The violent and often degrading lyrics of gangster rap have now become main-stream and is highly romanticized by young black and white youths, alike. To be able to analyze the death of Tupac Shakur, it is also important to address rap music and its influence on America’s culture. Hip Hop has become a multi-billion dollar industry that has come to dominate television, film and fashion, as well as radio. Many inner-city and urban residents are drawn to hip hop and are distrustful of many institutions, therefore, they look elsewhere for guidance and knowledge. This all too often comes in the form of rap idols and gangs.
Artists use their music to depict their experiences, views, and harsh portrayals of their respective societies. Throughout this paper, five songs will be analyzed to explain how rap artist portray the harsh life style of individuals in poor communities, which are correlated with drug abuse and violence. Rappers like Nas project the ghetto as a struggling environment, where many dream of leaving the projects to obtain wealth and prosperity, but instead succumb to the pressures and constraints imposed on by their society. Nas grew up in the Queensbridge housing projects in New York City; at the
Lillie Shipley The Effects of Rap Music on Developing Misogynistic and Violent Culture Over the past few decades, rap music has gone through a serious evolution from the back streets into the limelight and has emerged as one of the most prominent music genres of today. Rappers have come out of the woodwork to become well known staples in our culture, and high-society figures that people look up to. With this development, however, a new, negatively-charged "thug" culture has come with it. Recent redefinitions of what gangsters are, as well as the appearance of sexism and misogynistic lyrics of the music and within this new culture, show the possibility of a violent and criminal culture that has developed along with the 'rap game'. While the physical appearance of gangsters may have transitioned from the tailored suits of the 1940's to the to the expensive and flashy chains and sneakers of today's definition, the idea is the same: illegal activities, drugs, and a culture of immorality runs their lives.
Rap music is probably those most influential thing that kids look up too in this day in age, therefore Rap music teaches teen’s harmful things due to the things said in the lyrics and has lead to many deaths by young juveniles (monk). Hip-hop originated in the early 1970s through a mixture of spoken word and jazz drumming and instrumentations (Nasso). In the mid 1970s, a man by the name of Clive Campell began to DJ his own parties, playing soul, old funk and R&B records on his turntables.
This is were and why hip hop was created. People used to rap battle each other, do graffiti, and break dance to crowds, this is was hip-hop culture being born. ‘Rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something you live’Krs-One QuotesThe first ever rap record released was ‘The message’ by Grandmaster Flash and the furious five in 1982. The song is about being stuck in the Bronx and how bad life was. Originally rap has dissented from Jamaican tribal chants and slave chants.
All in all Dyson's main points to his argument is understanding how rap came to be, the negative and positive images that gangsta rap portrays to the black community, and acknowledging that rap music shows true beliefs about growing up in bad black neighborhoods. Rap originated from the early '70s during the Rosetta stone of black culture. Jobs were being losses in the inner cities. Lack of social services in predominantly black rural areas opened up drugs and violence in black communities. Therefore rap came to be the main way of expressing social oppression in black communities.
Hip-hop is best identified with the African-American culture. For that, there are quite a few white rappers who have tried to imitate the story of “rags-to-riches” from black artists to gain acceptance within hip-hop. In the 1980s, Vanilla Ice succeeded in becoming a rapper using claims of coming from a background of poverty and crime. He even came out with a biography that said that he had been stabbed in a gang fight. His biography was quickly disproven.
Byron Hurt’s Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is an oppositional reading about masculinity in Hip Hop culture, which is strongly influenced by American cultures dominant discourse. This documentary goes in depth of how hip hop has become commercially viable and strengthens different stereo types. An oppositional reading was done throughout this documentary, Byron Hurt touched on many different subjects including; Violence, how women are portrayed in hip hop, as well as manhood. Byron Hurt was a fan of hip hop once upon a time but he was able to take a step back and assess hip hop through a different lens and challenge what is ingested by hip hop fans. In the documentary Byron Hurt visits Daytona Beach, Florida during spring break and found that in most of the youth’s freestyles there was something that had to do with a weapon, women, and violent actions.
“Rap as an art form, began as personal narrative, telling the individual stories of urban lives ignored by the mainstream media.”(Rose, p.2-3). “It used to be a respectful, decent form of music, however, it has turned bad, into utter crap listened to by posers.”(“Rap”). When people are conversing and the word “rap” comes up, blacks and whites complain about the misogyny, materialism, drugs, and violence present in the lyrics and videos. There are many different forms of rap and they fall under two categories: the language of empowerment and the language of oppression. Conscious rap deals with empowerment and consists of “songs that are responsible, thought provoking, and/or inspirational toward positive change or a cry of protest against social injustice”.
West coast hip hops effect on music Purpose: Explain to audience how the influence of rap music more especially from the west coast has on music today Introduction: Many people enjoy music today; the artistic expression of sound has proven to have an effect on people. This is most true when it came to west coast hip hop which featured explicit lyrics of rebellious inner youth that gave voice to the ghettos of America. No previous form of rap or music came with such an attitude and controversy, artist like ice t and n.w.a spoke of the trials of living in tough neighborhoods, crime and social injustices.. West coast hip hop for one made music listeners politically conscience of social injustices such as flagrant abuse by the police, perpetuation of racial discrimination. Secondly they were pioneers of self promotion i.e. mix tapes and other means independent funding.