Hip Hop is a cultural interest group that coalesced in the early 1970s. It was known for many various things such as break dancing, deejaying, graffiti and rap. All of these were different cultural movements put into one and named Hip-Hop. Graffiti was the art of hip hop it was typically staged in New York where it was born. Also break dancing was part of the art perspective, causing different b-boy dancers to battle each other for money and prizes or for the fun of it. Rap and Deejaying were the musical perspective of Hip-Hop.
Like everything things got to change. Hip-Hop changed dramatically during the late 90s and early 2000s. The style of hip-hop became more aggression towards money, then its other purpose which was towards freedom of speech and appeal to emotion. We see “Gangsta Rap” arise in the early 90s and has a big effect later on as you see rappers such as 50 cent in rap videos portraying toughness and waving guns in addition to wearing a bullet proof vest. Along with this when 50 cent released his album it was huge on the charts because he was satisfying the people by talking about guns, violence, and women. This influences people like me and you to think rap and hip hop is corrupt and violent when only a few individuals only represent negative images.
Lastly I want to show there is also the positive side of Hip-Hop for everyone who has the bias that it’s completely damaged and misguiding. A rapper by the name of Chamillionaire wrote an album called “Ultimate Victory” which is out of the ordinary because it does not have any profanity also violent speech as well as no portrayal of women in the sense of nudity and disrespectful. K’naan also who’s a rapper who is from our hometown Toronto, formally he was a poet and usually he raps about freedom and equality. Hip-Hop being a multifaceted culture transcends into many popular characteristics creating Hip-Hop fashion. Hip-Hop fashion is also a positive aspect in the media, by turning your own style of wardrobe to share with nations around the world who relate to this particular music.
My question to you is the following:
Do you think Hip-Hip in the media is completely negative and misguiding and if so why? How do you think we can stop the negative stereotypes within hip hop?
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ReplyDeleteAs a fan of hip hop it makes me sad that people see it in a completely negative light and they overlook the positive aspect.
ReplyDeleteHip hop is excellent and it could possibly invoke a person's creative side like it did for me. It can inspire people to take up poetry, dance etc. Hip hop can also help people be more aware of what happens in the world. For example there is a hip hop/nasheed group called "Outlandish" who's lyrics are usually about educating their listeners about religion, and the things that happen in the world.
I do acknowledge the fact that sadly there are stupid artists out there who pretty much give hip-hop a bad name, but there are really intelligent artists out there as well.
For example, Immortal Technique, Outlandish( Modern Nasheed artists)and the ones you mentioned above etc.
Hopefully, people will soon look past the negative side and focus on the positive aspects.
:)
I agree with Mayuri, and most of the time when people think of hip-hop an image of half naked women and money pops up. Rap was about people who expressed what they felt, and the struggle and all that. Nowadays its about making the most swear words rhyme which has no meaning. People used to relate to the lyrics in rap, and now theres nothing to relate to because its all about money, which some people don't have. The negative stereotypes can be squished, if artists rap more about life and what actual people are going through.
ReplyDeletei think that hiphop in the media is negative because when they think about it yousometimes see music videos with cars and woman and raping about money and drugs. But not all hiphop videos are not like that.
ReplyDeleteI think that hip hop has changed over the past years, and it's having an affect. I believe that hip hop media demostrates stereotypes that are negative. They demostrate this based on how they dress, and do their music.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the way to change this could be to show the media that they are wrong, and hip hop music is the same as country music and ete.
Speaking about country music, why does this type of music recieves the least sterotype, and not like rap or hip hop?
I leave that question to all of you?
Hip-hop to me has always been the one genre of music which both inspires me and at the same time remains something I can laugh at. Its very hard to take someone seriously when they excessively use vulgar language, but I think compared to the rest of the genres out there, hip-hop has amazing messages behind them, sadly in order to listen to those type of songs you can't simply walk into HMV or download of iTunes, you are required to search for underground artists (such as immortal technique, prolyphic...etc)
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason why most people target hip hop is because they are racist. You will find a lot of coloured individuals in hip hop. Those individuals are are racist will say negative things about the hip hop artists and want to ruin their reputation. Think about it if those individuals were not coloured then people wouldn't be racist and wouldn't worry too much about the negative side of hip hop.I don't think negative about hip hop because i am not racist but those who are will. They are jealous that these people are making a lot of money through hip hop so why not talk about the negative side of it and forget their feeling that they are trying to express through their music. That is what the majority thinks.
ReplyDeleteAdnan made some great points about Hip Hop and its similarites to other genres of music. I think that Country music isnt as targeted as much in the means of being stereotyped because they have no actual culture in their music, most classics of Country music have been soft and montone with no actual struggle to relate too as to Hip Hop. Hip Hop gets stereotyped more often then Country Mucsic because urban music is filled with so much emotions and diffrent types of ways of expressing their art . Country music is a white mans creation and when we get into to the topic of race it clealry shows that racism has not died out and we are truly living in a white mans world where urban music isnt as accepeted as caucasian music.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to argue and say, country music DOES have soul.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not some of the "Taylor Swift" kind of music out today, but definitely, before the modern era of music, country has had a great deal of meaning and influence.
Also, saying country music lacks soul because its "white people's music" is stereotyping...
