Negative Effects Of Commercialization Of Hip Hop

Is the commercialization of hip-hop a positive or negative influence? Commercialized hip-hop is an industry where black artists are financed by white corporations, and where the artists present themselves to mainly white audiences. They show their audience that they smoke weed because that’s what all the cool kids are doing and they create the trends that exist today in our culture. Wiz Khalifa proves this in his tours that he has all around the world where he smokes weed and his audiences try to imitate him. Commercialization is the process or cycle of introducing a new product or production method into the market and this has changed the dynamic of hip-hop. Hip-hop has expanded a lot and there has become a struggle to maintain its authenticity.

Hip Hop has been manipulated into a commercial medium and has been used to create clients that buy the music and make it popular by showing it off in clubs and to their friends. Hip-hop is arising through marketing and capital, music has become digital in our time and that has increased revenue through the roof. Marketing has become a big factor because big time artists have linked together to become better than their selves and that has helped hip hop evolve. Commercial hip-hop has deteriorated what so many emcees in the 80’s tried to build, a culture of music, dance, and creativity allowing for everyone to have fun and express themselves including that meaningful message that opens the listener’s mind and has them wanting more good

DJ Kool Herc started hip-hop at a Halloween dance party thrown by his younger sister, that’s where hip-hop is based. He started marketing by writing down the information about the party on a card and distributing it at school and also charging a small amount of money in order to party. Hip-hop has grown from the black teenagers living in the south Bronx in the late 1970s to a highly centered commercialized economic force. According to Fernando, “New-school rappers, in particular the many hardcore artists that emerged in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, broadened the boundaries of rap’s lyricism” (135), meaning they brought the lyrics to life. In the era of hardcore rap, the narrative frame quickly shifted as rap songs with positive messages became less sellable. “Pop rap stars like MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice tried to harden their image during this period. (145) In recent years, controversy surrounding rap music has been in the forefront of the American media and it can date all the way back to the battles of the East and the West Coast Rivalry, mainly between Biggie and 2pac. The rivalry between East and West Coast rappers wasn’t to see who were the better rappers but it was to see which side declared superior as the most “authentic”. A good example is Biggie who came from a middle-to-working class neighborhood, but he was fascinated by the street game and