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First of all I don't agree with the view most people have on hip hop in this thread but I dislike BET just as much as the next man.
First of all let me defend and explain to ya'll about my love (Hip Hop): Hip hop is a multi-vocalized voice for the Black community, and for the most part its synonymous with the middle to lower-income levels of the Black community. Hip hop like every other genre of music evolves. The thing about is though that the mainstream hip hop(radio, BET, MTV, etc) is the killer IMO. This is the corporate hip hop, that's what I like to call it. It specializes in all the negative or mundane aspects of hip hop and exploit it and rape it.
Then its played over and over in rotation non-stop so that's all people hear. Plus the real music that's played throughout the hood is definitely not what's played on the radio, and its all variety not just about killings and smashing the females, there's actually rappers who talk about the struggles and the violence, not because that's what the suits and ties wants but because the people that actually hear the music like it resonates with their life or some part of it for instance:
The same rapper who made this song (listen to the lyrics please)
First of all I don't agree with the view most people have on hip hop in this thread but I dislike BET just as much as the next man.
First of all let me defend and explain to ya'll about my love (Hip Hop): Hip hop is a multi-vocalized voice for the Black community, and for the most part its synonymous with the middle to lower-income levels of the Black community. Hip hop like every other genre of music evolves. The thing about is though that the mainstream hip hop(radio, BET, MTV, etc) is the killer IMO. This is the corporate hip hop, that's what I like to call it. It specializes in all the negative or mundane aspects of hip hop and exploit it and rape it.
Then its played over and over in rotation non-stop so that's all people hear. Plus the real music that's played throughout the hood is definitely not what's played on the radio, and its all variety not just about killings and smashing the females, there's actually rappers who talk about the struggles and the violence, not because that's what the suits and ties wants but because the people that actually hear the music like it resonates with their life or some part of it for instance:
The same rapper who made this song (listen to the lyrics please)
And the hood listen to this and folks like this rather than mainstream. Stamped!
Congratulations you've managed to sum up the problem and prove my point in one post.
In the first video its evident that he recognizes there's a problem.
However, in the second video his actions continue to propagate the problem and support the culture that caused the problem.
And then going back to the first video, he starts blabbering on about slavery, blaming the problems that he propagates in the first video on white people, instead of taking responsibility for his culture.
The funny thing is in the second video there are no white people causing the violent culture. White people aren't shooting his friends, it's other black people. And then since you cite this as true hood music or underground or whatever it isn't influenced by whites, another stupid assumption.
Slavery was over more than 150 years ago. It's the most outrageous excuse ever. White people aren't making the music, stopping black kids from going to class, causing the black on black violence, and exulting this idiotic culture.
Just compare country music, or if we want dive intellectually, Dave Matthews etc. to Rap and my point proves itself.
Congratulations you've managed to sum up the problem and prove my point in one post.
In the first video its evident that he recognizes there's a problem.
However, in the second video his actions continue to propagate the problem and support the culture that caused the problem.
And then going back to the first video, he starts blabbering on about slavery, blaming the problems that he propagates in the first video on white people, instead of taking responsibility for his culture.
The funny thing is in the second video there are no white people causing the violent culture. White people aren't shooting his friends, it's other black people. And then since you cite this as true hood music or underground or whatever it isn't influenced by whites, another stupid assumption.
Slavery was over more than 150 years ago. It's the most outrageous excuse ever. White people aren't making the music, stopping black kids from going to class, causing the black on black violence, and exulting this idiotic culture.
Just compare country music, or if we want dive intellectually, Dave Matthews etc. to Rap and my point proves itself.
You have just pointed out the HUGE blind spot that they don't see.
Clearly you don't understand how the record business works. When large record conglomerates spend literally millions of dollars to promote artist of their choosing and channeled through an equally concentrated broadcast industry their out balance influence on popular culture is enormous, unless of course you believe that the multibillion dollar advertising industry is just there for looks.
Quite frankly I have more faith in human willpower to resist the influence of pop culture. I don't think people are drones. Teens and impressionable minds are susceptible to the power of suggestion, however if Lady Gaga promotes cyanide soda pop, would you drink it?
