Week 11 Post Reading Questions

From this week’s discussion and video, I have definitely found some interesting points that I did not know.  I think one of the most interesting points I found out was that 70% of the consumers of hip hop music is white males. I know the statistics have changed from when hip hop first arrived on the scene in the 70’s, but was surprised to find out that it changed from a primarily black audience to a white audience.  Furthermore, something I noticed in the film that bothered me was that no female hip hop artist was interviewed throughout the whole process. I know the film was primarily talking about male masculinity, but I thought it could have been enhanced by having interview Queen Latifah maybe, or even Missy Elliot. I think Queen Latifah could have offered some good insight on hip hop, the idea of masculinity, and homosexuality.  Before the film, I thought of hip hop as being an outlet for artist to express themselves, with most of the lyrics being about the hard struggles of their lives. Through the video though, I then found out that once the record label changed and white people took over, the hip hop lyrics became more violent and derogative towards women because it “was something people never heard before.”

When it comes to the film makers arguments, I definitely agree with statement one. To me, the film had some glimpses of the movie Bowling for Columbine, the Michael Moore talking about gun violence in America., which I feel connects with statement the film maker argues. I think in America guns and destruction are portrayed so highly as a thrill in pop culture, movies, media, etc. that it is only nature for music to be the same.

For the second statement, I don’t know if I see homophobia portrayed in the hip hop lyrics or music video, or if it is me just not reading too much into what is being said, but this was something I never thought about. As for degrading to women though, I have heard several arguments before about it and agree that it is, but also feel like there may be more to the story that we are not thinking about. Like when the question was brought up about “why women don’t stop themselves from being in those music videos?”  I think there are different ways of looking at it. I thought the two different statements that were written on the board showed a great example of that. Depending on how you looked at it, there was always someone who was the victim. Overall, I think it is important to remember there are always two sides to a story.

word count: 450

Pre-Reading Questions Week 11

Hip hop is a type of music that I feel expresses the artists’ feeling or the feelings of the general public. I feel like the artist have a general purpose for their music, but I also feel that society has deemed the idea of hip hop music with a negative connotation. 

You can definitely see the idea of race, class, gender, etc. playing a role in the idea of what or I should say who creates hip hop music. We can see a good majority of hip hop artist are black or of mixed ethnicities. With that said there has been historical racism and negative stereotypes about black people and what class they are in. The typical stereotype goes, or what many people see is a black male hip hop artist makes it big with a background of growing up in the ghetto and being around gang activity, sometimes coming out of it or still having some association. I think because of the typical situation I just provided, these ideas provide a negative connotation to the idea of hip hop. I think as you get older, you quickly learn what kind of music you like and alterations of music you like, for example you can like Taylor Swift country music, but not like Wynonna Judd country music, which is a little more traditional. I think it is the same with hip hop, despite it mainly having a negative connotation, I think there are some more mellow tone hip hop artists that have a more positive connotation.

When we think of artist like 50 Cent, there is tons of negativity that comes along. When I hear the name 50 Cent, I think thug life, shot in the jaw, candy shop, G-Unit, etc. Even though, I am a fan of 50 Cent and own two albums, I know of people who hear his music, and automatically are like, “wow, not my kind of music.” Now, in comparison to say Lupe Fiasco, who has a more positive connotation, 50 Cent is seen as more rough, whereas Lupe is seen as just mellow. Though both are classified as hip hop artist, the tone and beats used in their music is different, which I feel also deciphers the negative/positive connotations. Their lyrics are also different, for example when you hear the “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent and really understand what it means, I think people can get an icky feeling, and when you hear Lupe’s “Hip Hop Saved My Life” just by the title you get a more “aww” feeling because it seems he overcame something.

 Word Count: 431