In West Germany, youths who did listen to hip hop were often privileged middle class students. They could not relate to the lyrics in urban American rap. This is what Tricia Rose calls ghetto tourism, where white youths listen to hip hop, believing that hip hop accurately describes urban life. Ghetto tourism perpetuates negative stereotypes of black youths who listen to this musical genre, who rap, breakdance, or spray graffiti. They are often seen as delinquents and violent thugs. It is important to dispel these stereotypes. We can do so using Tricia Rose’s analysis and arguments from her book, Hip Hop Wars, and allow the audience to see a broader scope of hip hop. Critics will argue that hip hop causes violence and reflects black dysfunctional
Tony Mitchell’s Global Noise looks at the hip hop scenes of Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia within their social, cultural, and ethnic contexts. What has started in the small city of the Bronx has now expanded to different parts of the world. Challenging the notion that global hip hop stems from, and is, African-American-owned, Global Noise shows how international hip hop scenes developed by first adopting then adapting American hip hop to establish their own local version of hip hop, one filled with their local language and musical features. This is the concept of cultural imperialism, the idea that American culture dominates and takes over. For example, as mentioned before, hip hop first became popular in Germany because of American hip hop films like Wild Style. They learned American breakdancing and graffiti and rapped in English. Critics would argue that their hip hop was not authentic because they were not rapping in their own language, nor were they rapping about issues relevant to their own society. It was not until ten years later where they would rap in German about issues that pertained to German citizens. By including Mitchell’s commentary into this project, we can have a discussion about the globalization of hip
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...
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.
“The Hip Hop Wars What We Talk About - And Why It Matters” by Tricia Rose explores what hip hop has done to society in recent years and what people think it has caused. Though it has become one of the most commercially successful genres in mainstream music Tricia Rose explains that the topics in hip hop music have narrowed. Commercial hip hop mainly consist of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and hoes. In the book she looks into the different points of views of people who think whether hip hop invokes violence or if it reflects life in a black ghetto and if it slows down advancement for African Americans in US. The author goes back and forth with the opinion of the mass on hip hop, she says people view hip hop as a music like heavy metal which people associate with violence but she refutes most of these points by showing the positives of hip hop.
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.
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...
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
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.
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.
Since the beginning of hip hop culture, its music, its style of art, and style of dance has had a major effect on the world and it has increased. ...
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.
Hip Hop’s according to James McBride article “Hip Hop Planet” is a singular and different form of music that brings with it a message that only those who pay close attention to it understand it. Many who dislike this form of music would state that it is one “without melody, sensibility, instruments, verse, or harmony and doesn’t even seem to be music” (McBride, pg. 1). Though Hip Hop has proven why it deserves to be called music. In going into depth on its values and origins one understands why it is so popular among young people and why it has kept on evolving among the years instead of dying. Many of Hip Hop values that make it unique and different from other forms of music would be that it makes “visible the inner culture of Americas greatest social problem, its legacy of slavery, has taken the dream deferred to a global scale” (McBride, pg. 8). Hip Hop also “is a music that defies definition, yet defines our collective societies in immeasurable ways” (McBride, pg. 2). The
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...
The second article is about rap music and violence. The article’s authors, Jeanita W. Richardson and Kim A. Scott, explore rap music’s history and place in American culture. The article discusses the ways in which rap music is related to violence, by looking at the creators and listeners of this genre. They argue that it is not primarily about violence towards others, it began as a way for urban youths to express themselves and their unfortunate lot in life and frustration in their situations, with less education opportunities available, poverty, heavy drug influences, and police brutality. The violent lyrics are simply a reflection of a culture of violence in America. As with all people, youths are willing to spend money on things that they are drawn to, whether it is music, movies, etc. and violence is what sold. The authors explain how younger audiences are drawn towards more violent media as that is what has been promoted for them in the media from an early age, as cartoons and regular children’s commercial television are riddled with violent acts. Later in rap’s history, 7 out of 10 youths who bought rap albums
15 March 2014 Springer.com. Riley. Springer:’’ Rap and Hip-Hop Genre Today’’. April 2004 15 March 2014 Springer.com Ruiz, Jonathan. Cross-Cultural Rhetoric.