The Influence of Hip Hop on the Black-American Culture
10/25/12
UWP 102i
Definition Rough Draft Essay
Hip Hop Benefitting or Blacklisting Black Culture?
Hip Hop as a musical genre has gone through much change not only in the content of the music, but the message conveyed and how many would say it has in some ways defined black culture in the last 20 years. A significant amount of hip hop music nowadays is geared towards painting this unrealistic image of hyper-materialism, sexism, and violence that ultimately assists in dragging black culture down, and the people as a whole. You look at hip hop artists like 50 Cent and Lil Wayne who is reinforcing this thuggish persona, making music revolved around money and drugs and it paints a bleak picture for young blacks. These young impressionable youth view this way of life as the “norm”, and the ghetto pathology seen as an authentic part of black culture, even though it does nothing more than demean a multitude of black people. To start at the roots of hip hop however you can clearly see that the message of the music was not to promote violence, but to help curb crime and show that it’s not glamorous. During the 1980’s you had artists like Grand Master Flash, and Public Enemy who preached black empowerment, and left imparting lessons that didn’t hinder but allow black culture to grow, as well as morale. This leads people to pondering nowadays, what happened to this once positive, intelligent music that defined a race and culture? You have 12 year old children listening to vulgar raps about sex, and prostitution, and for black kids in poor ghetto neighborhoods this fantasy driven music glamorizing crime, is seen as the sole “voice” for these children ultimately view that lifestyle as the true way they should be acting. It is as if hip hop music is still attempting to sell this image of the crime life, even when most of the artists have all the money in the world. Hip hop basically reversed the accomplishments of the black community, disguising itself as pertaining a
UWP 102i
Definition Rough Draft Essay
Hip Hop Benefitting or Blacklisting Black Culture?
Hip Hop as a musical genre has gone through much change not only in the content of the music, but the message conveyed and how many would say it has in some ways defined black culture in the last 20 years. A significant amount of hip hop music nowadays is geared towards painting this unrealistic image of hyper-materialism, sexism, and violence that ultimately assists in dragging black culture down, and the people as a whole. You look at hip hop artists like 50 Cent and Lil Wayne who is reinforcing this thuggish persona, making music revolved around money and drugs and it paints a bleak picture for young blacks. These young impressionable youth view this way of life as the “norm”, and the ghetto pathology seen as an authentic part of black culture, even though it does nothing more than demean a multitude of black people. To start at the roots of hip hop however you can clearly see that the message of the music was not to promote violence, but to help curb crime and show that it’s not glamorous. During the 1980’s you had artists like Grand Master Flash, and Public Enemy who preached black empowerment, and left imparting lessons that didn’t hinder but allow black culture to grow, as well as morale. This leads people to pondering nowadays, what happened to this once positive, intelligent music that defined a race and culture? You have 12 year old children listening to vulgar raps about sex, and prostitution, and for black kids in poor ghetto neighborhoods this fantasy driven music glamorizing crime, is seen as the sole “voice” for these children ultimately view that lifestyle as the true way they should be acting. It is as if hip hop music is still attempting to sell this image of the crime life, even when most of the artists have all the money in the world. Hip hop basically reversed the accomplishments of the black community, disguising itself as pertaining a