The Roots And Stylistic Foundations Of The Rap Music Tradition

The rest of the chapter talks about the similarity of minstrel images in 1990s hip-hop, as evidenced by the defining characteristics of greed, violence, hyper sexuality and pathos in “gangsta rap” (a sub-genre of hip-hop further defined in chapter two). Ogbar balances this landscape with challenges to what he calls “neo-minstrelsy” from both inside and outside the hip-hop community, including discussions of the Spike Lee movie, Bamboozled, underground conscious hip-hop groups such as The Roots and Little Brother, and the activist “Stop Coonin’ Movement”, to name a few. Throughout the book, Ogbar explains how rappers strive for authenticity by “keepin’ it real”. And that is defined by how they rap, walk, talk, and make their

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

Senegal rappers adopted the United States method of hip hop and recreated it in order to fit their culture. Using our first samples and making it suitable to be mixed in utilizing their “local musical elements” (Appert 4) is what separates them from us. Descendants of previous griot’s Senegal rappers are the current “historians” and “social commentators” of the country (Appert 10) that use their music to tell their stories to the people of Senegal just as their predecessors did years ago except without our modern-day rap music and beats. Senegal rappers decided to hold on to their more traditional style of instruments. The kora which when played the sound resembles the harp, and the balafon is used in place of the piano allowing them to

In the essay, “Hip-Hop’s Betrayal Of Black Women”(221), by Jennifer McLune, she vents her feelings regarding hip-hop songs that are rhythmically diminishing the value of black women. She provides example on how the lyrics are being voiced and how hip-hop artists do not seem to care. Kevin Powell in “Notes of a Hip Hop Head” writes, “Indeed, like rock and roll, hip-hop sometimes makes you think we men don’t like women much at all, except to objectify them as trophy pieces or, as contemporary vernacular mandates, as baby mommas, chicken heads, or bitches” (221). There have been apologizes for what the rappers have said but nothing to resolve the dehumanization of black women. McLune informs the readers that hip-hop singers belittle black women and make them invisible. Jay-Z, a popular hip-hop artist is brought to center stage by McLune. The essay shows the example of a part of Jay-Z song that says, “I pimp hard on a trick, look Fuck if your leg broke bitch hop on your good foot” (222). This lyric is a perfect example of how hip-hop artist have no remorse in the words they sing. The hurt feelings and loss of self-esteem black women suffer, is of no concern to the rappers. McLune expresses that those who are underground hip-hop artist follow the footsteps on being sexist and using crude words in their lyrics just because they yearn and dream of being in the spotlight. Upcoming rappers want to be loved like Jay-Z and other famous notorious rappers.

In her article “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women,” Imani Perry argues that the objectification of women in the music industry is normalized in our society. Her purpose is to persuade us that most feminists who fight against the objectification and exploitation of women are ultimately colonized by the sexual fantasies of men. As a law professor at Rutgers Law School, Perry structures her text in a very effective manner. Using a general-to-specific organization scheme, she begins by outlining the recurring image of sexualized women in music videos, then presenting various cases of prominent feminist figures in the music industry.

In your article “Hip Hop Planet”, you write about the global impact of hip hop, and the powerful message it contains. You first came across hip hop at a party, and didn’t like it much. In fact you seem to hate it, until 26 years later, when you started to regret that you have missed a very important and cultural event. A vision is going through your head about your daughter falling in love with a rapper, which caused you to think twice about hip hop. Although, you don’t seem to like the sound and the beat from hip hop, you begin to realize how the lyrics contain powerful and meaningful messages. In the article, you talk about your first experience with hip hop, and your thoughts about it. You also describe the stereotypes of hip hop, and how

In Joan Morgan’s article “Fly-Girls, Bitches and Hoes: Notes of a Hip Hop Feminist”, she shows the way rap music has changed through it popularity. The widespread appreciation of rap had negative impacts upon the black community. Morgan talks about this through her Feminist point of view. She focuses the topic on what rap music says about the African American culture in Hip Hop. Rap music and Hip Hop were invented through the pain of African Americans. Hip Hop and the Rap industry use sexism and machoism to express the long years of oppressive pain they went through by the hands of the white people. Especially for the black brothers who continue that oppression by using provocative words that degrade the black sisters. Morgan states that blame isn’t only on the brothers

