ipl-logo

Street Code In Rap Music

634 Words3 Pages

After reading the article, Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas: Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap Music, C. Kubrin studies 403 songs of rap albums that portrays violence in the lyrics. The lyrics serve different functions that establish social identity, reputation and exerting social control. I will discuss why a street code exists, the violent behavior that rap music contains, and how rap music creates a social identity and exerts social control.
Kubrin states that there is recent sociological research on identity, culture, and violence in inner city communities and how it describes a black youth culture or street code that influences adolescent behavior, particularly violent behavior (pg. 360). A street code is created by the individuals that live in the subculture of violence to provide protection or stability from the difficulties they face.
According to the article the street code is a product of neighborhood process and neglects additional sources such as popular culture which reflects, supports, and advocates street code norms (pg. 361). Street code is argued to being the provider of the rules governing the interpersonal behaviors individuals choose to participant in. Which is creating the connection or relationship between the street code, rape music and social identity. …show more content…

363). Those who act on violent behaviors achieve power or hierarchy from those who live in the street code life style. When “gangsta rap” music expresses violent depiction of urban ghetto life in America, it literally gives listeners the idea of those violent behaviors that will lead them to power that they seek (Kubrin, pg. 360). According to the article, subculture shapes the residents’ behavior when speaking of violence that encourages the code to be viewed as a source of motivation and sanctions that lead to violent behaviors (Kubrin, pg.

Show More
Related

Wes Moore Street Culture Analysis

454 Words | 2 Pages

How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.

Read More

Summary Of Prophets Of The Hood By Imani Perry

902 Words | 4 Pages

According to Perry, “Violence, sexism, and criminal activity are all depicted as horrifying features of rap music” (27). However, people may say rap music is a bad influence. “That image often does not correlate the actual lyrics or the personality of the artist; it reflects the music’s perception as violent ghetto expression”, acknowledges Perry. Regardless of the language hip hop artist use they paint a picture of real life situations of black americans. The realism of these stories causes destructiveness in these areas which fuels the words of an artist.

Read More

Democracy By Cathy J. Cohen: Chapter Summary

540 Words | 3 Pages

Chapter two of Cathy J. Cohen’s book Democracy Remixed focuses on the implications of the negativity surrounding rap genre music. In addition, Cohen discusses the effects that popular black media figures have when trying to address the issue of troublesome youth and the vulgarity of their self-expression. Cohen believes that the older generation of the black community demonizes aspects of black youth culture when there are other factors to take into account when discussing the lack of success among young black people. These factors include modern oppression, a privation of adequate educational systems, the absences of low-wage, low skill jobs, unfair incarceration systems etc. Moreover, Cohen makes an argument that it is not only rap, but the voices inside the black community that help to demean black youths.

Read More

Violence, And The Moral Life Of The Inner City, By Dr. Elijah Anderson

508 Words | 3 Pages

In the book " Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City" written by Dr. Elijah Anderson, The William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Sociology at Yale, brings to light the different issues that are regular in the city today. The street codes have a huge influence on the activities and conduct of numerous young people in the inner city or "hood". In the streets, it is stressing, as it is credited to ills like expanded rate of crime, anxiety, drug trafficking and all manifestations of brutality with extreme aftereffect of death. The urban life inside the ghettos majorly pitched into the street codes. Plainly, he brings out the issue of respect.

Read More

Analysis Of Code Of The Streets By Elijah Anderson

430 Words | 2 Pages

The Codes of the Street The world in which we live in is full of violence; impersonal or interpersonal. As a matter of actuality, interpersonal violence is said to inflict havoc every single day to many members of the society. In the article Code of the Streets, written by Elijah Anderson, the daily norms of a certain inner city neighborhood can reinforce the use of violence in one’s social relationships. Additionally, simply living in those neighborhoods puts young people at risk of being affiliated with aggressive behavior.

Read More

Code Of The Street Analysis

404 Words | 2 Pages

Nowacki, suggest that family attachments and involvement decrease the likelihood to participate in “street code” mentality (pg. 832). The positive family attachments also reduce the likelihood of youth participating in activities due to peer pressure and can be explained by the theory of a “psychological presence” (Nowacki, pg. 841). Social organization and controlled neighborhoods, are also often backed by strong networks (church organizations, police presence, and youth activities) (Dummond, pg. 195). The combination of parental or familial involvement with strong social controls can often stop a neighborhood from being taken over by street code or decrease the negative impact the street code has on their neighborhood.

