Hip Hop Wars
What was understood:
I absolutely loved reading and learning about the hip-hop community and some of its context. I am a lover of some hip-hop artist, ecspecially Kanye West, and as I read this article I thought back to some of his music, and with an exception of some of his songs, he does sound a positive message to his listeners, he encourages people to reach for the stars, to be yourself, and to be someone diffrent not one in the crowd. As i always saw it I always though hip-hop was very diffrent from rap, it seemed that the two had very diffrent ideals to go along with it. When I was reading the article I realized there is a hip-hop war, which I guess you wouldn't know unless you were involved in that community, but it made sense that Rose stated that commercial influences such as MTV, VH1, and radio could be killing the "real" hip-hop. If you were to turn on the radio which would you hear more "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, or "Champion" by Knaye West, granted Kanye has had his time int he spotlight with some of his songs, but the ones with meaning and defiance tend not to come on the radio, while his songs thats have more of a socially accepted beat and lyrics are quiet frequently played more often. Rose also connects her article to Nas's album and song "Hip-hop is dead," obviously I am not a hip-hop officianado, but I can completely understand why he wrote that song and why Rose used it to defend her argument, after listening to his song it made sense that within the hip-hop community there was a struggle of what should be hip-hop, and how the media in a way is killing the "real" hip-hop, they are only allowing more publicity to those songs that have the typical rap type lyrics and beats, while those songs with substance and positive messages are being shunned. The fact that violence and hip-hop related, does not surprise me at all, with every hip-hop artist laying rhymes down like, "I'm Supposed to Die Tonight" by 50 Cent or "Lights off" by Lil Wayne. I can understand why some media would constitute violence when songs like this are played over and over on the radio, yet again should we censor things that people have lived through or have experienced.
What was not understood:
- Is Rap and hip-hop the same thing? or is there a big diffrence?
- Should hip-hop artist have to censor what they wish to communicate in their songs?
- Does hip-hop really effect teens or young adults because of the lyrics?
Connections to other themes:
I thought about the last presentationt hat we saw with the 90210 pictures, and how the media decides to send teens and young adults messages the way they want to, the play the songs that have the good beats and what they think will make the most money or the audience will enjoy the most. Just like the pictures from the TV show they made the pictures very seductive and visually appealing, just the same with music.
Questions/Comments/Points to share:
Heh, when I was a kid, I never heard it called "hip hop." It was only referred to as "rap." I'm sure a lot of opinions differ about it, but to me, hip hop is the culture (clothes, turntables, graffiti, all that) and rap is just one aspect of it, the lyricism. Krs-one put it this way: "Rap is something you do. Hip hop is something you live."
ReplyDeleteLove that this helped you process something you already feel invested in but not quite "efficianado" about! And I really like the way you structure your posts -- they are easy to read and allow you to ask good questions!
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