J Cole’s music appeals to the mind of the listener, he raps about real life issues: more than heartbreak and love. He raps about real life experiences. He often raps about his experiences of being black and the discrimination that he has lived through. In his song, “No Role Modelz”, he says “I came fast like 911 in white neighborhoods, ain’t got no shame bout it”. He expresses that there’s a clear difference between how the justice department treats white people versus black people. In addition to creating a platinum album, J Cole spends a lot of time participating in equal rights movements. He was recently involved in the “Justice or Else” movement that was fighting for black people’s justice equality. J Cole appeals to many types of groups of people due to his wide range of music and
Chapter 1: What does the Civil Rights Movement gave to the African-Americans compared to Hip Hop as a subculture/movement.
Music all over the world has been shaping generations for many years now. The rock n roll of the 70’s and 80’s, pop and hip-hop of the 90’s and early 2000’s and finally, many different popular genres of the generation we now live in. Music provides a means of expression for all types of individuals. Some music even goes against the social norm and tries to bring attention to social injustices. The song “Crooked Smile” by rapper J. Cole tackles the issue of unrealistic expectations of women with the songs exceptional lyrics, broad metaphors, and positive tone. In this essay, I will talk about how J. Cole goes about empowering women through exceptional lyrics, broad metaphors, and positive tone.
Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.
MC Lyte is a Hip-Hop legend , she exemplifies the true meaning of the “Golden Age of Hip-Hop”. MC Lyte is still to this day a visible force in Hip-Hop music, Hip-Hop culture, Hip-Hop youth, and various other aspects. From the very beginning of her rap career in the late 1980s, she let it be known that she is not “Paper Thin” and she can stand strong amongst the male-dominated rapping scene during that time. MC Lyte is more than just a female rapper, she is a international speaker, DJ, icon, Hip Hop veteran, entrepreneur, and author. All of these nouns describe “one of the most prolific and well-respected female Hip Hop artist of all time” (“Get Lyte Now”). MC Lyte is a Hip-Hop legend that has made a cultural impact on the music industry by
The Sexism and Misogyny: Who Takes the Rap?, Bell Hooks made a good argument about the problem of the “gangsta rap” music being produce in the market. Even though the black men are the one who writes this kind of music, it is important to remember that they are not the only one responsible for this misogynistic rap among black women. Hooks is emphasizing the participation of powerful white people who helped to produce and supports this kind music. She also talks about that black men are being encourage to make lyrics that endorse sexism, violence and misogyny because they can make a lot of money through this type of music. Also in regards with Combahee River Collective Statement, it also discusses how black women fight together with black men
Hip Hop is seen as something inspiring, but most people see it as a way to speak out the truth about a problem. As in “Hip Hop planet” being able say the truth can sometimes worsen any situation because sometimes what we say can promote violence and whatever happens after is not in our control. The essay is about how hip hop has changed into speaking out the issues that need to be taken care of in order to maintain a proper society. McBride talked about how rappers use violent lyrics to degrade women and gays and because of this it shows how the music has evolved into something entirely different that no one would have ever expected to have changed. In James McBride's essay “Hip Hop Planet,” he argues that hip hop has a negative influence on American Culture despite people thinking of it as inspirational and how people live through different experiences in life despite of your race.
Ever since its birth in the 1970s in West Bronx, Hip Hop has been known as “Gangsta” music and most commonly associated with black culture. Since its creation it has become a fast growing genre of music and has growing fame all over the world. The popularity of it has increased to all races, age and gender. However the growing popularity of hip hop has come with several controversies among scholars. Some scholars argue that the growing popularity of the genre is very helpful to low income families who can use this as their outlet into going to Universities, on the other side some believe associating the genre to black culture is bad for the culture as a whole and they should not be associated together.
Hip-hop culture has been identified by the lifestyles of many. Hip-hop encouraged violence throughout society. Hip-hop songs promote violent behavior and some of them drugs. And They used degrading lyrics towards women.
This is a real life example of what it looks like when feminism and Poetry intertwine. Nikki Giovani an American writer and activist from Knoxville, TN has a quote a about poetry that really relates to the way Beyonce creates her music. “Writers don’t write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don’t. If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.” – Nikki Giovanni. Beyoncé’s (Destiny’s Child) song Survivor “show a belief in women’s ability to solve their own problems, assuring us that whatever rough situation we’re in, well get through it” (Weiner, 2013, pg. 297). Beyonce is able to empathize and relate to other women. This is what makes her music so incredibly inspiring to some
¨If Hip Hop has the ability to corrupt minds, it also has the ability to uplift them.¨ Hip hop music, also called rap music, is a music genre developed in the United States by African Americans consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. Mainstream hip hop culture is also filled with misogyny and negative images of women. These artists are unaware that sexism has been forced onto them through the brainwashing from the media, which is controlled by a patriarchal society. Conversely, feminism is the belief that both genders should have equal power. Mainstream hip hop culture contradicts feminism because it degrades women, promotes male dominance and hypermasculinity. On the other hand, feminism focuses on equity for both genders.
Rap music is an expression of one’s feelings thorough poetry and instrumental. Although it has gained many accomplishments throughout society, it is still one of the most criticized genres of music. Rap music dose not promote violence; it only depicts the destruction that is happening all over America. Music should not be criticized based on its style.
This movie was a broad discussion about hip-hop music (or more specifically gangster rap) and what kind of social issues the music not only showcases but seems to promote. The producer of this film, Byron Hunt, interviewed people involved in all aspects of the hip-hop industry, including famous rappers, to try to get to the bottom of this.
Hip hop critics believe that hip hop is a violent subculture and supports crime and violence, but research has shown that there is no direct correlation between the two. One hip-hop artist that goes against this stereotype is Kanye Omari West. Mr. West lyrics allows the listener to understand that you don’t have to rap about having money and cars to get someone’s attention. In Kanye West’s Homecoming, he said, “Reach for the stars, so if you fall you land on the clouds.” This is an influential quote that encourages the listener to reach for their goals, but if you happen to fail on the way it’ll be ok because you have a comfort system to be there for you.
Along with the creation of music videos, hip-hop’s popularity has soared and changed in many ways. Men and women are depicted in distinct and vivid ways in the media – particularly music videos – that may subconsciously affect our views of the norms of today’s society. That is, catchy songs and glamorous music videos that society thinks are harmless entertainment actually shape our worldview and can cause people to accept false impressions of women (Shrum & Lee, 2012). For example, as Sarnavka (2003) posits, women are victims of violence in society, as well as victims of violence in media (as cited in Bretthauer, Zimmerman, and Banning, 2007).