The above article discusses a study conducted that tested whether exposure to rap music increases sexism within males. The study did not give any direct concrete evidence that rap music causes misogyny. Yet it brought up some useful insights that were supported by the study. Initially, they discovered that listening to non-sexist songs still led to some type of sexist behavior. This finding is relevant as it shows that it might not solely be the lyrics that are responsible for sexism within music. People can be instinctively associating rap music with being misogynistic. Another finding was that misogynistic lyrics prime young males to behave sexually aggressive temporarily. This reading is important for this topic as it disregards the popular belief that rap music causes sexism, but it also takes in account that rap music can prime young males to be slightly more aggressive. While this study cannot be used to promote any type of censorship in media, it can still encourage the music industry to reevaluate the material they are launching to public, especially the young generation.

Thesis: the paper’s focus on hip-hop as a music genre that has changed the lives of the black Americans

The topic for this research paper was black music. I claim that as black music changed so did their behaviors. In my investigation i first researched the jazz styles. In this part of my research I investigated jazz style music. Did you know louis armstrong made jazz famous.In the second part of my research I investigated society based music.

Carla addresses that fact that in the hip hop culture, women are seen as sexual beings. They are seen in music videos and strip clubs with almost nothing on. These women are even portrayed in passive roles in rap, R&B, and dancehall songs. She talks about how rappers like to portray more of an aggressive role where they can been seen as pimps or thugs. With this information Stokes illustrates

The rap genre originated from some of the most underprivileged areas of New York in the 1970’s. What was once DJ’s talking over a beat they were playing to encourage more activity on the dance floor, turned in to a new genre of music called rap. The majority of earlier rap songs were fun inducing tracks, but in the 1980’s, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five introduced social consciousness to the genre. They sparked a long lasting impact on rap as it started to evolve rapidly as time went on. The 90’s was home to “gangsta rap,” followed by a softer side of song writing pioneered by the likes of Outkast and Kanye West in the 2000’s. Today, rap music is very diverse and more accepting of different styles than it was before. However, throughout the entire history of rap music, the one thing that has stayed

Women have always played a major role in the hip hop culture. This can be seen when watching music videos, or listening to female rappers. Women are simply involved in everything. However, that does not necessarily mean that they have the best relationship with hip hop. The purpose of this paper is to examine women within the hip hop culture. More specifically, this paper is going to examine the unique relationship women have with hip hop. To achieve a better understanding of the unique relationship, one has to examine all aspects that might affect this relationship. Therefore, this paper will discuss topics such as sexual abuse and feminism. This paper will then examine other issues related to women in hip hop that deserve to be further

Hip-Hop today is genre of music that many, mostly a younger demographic are drawn to it. Hip-Hop culture is now commonly recognized by it’s fundamental elements; such as, rapping, dancing, lyrics, beat, urban and apparently relevance which are viewed as an art. Hip-hop is constantly evolving and incorporating different and new aspects to it and it’s just going to continue to grow within the next decades. Hip-hop focuses on urban youth therefore, many young people actually turn to hip-hop as an outlet to express themselves with various emotions and sentiments and sometimes devote themselves as aspirating hip-hop artists and pursue the hip-hop industry. Hip-Hop was was initially an underground urban movement and created in the 1970’s by an African man, Kool Herc influenced and introduced it which has now become universal in not only English, but in many languages. In the 1980s symbolized the diversification of hip hop as the genre eve loved into more complex styles. One of the positive aspects of the hip hop culture is that it encourages producers to recruit a diverse group of individuals. At first, Hip- Hop was predominantly performed by men and eventually evolved into being performed by both men and women. Some examples of successful women in the Hip-hop culture are Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Missy Elliot, Salt-N- Pepa,Trina Beyonce, and ‘Lil Kim. Although hip-hop

Kendrick is one of the most popular rappers working right now, and his participation in that kind of discussion illustrates that his genre shouldn’t preclude him from being taken seriously. We find ourselves in a time no less rich with artistic genius of all kinds, and Fanon’s poignant expression of the connection between art and the life it seeks to articulate should serve as a reminder not to forget that art of all kinds, and from all kinds, can help us determine and express truth. Nowhere is that lesson more vital than in hip-hop, and its relationship with academia. Currently, while a relationship between them seems to at least exist, rap is treated as a novelty, perhaps being taught in a upper-division classes, or as a study of the workings of genre conventions. What is largely ignored is the fact that rap, like other forms of writing, exists not in a vacuum, but as a product of different communities, and of its