Dropping Bars vs Spitting Bars If one listens to Hip Hop/ Rap music, chances are one has been exposed to drug abuse and the excessive use of vulgar language. Although it is common for a rap song to include explicit language, majority of the music consists of a deeper, more influential meaning. Often times, listeners get caught up with the lyrics and profanity used in the song and miss out on the true meaning the song is intended to show. Hip-Hop has both a beneficial and negative effect on teenagers today, including exposure to violence, drug abuse, and explicit language. Therefore, it is crucial for teenagers to follow the message Hip-Hop music conveys rather than the language used. In modern society through its music, dance, and culture. …show more content…
It is true that most artists use explicit language in their music. However, the purpose of their music is not to emphasize the profanity, but rather, to focus on the meaning behind the lyrics. Some may argue that rap and Hip-Hop music encourages violence and vulgar language through the lyrics the artists use and the background the artists come from. A popular problem with rap music is that rap music tend to demean women and show violence and drug abuse through the words used (Krohn). However, the artists focus more on the overall message the song portrays rather than the individual lyric used. Most rappers aim to educate listeners of their struggles. Since most artists grew up in a tough environment, their songs reflect their struggles and how they overcame these struggles. Even though rap artists use grew up in an environment exposed to violence and drug abuse, this does not mean that the rappers are a bad influence to teenagers because they help spread the awareness of the struggles the communities face. Kanye West, a famous rapper/celebrity, expresses in a song called “All of The Lights” his struggles as he grew up in the “streets”. He overviews the subject of violence and expresses that he does not want his daughter growing in the same situation he was put in (West). However, many listeners do not get this message. They take the artist’s expression of their struggles as an experience, rather than learning and understanding what the artist has been through. It is important for the listeners to understand the true meaning behind the lyrics instead of following the language
Lorissa Figueroa Professor Patton ENG 1A 7 February 2018 More than what Rap Portrays When we listen to rap music we don’t really pay attention to how lyrics can affect people as often as we should. Since rap music has started it always influenced violence and sexism, but not everyone notices how it influences the black community. Joan Morgan explains this in a passage of her book When Chickenheads Come to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down (1999).
The message J Cole tries to get across is that frustration over material things will only lead to hatred, especially envy of others who have what you want. He uses the perception of feeling worse off compared to other people, which eventually leads to frustration, for his main focal point of the song. Violence isn’t affecting America’s youth because in Hip Hop artists and listeners lives are already full of violence. The violence that artists talk about is their struggle through growing up in a violent areas, and overcoming racial prejudice
In her essay “hip hop’s betrayal of black women,” Jennifer McLune implies that “(h)ip-hop owes its success to the ideology of women-hating” (193). She does not agree with Kevin Powell’s article that hip-hop does not mean to “offend” black women, but instead artists are only letting out their temper throughout their music. McLune feels infuriated that many artists in hip hop (including black men) rap about their community and downgrade their own women. In the hip-hop genre, sexism is mainly used, not only by black men but also by many other race hip-hop artists. Artists assume that women-hating in their rap songs will be accepted by women, but do not realize that it is affecting all women.
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.
Hip-hop encourages and glorifies violence, high class living without working to get there, and promiscuity. Hip-hop culture isn’t considered scholarly because it drives people to attain a lifestyle of laziness, not working to attain goals, and demeaning the value of schoolwork. At this time hip-hop is viewed in a negative connotation while other genre of music, like jazz, are seen in a positive
Most people believe that “lyrics should appeal to us, not degrade us” (Glidden3). There is controversy surrounding “some artists accused of rapping sexually inflammatory lyrics” (Encyclopedia4). The actions of a few is causing people to put a bad label on rap in a whole. This bias opinion is becoming the cause of listeners to believe that rap lyrics “are setting a bad example for kids and teens” (Glidden2). I can understand where this may lead to critics to misapply such distaste to the rap form, but “there are rap artists who don’t use offensive language or portray women in a negative light” (Glidden1).
Hip-hop songs promote violent behavior and some of them drugs. And They used degrading lyrics towards women. An example of hip-hop songs promoting violence and bad behavior is this song: "You heard of us, official Queensbridge murderers. The mobb comes equipped for warfare beware.
The explicit sexual language used had significant influence on the teenagers and youths in the major areas surveyed. The research proved that the lyrics have significant influences on the student behaviors in their schools. The lyrics are associated with alcohol and marijuana abuse. Most of the rap music portray images whereby youths and teenagers use guns, feel violence, and create gangs to terrorize and become popular. The negative lyrics create impacts on the listener, making him/her have negative perceptions and fantasies in life.
Sex, money, drugs and violence. When you hear those four words, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Many people would say they think of rap or hip hop. Today, rap music is constantly mistaken for valuing the destruction of communities by promoting images of “the thug life”. However, the hip hop culture can have a positive impact on society.
What seems to us now as excessive violence and misogyny in hip hop stems from a culture that has been consumed in a continuous battle against social and economic oppression since its early days. In the beginnings of hip hop, there was an explosion of defiance against the subjugation these artists had to experience on a daily basis. For many artists, rapping about guns and gang life was a reflection of daily life in the ghettos and inner-city housing projects. Not only did rap provide an outlet to voice the struggles of black youth, it also gave them a sense of pride. Before major hip hop groups such as NWA arrived on the scene, people would refuse to admit they were even from Compton.
The Impact of Hip-Hop 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 the topic of various academic, social, and political discourses. Rap music, in particular, has made its way to mainstream media which is evident in the numerous films and movies that centers on what was once a part of an underground culture. Scholars explain that the popularity of hip-hop in both music and films are partly due to its potential to disseminate information, address an issue, and promote social change. Tinson and McBride (2013), for example, note that hip-hop is a “…form of critical education at the intersection of, and inseparable from political engagement” (1). Scholars further note that hip-hop’s current state “…requires frequent accounting of its engagement with the social, political, and cultural climate
In the past, hip hop told a life story with a funky beat. Some artists told a story about how life was rough when growing up, how they didn’t have a dad, how their mother had to raise them alone, how tough it was growing up in the ghetto, and how they made it out of that area alright. Since then, hip hop has resorted to degrade women and the police with a materialistic focus on money and drugs. Within the last decade, hip hop has changed dramatically for the worse. Hip hop
Even though my parents listened to KRS-One and Public Enemy, while my sisters engaged in Kanye West and OutKast, both eras of the hip hop genre purpose were to discuss economic problems and push people toward the right path of life. In Yan Dominic Searcy’s article, he says, “Many rappers grew up amid violence, police harassment, poverty, drugs and promiscuity. Rappers will tell you they rap about what they know. If the community wants to change rap lyrics, the community must change reality.” (Searcy)
“Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Summary 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. Some of the most prominent issues discussed in the film were the over-sexualization of women, gun violence, and anti- homophobic attitudes. Hunt would ask those involved in the industry about why they think these themes are so prevalent.