The Negative Impact Of Hip-Hop Music And Culture

Hip hop is one of the most prominent component in life and culture today. Today, it is often affiliated as being a musical genre and style that is debatably the leading factor in music today. But hip hop is far more than that. It is a culture and a way life. It has helped form most what we know today. It has greatly influenced many ways that we choose to define ourselves. Clothing styles, all forms of art media, storytelling, and many other canvases that we typically use in our everyday life has been tremendously impacted the culture form of hip hop, and this trend is on a steady constant growth.

Do you remember a time, during which hip hop music was a voice against African American oppression? Honestly, it is hard to tell nowadays. Even though hip hop was a concept coined my American artists, it is rooted in many cultures among different nations. It is one of the only nationalistic movements that have not lost its fundamental heritage throughout the test of time. Hip hop music has always been a voice for the voiceless, but in the past decade, the music genre has declined into commercialism. While these mainstream artists are cashing in their paychecks, young, talented artists, like the SaveMoney Crew are reinstating the consciousness in rap that has been missing for some time now. I believe that the majority of mainstream rap has changed for the worse because rappers are largely making music about meaningless things like extravagant purchases, hard core drugs, and sexual exploits, instead of using their position and influence to advocate against police brutality, discrimination, and the struggles inherent in a life of poverty like the underground movement spearheaded by the Savemoney Crew and other young, socially conscious rappers.

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).

In the early 70's, a Jamaican, DJ known as Kool Herc attempted to combine his Jamaican style of disk jockey, that involved reciting improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records (Davey 1). He also invented turntables, which kept the music going, with the occasional voice on the top of records, which started the roots of rap music. Over time, the culture broke into mainstream, spread around the world, and young people who did not have much to do, created not only multi-million industry, but have also created a way we can speak to each other all around the world. Hip hop is linked to other music such as rap which is embraced by urban black population. It is raw self-expression, sometimes features expletive lyrics, and violence. “Hip hop artists spoke to despair and pain of urban youth and the poor who were often without a voice. The rappers themselves were, the product of that reality, and it was conveyed through their lyrics” (Muhammad 1).

As Tricia Rose explains in A Style Nobody Can Deal With, hip-hop culture originated in the mid to late-1970s in urban New York as a way for minorities to express themselves. In the beginning, hip-hop culture consisted of four ‘elements’, or ways of expression: rapping, DJing, break-dancing, and graffiti (Rose 73). The rapper, or MC (master of ceremonies), expresses themselves through the most basic form of communication, words. He or she performs their lyrics over instrumentation provided by the DJ. These DJs brought unique sounds by

Rap and hip-hop first started to come together in the 1970 's, but didn 't really materialize and become popular until the 1990 's. With a huge surge in popularity and growth in the 1990 's, it seemed that rap and hip-hop had started a cultural phenomenon that still has noticeable effects easily seen today in music and also in pop culture. A cultural phenomenon is an idea, trend, or movement that shapes and defines that time period. During the 1990 's, rap and hip-hop spread like wild fire across the nation, from the inner cities to the suburbs to anywhere where you can find a radio. Rap and hip-hop brought a different kind of lyrical rhythms and upbeat, energetic music that most people weren’t too familiar with. This cultural

In addition to increasing awareness of issues that are going on in America, Hip Hop gives youth a needed outlet from their lives and an outlet for self-expression. Many hip hop artists rap and talk Their poverty and daily struggles they experienced while growing up in an inner-city America. Many rappers like Kanye West and Logic now use their platform to talk about rising to the top and the obstacles they overcame. Those messages implanted in the music give hope to younger kids going through the same situation. For example, when an artists talks and raps about their distressed childhood with drug-addicted and abusive parents. A kid going through the same situation and get through it easier and see that if this person made it out so can I. When

Run-DMC were also pioneers in the fashion industry with their Adidas sneakers, tracksuits, fedoras and gold chains which would later be known as Hip Hop style, look or dress. In New York City every borough had its own Hip Hop style of dress, you would know where a person was from simply by the way they dressed. According to Business of Fashion magazine Angelo Anastasio, a senior Adidas employee, was attending a 1986 Madison Square Gardens performance of the Raising Hell tour when he was amazed by the sight of tens of thousands of fans lifting their Adidas sneakers into the air, answering the call of those on stage. Run-DMC became the first hip hop group to receive a million-dollar endorsement deal and a limited edition shell toe ‘Superstar’ sneaker was released. Run-DMC was the first hip-hop/rap group to land an apparel endorsement

