Hip Hop Vs Rap Culture

Rap music was creating a negative influence throughout the music industry for awhile, it’s agreeable that modern day rap today mostly involves drugs, gangs, violence, money, etc. Although, a lot of it also gives inspiration or at least has that goal being set when creating the music. Most

Within History, Rap has been considered the “CNN for black people”; what started as a way to express struggles in the ghettos of New York has transformed into one of the most popular genres of music in America. The popularity of rap has allowed many to have their voices heard, created new fashion trends, and even developed popular modern slang used by people throughout the world. The commercialization of rap has resulted in a significant following of the culture in America but also a large number of people who oppose the music. The culture of rap music has a substantial impact on popular culture in America, and by using an open mind and looking past the violence and language, people can better understand the meaning behind rap and the perception that follows it in America today.

In rap music it’s not hard to find the violent lyrics with most of the music speaks about gang violence, shootings, drugs, and more. An example of a song that influences violence is J. Coles song “A Tale of 2 Cities” with lyrics like “Picked up the paper and they say my nigga Eddie caught a body, I'm convinced anybody is a killer, all you gotta do is push 'em to the limps” in this part of the song Cole speaks about how his friend, who isn’t really a person who would commit a crime, murdered somebody; Cole isn’t surprised because he believes everybody is a killer if you push them to their limits. Another example in the song is “They robbin' niggas on the daily can you blame a nigga that ain't never had things? Guess not last night they pulled up on my nigga at the light like ugh, nice watch, run it” the first part of these lyrics Cole justifies the crime of robbing because they have nothing. In the second part Cole states that somebody came up to his friend and robbed him of his watch, on this part the sound of a gun being cocked in the background is heard and is continued with the chorus saying “hands in the air now” (Genius). These lyrics not only promote violence but justify why it was okay to do such crimes. The reasoning behind why artists talk about violence is that it’s a way of telling their story. Namir, a rapper in New York says “People have to realize that rappers are just like any other artist or musician. What makes an artist an artist is his artistic portrayal of his life and how he expresses his life through whatever art form that he does” (PBS). With people growing up in terrible environments and music being a way for them to cope the reasoning for the violent lyrics is the artist trying tell their

Hip hop is a culture style that started in the 1970’s. Majority of different funk groups began playing disco music at that time it was popular. During this time funk music was technology driven more electronic sounds was being used on the drum machines. Funk was the new dance in the early 70’s. This particular style of singing in which was being used is called rapping, this begun in African American, Urban Areas, Jamaican American, Latino American and many others cities of the United States. The group of artist or singer say words with a rhythm that rhymes. Some hip hop music lyrics are about violence and illegal drugs. Often time lyrics are about the life of urban people who stay in big cities. Other styles that hip hop uses come from pop music such as disco and reggae. Hip hop and rap music has become very popular and a successful genre in music. The style of dressing called urban clothes is also involved with the hip hop culture. They wore big baggy pants, large t-shirts, and Timberland leather work boots. In the 2000’s the United States and Canada popular music style was hip hop music (Kavanagh).

Hip-Hop Culture and race have had a complicated relationship in the past two decades. It has been commonly referred to as “black music” and a reflection of black culture. However, recent studies done by the Mediamark Research Inc. showed that 60% of rap music buyers are white. With the emergence of white, Latino, Asian, and other rappers with diverse backgrounds on the Hip Hop scene it is important recognize the changing color of the genre and the stereotype it holds as “black music”. Black culture has also been subject to appropriation because of the popularization of Hip-hop music. However, much of the discourse on the topic confuses cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and states that hip-hop music is strictly for African Americans or that it doesn’t belong to anyone at all. Hip-Hop is a black art form that transcends cultural boundaries and can be appreciated through the lenses of different cultures as long as those who enjoy it acknowledge its roots. The genre’s growing number of non-black rappers is not due to the appropriation of the genre by other cultures but as an expansion of it due to it’s growing popularity across the world.

In seventh grade, I stumbled my way upon the Detroit based rapper Eminem. I was at 150 listens on his track The Real Slim Shady before I knew it. I then found my way into Kanye West, which exploded my interest into the genre. I have listened to all of the considered essential hip hop “classic” and modern day albums. I noticed in these “classic” albums very distinct change in subject matter and style that each of the different areas of rappers on where they originate from. Some people believe that the hip-hop culture is at a decline with the lose of this uniqueness and individuality shown in each of these areas. I too even thought that the hip-hop culture was at a decline until I was researching my topic, but instead this individuality and uniqueness in the rapper’s different stories that they tell in their raps. The genre has expanded throughout the world and continued to evolve while sticking to these roots of individuality and uniqueness.

