Hip Hop Research Paper

Hip-hop, a predominantly African American genre with ever-increasing nationwide popularity, presents a valuable opportunity to examine how racial tension still exists and how by working in an overwhelmingly black genre, white rappers must justify their popularity and prove their ability in an industry that evolved out of serving and entertaining African American communities. By being the first white rapper to justify his popularity and prove his ability in the post Vanilla Ice era, Eminem has not only allowed himself to be successful, he has reopened the world of rap to other white artists.

Artists such as Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and The Game have come together to create music as a protest. It is necessary to understand that these artist protest through music because it is a way to send a message to the world. A lot of their listeners have no idea of the troubles they face until they hear it from them. This has been going on for years starting with videos of Hip-Hop Godfathers expressing how white people treat the black community. Today’s generation of hardcore rappers want to display a message that the black community will not tolerate this kind of treatment, and they show that through their music and music videos. There should be a greater view on the lives of black peoples. The Movement for Black Lives states that they are going to team up with more than black communities to get policies passed (Platform). There main goal here is to create a bigger voice that will constitute the black community. The black community should come together to fight for their rights and equal treatments, it is not right for people with authority to demeanor the lives of black people by doing so, a message would be received, and the potential of abolishing racism is

We have to step away from the fact that most people associate hip hop as some form violent negative influence and start realizing that artists using their music to spread a positive message to help influence others and their actions. SOURCE 1 “In high-crime areas, putting on these made up personas is life-threatening, but the fact that gangsta rappers told the stories of others is often seen as having earned them respect for raising awareness of the severity of inner-city crime” (Canton). There are many different ways that hip hop is educational. Some of which include self expression, creativity, as well as encouraging

So, on many artists have come to use their platform to not only be a voice used to illustrate the stories of blacks in America but an avenue for change. From N.W.A’s “F the Police” to J. Cole’s “Be Free”, Hip Hop has historically been aware of the racial tensions in America. However, there are still those who argue that Hip Hop just glamorizes gang violence and ghetto-life. Nevertheless, there are plenty of rappers who are “socially conscious” and have remained true to the heart of Hip Hop.

Rap music is the most powerful tool that those communities have to express to the rest of the country how difficult for them is to succeed. Lakeyta Bonnette says that "they are left with outlets such as rap to express their angst, anger, and disappointment at being left behind"(Bonnette, 238). Black communities often are forgotten by the government and if it wasn’t for the rap music, those communities would have been unnoticed by the whole country too. Not to mention, rappers besides being the voice for the black communities, they also donate money to those black communities to make it better and safer for the

Another reason why rappers shouldn’t be criticized is because the world was violent long before rap was invented, and it is not rap music that is making the world more violent then it is already. I strongly believe that people have the freedom of choice to listen to rap music and if you don’t like what rap artists talk about, then you do not have to listen to the music. If people didn’t have a choice that would be one thing, but as long as people have a choice to do or not to do something then they shouldn’t try to criticize it. To me, rap music is more than a strain. It is the reflection of horrible suffering, struggle and pain of the ghetto life. I feel that art reflects life, so I ask myself why aren’t the National Black leaders like Delores Tucker, more concerned about where the source of rap music exists than the work denuding these types of harsh conditions(SIRS 1993). “ I think that kids know the difference between right and wrong, music and reality. They know it’s not right to go kill somebody and if there driven to that, that’s not the fault of the music,” says Jon Shecter, editor of The Source, a rap magazine(SIRS 1993). If the people throughout the world that criticize gangster rap music would begin to really care then they would try to find and fix the conditions that this art of music comes from and stop criticizing the artist. In other

The music industry is always growing and trying to solicit new music to get higher ratings. “The music industry’s role in promoting negative music has been a hot topic for many years. What is too often under reported is how young people, including incarcerated youth, are directly impacted by the music.” That quote came from an article called ‘Seb is Hip Hop’. All a person has to do is turn on their radio to a mainstream station and they to can get taste of the carnage. Rap and hip-hop are two of many genres that get a lot of attention for their violence, drug use, and degrading sexism towards women.

