The Effect Of Hip-Hop On African-American Culture

As hip hop began to gain popularity, it started to include people beyond poor urban neighborhoods. As this occurred, new members of the hip hop generation struggled to define themselves beyond the slums. Although it was the birthplace of hip hop, it was dangerously misleading to allow society to continue to perceive hip hop as the child of neglect, poverty, and suffering. Though by no means an collective response to outsider views, songs attempting to define hip hop began to appear. From “We Rap More Mellow” to “Damn it feels good to be a gangster, 13 years pass (1979-92), but the ideology expressed in the lyrics remains thematically the same, in hoping to redefine hip hop and what it means to be member of

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 the article “Hip-Hop Planet” by James McBride he explains first about the nightmare he has of his daughter coming home with a young reckless rapper guy with tattoos and golden teeth and McBride for a moment is taken back to the past when he was young and it comes to thought that he was in this young wanna be rappers shoes. As he goes on with life he contemplates of how his rap days are over but in time he comes to realize that he himself will still be surrounded with the cool beat sound of one rapper explaining his everyday hard life. James first time hearing hip-hop was at a party, and it escalated when one of James friend slapped a big guy who crashed the party followed by two other friends and what was strange was these guys differed

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 has a message that reveals the social inequalities of our nations. In addition, McBride wants people to keep an open mind about hip hop and new thing that they may not be used to. In conclusion, he declares hip

Additionally, you illustrate the pop culture as being aware of the importance to recognize value as well as the warning it is sounding, in which we should begin paying attention. You challenge us, as a society, to take the initiative to embrace expression and to change the social inequalities that still plague us and other cultures from around the world. The main purpose of writing your article is an appeal to the adult generation to not dismiss hip hop, but to listen carefully to the message and realize that a generation wants acknowledgement and a resolution to these troubles and inequalities.

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. Through their lyrics they were able to express their opinions about society, the government and the treatment of African-Americans in the U.S. for decades. The black community used this platform to protest against social attitudes and try to change them. The famous MCs like 2Pac, Biggie, Snoop Dogg and rap groups for instance the one and only Wu Tang Clan or the generally known gangster rap group from Compton called N.W.A. were orators of a generation with the intention of raising the black culture and community from the oppression remained in the

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.

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 . You take the reality of the world or the “ bad,” you ball it around with the latest slang, trends and

So why is hip hop exploding worldwide? When listeners were asked why they listen to hip hop through a website called Genius which lets listeners interpret lyrics and engage in conversations. The audience respond, one user who goes by “the1elment” stated, “I like rap for most part because it shows the rough side of things its not talking about living in a dream world where your neighbors are awesome people and everything is just perfect…I live in such a nice neighborhood with amazing parents and family and through rap I learn more about the streets and shit that I have never really seen or gone through and even though I can’t relate i'm just fascinated by the culture of the music and lifestyles pretty deep topic…”. The user explains why he listens to hip hop, and like many other comments on the website. They use hip hop to gain knowledge of what the rappers talk about. 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

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.

There has been disputes regarding the true origins of hip hop. Many would say that Hip Hop originated outside the country, such as Africa. As Washington indicated, “The terms “rap” and “hip hop” originate in the Wolof language of West Africa. “Hep” or “hip” means to have knowledge or insight; “to open one’s eyes, to be aware of what is going on’” (73). Even if Hip Hop happened to originate in certain meanings and life styles, it still doesn’t defeat the fact that artists from the Bronx helped shaped the culture and shared it to fans across the globe. Jackson and Anderson hinted that, “On a larger scale, it is important to understand that U.S. hip hop culture has expanded to include a vast international audience and to recognize the extent of that expansion” (23).

This chapter also explores how the youth tends to use the hip-hop culture in their everyday settings as well as at the organizations they work with, even though they’re criticized on a daily basis in their activism at schools. Many youngsters use hip hop as a way to reflect they everyday lives and/or experiences or basically as something that other youth members can identity and relate them with. Films, TV and music have also constructed a very important identity in the way community is represented. Despite the fact that hip-hop is a growing

The term Hip Hop is used as a subcultural movement. Scholars such as Carl and Virgil Taylor emphasize “Hip-Hop is not only a genre of music, but also a complex system of ideas, values and concepts that reflect newly emerging and ever-changing creative correlative expressive mechanisms including but not limited to song, poetry, film and fashion.” Hip hop includes, rapping, graffiti, breakdancing, and DJing. It grew in popularity after a lot of house parties and basement parties. DJ Hollywood and DJ Afrika Bambaataa are known for coming up with the term "hip-hop". What Hip hop containes, is considered “artistic variations” of street gang competition and one’s ability to be better.

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)

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. Hip-hop constitutes of clothing, language (poetic) graffiti art, break dancing, Mcing/ rhyming and beatboxing.