The hip hop or rap music is a style of popular music originated in the late 1970s in the South Bronx during a time characterized by political traditionalism and economic collapse. It started being played in gathering in public parks or individual homes. It was first used by the youngest members of the inner city black and Latino communities in New York. This kind of music, provided one of the few spaces where excluded minority youth could adopt and secure a public voice, and also a way in which members of these communities could express their worries and speak without restrictions.

It was a Tuesday morning in the Information Technology class at State College. An older student was doing his best to ignore the loud, obscene disruption occurring next to him, the result of two younger students ignoring the lesson at hand. Finally, he gave in and spoke up against their sanctimonious display, and was quickly bullied and threatened with violence in front of the entire class. Both aggressors exemplified and embodied every aspect of the hip-hop culture: Ebonics spewing out of their mouths, expensive and baggy clothing draped and sagging from their bodies complete with headphones around their neck blaring expletive laden song lyrics. The dynamic duo mentioned here certainly aren’t the only members of this ilk, nor are they

Hip hop is a culture that has changed music, dance, fashion, language, and even politics. Over the years the connection between hip-hop has changed several times from the 80s B-Boy inspired sports look, to today’s everything designer type of style. “Hip Hop has influenced and uplifted America, speaking up for generations and providing a voice to a group of people trying to deliver a message. Opponents of the Hip Hop culture argue that the music is aggressive in nature and promotes social rebellion-

It was not to long ago when Nas said that he believed that Hip Hop was dead which left people offended and confused by his views of Hip Hop music. Nas album “Hip Hop is Dead” was the eighth album by the American Rapper , which was dropped during the year of 2006 and successfully charted at No. 1 on the U.S Billboard 200 chart, which sold over 350,00 copies in its first week. “Hip-hop has had many deaths,” he said during his interview with VH1. “First was when it changed from the park jams and went to corporate America. It became a business, then there was an element lost” ( VH1, Bene Viera).

Daily interactions or interactions that are not from media could be beneficial” (Binder, 1993). Rap music, on the other hand, does not sell as it used to because now individuals look more into their lifestyle; and what the artist portray themselves as. Hip-hop is on such an economic and cultural rise that it invites scrutiny from its critics since its popularity flourished throughout the nineties (Ogbar 1999). Rap in its early years build off the poor ghetto image but their delivery at the time was different. They were looking to build the African American community, not tear it down. “The small body of research on hip-hop focuses more on artists, lyrical content, and the history of hip-hop. Moreover, any social differences (gender, age, race, social class, etc.) in fans that could be correlated with influence are generally overlooked” (Binder,

It has been 30 years since Hip-Hop was first “introduced” to the world. Whether it be fashion or politics, this musical genre/culture plays a huge role in everyday life and has generated billions of dollars across the globe. In this paper I will be discussing when, where, and how Hip-Hop was created, “old school Hip-Hop, “Hip-Hop’s Golden Age”, “Hardcore rap” “Gangsta rap”, “G-Funk”, 21st century Hip-Hop, and how Hip-Hop affects society.

Hip Hop in the most popular genre of music between all African American communities, not just in America, but worldwide. Hip Hop has expanded itself into music, fashion, advertisement, movies, and it’s given many rappers, and those associated with the genre, the chance to influence their communities, societies and their culture in general, but commercial Hip Hop in the U.S. has branded Hip Hop in a negative way. (The Young and The Hip-Hop, Hip Hop Culture Center in Harlem, 2012, Web, Oct. 27, 2014) This is all due to the negative imagery and negative lyrics like the term nigga, negative implications of Hip Hop include exploiting black adolescent girls, promoting unhealthy lifestyles, and implying that the open use of the word nigga is not harmful. Hip Hop has become a global phenomenon where it has evolved from a genre of music to a lifestyle for the African American community.