cultural practices that occurred within their bounds and were reinforced by the circulation of those who recognized and accepted their perimeters (Forman 196). He further explained how early DJ sound systems featured a series of practices that linked the music to other mobile practices, such as graffiti art and tagging that only way they were able to construct place based identities.

    Read More

  • Homophobia, Violence And Sexism In Tricia Rose's Hip Hop War

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Black Women’s Role in Popular Culture: An Analysis of The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, Imani Perry argues that the over-sexualized, unattainable bodies of black women in popular culture will lead to the breakdown of feminism and the positive body image of the everyday black women. As hip hop music continues to become more popular, the sexist messages presented in lyrics and music videos are becoming more common to the everyday public, including young black girls developing a self-image. Instead of these girls being exposed to healthy, positive role models who encourage individuality and that there is more to a woman than her body they are given hip hop video models whose only purpose is to look sensual on screen. The strong women that do exist in the hip hop genre are pushed to sexualize themselves or their lyrics to sell records or stay relatively unknown. Although Perry’s arguments are logical, I believe that she is creating a slippery slope of logic. A genre of music cannot destroy the self-image of black women that has existed for generations.

    Read More

  • Keeping Their Own Identity in Black Nationalism

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Similarities of hip-hop and the blues

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    To say it lightly, Stanley Crouch does not like the hip-hop genre of music. The dreadlocks, the clothing style, and the "vulgar": gold chains are just a few things he does not approve of at all. (Crouch, 1 ) It astounds him to see how far African-American music has fallen since the days of the Motown. Stanley was quoted as saying this about rap, "It is rudeness, vulgarity, and pornography disguised as ‘keeping it real.'" (Crouch, 1) He also went on to say the hip-hop music genre has the worst impact of all music genres on our culture today. (Crouch, 2) Crouch believes one does not need much talent to become a successful rapper unlike the jazz greats he listens to all the time.

    Read More

  • Masculinity In Hip Hop

    1594 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Black Culture In American Culture

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    As hip hop culture became prevalent in pop culture, so did black culture. Hip hop stems from black struggle. Their vernacular, songs, and spiritual ways were different from what whites were used to. Their different lifestyle of “living on the edge” was intriguing yet inaccessible for the whites living among them. Thus, this initiated America’s fascination with the culture. It became about what people assume and perceive about black people rather than what they actually are. In essence, an essential to cool is being on the outside, looking in. In the media and celebrities today,

    Read More

  • Hip-Hop: A Voice for the Chican@-Latin@ Community

    2213 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the words of rapper Busta Rhymes, “hip-hop reflects the truth, and the problem is that hip-hop exposes a lot of the negative truth that society tries to conceal. It’s a platform where we could offer information, but it’s also an escape” Hip-hop is a culture that emerged from the Bronx, New York, during the early 1970s. Hip-Hop was a result of African American and Latino youth redirecting their hardships brought by marginalization from society to creativity in the forms of MCing, DJing, aerosol art, and breakdancing. Hip-hop serves as a vehicle for empowerment while transcending borders, skin color, and age. However, the paper will focus on hip-hop from the Chican@-Latin@ population in the United States. In the face of oppression, the Chican@-Latin@ population utilized hip hop music as a means to voice the community’s various issues, desires, and in the process empower its people.

    Read More

  • Racial Stereotypes Associated With Rap and Hip Hop Music

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...atching MTV music shows or any music channel on television. As we continue to watch these programs, we will then notice that almost all the rap and hip-hop artists being shown are African-Americans. It is the particular lifestyle, and behaviour that is connected to what particular artists chose to vocalize about. This usually can harm the image of African-Americans due to the fact that many artists aid in the misconceptions of their particular race such as the example provided with 50 Cent’s song entitled P.I.M.P. These lyrics and song titles simply reinforce the negative image some individuals may have of both Caucasian’s and people of colour. Rap and hip-hop is one of the most intimate, personal, legitimate and important art form. Instead of perpetuating injustice, and prejudice artists should be addressing these different issues in a different matter.

    Read More

  • Portrayal of Asian Americans in the Media

    3279 Words  | 7 Pages

    Asian-American rapper isn’t downplaying his heritage. The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved December 15, 2004, from http://www.cdl http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/entertainment/10306249.htm Wu, F. H. (2002). The 'Secondary' Yellow: race in America beyond black and white. New York: Basic Books.

    Read More

  • Hip-Hop as a Cultural Movement

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hip Hop as an Industry

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    All of the articles dealt with hip hop as an industry and how that industry is portrayed to African Americans through the commercialization of hip hop and stereotypes in society. The articles also discuss how that portrayal influences the opinions of African Americans to others and themselves.

    Read More

  • Cultural Appropriation Of African American Culture

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, that is not the case. White artists are taking the styles and genres of African Americans and turning them into a mockery, and on top of all that, they are being rewarded for it. When said they turn these styles into mockery, it means that they change up the style into something completely different than what it originally was. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are prime examples of artists appropriating hip-hop. “During the 2013 MTV’s Video Music Award, artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won an award for best hip-hop video, beating popular African American hip hop artists. Two white men won an award for appropriating hip-hop. Hip hop originated from African Americans, and having a two white artists win an award for misusing our culture’s music is not acceptable” (Cadet). In hip hop, African American artists talked about their plight as African American men and about the struggles growing up. However, these white artists won an award for just taking the style and talking about anything important. They do not talk about their plight because they do not have one comparable to African Americans. They do like musicians did in the past: take the music from African Americans, and then take away the color. “But we cannot blame individual white artists for the inequitable way they are received by the American public—the way their performance of black cultures is

    Read More

  • Something for Nothing: The Art of Rap

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    The influence of Hip-Hop has never been as great as it is in this day and age. Often dismissed by a majority of America as simply a fad, hip hop has become a global phenomenon and has arguably been the most popular form of music for the past three decades. Hip-Hop has influenced art, language, fashion, culture, and sports. This music has been used to teach elementary level children, it has been taught in undergraduate universities and serves as a bridge for hundreds of philanthropies. The influence of Hip-Hop has also been felt in films. These films range from fictional works, documentaries, and autobiographies. A film known as, Something from Nothing by famous rapper Ice T sheds light on elements within Hip-Hop that have enabled the genre to reach millions of people.

    Read More

  • Hip Hop's Effect on American Culture

    3349 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about The Past, Present, and Future of Asian Rap

Open Document