Tuesday, February 24, 2009

HIP HOP

Tricia Rose. Author of The Hip Hop Wars

Hip hop now and then...
This portion of Rose's interview was thought provoking. Tricia states that hip hop used to be about fun, having a good time, as opposed to being economically based as it is now. The fact that Jay-Z claims he had to 'dumb down' his sound to sell records is a terrible sign of the music industry as a whole; being so selective that people cannot even express themselves in ways they want to. This relates to Rose's, as well as Nas' argument that 'hip hop is dead.' The alternative hip hop artists do not fit the conventional ideals of what radio stations play so therefore they do not get air time and do not sell records. As Rose said, "sexuality and sexual domination sell. Racial stereotypes sell.' Those artists who are speaking of more than this produced image or hip hop, do not get enough exposure because they are breaking the mold instead of conforming to it.

A lot of political content...
I don't know much about hip-hop, but take Grandmaster Flash...his epic song 'The Message' truly gave a voice to anyone who grew up in the projects and the trend that their life seemed to follow. This is a song that uses great visual imagery to convey THE MESSAGE. He's trying to get his point across. This song is so fantastic because it speaks to a wide variety of people, take me, a white girl from a town with one stop light (that's right, one), who has hardly experienced any of what Grandmaster Flash speaks of, but whose eyes were opened to the realities of urban life through a truly unique way of story telling. And without hardly any profanity! Here's just a portion of his lyrics:
"A child was born, with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but hes frowning too
Cause only God knows what you go through
You grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
Youll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smugglers, scrambles, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers
You say Im cool, Im no fool
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now youre unemployed, all null n void
Walking around like youre pretty boy floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you done did
Got send up for a eight year bid
Now your man is took and youre a may tag
Spend the next two years as an undercover fag
Being used and abused, and served like hell
Till one day you was find hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young"

Today's rappers and hip hop artists seem to use the f-word every five seconds; along with portraying women as merely things to objectify as Tricia brought up in her interview in TIME.

Violence...
I found the 'hip hop causes violence' to be particularly interesting. I have to admit that I have fallen prey to believing that hip hop is a rather violent art form. But maybe that is because the small percentage of hip hop artists whose songs are played on the radio ten to be about violence and sex because that is what sells. So in reality the statement that 'hip hop causes violence' can't really be made, as the potentially violent hip hop songs, artists, or what have you, are not an accurate representation of the entire hip hop artistic community.

1 comment:

  1. So thoughtful and nice lyric post, too. sounds like this topic really caught your attention.

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