Hip Hop Music and its Impact on American Culture

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It was a Tuesday morning in the Information Technology class at State College. An older student was doing his best to ignore the loud, obscene disruption occurring next to him, the result of two younger students ignoring the lesson at hand. Finally, he gave in and spoke up against their sanctimonious display, and was quickly bullied and threatened with violence in front of the entire class. Both aggressors exemplified and embodied every aspect of the hip-hop culture: Ebonics spewing out of their mouths, expensive and baggy clothing draped and sagging from their bodies complete with headphones around their neck blaring expletive laden song lyrics. The dynamic duo mentioned here certainly aren’t the only members of this ilk, nor are they unique specimens of any particular breed. In fact, they could even be labeled as poster children for the hip-hop culture. Indeed, many people have encountered similar “thugs” and “thuggish” activity, the putting-down others and degrading society, seemingly as they wish. This has caused a general fear of most of these types of people, in addition to staining the mind of the American consciousness with the thought that this is somehow “cute” or a passing trend. To this effect, the hip-hop culture is the most detrimental to the American consciousness, because of its poor moral code and mental attitude that produces underperforming citizens.

You might be wondering what exactly does a poster-child for hip-hop look like. Well, in turn I might ask, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word thug, or gangsta? How about top-selling rap artist in the country? As for me, I think of a black man, about 22 years old, wearing $200 Nike shoes, pants that are held by a belt just under ...

... middle of paper ...

...st keep in mind that it all boils down to whether or not you or anyone else is going to allow any particular movement to have a positive or negative influence on who you are as a person. After all, it is only music, right?

Works Cited

Associated Press. MSNBC Online Retrieved March 18, 2009 from

Grand Master Flash. “The Message” The Message Sugar Hill, 1982

“Grand Theft Auto 4.” Wikipedia. Retrieved March 24, 2009

McWhorter, John H. (2003) Hoe Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back. City Journal Retrieved March 18, 2009 from
Sugar Hill Gang. “Rapper’s Delight” (Single) Sugar Hill Records 1979

Too $hort. “Shake That Monkey” Married to the Game Jive Records 2003

Tupac Shakur. “Changes” Greatest Hits Interscope/Amaru/Deathrow 1998

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