Sadly Mcbride remembers when hip-hop used to represent a better dream or the feeling of discrimination by other people. you and I may know this feeling of racial discrimination or even dreaming of a better life than you have now. for sure do know that I have this
My generation has been saturated with music that is degrading. The mainstream rappers and hip hop artists continue to thrive because of the popularity of their music. Supporters of these popular artists continue to listen to this music because they can connect to the themes represented. Many people are involved in violence and listening to mainstream rappers just reflects what they are experiencing. People also enjoy mainstream rappers because of the catchy beats and hooks.
No matter who you are or where you are, you will always be listening to music regardless if you’d want to or not. Though you may have different taste in music, you will always listen to some genres that you do not like. Some people will try to find themselves in other music and be inspired by the same subject. But someone had to be the first to get the idea of music and other just came along and changed it to their prospective along the journey of hundreds of musicians that made it and tons more than didn’t make it, they still pursued it because it was what they enjoyed and what they found to be what is most important to them. Rapping has come a very long way from people doing it how they would back in the day and how there is a complete different style today.
Rappers like Tupac Shakur, demonstrated the struggles of slavery and freedom for his community through his songs. To this
Before that Hip Hop was exclusively about dancing, creating unique beats and being poetic across beat alterations. Ever since Grandmaster Flash Hip Hop has changed consistently over the years creating different forms of Hip Hop giving everyone a chance to find out what they enjoy. One form of Hip Hop in today’s world is based around the racial inequalities brought to you by a rapper who displays their people’s daily struggles around the globe and more specifically in America. An artist who uses his voice in the hip hop industry to voice the effects of mass incarceration on African Americans/Minorities as well as many other social issues is Vic Mensa. He is the most crucial social activist you’ve probably never heard of.
T This new rap era has turned into something great. You have fantastic artists like Kendrick Lamar, 21 Savage, Joey Bada$$, Big K.R.I.T., A$AP Rocky, J. Cole, Tyler The Creator, JID, and Kanye West just to name a few. All of these artists have tracks that include meaningful lyrics, great production, and fantastic flows. However, it seems many people ignore these qualities and criticize this newer era by cherry-picking terrible artists or lyrics and labeling them unnecessarily explicit, unoriginal, and while having no meaning. Despite artists from the older era having those exact qualities, many people still hold the opinion that old rap is better than what’s out now.
“Large business” (Spotlight 13), utilize “hip-hop artists as” (Spotlight14) spokesmen to gain attention. Many believe that by doing this companies are “purposefully --promoting negative values” (Spotlight15). Yet to say that all rappers promote negative values is completely bias, because as we have previously established not all rappers rap about negativity. “No connection is found between antisocial behavior in young people and controversial genres of music such as ‘gangster music’”
The rap music, sharing its root with other forms of traditional African-American music, bore artists like N.W.A. who documented these secular problems through their records. “They wanted to talk about what they were going through, seeing” and have transformed the way of delivering messages (NPR). In conclusion, the post-black era bred improved diversity and complex identity in African-American culture. Many African-American figures even today are changing the landscape of black identity in the United States.
Even though my parents listened to KRS-One and Public Enemy, while my sisters engaged in Kanye West and OutKast, both eras of the hip hop genre purpose were to discuss economic problems and push people toward the right path of life. In Yan Dominic Searcy’s article, he says, “Many rappers grew up amid violence, police harassment, poverty, drugs and promiscuity. Rappers will tell you they rap about what they know. If the community wants to change rap lyrics, the community must change reality.” (Searcy)
What many people seem to miss is that the culture is meant to express and not repress. Generally speaking, talent is a key importance in rapping. However, the power to address viewers of ethical conflicts in our environment through music should be considered more important than talent. Artists such as Tupac Shakur use music to educate his audience of the specific cultural barriers which negatively impact black communities. In addition, Dr. Dre was influenced by Tupac and began to inspire other artists, such as Nas.
Nowadays, everyone wears the identity with pride. The genre was a testament to triumphing over hardships, to having enough confidence in oneself not to let the world drag you down, and to rising above the struggle, even when things seem hopeless. Violence in rap did not begin as an affective agent that threatened to harm America 's youth; rather, it was the outcry of an already-existing problem from youth whose world views have been shaped by the inequalities and prejudice they have experienced. The relentless wave of heroic new rappers arriving on the scene formed the golden age of hip hop in the 1980s, a newfound voice which rose from the impoverished ghettos during the 1980s and inspiring a generation of black youth to fight the police brutality they faced on a daily basis.
The Impact of Hip-Hop Ever since its birth in the 1970s in West Bronx, Hip Hop has been known as “Gangsta” music and most commonly associated with black culture. Since its creation it has become a fast growing genre of music and has growing fame all over the world. The popularity of it has increased to all races, age and gender. However the growing popularity of hip hop has come with several controversies among scholars. Some scholars argue that the growing popularity of the genre is very helpful to low income families who can use this as their outlet into going to Universities, on the other side some believe associating the genre to black culture is bad for the culture as a whole and they should not be associated together.
So why is hip hop exploding worldwide? When listeners were asked why they listen to hip hop through a website called Genius which lets listeners interpret lyrics and engage in conversations. The audience respond, one user who goes by “the1elment” stated, “I like rap for most part because it shows the rough side of things its not talking about living in a dream world where your neighbors are awesome people and everything is just perfect…I live in such a nice neighborhood with amazing parents and family and through rap I learn more about the streets and shit that I have never really seen or gone through and even though I can’t relate i'm just fascinated by the culture of the music and lifestyles pretty deep topic…”. The user explains why he listens to hip hop, and like many other comments on the website. They use hip hop to gain knowledge of what the rappers talk about.
The African American community has not gained full equality to this day. Even after fighting for many years this present day issue has come to light in Hip-Hop artists songs like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis song, White Privilege II. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are respected in their line of work because they have become very popular in today 's Hip-Hop music. Hip-Hop has been the newest way of news being broadcasted. As many artists like Macklemore have become more of an activist in this day and age.
The Hip hop industry consists of mostly African American musicians. Since blacks are often alienated in society, their music seems to be too. People often give rappers negative labels such as “gangster” or “thug”, which are discriminatory words that people have often used to describe African Americans in the media. There is an everlasting double standard in music. as people bash rap music for being sexist and violent, other genres of music such as country or alternative have the same themes, but they’re vulgar lyrics go
