Hip Hop Negative OR Positive?

Hip Hop music promotes materialism, misogyny and criminal activity. It is responsible for perpetuating negative stereotypes of young black men and women.

Introduction

Hip Hop culture is an American musical genre originated from the Bronx, New York City; it began in the 1970s where originally the music was created from improvisations made from existing music, hip hop mainly took place in the streets which was very popular with African-Americans and the Latino youths.  Hip Hop consists of four pillars which are MC'ing, DJ'ing, breaking and graffiti writing, also beat boxing is also seen as another element to Hip Hop. The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture is seen as an increasingly elaborate form of art, in today’s society graffiti remains a part of hip hop.

I believe hip hop in today’s society is portrayed negatively; hip hop is increasingly becoming dominated by gang culture. Many artists see hip hop to portray wealth, sexual interests and drug use. Youths are highly influenced with the negative message the artists portray, an example will be 50cents ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ the title is ironic, it is referring to quick easy money that can be earned through selling drugs on the other hand it is saying take the longest option which is education and die trying, therefore this is displaying the negativity in society. Hip Hop is promoting materialism through album covers that advertise artists ‘Bling’ ‘Sports car’ ‘Designer Clothes’ and many more.

 This is showing a bad example of Black men and women in society.  Furthermore women are dressed half naked and wear lots of make up in music videos this is degrading women as sex objects and a hobby for men.  In music videos they use misogyny and criminal activity which shows negativity and portrays violence.

An example video that portrays misogyny will be Fat Joe's - Make it rain, in this music video they degrade women, and express them as sexual desires, this shows how women are seen in the hip hop culture. Therefore this shows a bad example for our youth as women will be seen as sexual desires.

However Hip Hop was not always negative, an example video will be Nas's 'I Can' this song portrays children ( girls and boys) that they can be successful in anything they want, e.g. doctor, lawyer, singer and musician. An example of what Nas says is:

[Nas]"Be, B-Boys and girls, listen up
You can be anything in the world, in God we trust
An architect, doctor, maybe an actress
But nothing comes easy it takes much practice
Like, I met a woman who's becoming a star
She was very beautiful, leaving people in awe
Singing songs, Lina Horn, but the younger version
Hung with the wrong person
Got her strung on that
Heroin, cocaine, sniffin up drugs all in her nose...
Coulda died, so young, now looks ugly and old
No fun cause now when she reaches for hugs people hold they breath
Cause she smells of corrosion and death
Watch the company you keep and the crowd you bring
Cause they came to do drugs and you came to sing
So if you gonna be the best, I'ma tell you how,
Put your hands in the air, and take a bow"
Nas's lyrics influence young teens and children to be successful, he also adds in the end :


"Save the music y'all, save the music y'all
Save the music y'all, save the music y'all
Save the music."
This could be him being ironic and referring to how Hip Hop should not be portrayed negatively, and music should be displayed as a positive message to people.