The Misunderstanding of Hip-Hop

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The Misunderstanding of Hip-Hop
“When done correctly, there may not be another genre in all of music with more substance within its texture.” This line was said by Colin McGuire, a blogger who wrote a blog on his Top 10 Lyricists in the history of hip-hop. Lyricists? Isn’t hip-hop that music genre where rappers talk bout fast cars, women and money over energetic, bass-heavy beats? The average listener may ask this. Hip-hop lyrics are widely misunderstood because people aren’t educated on the genre, some people are prejudice and it’s just “black” music to them, and the radio only plays the energetic, bass-heavy party songs.
What most listeners do not understand is that a lot of hip-hop music is not understandable from the get-go. It takes intense analyzation of lyrics and an open mind to be able to understand what it is really about. Some people can’t understand what is being said just by listening with their ears, and they don’t bother to go study the lyrics. They then leave with the perception that hip-hop is chalk full of, well, nothing. One of the greatest rap lyricists of all time, Shawn Carter, also known as Jay-Z, says, “People don’t bother trying to get it. The problem is that so many people don’t even know how to listen to the music.” Mister Shawn Carter has also said that rap is poetry. He mentioned not to forget that the lyrics in the song were transmitted from feelings, thoughts and emotions to lyrics written on a piece of paper. He went on to say that if you hung that piece of paper up on a wall and someone went up and read it as it was, they’d say, “Wow, this is genius. This is poetry.” McHorter’s opinion on rap can and will be agreed upon by many, many people; however, this conclusion can only be reached without h...

... middle of paper ...

...is may come down to prejudice opinions, or the simple unwillingness to understand the introspective stories told through 64 bars of vivid imagery. Hip-hop’s essential element is words; however, most hip-hop being played on the radio focuses more towards a hot beat and a catchy hook to garner the average listener’s attention; therefore, they are being mislead into the world of hip-hop. Hip-hop can speak to you. It can get you thinking on a deep, insightful level. It just takes the will to listen, study, and learn.

Works Cited

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SSD0357-0-8036&artno=0000350241&type=ART

http://www.rossblankenship.me/defending-the-art-of-hiphop

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SSD0357-0-8036&artno=0000355509&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=Popular%20music%2C%20Texts&title=Hip-Hop%20Hypocrisy&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N

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