Country DOES have influences in blues and blues is music created from black slaves.
hip hop might have been a symbol of entertainment and freedom of expression once, but I agree that it has gradually become a beacon for elements such as sex and money. I think hip hop just lost sight of what it stood for once and now it has become an industry for immorality and corruption.
ReplyDeleteI'm personally a fan of hip-hop and rap but not of what it has become today. As the post stated all we see is guns and violence and woman been degerated by shaking their boobs and but on the videos. I strobgly believe rap has a negative image now. We dont have rappers like 2pac and biggie as well as G-code who were all old school and talked about real life problems and struggles. For instance 2pac was an ispiration to many with his poems and lyrics. He has a song called, "wonda why they call you B****" and he gives and expresses the resaon as to why woman get such bad reputations in neighbourhoods. He also has another song dedicated to the president where he exposes what they don't do for the greater public. However there is a more recent rapper whos part of the underground name immortal technique, he too rapps about meaningful topics affecting the public.
ReplyDeleteWell we must understand that Hip-hop/rap from the past and now are different for a number of reasons, and one of them is the fact that this certain genre of music has changed because of the purpose for producing music, which now as we know, primarily is to make money. And in order for them to do so, they will need to rap about what people in general dream to have, which is money, women, etc.
ReplyDeleteFor your first question, I think that Hip-Hop in the media, particulary Rap, is shown in a negative light, but I think that the reasons are obviously clear. No matter what you say, the mainstream version of Hip-Hop does potray this image of sex, money, power and respect and although others may laugh, it does continuely exploit women as no more than sexual objects(Ex. Fat Joe - make it rain). I disagree with Raisa's point, "that the reason why most people target hip hop is because they are racist." Although there are people who have a negative view about people of colour, this does not however represent the majority. I for one used to love Hip-Hop and Rap and still sometimes do but as I grew older and started paying more attention to what these rap artists were saying, the more I distanced myself for this genre, until one day I muted the television and sat through a 2 and a half minute video of Lil Wayne and Birdman with their classic hit, Bling-Bling. I have never seen more diamonds in a persons mouth and more gold on a persons wrist than I did from that video. I think that the main outline of Hip-Hop is still there, but as the years progressed and Hip-Hop gained acceptance as a musical genre, it was left open to reinterpretation and was basically transformed, with the medias help, into what it exists as today.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, trying to stop negative stereotypes about Hip-Hop will be difficult to do, mainly because of things such as the sexually explicit lyrics, violence shown sometimes in the videos, the medias gender stereotypes put on both men and women in Hip-Hop and ultimately it is up to the artists themselves if they want shy away from that negativety, but then again controversy is good for business. BLING-BLING :)
The world of HipHop may have you believe that its a poetic way for an artist to express themselves. But have you really listened and absorbed the words in Hiphop music? Like Fowzia stated, they look for the most swear words that could rhyme and thats considered a hit to them. Things like getting out of jail for drug/weapon possession, covering your whole body with tattoos like "Thug Life" (Tupac), "L.A" (The Game), and even getting teardrops on their face like lil Wayne create a negative image on Hiphop. But then again we have artists like Drake and Knaan who dont need to act "hard" or "gangsta' to sell an album. They actually rap about meaningful real life experiences they encountered.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I don't think theres a way to stop the negative stereotypes that are portrayed in Hiphop music. This is what the majority of the public are wanting to see and listen too: the cars, women and money. If they weren't than these rap artists wouldnt be performing at sold out concerts and selling multi-platinum albums. I also think that rap has changed since the beginning of its era and thus has become distorted by artists who choose to portray violence, aggression and well.....nonsense.
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ReplyDeleteYou might turn on your radio nowdays and hear hip-hop music based upon women, cars, sex and violence.
ReplyDeleteBut we must consider that hip-hop was not famouse for it's negitive influence. Rappers like Nas and Tupac till this day
are very famous due to their excelling work of "art". 2pac had covered topics from teenage pregnancy, attitudes towards women, death and general ignorance.
Nas delivered lyrics describing the terrible surroundings that he grew up around. Nevertheless, we do hear hip-hop artists such as
50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, or T-pain who produce comtemptible lyrics and hide behind a good beat. Artists of this sort create a bad image for hip-hop and
especailly for fellow artists who pour their heart and soul into their work. However, "good" hip-hop still exists within our generation,in artists such as
Eminem or Kid Cudi who talk about the means of life and situations many teenagers face. Those who have negative stereotypes within the genre hip-hop, must
recognize that like every topic their are bad influences, but it's upto you to take part.
I think that hip hop in the media is not completely negative; because there are many songs regardless of genre that contain negative lyrics and are controversial. Also hip hop is about expressing yourself through your own music and there are all ways people who will get offended and think of it as evil or not appropriate. I think we can not stop the negative stereotype about hip hop because, it is a stereotype and as long as there are ignorant people in the world this will not end.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Hip Hop shown in the media now is becoming misguiding. It used to be about expressing emotions and having a way to tell your story which is something current musicians are still doing. Nowadays, Hip Hop is more focused on who has the money, the girls, the cars, and the weapons. It is more about materialistic things than it used to be because, sadly, it is what people are now more interested in.
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