Read More

Social Structural Factors In N. W. A

797 Words | 4 Pages

These two dominating groups responded in anger and fear, with police saying that the rap group’s lyrics are provocative, intimidating, and belittling women. They ignore the fact that N.W.A is expressing the realities of violence and racism by police that they and others from Compton experience every day. In many occasions where they perform, police would encircle them and finish the concert with arrests while others riot around the city. As the story progressed, social structural factors are what drives N.W.A to create songs like “F the Police” and “Straight Outta Compton” because their surrounding circumstances are out of their control. Their mentality, values, and beliefs are affected by the harsh reality of life in Compton, from gang violence to racism; this way of life is set for them and opportunities such as getting a good education is far from what they see for themselves.

Read More

Summary Of The Film 'Beyond Beats And Rhymes'

392 Words | 2 Pages

“Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Summary This movie was a broad discussion about hip-hop music (or more specifically gangster rap) and what kind of social issues the music not only showcases but seems to promote. The producer of this film, Byron Hunt, interviewed people involved in all aspects of the hip-hop industry, including famous rappers, to try to get to the bottom of this. Some of the most prominent issues discussed in the film were the over-sexualization of women, gun violence, and anti- homophobic attitudes. Hunt would ask those involved in the industry about why they think these themes are so prevalent.

Read More

Hip Hop Planet Speech

1186 Words | 5 Pages

Firstly, McBride claims that rappers use violent lyrics as a vehicle to bring about awareness and thus promote social change through use of violence. In a section of the essay, he talks about how rappers have made hip-hop go from something you would hear at a party to something you would hear in a local news report because rappers use violent lyrics in order to talk about the issue in their society and how these issues must be acted upon now so that it can

Read More

Black Women In Hip Hop Essay

362 Words | 2 Pages

sharpest young critics, believes that male rapper uses violence as a symbol to express macho power, as a way to resolve all the disagreements between blacks and as necessary for individual protection. Due its popularity, hip hop exacerbates the criminal image of black men in a criminal justice system that has an overpopulation of black men in the prison system. Sorrowfully, many believe that this is the direct product of overly increasing black male criminality as opposed of blaming the social structure. With the enormous success of hip hop what started as pure art and a mechanism to bring awareness of what was going on in the black community, has transformed in a lucrative business. The negative aspect of this is that since big corporations control the music’s distribution channels, in many cases the rap artist is forced to produce the type of music that according to the owner is marketable.

Read More

American Trap Music Cultural Analysis

1223 Words | 5 Pages

When analyzing trap music as a lens of culture, the role of cultural codes is important to the reader as these codes reveal how the culture views itself and how it decides what is considered good or bad. In the American music industry the frame, or the author that ultimately decides what is or is not cultured, has historically been the major record labels who use their huge pool of money to promote the artists that will make them the most money. In American trap music, the major record labels play a much smaller part. With the rise of artist-owned labels, like Gucci Mane’s “1017 Brick Squad” and Future’s “Freebandz”, and the introduction of free music sharing sites like Youtube and Soundcloud, the artists themselves are able to both create

Read More

The Importance Of Violence In Rap

946 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Rap Music Influence On Teenagers

1173 Words | 5 Pages

The explicit sexual language used had significant influence on the teenagers and youths in the major areas surveyed. The research proved that the lyrics have significant influences on the student behaviors in their schools. The lyrics are associated with alcohol and marijuana abuse. Most of the rap music portray images whereby youths and teenagers use guns, feel violence, and create gangs to terrorize and become popular. The negative lyrics create impacts on the listener, making him/her have negative perceptions and fantasies in life.

Read More

Rap Music Thesis

1219 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More

The Negative Effects Of Rap Music

885 Words | 4 Pages

The number of drug references in songs have increased almost 600 percent over recent years. A study showed that 69 percent of rap songs mentioned the use of drugs. It has become a trend in today’s music scene as almost every song makes some type of reference. As an effect of this teens are more likely to take part in drug activity because it has widely spread among the youth. When asked about their opinion on the situation a lot of artist replied that “it is a type of fashion or way of life”.

Read More

More about Street Code In Rap Music

Related Topics

Open Document