Hip Hop

Hip hop portrays the progression of black music. It is a culture and a lifestyle, and it is both political and informative. Hip-hop artists represent different ranges of the community. Urban dictionary has 41 different definitions for hip hop, representing the various ways hip hop affects lifestyle and culture. Many believe hip hop to be dead because the mainstream media and MTV introduce artists that do not represent the true definition of hip hop.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hip-hop

SONGS

• Blackalicious – Blazing Arrow
• Wale – Good Girls
• Lil Wyte – Oxycontin
• Spank Rock – Pu$$y
• People Under the Stairs – Acid Raindrops

VIDEOS

• Kanye West – Good Life
• Pussycat Dolls ft. Missy Elliot – Watcha Think about That
• Fugees – Ready or Not
• Young Jeezy – Put On
• Lil Wayne – Mrs. Officer

Power 103.5 plays “#1 for blazing hip hop and R&B.”
KJ 103, or 102.7, plays pop music and hip hop and rap.

SoBe utilizes hip hop culture in their commercials. In the SoBe Lizard Lake commercial the lizard ends the commercial with a grin that reveals a full grill.

Gap has a khaki commercial that features several different people dancing and break dancing while wearing khaki.



Jay-Z plugs Motorola in his song “I Just Wanna Love U,” singing, “Motorola two-way page me.”

Steve Stoute, VP of Black Music for Interscope Records, created a company called PASS that matches urban music and musicians with advertisers (The Village Voice).

Hip Hop’s presence in the media has been developed largely through the use of words created by hip hop artists and celebrities. A lot of hip hop artist’s play on words and create different ways of describing things. One example being ‘fo shizzle.’ This word is heard in movies, music, commercials, television programs, etc. Snoop Dogg coined a term that even politicians use. Another untraditional word is ‘munchies.’ Urban dictionary defines this word as a term used by people who get hungry after they smoke pot. However, munchies are now a brand of chips sold in stores and gas stations across the US.
My mom listened to heavy metal, classic rock and pop. She loved Metallica and went to one of their concerts in the 80s. She listened to a lot of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, who primarily sing classic rock. Lastly, she loved The Beatles, but who didn’t during the 60s and 70s?

I think that hip hop discusses a lot of the same topics that other music genres discuss. Artists rap about women, money, drugs, politics and current events, all of which can be summed up by any Police song. I think a lot of people stereotype rap and hip hop because they are uninformed. Wale’s “Good Girls” says that good girls never give it up on the first night, and Young Jeezy’s “Put On” music video portrays the current economic recession and how it affects the streets of America. A lot of artists demean women in their lyrics and music videos. However, Spank Rock and the Pussycat Dolls portray themselves in a sexual manner, proving that the harsh lyrics do not affect their sexuality.

I believe there are both sides to this issue, I think that a lot of hip hop artists parade scantily clad, beautiful women around their music video set, but I also believe there are artists who don’t discuss sex and women, like Blackalicious and the Fugees. There are two sides to every issue, and stereotyping hip hop, like stereotyping anything, can be proven false when researched. A stereotype can be a definition only if you allow others to write your views for you.