God bless this professor for speaking out on an issue that many of us can't talk about.
(...and be sure to read the thoughtful comments under the article for further insight).
I agree 100%.
In my late teens, I was a part of the hip-hop crowd. Not sure why. I just got along with certain people within that crowd. We all know high school is very cliqueish. I listened to stuff other than hip-hop, but it was still the majority of what I listened to. Mind you, I was never the type to listen to lyrics and try to emulate the lifestyles the rappers were talking about.
After graduation, I began studying music theory. Not for college, but out of my own personal interest. I learned as much as I could. After a while, I felt like I was approaching the limits of what I could learn in standard theory. Then I got into jazz theory. It was like stepping out of 1920's black and white and into Technicolor.
Now, I can't stand the sound of rap/hip-hop (or modern pop music in general).
Oh another racist thread on CD! Until the artists on BET come out and start lynching white people this thread is BS. If any of you who think BET is the new "KKK' you need your heads examined! They only show videos from 6PM-7:30PM on 106th. & Park which is very similar to MTV's previous show that used to do a daily countdown of the most popular hip hop videos. Otherwise most of BET's programming is quite tame with sitcoms like "Everybody hates Chris" by Chris Rock, "Girlfriends" a series produced by Kelsey Grammar (Frasier) and the Game which is about football players!
I also guess the "Monique' show which is a talk show, hosted by the Academy Award winner is also threatening as well!
Oh by the way? The largest consumers of hip hop & rap music in the US are SUBURBAN white kids!
Go hide under your white hoods says this white hispanic who enjoys BET!
Oh another racist thread on CD! Until the artists on BET come out and start lynching white people this thread is BS. If any of you who think BET is the new "KKK' you need your heads examined! They only show videos from 6PM-7:30PM on 106th. & Park which is very similar to MTV's previous show that used to do a daily countdown of the most popular hip hop videos. Otherwise most of BET's programming is quite tame with sitcoms like "Everybody hates Chris" by Chris Rock, "Girlfriends" a series produced by Kelsey Grammar (Frasier) and the Game which is about football players!
I also guess the "Monique' show which is a talk show, hosted by the Academy Award winner is also threatening as well!
Oh by the way? The largest consumers of hip hop & rap music in the US are SUBURBAN white kids!
Go hide under your white hoods says this white hispanic who enjoys BET!
And you probably think Tyler Perry's films don't reinforce negative stereotypes either, right?
Sorry, but I think you're delusional and full of wishful thinking. Hip hop and 90% of lyrics and topics is about nothing that any respectable person takes part in. Its about whores, drugs, guns, etc. Some of it is about the struggles in the ghetto, but it is always somehow portrayed as being a cool and alright lifestyle. What the hell type of hip hop do you listen to?
Sorry, but I think you're a would-be hip hop expert that knows nothing about the culture or the music. He had a great point... Hip Hop has literally saved the lives of a lot of people and channeled their energy into something that wasn't self-destructive. A lot of them would have been dead or serving a life sentence years ago otherwise...
What many people fail to understand about Hip Hop culture is that it was the first major voice the inner-city black America ever had in America... the revolutionary content of the music reflected the revolutionary period in inner-city black history that had directly preceded it (see the Black Panthers). The point when the genre became mainstream, however, was exactly the point when major labels began to heavily market gangsta rappers after the success of NWA. They figured out that they could still sell sex drugs and violence through Hip Hop as they had done with Rock but they needed to make sure that gangsta rap was the only popular subgenre of Hip Hop on the radio. Eventually, though, the majors stopped supporting gangsta rap as they realized that they could still market sex and drugs through hip hop without dealing with the controversy of gangsta rap... a new wave of soft-but-materialistic rappers (see Kanye West and more recently Wiz Khalifa) materialized.
The popular voice of inner city black America has become distorted by marketability... the positive voice of the early 80's simply wasn't marketable to the largest group of potential consumers: sex-driven trend-following teens.
/rant
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