Hip hop has a message that reveals the social inequalities of our nations. In addition, McBride wants people to keep an open mind about hip hop and new thing that they may not be used to. In conclusion, he declares hip
Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.
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.
In the late 1970s, a new musical culture appeared that had a very important impact, not only upon American culture, but also upon American mentality, lifestyle, language and behavior. It was the hip-hop culture which was not all about music. It could build personality, change your mentality, and change your lifestyle. Hip-hop and rap have been cultivated by African American culture since it’s birth and it still presumes to be.
Critical Response 4 Within his article, Simon Frith asks a question that caused me to stop and think: “The question we should be asking is not what does popular music reveal about ‘the people’ but how does it construct them? (137)” As he states, music is an individualizing form that creates an identity or self-definition that we use to give ourselves a particular place in society. The hip hop movement aided in constructing the Puerto Rican identity in New York City, allowing artists to experiment with language and race relations while challenging the traditional notions of Latinidad.
It is established that hip-hop can only be authentic to the black community because of the common experience shared through its lyrics. Eminem’s mimicry of a predominantly black industry within a predominantly white society is described as both ‘authentic’ and ‘grotesque’. The author suggests that Eminem’s success is due to the authenticity and acceptance in his socioeconomic status. The rapper can genuinely relate to his audience not by pretending to know what it’s like to be black, but by using a commonality, poverty, to reach an otherwise unreachable audience. Eminem establishes his racial identity as being ‘white trash’, but focuses on class over race to build his reputation in his early albums.
Claiming Hip-hop: Race and the Ethics of Underground Hip-hop Participation This article reveals the connection between race, ethics and hip-hop. Harrison exposes the racial boundaries in regards to hip-hop. Within hip-hop debates the one constant idea is the centrality of African American culture and their identity. Harrison goes on to acknowledge the presence of the black race’s influence on hip-hop and rap, through television and media. “Real hip-hop’” is associated with blackness, however white rappers are often perceived to influence “fake hip-hop.”
Young people and marginalized communities have historically used music, fashion, and style to express who they are, protest against injustice, and resist oppressive systems. Within these cultural movements, diverse gender identities are also celebrated by disrupting societal norms and promoting inclusivity. The multifaceted roles of music, fashion, and style serve as outlets for self-expression and can be leveraged to challenge the hegemonic standards of the ever-changing society. Different genres of music such as rap and hip-hop have paved the way for political progress, by advocating for change through an art medium. Numerous marginalized groups have found their voice in the hip-hop community due to the shared experiences within this avenue
Hip Hop is seen as something inspiring, but most people see it as a way to speak out the truth about a problem. As in “Hip Hop planet” being able say the truth can sometimes worsen any situation because sometimes what we say can promote violence and whatever happens after is not in our control. The essay is about how hip hop has changed into speaking out the issues that need to be taken care of in order to maintain a proper society. McBride talked about how rappers use violent lyrics to degrade women and gays and because of this it shows how the music has evolved into something entirely different that no one would have ever expected to have changed. In James McBride's essay “Hip Hop Planet,” he argues that hip hop has a negative influence on American Culture despite people thinking of it as inspirational and how people live through different experiences in life despite of your race.
In the 1920s, jazz music, which originated from African Americans, was booming out of popularity. Both whites and blacks saved up their money to go to Harlem and danced all night to the music. However, as time passed, hip hop, also originated from African Americans, emerged in the 1940s. It received a lot of hate out of fear of its “devil music” and the music “sounding black.” This changed and shaped how teenagers rebelled against and challenged social values and norms in order to be able to express themselves freely.
Introduction The notion of Cultural appropriation is a controversial notion. It is generally misinterpreted as a restriction on engaging with other cultures. This paper will try to dispel the myth behind the definition of cultural appropriation and address the notion of cultural appropriation in Hip-Hop as addressed in Rodriguez’s article. Rodriguez’s article argues that the notion of color blindness appropriates Hip-Hop, this article will extend deeper into concept and unearth the connection with the ghettoized popular Hip-Hip, why it is appropriation, results of appropriation, grey areas and where the concept of cultural appropriation was first inspired.
When I was growing up, my father never allowed me to listen to a lot of rap music. Instead, he exposed me to other types of music, even music that was not in English. I found the topic of how music affects people to be interesting because I never truly understood why I was not allowed to listen to certain types of music. In “Media literacy and perceptions of identity among pre-adolescent African-American girls”, Johari Harris, Miles Irving, PhD and Ann C Kruger, PhD take interviews of 8 young girls attending an elementary school in a 6-week program called “Project Prevent”.
Hip-hop is one of the most popular and profitable music industries in the world. For instance, Pitbul, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West . This fact is quite alarming since the general idea which hip-hop music is based on degrades women. This music promotes misogyny - a term used to express hatred and prejudice against women . Women are constantly humiliated and disrespected in hip-hop songs, which may influence society’s attitude towards them, especially among adolescents.
These children find their way out in many ways, including creating an identity through music. Rap and hip-hop have always drawn in young adolescents that have lost their innocence to city culture. This is because rap gives us something to feel and relate to in society, even though the good of rap may “get lost in the flurry of profanity, party rhymes, and braggadocio.” (Pate 2). These children who face daily struggles of american city culture, find peace in knowing the song of rap, which encapsulates the true problems within the deep streets of cities like Chicago or Detroit.
This is my critical response paper about language and identity. Although Cutler’s article discusses young European immigrants through Hip-hop to identify their racial identities in New York City, which may be far away from the phenomenon of Hip-hop of young Chinese people, in my view, the younger Chinese generation also treats Hip-hop as a medium to express their identities. From the late 1990s to the present moment, Chinese youths link to western culture and contact with Hip-hop through the Internet (De Kloet 2). Cutler said Hip-hop provides a broad range of social, cultural, and linguistic resources to help youths quest self-definitions (8). In the world of Hip-hop, the younger Chinese generation narrates daily life in a mutinous way and uses different Chinese dialects in order to show their “cool” and keep their distinct regional identities.
