Social Issues In Hip Hop

HIP-HOP VS R&B Hip-Hop music, also called hip-hop is a musical genre that was first brought to the United States by inner-city African Americans in the 1970s. Hip-hop is a form of music that incorporates various styles such as rapping, which is defined as a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. In studying and dancing hip-hop, it is important to that it is defined by four elements that are scratching (DJing), rapping (MCing), graffiti writing, and break dancing. To tap into some historical facts about hip-hop, it was highly popularized when block parties were a big thing back in the 70s in New York City (Bronx).

Introduction Hip-hop is a cultural art form that originated in urban centres on the American East Coast in the 1970s (Morgan, Marcyliena, and Dionne Bennett, 2011, p.1). From the point of its conception to today, hip hop has been used as a political tool for African Americans to express their discontent with their marginalized status in North American society (Eberhardt and Freeman, 2015). Due to the large role that African Americans played in the development and continuation of the genre, hip-hop has often been described as a part of “black culture” (Ghandonoosh, 2010). By the late 1980s, however, other cultures and races had begun to appreciate and recreate the art form (Rodriquez, 2015). Most notably, starting in the 1990s, white North

Jim Crow had many African Americans think there life would be better up north. African American culture was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance. African American culture had the most creative arts and the most influential movement in the African American culture. The Harlem Renaissance help give African Americans changes. The Harlem Renaissance also helped Africans American produce their art and such more.

“Everybody’s at was with different things… I’m at war with my own heart sometimes.” Tupac Shakur was a Hip Hop rapper in East Harlem. Raised by a family of Black Panthers things weren’t easy for him and his family. Through thick and thin Tupac was able to make it to the top and inspired many people throughout his career.

Rock and roll has had huge contributions from various types of people and African Americans are certainly one of them. Rhythm and Blues, Urban Blues, Boogie-Woogie, Jump Blues, Blues Shouters are all African American music as we learned in Unit 1. Considering the fact that white majorities were always trying to keep the Black America separate from white and huge immigration of African Americans going on, I believe African Americans do not get the credit they deserve for their contribution in rock and roll. Urban blues, one of the popular version of blues, came out when African Americans moved out of south to northwestern cities like Chicago and Missouri. They reflected on the dynamic of the cities and made a new rhythm.

Where did it occur and who and what did it involve. “The Harlem Renaissance was a period of newfound and hard-won artistic and social freedom for African Americans.” (“Harlem Renaissance”). People say that the Harlem Renaissance inspired most of pop culture today. The Harlem Renaissance was one the most important events of African American history.

The film focuses on the early lives of rappers like Eazy E, Ice Cube, and Dr.Dre, illustrating how they became members of the N.W.A and the rise of their music career. The music they produced was considered “reality rap”, because the lyrics of their songs talked about real life issues that black males had to face in their communities. Their songs told the truth about life in the hood, which is why so many people began to react in different ways and started a cultural war. “The real threat in the music was to the social order, employing a masculine bravado. The music is a reversal of criminality tropes, while functioning as a resource for resistance to spatial surveillance and police violence” (Sanchez, 30), this quote from the ebook successfully explains the breakdown of the music the N.W.A members produced.

When Ronald Reagan and George Bush first declared a War on Drugs in America, they opened a bunch of chaos, crime, social injustice, and a lot of heartache in the black community. The Drug War policies and laws that was implemented, violates human rights, and force police officers to aggressively pursue nonviolent criminals. This system was perfectly designed to gain social control rather than relieve neighborhoods from drugs, which have a lot of citizens questioning was this a major success or failure. Since the war on drugs have been declared, Americans have experienced nothing but an elevated level of mass incarceration, while drugs and violence have reached an all-time high in our communities. The prisons in America are leading the world

Introduction Hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambataa is often credited with coining the name “hip-hop”. When asked during a lecture at Cornell University how the youth movement that he helped to create was named, he referred to the words “hip” and “hop” as they were chanted by rappers in their rhymes saying, “I liked that sound … I said, ‘This is hip and when you feel the music you gotta hop to it, so that’s when we called it ‘hip-hop. ’”(Chang, 2014) However, the true nature of the hip-hop movement is not that simply defined. Hip-hop names a musical and cultural phenomenon that might have begun as a local youth arts movement but has now grown into a “generation-defining global movement” (Chang, 2005) which has not only claimed to have saved lives and changed the way minorities all over the world express their frustrations (Chang, 2007) but is also a major commercial industry.

Though within recent times, some media has begun to counter these negative portrayals of African Americans such as the hit T.V show “Empire” that effectively captures the success of the people within the black community. The first piece to be examined is a song written and sung by the N.W.A. “Straight Outta Compton” in 1988 details the struggles of being an African American on the streets within downtown Los Angeles. (Sample song plays). The song is an exaggerated and loose representation of the reality of living in everyday Compton and seeing African Americans commit crimes and kill others.

rapper Toddy Tee launched the alleged West Coast hip-hop’s opening salvo criticizing police for their brutality in black-dominated neighborhoods. Apparently, the electro-grooved “Batterram,” inspired by the battering ram then-LAPD Chief Daryl Gates could ambush homes of suspected gangster drug dealers, became a hit on KDAY-AM, a local radio station. This is just an example of how the Los Angeles has been affected by the elements of hip-hop and gangster-related music of African-American origin. The track became a protect anthem in the black-dominated neighborhoods around the city of L.A., where many homes were suspected of harboring drugs. The 1992 L.A. riots came and found the soundtrack already in place.

During the 1990’s in a crime infested city, there was a group of men that looked to change music as we know it. Their goal was to create a genre of music that no one has ever heard or even thought about. N***az Wit Attitude a.k.a N.W.A were the root of a new generation of Hip-Hop and Gangsta Rap. Growing up in one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S, Compton, CA isn’t the best place to live and start your own label because of all the gangs, drugs, and criminals.

According to Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, hip-hop is the world’s most popular genre of music. This is an amazing feat from a genre created less than fifty years ago in New York City. Modern day hip-hop deviates from its original purpose of providing a voice for underrepresented groups as hip-hop spread throughout the country and became overly commercialized. Clive Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, created hip-hop at a Halloween party in the Bronx of New York City in 1973. After noticing positive reactions from the crowd, DJ Kool Herc used a groundbreaking turntable technique to elongate the drum breaks in songs (Blanchard).

As generations come and go, new eras of music evolve with them. Hip hop culture being one of these genres. In the early 1970s, African Americans dominated this genre. The music started in the South Bronx, New York City. Since then, hip hop has accumulated all over the United States, in both urban and suburban communities.

A recognizable rap group in this era would be “The Last Poets”, who used aggressive but socially-conscience lyrics that played a major role in the birth of Hip-Hop. There are three major time zones involved with the evolution of rap and it is the early era, mid era, and modern era. In the late 1960’s, a group of African-American started to gather frequently in Harlem, New York, to share their poetry,