Mickey Hess looks at the use of multiple identities by rap musicians to obscure the conflicting contradictions between authenticity and marketability. Hip hop, having budded from a culture of oppression against African-Americans, grew as a medium of resistance. Hess cites Tricia Rose’s words, stating that hip hop, in the context of resistance, wages an “ideological warfare with institutions and groups that symbolically, ideologically, and materially oppress African Americans” (pp.298). Therefore, the experience of oppression and life in the projects is central to most rappers’ identities as hip hop artists.…
Hip-hop is culturally and historically significant to African American society. Without hip-hop it is easy to conclude that there may not be as much violence in African American communities. Culturally hip-hop has shaped the perceptions of many things in African Americans. Historically hip-hop was originated in New York, and evolved into what young African Americans artist were experiencing in life. Collectively, the culture and history of hip-hop shaped African American…
Kugelberg, Johan (2007). Born in the Bronx. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7893-1540-3. This article discusses the origin of Hip Hop and the elements of Hip Hop.…
In the past 2 decades, African Americans have been the center of a disturbing controversy in the world of Hip hop music. This genre of music promotes the belief that the way to be a man is to have power and money. Many times the music is filled with obscenities, glorifying violence and disrespect for women. As it has turned into a cultural phenomenon, hip hop has changed with greater sexualization. More often than not, these rap/hip hop videos are where today’s youth get their ideas about love, friendship, dating and marriage. Among some of the more notorious rappers, Lil Wayne, also known as one of the greatest…
9. McLeod, Kembrew (1999). “Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened With Assimilation.” Journal of Communication 49 (4): 134-50. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999…
Hip Hop is the great American paradox. A culture encompasses art, politics, and all things intertwined with urban life, and gives a platform for the populace of American poverty. Hip Hop is a blurred culture in the sense that it distinctly represents a social and ethnic class, and also indistinctly perceives a negative stereotype of these classes to a detached or unconcerned bystanders, that brandish Hip Hop as a dysphemism; an expression so substituted and contemptuous of themselves and to the greater society. The music video I will be discussing is from a 1990’s Hip Hop group named De La Soul, and the song is titled “Stakes is High”. The music video for this song illustrates Elijah Anderson analysis of inner city deism and examines the micro and macro circumstances that entail the philosophy of “The Code of the Streets”. This code that Anderson describes are the unwritten laws of urban neighborhoods—the norms that reflect the extensive social and economic complexities of many of the nation's inner-city urban inhabitants.…
in the 1910s and 20s large number of African Americans moved from the south to other parts of country in 1900 most African Americans in the united states lived in southern states in fact, 90% of the African Americans population still lived in the south. however, many began to move into northern and Midwestern states, such as Michigan, Illinois,Pennsylvania, and new York. the reasons they were moving varied from family to family. in some cases, they were hoping to find jobs in steel mills, automobile factories, meatpacking plants, or working for the real-road some, some were searching for better schools and educational opportunities. others were hoping to escape the racism and violence that African Americans were experiencing in the south.…
In the late 1970’s a new, popular form of urban youth culture emerged in the Bronx, New York that changed the face of popular music and American culture. Throughout its development, hip-hop has become a vastly commercialized component of popular American culture; however, it took the efforts of many pioneers and innovators to shape modern hip-hop culture and music. By exploring hip-hop’s origins, one can better understand its evolution and its influence on different social groups throughout the United States.…
In James McBride article “Hip Hop Planet”, he introduces the reader to many issues that are affecting society, including violence, social class, and racism. McBride ensures that he includes hip-hop’s history, in order to explain that the musical genre began as an attempt to avoid or prevent teen gang involvement. Additionally, social class is present in hip hop culture because many of the artist's success determined by the resources that they have when beginning their career as a DJ. Lastly, race is revealed to play a large role in hip hop culture due to the fact that many rappers include lyrics about racial injustices, as well as tension between people of different cultures. Although McBride introduces different arguments throughout his essay,…
“More than simply entertainment, hip hop is a major part of contemporary identity circuits –networks of philosophies and aesthetics based on blackness, poverty, violence, power, resistance, and capitalist accumulation” (Pardue 674). Music has been a potent technique for engendering convivial vigilance throughout American history. Music simultaneously reflects trends, ideals, conditions in society, and inspires attitudinal progression and convivial change.…
Hip hop is one of the most controversial and beloved genres of music amongst the youth and working class culture of the 20th century (Aldridge et al. 2016). Even though it is popularized as just a form of music, some would argue that it is a lifestyle that transcends borders. It is an art form that has been driven through the social, economic, and cultural realities that individuals face on a daily basis while sampling jazz, rock, blues, and soul to compose a breed of its own (Aldridge et al. 2016, Rice 2003). The imbedded realities within hip hop create a social consciousness that reflect the ideologies of the Civil Rights Movement and serves as a positive outlet that lets the youth express their frustrations while pushing towards a solution…
Binfield, M.R. (2009). “Bigger Than Hip Hop: Music and Politics in the Hip Hop Generation.” Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin.…
Over the past four decades, Hip Hop has evolved as a culture and art influencing the youths’ culture all over the world. Many youths in different parts of the world claim that Hip Hop reflects their economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of their lives because it communicates to them in a manner they understand. Therefore, it has cogent messages for many youths worldwide. “Hip Hop cannot be dismissed as a youth obsession or movement that will fade with time. Instead it should be considered as a social, economic, cultural, intellectual and political aspect that deserve academic attention similar to other African American arts and cultural movements such as Jazz, Blues, and Black Power movements,” (Alridge and Stewart, 190).…
Over the past decade, annual estimates of the number of gangs have averaged around 27,000 nationally. Following a annual decrease from 1996 to a short in 2003, the yearly estimates steadily increased through 2012. Gang membership has been increasing significantly over the past few years.”The recent estimate of more than 30,000 gangs represents a 15 percent increase from 2006 and is the highest annual estimate since 1996”.(NationalGangCenter) The maximum number of gangs has to do with the type of area. Larger cities and Suburban counties expectedly announce higher numbers of gangs. “More than half of suburban counties and 45 percent of larger cities report 10 or fewer active gangs in their jurisdictions.” (NationalGangCenter)…
The story of the Puerto Rican people is unique in the history of U.S. immigration, just as Puerto Rico occupies a distinctive—and sometimes confusing—position in the nation’s civic fabric. Puerto Rico has been a possession of the U.S. for more than a century, but it has never been a state. Its people have been U.S. citizens since 1917, but they have no vote in Congress. As citizens, the people of Puerto Rico can move throughout the 50 states just as any other Americans can—legally, this is considered internal migration, not immigration. However, in moving to the mainland, Puerto Ricans leave a homeland with its own distinct identity and culture, and the transition can involve many of the same cultural conflicts and emotional adjustments that most immigrants face. Some writers have suggested that the Puerto Rican migration experience can be seen as an internal immigration—as the experience of a people who move within their own country, but whose new home lies well outside of their emotional home territory.…