Hip Hop If you ask people who are uneducated in Hip Hop culture you’d hear things such as ignorance, violence, and pestilence. If you ask someone who’s studied, loves and appreciates Hip Hop culture you’d hear things such as aspire, desire, and inspire. Hip Hop is meant to express not to suppress. Many of the misconceptions that may have someone correlate Hip Hop music and any form of violence may be because of the image and coverage that Hip Hop music is given through thing such as news and social media. Arguably, one of the most momentous and memorable Hip Hop moments in recent memory are the murders of rappers Tupac Amaru Shakur and Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace. Many may look upon these deaths and see what they assume is a fair and balanced picture of what Hip Hop is all about: murder, drugs, and money. LA Times reporter Mikael Woods states that the times of Tupac and Biggie, although not completely, are over. The deaths of these two icons, along with the turn of the century, brought a new face to Hip Hop music. Wood writes “At a moment in which the depiction of violence in other forms of media appears increasingly graphic, much of the conflict in hip-hop has moved inward, its …show more content…
Albeit, this may be true this fact can also be a testament to the hard work and dedication that these artists have for their crafts. A prime example is a rapper by the name of Nasir Jones, or, better known by his stage name, Nas. Nas left school after 8th grade against his mothers wishes to pursue a rap career. What he lacked in basic Math, English, and Science skills he made up for with his self-motivated studies in language and history, mainly pertaining to African American history. Nas even went as far as spending time reading the dictionary to expand his vocabulary that he could incorporate in his intricate, clever, and witty