Gain Up Git Out Analysis

Geoffrey Bennett’s article Hip Hop: A Roadblock or Pathway to Black Empowerment illustrates the influence hip hop and rap music has had on not only the music industry but mainstream culture, African Americans to be specific. Geoffrey Bennett, a senior English Major from Voorhees, New Jersey goes over many aspects of how hip hop came to be “the forefront of American attention.” He starts from its early history in the 1980s as an African American exclusive music genre to what is now a worldwide phenomenon. He reviews the affect it has had on the lifestyle of many people and the ways it’s changed the way people

But reading further, these methods of neoliberalism stated are used to show what it means to be a good citizen in American society meaning hard work, ethics, and professionalism. But this also means to part ways with the stereotypical thoughts of model minority races such as blacks and Asians as criminals or “whiz kids” because everything needs diversity whether music, politics etc. Also, what was interesting at the beginning, is how the Angry Asian Man was fighting for the Kaba Modern dance team when they were eliminated in the ABDC performance. The reason being is because when he states “blacks have sense of entitlement,” is startling because this is the same language used when reading sports articles explaining how there is a lack of African-American coaches in professional sports due to the similar issues of

‘From the margins to the mainstream: the political power of hip-hop’ by Katina R. Stapleton

One of the more prominent criticisms of hip that Rose points out is that there is a large amount of misplaced blame in the world of hip hop. She writes, “increasingly, too many of hip hop’s supporters point to structural racism to explain the origins of the problem but refuse to link these structural forces to individual action and to the power of media seduction” (p. 73). In this section of the second chapter, Rose is explaining that those who defend commercial hip hop are taking a more-or-less one-dimensional approach to their arguments by solely blaming structural racism and overlooking the

In the article Rap and Moral Character by Susan Dwyer, the subject of concern is the consequences of listening to rap music and the effect it has on moral character. The author argues that rap music contribute to the corruption of moral character, it is misogynistic, promotes violence and street crime. In this paper I will examine the author’s claims, use of key concepts, and her reasoning. By doing so, I will be able to demonstrate that Dwyer’s thesis is unjust and unsupported. In what follows, I will analyze the claims to show that the author’s arguments are irrelevant and lack sufficient evidence to support her thesis. Secondly, I will examine the author’s reasoning to point out fallacious reasoning and lastly I will evaluate her use of

The connection that is drawn between the formerly economically challenged rapper and the child whose parent works two jobs, and can’t pay his child’s college tuition is paramount in making this point. The illusion of the American dream is set through many hip-hop songs. The picture of the evolution of the rags to riches story is set by many rappers in current hip-hop culture, this picture is the basic premise

The nihilism is a huge issue in the black culture as stated by West. West points out that nihilism hopelessness that African Americans face (397). West mentions that African Americans have lost hope in their lives. The nihilism does not depict every black person’s life because not all black people struggle. Lawlessness is described by West that laws and justice are not always seen in the black communities. (399). West notes that market morality portrays the struggle of African Americans (400). West says market morality governs the portrayal of black lives on television (399). West argues that Black America is completely engrossed with the media. The market morality and nihilism are a disease in black America as stated by West (400). West defines market morality as market forces that persuade black culture (398). The song ‘Git up Git out’ by Outkast serves as a strong supporting example of Wests point that African Americans are threatened by nihilism due to their place at the bottom of the social ladder and the medias influences on their lifestyle.

The course topics this session were all very interesting. The one that seemed to resonate with me the most was the section about Rap Music. The way that the material was presented and how Rap Music as a whole was dissected was really intriguing. One point that really stuck with me was the “Our Buddy” discussion. It really opened my eyes to how the rap/hip-hop industry markets the music to us. This paper will show that the stereotype of “Our Buddy”in rap music is very real and how the material has turned from an art form into and marketing ploy. I intend to support my argument with examples and analysis by explaining how the stereotype can become accepted as a social norm.

Hip Hop music became one of the primary constructive outlets for Black Americans to release their thoughts, pain, and anguish about the injustices and mistreatments of Black people. Even though most of the pioneers in Hip-Hop either were not born in America or are 2nd generation immigrants that proves that common oppression can lead to unity. The fact that that these individuals were impoverished and felt marginalized is what brought them together and lead to the culture today. Deep rooted racism in the United States kept the genre of music suppressed for a while before it was allowed to even be played on the airwaves. Now, in 2011, the main consumers of byproducts of hip hop are White Americans.

