Monday, March 1, 2010

Hip-Hop

Jared Ball's articles were very hard for me to read. However, I understood a few concepts that he was trying to point out. The first being that mainstream hip-hop is not what it had originally intended to be. Original hip-hop was intended for "black America" to vent about problems with society and the struggle of being a person of color. "Hip-hop is often taken out of the existing context of political struggle, repression, or the primacy of a domestic/neo-colonialism in the service of which mass media play a (the?) leading role. Media, often incorrectly defined by their technologies, are the primary conduits of ideology or worldview and must be seen as such" (Ball). He says that the media has portrayed hip-hop to be this highly sexual musical style of "thugs" and "hoes". His second article is discussing how major music labels often tell their artists what they can and what they cannot sing or rap about, inhibiting true hip-hop to be produced. "At times called the petit-bourgeoisie, or even the Black bourgeoisie, they are simply that group which, as administrators, administer to society that which limits or confounds ranges of thought so as to keep people from stepping – intellectually or literally – beyond acceptable parameters" (Ball).

I agree with Ball's articles. Hip-hop has swung from Tupac being the most popular hip-hop artist talking about the positive changes he wanted to see in the world, to Lil Wayne, the most popular hip-hop artist today singing about the objectification of women, and how he wants to objectify him. It is disgusting to see the hip-hop industry be what it is today. I believe that this is directly connected with SCWAMP. Tupac rapped about how black people were not treated equally, and how people of color filled the prisons. This shows the racism and racial problems in society, and show that white men are truly the privileged ones. In addition, with Lil Wayne singing about women as purely sexual objects, it can account for one of the many reasons why women are not treated equally. With artists such as Lil Wayne becoming popular, more people listen to what they have to say, and the women's movement goes nowhere. What happened to intelligent rappers? I would like to see the hip-hop movement be back where it used to be.

Tupac- "I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to races"

Lil Wayne-"Open up her legs then filet Mignon that pussy
Ima get in and on that pussy"

This looks like a big change to me...




4 comments:

Kaima-Dunbar said...

In every art form there will be great things and will be things not worth listening to... GREAT EXAMPLE!

Eva said...

i agree fully that when dominant culture talks about women as objects this directly connects to sexism and our society

funny how they censor certain songs for their content, so they are very aware of all meanings of the songs, yet they let things like this through, i have to wonder if thats a concious decision or if this oppression is so ingrained in their heads that they don;t see it

Cousin Tom said...

That's phenomenal. I can't believe that lil Wayne's making money on that garbage.

mosei said...

i like how u went into detail on what Bell's reading was about and the two examples you chose, it is sad to see how hip hop has changed along the lines.