“My job is to write shocking lyrics that will wake people up,” said Chuck D. This was his goal as the leader of Public Enemy (Dery, 1990). He wrote lyrics that were awakening and energizing. Public Enemy was a spokesperson for the African American community. Their lyrics contain controversial and popular issues such as drugs, crime, racism, and poverty. As well as the lyrics, the instrumentals are significant to conveying the group’s goal. The instrumental/sound part creates the mood, sets the beat, and prompts the engagementengages of the people. In the late 1980’s, Public Enemy introduced an intense, hard, hip-hop sound, which changed the sound of hip-hop. According to Rolling Stone magazine, “Public Enemy’s inventive production team, the Bomb Squad, tailored a unique, noisy, layered avant-garde-inspired sound that incorporated sirens, skittering turntable scratches, and cleverly juxtaposed musical and spoken samples ” (Simon & Schuster, 2001). All these brand new sounds of their songs were musically revolutionary during the late 1980’s. Public Enemy’s music consists of inspirational lyrics as well as strong and innovative sound. The lyrics and the sound work together, in addition to visual media to make it possible to reach millions of people as political commentary. Public Enemy’s members came together at Adelphi University on Long Island, New York in 1982 (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Public Enemy is one of the most influential and controversial rap groups in the America during the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s. Public Enemy members are Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, and his S1W group, DJ Lord, and music director Khari Wynn. There are two vocalists, drum performers, guitarists and scratchers. Public Enemy consists of... ... middle of paper ... ...sic 11(3): 263-380 Warrell, Laura K.. 2002. “Fight the Power.” Accessed May 18th, 2012. http://www.salon.com/2002/06/03/fight_the_power/ Discography Chuck D, and Yusuf Jah. 1997. Fight the power: rap, race, and reality. New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press. Dyson, Michael Eric. 1996. Race rules: navigating the color line. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Makoni, Sinfree, and Alastair Pennycook. 2007. Disinventing and reconstituting languages. Clevedon [England]: Buffalo. Watkins, S. Craig. 2005. Hip hop matters: politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement. Boston: Beacon Press. Perry, Imani. 2004. Prophets of the hood: politics and poetics in hip hop. Durham: Duke University Press. Werner, Craig Hansen. 2006. A change is gonna come: music, race & the soul of America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Hip-hop culture has been a global phenomenon for more than twenty years. When introduced into the American culture, the black culture felt that hip-hop had originated from the African American community. The black community was being denied their cultural rights by the supremacy of the white people, but hip-hop gave the community the encouragement to show their black pride and televise the struggles they were facing in the world. The failure and declining of the movements, the influential, rebellious, and powerful music is what reshaped Black Nationalism, unity and to signify the struggle. The African Americans who suffered from social and political problems found that they similar relations to the political movements, which allowed the blacks to be able to voice their opinions and to acknowledge their culture openly.
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
But the disenchantment with artists who don’t appreciate hip-hop as consisting of emceeing, breaking, graffiti art, beat boxing and dj-ing is not new. Underground artists, predominately hip-hop purists, have lashed out at biters and perpetrators for many years. For example, in 1989 3rd Bass released their first album, The Cactus Cee/D. Throughout the album, MC Serch and Prime Minister Pete Nice scold the commercialized booty shakers like MC Hammer for corrupting hip-hop, particularly on the track “The Gasface” they specifically call out Hammer for his antics.
George covers much familiar ground: how B-beats became hip hop; how technology changed popular music, which helped to create new technologies; how professional basketball was influenced by hip hop styles; how gangsta rap emerged out of the crack epidemic of the 1980s; how many elements of hip hop culture managed to celebrate, and/or condemn black-on-black violence; how that black-on-black violence was somewhat encouraged by white people scheming on black males to show their foolishness, which often created a huge mess; and finally, how hip hop used and continues to use its art to express black frustration and ambition to blacks while, at the same time, refering that frustration and ambition to millions of whites.
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...
Light, Alan. "About a Salary or Reality? – Rap’s Recurrent Conflict." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 137-146. Print.
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.
Prophets of the Hood is the most detailed and a brilliantly original study to date of hip hop as complicated and innovative literary story form. It is written with a refreshing harmonious combination savvy significance rigor as well as brave and creative narrative verve. Imani Perry’s research is an interesting analysis of late twentieth century in American great culture. Prophet of the hood is an excellent and unique book. It draws up a clear division between the negatives and positives involved in hip hop. She takes the discussions of rap to a deeper and greater levels with an insightful analysis of the poetic and political features of the art form. Being a fan and a scholar, Perry is aware the art, tradition of hip hop through an analysis of the song lyrics.
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.
Def Jam Records embraced controversy and signed controversial artists in order to gain a young target audience. An example of this is Public Enemy’s debut album ‘Yo! Bum Rush the Show.’ In 1987. The group marketed itself as a distillation of black anger and the resistance and set out to be a voice for the black community. Many black musicians were still struggling to have their music played on the radio and the added controversy of rap and hip
In Total Chaos, Jeff Chang references Harry Allen, a hip hop critic and self-proclaimed hip hop activist. Harry Allen compares the hip hop movement to the Big Bang and poses this complex question: “whether hip-hop is, in fact a closed universe-bound to recollapse, ultimately, in a fireball akin to its birth-or an open one, destined to expand forever, until it is cold, dark, and dead” (9). An often heard phase, “hip hop is dead,” refers to the high occurrence of gangster rap in mainstream hip hop. Today’s hip hop regularly features black youths posturing as rich thugs and indulging in expensive merchandise. The “hip hop is dead” perspective is based on the belief that hip hop was destined to become the model of youth resistance and social change. However, its political ambitions have yet to emerge, thus giving rise to hip hops’ criticisms. This essay will examine the past and present of hip hop in o...
Harris, Angela P. “From Color Line to Color Chart: Racism and Colorism in the New Century.” Scholarship.law.berkely.edu, 2013.
4. Gladney, Marvin J. "The Black Arts Movement and Hip-Hop". African American Review, Vol. 29, No. 2. 1995, pp. 291-301.
Dixon, Travis L., TaKeshia Brooks. “Rap Music and Rap Audiences: Controversial Themes, Psychological Effects and Political Resistance.” Perspectives. 7 April 2009. .