The origins of hip hop started in the late 70’s as a pastime that brought all the impoverished people of the projects together to have fun through. But decades later in the 90’s, people began to rap about many subjects ranging from the crack epidemic, hard life in the ghetto, or just having fun, but the underlying motive of rappers in this era was to reflect on their rough lifestyle through clever lyrics. The motive wasn’t for money, but recognition for their unique wordplay among the rap community. However, that all changed when record companies saw a financial opportunity in rappers, and rappers saw a financial opportunity through music. Due to the commercialization of hip hop, authenticity is rare to find in the mainstream

Music and society have always been closely related. For years now music has been apart of people’s everyday lives all around the world. Having so many different genres out there, it makes it easy to be appealing to so many different ethnic backgrounds. However, one type of genre in particular has seemed to grab the attention of a younger generation. Rap music has undoubtedly had its utmost impact on African American youth, since many of the performers themselves are African American. An overtly masculine culture dominates rap music and creates gender stereotypes that become abundantly popular to the youthful audience. Three constant themes that are found within the rap culture are encouragement of violence, the misogynistic representation of women, an extreme hatred of homophobia. Each theme plays a detrimental role in the process of defining black masculinity as well as shaping the values, morals, and beliefs that its younger audience adopts after tuning into this “gangster lifestyle”.

Hip-Hop is an extensive and a broad conglomerate of various artistic forms that ultimately originated in the South Bronx and then quickly spread throughout the rest of New York City among African-Americans and other African-American youth mainly from the Caribbean and from Jamaica during the 1970’s. Over the course of decades and recent years, controversy surrounding Hip-Hop and rap music has been the vanguard of the media. From the over hype of the East and West Coast rivalry to the deaths of Tupac, Biggie, and even Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, it seems that political and broadcasting groups have been injudicious to place essentially the blame on rap and Hip-Hop music for a superficial trend in youth violence.

It is clear that the hip hop culture plays a huge role in the lives of many people. It has influenced the way people dress, the way they talk, and the way they act. Unfortunately, many big corporations have taken advantage of this and commercialized rap music in order to gain a profit (Blair, 497). Commercialization is a very complex topic; however, it is important to understand. This is because of the fact that when something becomes widely known, such a hip hop and rap have, it is vulnerable to change (Phillips, paragraph 9). An example of this is when author Nicole Phillips states, “Hip-hop became more about edge and less about the content of the message. It became about sales….” (Phillips, paragraph 9). Therefore, in order to prevent any further change, one needs to understand commercialization and how it works. This paper is going to explore the complexities and nuances of commercialization of the hip hop culture. In order to do this, this paper will consider what commercialization of hip hop culture entails. This paper will also discuss how Elizabeth Blair, author of “Commercialization of the Rap Music Subculture,” conceptualized commercialization, as well as how she discusses the situation in general. After discussing these topics, the paper will move on to discussing cultural appropriation. This discussion will include how authors describe cultural appropriation, and a debate regarding this topic.

Hip Hop culture has come from a inner city expression of life to a multi-billion dollar business. At the beginning of the new millennium it was the top selling genre in the pop charts. It had influences not only on music, but on fashion, film, television, and print. In 2004 Hip Hop celebrated its 30th year anniversary. It wasn’t big for the fact that it was still kicking. It was big because the once Black/Brown inner city culture had grown into a multi-billion dollar global phenomenon (Reeves). Hip Hop culture has provided a platform for all walks of life to speak their mind. Over the past 36 years it has provided us with both entertainment and controversy alike and had a huge impact on our nation’s history. `

Songs such as “John” by Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, and “Crack” by 2 Chainz influence behaviors such as shooting people and selling drugs. “John” talks about how they have an AK-47 in their trunk and Lil Wayne says load it up and “hit them where it hurt.” Later in the song Lil Wayne says, “You know the rule, kill them all and keep moving.” This means just shoot and act like nothing happened. In 2 Chainz’s song he talks about how he is standing on the corners selling crack, cooking it in his kitchen, and has over one thousand grams of it on him. The future generations of America are listening to this stuff, and it is corrupting their minds.