outro paper -- stewart
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Hope Stewart
BIS 313
Roberts
Outro Paper
August 23, 2013
Hip Hop: Powerful or a Crutch?
Hip hop started as a movement to get people to change things. It began as a way for
people to deal with hopelessness, due to racism and segregation, and begin to change. This was
a great view and a very inspirational initial movement, but hip hop has moved far from that in
the last decade. It has changed into getting cheddar and having expensive things on a
generalized level. In Robin Kellys articleRace Rebels its even stated that, not every word or
beat is dripping in social significancethey are merely giving the people what they want
(1994). Yes, there are still those that share those original views, but the big record companies
changed that when they started over-sexualizing and over-stimulating things for the consumer.
Initially I defined hip hop as an expression for fun and comic relief like Eminem. This was
the extent to the hip hop I knew outside of some of the more recent popular artists, which still
express the comic sides. This quarter has shown that there are many different types of hip hop
and that it isnt necessarily just music, but also a description for a society of people and their
way of life. There was also a strong desire to create[ing] a new language and with that
language a new level of importance and hopefully acceptance (Chang, 359). The view of
constant oppression and abuse definitely exists through a large portion of the music and the
other portions are comic, as noted above, and sex. They are indeed looked down upon by the
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rest of the world, but there is a large portion of youth and young adults that see the draw of
this lifemost of this coming from the male gender. They see sex, the high of drugs, and easy
money as is seen in multiple popular music videos. Roses article stated it the best, Id like for
people to put more an effort to make hip hop the culture of music that it was, instead of the
culture of violence that it is nowAll my life Ive been into hip hop, and it should mean more
than just somebody on the corner selling dope(Rose, 1). If the music means more it will have a
better effect on everyone who listens. Those in this society, also referred to as the ghetto, are
often times brought up under the poorest of circumstances with no money, a non-traditional
family, and no one to push them to be something better. With all of these things stacked
against them it can explain why so many of them end up in fields their mothers would not be
proud of.
In current day, though, this is no longer the case. Hip hop has gone from being a
powerful and inspiring movement to an excuse for people to sit in the same spot and expect for
things to automatically come to them. Gates even defined hip hop as a multifarious,
multifaceted tradition imbedded within an African American oral culture that itself shares in the
rich history of human expression across the ages this greatlydiffers in what hip hop has
become today (Gates, xxiv). Those who are hip hop inspirations do it for all the wrong reasons
and set horrible examples for those 13-year-olds listening. Their music says look at me, I
dropped out of school and I am swimming in money they leave out the fact that a lot of them
just got lucky and have no responsibilities because they got what they wanted. People need to
learn to work hard to get where they want to be. If you want to be a rapper or musical artist, go
get an education so you have some credibility and something to support you. Your education
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and knowledge is one of the only things that can never be taken away from you. They can be
used as tools to put you wherever you want to be in life. Take this example: a record label has
two prospective talents (both very good), but one has a degree and the other one doesnt; from
a business standpoint the label would choose the one with the education. It shows to them that
the prospect has not only the discipline to stick with something, but also the brains to go along
with the talentall together a pretty good package.
If those in this ghettosociety could, as a whole, step up and stop trying to take the
easy way out or expecting someone to come change things for them we would be a much
better society and world for that matter. Portions of this can apply to all types of society as
well. People need to learn to take responsibility and to push themselves to go somewhere. Yes,
some will get lucky, but in most cases nothing will change in their lives other than the fact that
they now have money. They havent learned the importance of hard work and earning a dollar.
If everyone stopped expecting the easy way out we would be in a much more productive and
better world.
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