Ethical Conflicts In Hip Hop Culture

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 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.

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.

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.

“Large business” (Spotlight 13), utilize “hip-hop artists as” (Spotlight14) spokesmen to gain attention. Many believe that by doing this companies are “purposefully --promoting negative values” (Spotlight15). Yet to say that all rappers promote negative values is completely bias, because as we have previously established not all rappers rap about negativity. “No connection is found between antisocial behavior in young people and controversial genres of music such as ‘gangster music’”

The article “Hip Hop Planet” by James McBride is about how hip hop is not his favorite type of music but, it needs to be heard. McBride shows us this by explaining that he avoided hip hop most of his life. In the article McBride says that he basically ignored “the most important cultural event in my lifetime.” James informs us that hip hop has influenced the world globally and that it has become a phenomenon. Furthermore, McBride made clear that he eventually realized that hip hop is much more than just music, it has a message.

And while that is true, the artist’s intent was not to glorify drugs, sex, and violence, but to just write songs about those topics to express what they see and give insight into what a day to day life is like growing up in their communities ("Hip-Hop and Rap Music" para 10). And although many songs were filled with negative sayings, there are many songs that contradict that statement. As previously stated, many rap artists that have written songs with positive messages. For example artists such as Public Enemy seen that they could use their platform to uplift the black community and talk about other important topics. In Public Enemy’s song “Give It Up,” the group stated “I never did represent doing dumb shit, some gangsta lying - I’d rather diss Presidents” (Public Enemy).

The block parties, graffiti art, rapping, disc jockeying and diverse forms of dancing built Hip Hop by the black youth. They expressed their feelings, thoughts, but most importantly the problems they had to face, which were related to their race, gender and social positions. The rights that were given to black people during and after the Civil Rights Movement left the following generations at a lack of how to continue the fight for black rights. Hip Hop gave them this platform and with the usage of black nationalism, Hip Hop can explore the challenges that confront American-Americans in the post-Civil Rights Movement era. In the 1990’s Hip Hop lived its prime, sub genres started to appear and famous groups, MCs led the whole community, providing a voice to a group of people trying to deliver their message.

“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.

The Hip hop industry consists of mostly African American musicians. Since blacks are often alienated in society, their music seems to be too. People often give rappers negative labels such as “gangster” or “thug”, which are discriminatory words that people have often used to describe African Americans in the media. There is an everlasting double standard in music. as people bash rap music for being sexist and violent, other genres of music such as country or alternative have the same themes, but they’re vulgar lyrics go

Hip Hop music influence on modern society. Introduction Hip-hop music was initially developed in the late 1970s, only few people knew about its existence as it was created in the most unprivileged districts of New York City in America by African-American citizens. Hip-hop is not a bunch of entertaining words but a poetic language about issues around us, and movement within a culture interrelating ethnicities. The messages of rap music/hip hop tells stories of how life is in the streets dealing with drugs, crime, and violence. Most messages are a reflection of how the youth feels about the system, the police.

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).

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.

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.

¨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.