Rap Music Stereotypes

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”.

Rap music has become one of the most distinctive and controversial music genres of the past few decades. A major part of hip hop culture, rap, discusses the experiences and standards of living of people in different situations ranging from racial stereotyping to struggle for survival in poor, violent conditions. Rap music is a vocal protest for the people oppressed by these things. Most people know that rap is not only music to dance and party to, but a significant form of expression. It is a source of information that describes the rage of people facing growing oppression, declining opportunities for advancement, changing moods on the streets, and everyday survival. Its distinct sound, images, and attitude are notorious to people of all

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.

Parents were and still are on the fence of their kids listening to rap music. The explicit types of rap music are poisoning the minds of young teens and can even encourage them to act in the a violent manner or rebel. Although, that is for explicit lyrics, not all rap has explicit lyrics. Altogether, rap music does not encourage teen violence in any way and many individual artists even teach their audience how to act positively. Teenagers seem to click easier to song lyrics, whether it's country, rap, rock, or pop. It can affect teenagers in a positive and negative way, but violence being said in the lyrics does not cause an indication of aggression for the listener. The lyrics may describe their situation perfectly, what they go through and how they feel. That’s why we always have those catchy radio tunes stuck in our heads. Alison Churchill, a fan of rapper Eminem from Newsday feed shares her input on what it can do to younger peers. “But she thinks the song could have a positive impact, ‘if it can hit a nerve with a teenager and prompt them to go talk to someone about it.’ Because, Churchill says, ‘The more we talk about a subject, the easier it is to fix.’” If teens don't usually have anyone to talk to, it can cause an empty feeling of loneliness that can turn into urges of depression, anxiety, mental health issues. When rap music hits home for the younger generation it's telling them to open up to somebody and share what you have to say. Talking about something that is bothersome can be a great solution for those who need or want it.

Music can be a reflection of our life experiences. Each genre of music invokes different emotions and reactions in its listeners. Rap has become a very popular genre of music. As its popularity has increased, some people have questioned whether it can trigger violence in teens. While some rap songs do have violent lyrics, there is no direct evidence that rap music provokes violence in teenagers.

two most common stereotypes; the “wealthy” and the “ghetto”. When thinking of a wealthy neighborhood, images of large homes and expensive cars come to mind. On the other hand, the word “ghetto” conjures up images of boarded windows and over- grown lawns. Clearly these stereotypes are not always true, but the idea remains the same. The neighborhood you live in automatically places you in certain categories, re- gardless of whether or not you belong in them. “As the cliché goes, you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes—you can tell even more about them based on where they've chosen to call home.” An article by Megan Koester titled

George focuses on implicit bias largely in the educational sector and how that effects African Americans with the emphasis on specifically the black female. Educationally facilities tend to apply restrictions regarding disciplines on a sort of equality across the board basis; however, the failure of recognition is that this method is not effective and results in long term psychological disparities that will prove to affect an individual’s well-being well beyond their school years. Racism is certainly still prevalent in society and perhaps even unintentionally woven into the very fabric that has a huge impact on our

In my graduating class, there were seven girls: four Arabs, one Somali, one Bengali, and myself, an African American who also has Ethiopian heritage. While in high school, I continuously dealt with a majority of my classmates, as well as some teachers, making remarks that I considered to be racially offensive and made me quite uncomfortable.

I first learned about the world from my parents. Their viewpoints on people and their opinions about issues shaped my perceptions growing up. After interacting with people outside of my house, however, I began to doubt the explanations that my parents offered about issues like race and religion. For example, I distinctly remember my dad telling me to avoid befriending black people due to their “inherent aggressive behavior.” Then, I moved schools in third grade and started interacting with African American kids my age while also learning about the civil rights movement and segregation. With these new experiences and education, I realized that what my parents said to me was wrong and how our negative stereotypes of African Americans are harmful. I shared my findings with them, but they simply shrugged my comments off and kept their bigoted opinions firm despite everything I said. I think it was at that moment I realized

Who listens to R&B music more females or males? We guessed that more females listened R&B music than males. After interviewing a group of males and females I was able to come up with the conclusion that more females listened to R&B music than most males. All of these participants were handpicked from a sociology class. These participants consisted of nine males and nine females. I choose to ask students who were either in band or those who listened to online radios on daily basis. Finally, I asked each participant how many R&B songs they listen to in one day. In the first paragraph, describe the statistical analyses you performed. The data that I gathered showed that females listened to more R&B songs in a day than males do. Chart 1 shows

The impact music has on the life of people is very powerful. It can easily revamp the way people act and take control of people’s emotions. Rap music is a very common and popular type of music within the world today. Rap music has existed since the mid 1970s, nowadays it is practically everywhere. It is easily a central focus of many young people’s lives. Rap music was essentially intended to create a voicing of one’s frustrations and disappointment with society, it has recently taken a turn and is creating a negative impact on the youth. It is the root that influences and encourages degrading women, violence, and is filled with sexual content.

Most rappers and singers nowadays are black, so everything they do is what people think we all do. When you see a group of black males in a car your first thought is something negative, because of how the black male rappers act in their videos and talk about the actions they make we all assume that that’s what all black males do and sadly that is often true. I know many young adults who’ve given up on their education to chase being a rapper all because someone who was once in their shoes got famous from rapping about being in the “street” so they go and confirm those stereotypes when instead they could be pursuing their education to show just because black musicians do it doesn’t mean we all do but, the influence of these music entertainers has too strong of a grip around blacks as a race for us to change the viewing of us as a

These can affect the world in the long run. Rap music and its listeners are commonly perceived in a bad light. Listeners of the rap genre need to be better understood. The word “stereotype” originates from the Greek word “stereos” meaning firm, “typos” meaning impression.

Rap music is a musical style that allows for the listeners to communicate experiences and provides a way for these people to bond over the same experiences and grow together. This music is complicated for some people to understand. For others this type of music tells stories of suffering and some people can relate and connect with what the music is saying. Graffiti writing is an illegal way of displaying a form or artwork, but is one way these people feel accepted together. Even those outside of the hip-hop subculture can still see the significance this subculture plays in society.

In between those days, my perception of the world and the art of music in general changed forever because of To Pimp a Butterfly. Brentwood, a high-earning community, caused me to become unreserved and stuck in my own world. Nonetheless, To Pimp a Butterfly proved to myself that there was a whole world out there not just Brentwood, and there were a greater amount of people with issues and complications than I. Additionally, I became more self-awared of the racial injustice against African-Americans throughout the months. As for music, hip-hop was known to be conceived to the general public as ‘party music’. Despite that, Kendrick Lamar demonstrated that hip-hop can be viewed seriously and as a cinematic art form with relevant themes. For a fifteen-year old me, this album transformed my life of how I viewed the world I lived in and the genre of