hippy-hoppy

I believe that hip-hop music purpose initially is to tell a story, send a message, and strike an emotion to occur within the individual whomever is listening. Hip-hop music may be for entertainment but it is also more than a genre that entertains an audience. In my opinion, there are arrays of dynamics to the hip-hop genre that makes it more than a category of entertainment. Hip-hop has an agenda; the agenda of most artists within the hip-hop industry are communicating a message. The messages that are being brought the attention of the listeners may vary from political, racial, sexual issues and so forth. As time has changed so has hip-hop, it has now slowly becoming an amplification of stereotypes associated within the genre.  Hip-hop exemplifies issues of race, class, gender, sexuality and social engagement. First, within the hip-hop industry race plays a major role it is viewed and associated with mainly people of color, and more predominately with African Americans. Also, the majority of hip-hop artists are generally African American males. If an artist who is within the hip-hop industry is a non- African American individual, that person talent may be under valued or would have to face criticism, also may have to face the challenge of proving their talent/skill to the general audience and other artists. For example, Eminem a white male rapper whom debuted as a rap artist in 1999, mainly had audience who were Caucasians; his talent as an artist was at questioned when he initially started out. Eventually, after volumes of work he and display of his roots from Detroit was he more accepted and respected as a hip-hop artist. From my outlook, consumers of hip-hop was at first racially homogenous but has transition to be more racially diverse audience. Hip-hop in a sense is problematic because it perpetuates negative connotation and stereotypes associated within the industry. The problem with current hip-hop music and it is not stating that all music created in the industry of hip-hop does this, but it is the main aspect of hip-hop that sells and is marketed; hip-hop has now been shown as a way to purely communicate violence (thug-life and/or gangster life), sex, and entertainment. I believe, that the genre is so popular although it may be problematic is because it is heavily marketed as “cool” and masculine towards society. Aside from being heavily marketed to the population, hip-hop sells sex appeals and catchy idea/phrases in regards of sex. Unfortunately, these negative stereotypes are reinforced by the industry and have been accepted as the norm of the hip-hop culture.

-430W