Subsequently, when completing my research on Grime, I learned that this music is a “hybrid of American rap and hip-hop and Jamaican dance hall, but with the aspects of punk, 1990 rave (Campion, 2004), drum and bass and garage (Mckinnum, 2005)” (Barron 536). It originated within the London area. However, it branches over into the different urban areas of Britain, and the music generates an awareness to the rest of society on what the youth of these inner-city boroughs is experiencing on a day to day basis, making this style of music “ethnographic in nature” (Barron 532). It allows us to hear and envision the social life of these individuals. Therefore, we are able to construe their lives through our own theorization and cognition. This British form of music allows individuals as myself the opportunity to understand that these artists are not as interested in the achievement of the “consumerist bling-bling” (Barron 536), but in fact, let the rest of the general public know what they are faced with daily through their musical …show more content…
Their lyrics consist of many different topics some consist of anything from “financial hardship and gang violence, to the components of everyday life, from the pleasure of dancing and music, fashion and personal pride to the forming of relationships” (Barron 541). In conclusion, to my research on Grime music, the artist I chose to share with you is Lethal Bizzle. The song I chose is Police On My Back. The song meets all the characteristics that I mentioned in my opening statement. It’s performed in good taste and has an uplifting beat that just makes you want to crack open a beer in a pub, get up and dance instead of sobbing in self-pity and thinking of a way to
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’s criticism of George W. Bush is a good example of hip-hop’s reflection of Black public opinion. The Republican candidate who already had a low approval rating of 57% amongst African-Americans received an even lower approval rating after his lackluster efforts to support Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (Jones, 2003; Cillizza & Sullivan 2013).
Early 1960s, a mix Caribbean musical style of jazz, rhythm-and-blues, soul and calypso surfaced from the cultural setting of the urban underclass of Kingston, Jamaica, then later gained ground in Africa in the 80s. Public opinion about African reggae artists is that, they are either illiterate or abuse illegal substances. While such stereotypes hold true for some, here is a man whose career has broken the barriers of such stereotypes with a career of pre–and post–‘born again.’
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.
Blair, M Elizabeth. "Commercialization of the Rap Music Youth Subculture." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 497-504. Print.
Watts, Eric K. "An Exploration of Spectacular Consumption: Gangsta Rap as Cultural Commodity." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 593-609. Print.
Founded in New York City,1984,by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, Def Jam Records is now one of hip hop’s most influential record labels. Famous for dragging a once underground genre into the mainstream.Def Jam Record’s first release under the label was Jazzy Jay and T La Rock's "It's Yours." This was the initial fuel that launched the label to fame in 1984. Singles produced by Def Jam such as ‘I Need a Beat’ by LL Cool J in 1985 closely followed by ‘Rock Hard’ by the Beastie boys allowed Def Jam to gain a distribution deal with CBS records which boosted the popularity of the record label dramatically.
These are the kinds of music that often use violent lyrics and violent beats, depicting urban street gangs. Typical themes and ideas deal with street life including pimping, and hustling as well as killing and shooting (Malek 108). “I’m bout to bust some some shots off. I’m ‘bout to dust some cops off” (Ice-T). The lyrics of Ice-T’s Cop Killer evoked a loud outcry about whether ideas about killing police officers should be expressed publicly. It is not only the violent ideas expressed within the lyrics, but the context of which they are expressed. Rap is criticized because rappers are known to “sing of guns with almost lascivious glee”. They talk about their “pieces” or “glocks”, “ninas” or pistols as the “object of their affections”
So began my two-year ethnography on the American rave subculture. The scene described above was my initiation into the underground subculture where rave kids, typically under twenty-one years old, are given secret invitations to attend private warehouse parties with dancing, drugs, and thousands of their closest friends. Because of my youthful and unorthodox appearance, I was invited to join the then-highly-exclusive underground scene and attended numerous raves in several major cities in North Carolina. Although my chosen subculture was not typically examined by academia, I conducted an academic ethnography of what Maton (1993) describes as a "group whose world views, values and practices diverge from mainstream North American and social science cultures" (747). As a result, I received three graduate credit hours for "supervised research in ethnography" and conducted what may be the only academic ethnography on raves.
van Elteren, Mel. "The Subculture Of The Beats: A Sociological Revisit." Journal Of American Culture 22.3 (1999): 71.America: History & Life. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
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...
Stanley Niaah (2004, p. 110) clarifies that dancehall events’ appeal and consequent power converge around their names, which take the form of the latest dancehall and/or inner-city lingua. The name Uptown Mondays seems a bit controversial – controversial in the sense that even though patronage extends to other classes, “dancehall remains an inner-city phenomenon resulting from the location of key actors, spaces of operation, and production.” (Stanley-Niaah 2004, p. 107). Analyzing the name deeper reveals that it may just be a mere appeal tactic, hinging on the idea of Stewart’s (2002) pre-eminence of the external, in the sense that the name will attract core-participants who seek to detach themselves from the label of being ghetto/downtown and who (seek to) identify with an uptown lifestyle regardless of realities they have to face. By means of characterizing Uptown Mondays, Stolzoff’s (2000, pp. 194-195) “juggling” dance is applied, in which tunes are played in a non-competitive manner, as opposed to a “sound system clash”. This sort of characterization is ...
... Works Cited Blanchard, Becky. The Social Significance of Rap & Hip Hop Culture. N.p. 26 July 1999.
The music industry and the glorification of drugs in music video's today have changed drastically on a higher level. Since the powerful influence of Hip-Hop and it's emergence into a worldwide culture, it has sweep through inner cites and suburban life styles impacting each and everyone of us. The Hip-Hop culture, not only as a form of free poetic expression (form of spoken word and poetry,) by young black African Americans but a true look into a way of life that many of us will never see or come in contact with.
Dixon, Travis L., TaKeshia Brooks. “Rap Music and Rap Audiences: Controversial Themes, Psychological Effects and Political Resistance.” Perspectives. 7 April 2009. .