They take the videos for what they are, a means of entertainment and light fun. But if that was true, these music videos wouldn’t have such profound influence on our culture like it does. They have sparked debates and national discussions on what‘s going on in the modern world. They impact the way we dress, talk, and think. They impact how we look at others and how we look at ourselves, whether we know it or not. So we have to take these videos seriously and take a second but deeper look into the subtext. The truth is that gangster rap videos are full of stereotypes and bias. They focus on one side and don’t show the whole picture. The fact is that they degrade African American women. They mostly focus on a woman’s body and portray them as sex objects. Women are more than what is between their legs. We are intelligent human beings with minds, goals, and ambitions of our own, all of which usually get left out of the music videos.

The artist is constantly molding and shaping the character of a person that they feel would maybe a more likeable and relatable person rather than themselves. Whether they have to do it based on the lack of income or their sexuality, mainstream rap never gives the artist a chance to fully express themselves without being relatable or popular even. The radio should give access to more underground by playing them more and exposing them for their creativity. Most of what's played now is exactly the same as to what could be heard on the radio the day before. That means that songs that were replayed could've been filled with various underground artists that rarely receives play rather than Drake’s ‘Controlla’ 5 times a day

It’s no secret that the music industry has one sole objective and it all revolves around money and profits. Needless to say, for many years based on their studies of demographics and market share the music industry believes that Latino and Puerto Rican rap artist aren’t a good investment for profits. A perfect example of these practices would be the rise of artists like Eminem and Big Pun in the music industry. Both of these artists were heavily considered to be respected lyrist in the game, however the way the music industry marketed Eminem (a white rapper) in comparison to Big Pun (a Puerto Rican rapper) were drastically different. Even though both of these individuals were extremely talented, the music industry marketing machine seemed

With that being said, I think that Hip hop has a very long way to go. Till this day the majority of music played on radio stations are not representing black people in a good light and that is how most stereotypes of us is till “successful”. Everyone should come together and fight against the injustice of how rappers are only criticized for what they say and how other artists from other genres are turned a blind eye. Everyone has the same thinking process and it one person shouldn’t be criticized for what the somewhat “majority” think.

Racism encourage many singers to make the music against the other races. Creating rap song influences black people to lean more toward racism against white people. Racism in society music has been making enemies for a long time. There are many discrimination in hip hop and rap music that played a huge role in lots of the music made. Artists like Tupac, Kanye West and Eminem are known for writing songs involves in to these issues. This songs shows images of gangs, guns, and violence, women, yet it became very popular. These violent lyrics in songs can be a cause for some teenagers to start fights, even kill each other But unfortunately our culture has accepted these stereotypes, according to mead “to each individual there was given the security, although it might be the security of despair, of a set role, and the reward of being born into a highly complex society” (p17) we need to feel safe around music, so many people listening to music and the videos, they feel as though this casual racism is normal and is acceptable is

Like the Christians in ancient Rome who held mass in catacombs and spread their religion secretly, underground artists are privately leading a revolution in these small clubs now in promotion of returning rap to hip-hop, and there probably has never been such a fierce fire lit under the artists like there is now to bring change. Underground artists are fed up with how hip-hop is treated by a lot of major labels that have changed the structure of songs. In 2000, especially on the radio, you may hear one or two verses, an R&B singer lacing the track and then a hook that is repeated enough times to take up 3 plus minutes. This is a brash example of today’s state of hip-hop, but the point is made- creativity in hip-hop has been pushed aside for tracks that incorporate overused samples, have no real message, and have virtually eliminated the DJ from the music.

Kubrin and Nelson 190, 195, 197). That kind of marketing strategy by taking advantage of gang culture is such a two-edged sword: On the one hand, gangsta rap has turned out to be a profound commercial success and made hip-hop by far a multibillion dollar industry ; the mainstream success has enlarged hip-hop’s popularity far beyond the underground scene and transformed it into a popular culture in the world (191). On the other hand, the global popularity of hip-hop with the appropriated images of rappers as violent men on the street gang makes the music genre, instead of being the community’s expression as originally, nowadays “muffled and suppressed for things that sell” by such as CEOs of alcohol companies, clothing companies, sneaker companies and major record labels which are mostly white-based (Salmons

While many rappers were able to make money on the new movement the majority of that money did not go into fixing up and nourishing the black community. This is evident in the music videos and song lyrics that brag about spending money on luxurious items, drugs, alcohol, and women instead of things that actually bolster the community.