In fact, they cause a brain washing effect in the young impressionable children. An example is when those rappers use the n-word, which is so evil and vile that it should never be used, and associate it with friends and justify this by saying as long as the word is ended with a soft a and told by another black man. This unintelligent way of discerning just insults the dream Martin Luther King Jr. had given his life up for, thousands imprisoned for, and millions had marched in. Indeed Martin Luther King Jr. Fought so that the African American could raise each other up and not be oppressed by outside forces, but instead the African Americans themselves become their own

The lyrics that are in rap songs are not only listened to by African Americans but by many other cultures, cultures who know nothing about them. Different cultures listen to rap music to get to know a culture and all the violence and explicit lyrics within rap creates stereotypes. To other cultures they see African Americans as violent pimps, which is not the case at all. Not to mention African American women in rap videos, even the men in the same culture consider them to be b***** not sisters.

Hip hop is a huge inspiration to young adults now. Some of the inspiration is positive and some of its is negative. Hip hop was art back in the 90s and it was sung about stuff that was actually happening in the rappers lives or stuff going on. While now it's only about drugs and sex which is so mainstream.The South Bronx hip hop scene emerged in the 1970s from neighbourhood block parties thrown by the Ghetto Brothers and others like tupac and NWA were some real rappers now we only have so many.

In the world of music there are a variety of genres and various themes for the lyrics. In recent years, lyrics have generally slowly evolved in a negative direction. There was a time when music had no curse words, but now practically every second word is a curse word. The current music is mainly about girls, breakups, money, and living the most extravagant lifestyle possible. The musicians are incredibly talented, but they waste their talent on making music of relationship drama. The specific genre of rap is particularly guilty of this. Every rapper talks about the same thing over and over. Although it may be a different beat, have different instruments, be a different rapper, or have different words, the message is the same. It’s

Entering the Park Tavern, a bar and grill in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia proved to be quite different that the bar and grill locations. Most bar and grill restaurants like Dugans and J.R.Crickets, have music so loud that conversation is to a bar minimum basically eye contact is usually in replace of verbal conversation. Park Tavern gave an ambience that was welcome with open arms by all parties in the venue. One could appreciate the live band performances versus the DJ spinning the same records for three to four hours.

Now, rap is associated with those who had a 'hard life', or perceived their life to be at a lower place. In today’s society Rap music is controversial. Many people within our American society have mixed feelings regarding the nature of the lyrics. However, lyrics are not the only issue within the rap community that are causing issues.

Does “hip hop” belong to the younger generation only? Well to me hip hop is most likely for the younger generation because elderly people don’t understand the music nowadays. Elderly people don’t like listening to rap and hip hop because nowadays its very disgusting and disrespectful. And the younger like music it because they most likely can relate to it and bounce music is real disrespectful thats why elderly don’t listen to it.

Rap music is defined as popular music advanced by disc jockeys and urban blacks in the late 1970s. This kind of music consists of a repeated beat pattern that provides the background for rapid, urban language, accompanied by a vocalist. Hip-Hop music is a genre that originated in the United States by inner-city African Americans in the 1970s, which consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. The Difference between rap and hip-hop music defined by EBONY is that hip-hop is a culture while rapping is one of four elements contained therein—the others being breakdancing, DJing and graffiti. The perception of rap music/hip-hop music by academic scholars is often accurate, in the portrayal that types of rap/hip-hop musicians often exhibit violent, misogynistic, antisocial, and materialistic content and behavior. Writer’s Johnnetta B. Cole, Tia Tyree, Michelle Jones, Matthew Oware, Terri Adams, and Douglas Fuller have all discussed the topic of rap music, and the ways in which it exhibits violent, misogynistic, antisocial, and materialistic content and behavior.

After reading this chapter I learned that Hip-hop is originated from the streets black culture, but also refers to rap. There are five performance forms of hip-hop culture, including rap (rhythm, rhyme to speak), b-box, djing (play record and turntable skills), graffiti writing (graffiti art), beat-box (body Audio). So rap just an element of hip-hop culture. The complete hip-hop culture has dances, clothing, even life attitude. The origin and development of Hip-hop culture was closely related to the United States and Europe. From jazz to the rhythm and blues, to Rap, the contribution of black to American music is really profound. Hip-Hop is not only popular among blacks; it has also been liked by whites, especially young group. Hence by the