Gangsta Rap Controversy

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. Nowadays, everyone wears the identity with pride. The genre was a testament to triumphing over hardships, to having enough confidence in oneself not to let the world drag you down, and to rising above the struggle, even when things seem hopeless. Violence in rap did not begin as an affective agent that threatened to harm America 's youth; rather, it was the outcry of an already-existing problem from youth whose world views have been shaped by the inequalities and prejudice they have experienced.

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.

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. Some lyrics focus on success and making money. Nevertheless,

In today`s culture, there are stereotypes in every setting, especially music. Stereotypes are ideas or images of something of what it is supposed to be depending the current culture. Music is everywhere and some people believe that the music we listen to, define who we are. This could be true but it is also unfair to assume we know somebody based on the music they are associated with. You can stereotype music based on a song or a whole genre. Stereotypes in every context are bad, but in music you can generalize listeners based on the type of music they listen to which is unfair to the artist and the audience.

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.

Misogyny is a prevalent characteristic of rap music. Women are described in a derogatory manner, being called “bitches”, “thots”, “hoes”, or “whores”. Lyrics sexualize the female body and normalize the objectification of women. This can lead to negative stereotypes towards women. Male rappers often emanate hyper masculine demeanors which manifests the idea that they have the ability to disrespect women. Male rappers will attempt to justify their violent or blasphemous behavior towards women by stating that it heightens their manliness. By putting women down, it feeds the male ego and proves to others their legitimacy as an alpha male. The censorship of certain language within rap music does not alter nor improve the ultimate meaning behind many songs

Music has been an object of miracle, amazement, and even fear since the start of its presence. It has been used as a tool to shape culture and society through history. Music and its people influencing the lives and activities of society. Is this a good thing? Most would say yes. Can it be manipulated to carry a harmful result? A lot, considered such varieties as rap, would say yes. Rappers communicate through the specialty of music. Rap artists use their music to express their perspectives, opinions and feelings in their songs. From their lyrics, you will have the visualization of what they are trying to deliver, and how do they feel and see towards the society. The artists should be happy because they can compose any types of music to express themselves. However do these rappers truly need to use disrespectful and profane words? Do they need to publicize swearing words to youths? Do they have to speak explicitly about drugs? Rap music has created a disagreement in many ways, especially among parents and teenagers. First debate is lady and how they are degraded/ humiliated in the lyrics. Another reason that rap music causes problems today is by the way they take drugs and alcohol, to be something they are most certainly not. They talk about murder, rape, assault as if they were okay. Almost everybody and everything that has to do with rap music is associated with drugs and alcohol. The impact of rap music has numerous negative impacts in our culture and society today. This

Rap music receives a variety of brutal critic from critics attacking the lyric that rappers use. 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). People are being so quick to jump to harsh opinions and are not even attempting to understand the ways of rap. They only listen to one song and assume that this is how all rappers are. This quick assumption is unfair to the rap genre as a whole, because rap does not deserve

With the enormous success of hip hop what started as pure art and a mechanism to bring awareness of what was going on in the black community, has transformed in a lucrative business. The negative aspect of this is that since big corporations control the music’s distribution channels, in many cases the rap artist is forced to produce the type of music that according to the owner is marketable. Unfortunately, the image of a young, poor, vulgar black male with a criminal or violent past is consider marketable. This is not the case for those who have their own recording label or those under their wings. They are free to still express the reality of

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). Public Enemy went on to influence other Hip Hop artists such as X Clan, Prophets of Rage, Paris, Rage Against the Machine, Kendrick Lamar and many more. Students or anyone for that matter can take what they learn from those lyrics and apply them to their own lives. Many teachers and professors are implementing Hip-Hop into their curriculums as a way to get their students engaged in class and get a better understanding of what they are

Chapter 4 from Dr. Clay’s book, “The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back” begins to talk about how hip-hop music usually acts as a center for social protests between today’s youth, just like the rhythm and blues or early rock and roll as well as folk music does for many youth protesters from the 1960s. Music imitates the lifestyles and values of the adolescence ones, which is why it has been a valuable classifying tool for many social and political protests. Chapter 4 introduces how the youth campaigners understood hip-hop as a genuine youth culture in most of its commercialized forms. An outside audience will find hip-hop music to be very powerful in the way it shows what a young person of color is in historical instants.

Rap music has always been an intriguing topic in society. It was created in the 1970s and continues through the present. There have been drastic changes since the commercial success for the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rappers Delight” in 1979. The way rappers convey the message is completely different

From the underground streets of New York to the global stage, Hip Hop can be seen as one of the most influential genres of its time. As a style of music that ultimately originated from black street culture, much of its context can be pinpointed to the issues of political and social equality that are often kept in the dark. When Hip Hop emerged throughout the late 70s, new artists were experimenting with an advancement in technology and used various devices including turntables to create certain beats. As time went on, Hip Hop turned the page to more of a lyrical genre where artists ultimately began using words in their lyrics to convey a certain theme or message to the public eye. (Wahl, 1999)

¨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.

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.