90’s Hip Hop Vs. Hip Hop Today
The 1990’s are often regarded as the ‘Golden Era Of Hip Hop’. Introducing arguably two of the biggest rappers of all time The Notorious B.I.G and Tupac Shakur. With them spear heading this era there were other stars like Snoop Dogg, Warren G, Wu- Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, and many more. Even the entrepreneurs we know now like Jay Z, Puff Daddy, and Dr. Dre all got catapulted into their superstar status as a result of this Era. This era had so much influence on pop culture that it’s impact can still be seen today, in the playlists of kids born too late to experience it.
The Enthusiast of the Golden Era often ridicule and bash the hip hop that is made today. They believe there
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Of course for an era to receive the name of “The Golden Era” it has to have had very impressive accomplishments and trophies in its holster. As mentioned it brought us two of the most popular rappers of all time, and spoke out on many issues prevalent in America’s poverty stricken neighborhoods. Many artists exposed the police department for racially profiling, often harassing, and in some cases brutalizing young African American male and females. This subject elevated 90’s hip hop to another level with the public trial of the officers involved in the 1992 beating of Los Angeles taxi driver Rodney King on camera. This was a part of everyday life for a young black man prior to this event, but this event allowed the whole country to finally see that what was being rapped about was true. Many rappers of this era also talked about the government’s unwillingness to provide support to the lower income areas where minorities live. Not only would they state the problem, they would speak on what needs to happen for the advancement of these neighborhoods. However these high points of rap music weren’t exclusive to the 90’s, in fact some artist of the early 2000’s like Kanye West, Common, and Mos Def did this quite well, and even today this trend
Many artists who grew up in the drug trade during the 1980s would become labeled as veterans because it was the sole option they had to strive economically. And through this time period, hip hop will alter to a medium in response to a life of drug dealing, police brutality, violence, and incarceration. The effects of this period will lead to the mass incarcerations of African Americans and the lives of people being ruined, which will be further explored. By the middle of the 1990s, the United States Incarceration rate surpassed the rest of the world, damaging a large portion of the African American community.
Before that Hip Hop was exclusively about dancing, creating unique beats and being poetic across beat alterations. Ever since Grandmaster Flash Hip Hop has changed consistently over the years creating different forms of Hip Hop giving everyone a chance to find out what they enjoy. One form of Hip Hop in today’s world is based around the racial inequalities brought to you by a rapper who displays their people’s daily struggles around the globe and more specifically in America. An artist who uses his voice in the hip hop industry to voice the effects of mass incarceration on African Americans/Minorities as well as many other social issues is Vic Mensa. He is the most crucial social activist you’ve probably never heard of.
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.
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.
This cultural revolution is now a part of everyday life in today’s society. Many famous hip-hop artists like Drake, Jay Z, Eminem, and Nicki Minaj are frequently played on the radio and loved by many. Hip-hop has evolved throughout the years and continues to change. While people continue to enjoy this art form, it is essential to know how hip-hop
Very similarly to rhythm and blues, rock and roll and the Civil Rights Movement inspired hip hop in a variety of different ways, as African American artists worked to find a space for themselves in the music industry. Not many people find a correlation between African Americans and Rock and Roll, but there’s surprisingly a deep history, and it’s not just white people who developed this specific genre, but there was African American-centered and ghetto-centered versions of rock and roll. “There are enough similarities between, for instance, rock & roll and commercial rap, especially rock rap, to make a case for critically engaging them as interracial arenas where black and white youths, among others, put forward messages and advanced ideals that have been not only informed by the Civil Rights Movement and the Hip Hop Movement, respectively, but in turn, even if only implicitly, have influenced the rhetoric, politics, and aesthetics of these movements” (Rabaka 99). There was a strong transition from this type of “rock rap” music being labeled as ghetto music, into universal music that people of all races and ethnicities would listen to.
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.
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.
Royalty cant buy you loyalty, tell me if I lose everything would you be over me? Hip-Hop, according to Dictionary.com is defined “The popular subculture of big-city teenagers, which includes rap music, break dancing and graffity art. Kodak Black, Kevin Gates and Lil Uzi Vert greatly contributes to this genre. Kodak Black greatly contributes to Hip-Hop. According to Wikipedia.org, Kodak Black’s music is frequently about “previous and future criminal misdeeds”, and he stated that he’s been influenced by rapper Boosie Badazz and Chief Keef.
When you take a look at hip hop artists and their music is ether a biography on their life and hardships , political statements or something anyone can relate too no matter the culture, nationality or race. For example, Eminem wrote albums on what people stories of him a unhealthy household,raising a daughter, and dealing with personal toxic flaws of his . Hip hop allows artists like him be able to put their feeling and thoughts onto paper without losing all the emotion it already has. Like stated before even
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. The relentless wave of heroic new rappers arriving on the scene formed the golden age of hip hop in the 1980s, a newfound voice which rose from the impoverished ghettos during the 1980s and inspiring a generation of black youth to fight the police brutality they faced on a daily basis.
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
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)
The birth of hip hop took place in the Bronx, New York , during a time of poverty , Initially when Hip Hop first came about no one would have imagined how vastly and quickly it grew nor would they have predicted the influence on society it has today. This particular enriched and animated, genre of music went from the local backwoods of the projects to a multi millionaire industry. If you ask most people today their definition of Hip Hop , generally they would say a cool rhyming scheme with a hook and a catchy tune, which is not too far off. But it is much deeper than that .Hip hop is a form of expression like a factory , if you may .