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.

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