Harry Tucker Tucker 1

English Comp 1 1301-4016

What images come to your mind when you hear the word hip-hop? Most likely, you see

images of black gangsters, criminals, pimps, ‘hos, and thugs. Don’t chastise yourself just yet.

These images that you see are valid depictions of what hip-hop has become today. Some will tell

you that hip-hop has always been this way, but they would be lying through their teeth due to

their own ignorance. For a dozen or so years, commercialized, main-stream hip-hop has

consisted of mainly sex, drugs, jealousy, money, and violence. Hip-hop, in its earlier years, was

an Afrocentric, socially conscious, important music. It was full of exuberance, political energy,

and activists for community rehabilitation. This is not to say that these negative definitions have

not played a major role in the rise of hip-hop music, but that the creative and progressive heart of

hip-hop has been neglected in society and in our minds. Hip-Hop music has become a shell of its

former self due to distorted racial and sexual fantasy, commercialism, alienation and conformity.

The plight of hip-hop today is a pitiful one. The Hip-Hop market has grown substantially

over the past decade, but at a price. Hip-hop has been commercialized into something that it was

never supposed to be. Record company executives know that controversy and sex sale. The

“party life” has always been a part of hip-hop, but sex, drugs, money, and status have also been

associated with main-stream Rock ‘n Roll and Pop. Most rappers today are Rock stars hiding

behind a “thug” façade. When I watch one of my generation’s hip-hop videos I either see flashes

of guns, glamour, and gangs, or tantalizing fantasy worlds that mimic that of today’s Pop or

Rock music. Racial and sexual fantasies have also corrupted hip-hop. For example, violent

imagery in popular culture is perceived in a different way than hip-hop. Social psychologist

Carrie B. Fried studied this issue and concluded that the perception of violence in rap music
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lyrics is affected by larger societal perceptions and stereotypes of African Americans (Rose 36).

Black people may have the highest rate of violent crime in America (which also can be traced

back to our mistreatment in society), but people need to understand that hip-hop artists aren’t

telling their listeners to commit violent acts. Hip-hop artists tell violent stories to let the world

know what is going on in the streets. Hip-hop may reflect a violent ghetto culture, but does not

advocate violence. This argument goes all the way back to the golden age of hip-hop-the middle

to late ‘80s. The group Public Enemy was considered an advocate of violence for referring to

direct and sometimes armed resistance against racism “by any means necessary”. The problem

starts when people start taking rappers’ statements literally. Many critics of hip-hop have no idea

where rappers are “coming from”. The Rodney King incident is a perfect example. When

Rodney King was severely beaten by four white police officers, pandemonium broke out all over

Los Angeles. Riots broke out when all charges against the officers were dropped. These same

situations have been going on for years in America with no justice for the beaten, or worse,

murdered African-American. This type of atrocity is exactly what real conscious rap artists

wanted us to know about and address. Some may criticize conscious hip hop artists for also

talking about partying and sex, but who can say that they haven’t listened to a Rock song that

contained the same message, or worse, and enjoyed it. In the case of rockers most say, “That is

how they live.” and “That is why they’re Rock stars!”, but try to say that hip-hop artists are

crucifying the morality of America.

Even before the LA Rebellion, President George H. Bush had instituted the "Weed and

Seed Program" which many residents of Los Angeles, such as those interviewed in the book

"Uprising" by Yusuf Jah and Sister Shah’keyah considered a spy operation. The official purpose

of weed and seed was to "weed" out gang members and, in their places, "seed" the hood with
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community programs (Dyson 16). We see the same strategy was used in hip hop. “Conscious”

rappers were weeded out and the industry was seeded with "gangsta" rappers. Gangster rap is the

most popular form of rap because it appeals to white, Hispanic, and black youths and adults. It is

also the most controversial form of hip-hop because it is said to promote violence and to be the

cause of many murders (even that of police officers).

Conformity played a big role in hip-hop’s crisis too. Hip-hop was about addressing

problems in society until rappers started making millions of dollars. That is the difference

between a hip-hop artist and a rapper. Hip-hop artists have something relevant to talk about even

after they receive wealth and fame. A rapper is anyone who can put words together in a unique

way. Vanilla Ice was a rapper but definitely wasn’t a hip-hop artist. Hip-hop artists are poets. If

you listen to the lyrics of songs then you can see what I mean. Don’t be fooled by “Pop rappers”

(who only give the people what they want) posing as hip-hop artists. Most rappers of today only

speak on sex, drugs, and money because that’s all they have to talk about. If this trend continues

in hip-hop it will never be the politically fueled, socially empowered music it was meant to be.

As NAS states on his controversial album Hip Hop Is Dead, “They forgot where it started, so we

all gather here for the dearly departed”.

Many of us have questions about the origin of hip-hop. Hip-Hop has gone global from the

roots of African-Americans. It is a form of music where you can express your thoughts and

feelings through the captivating way of rhyming. Hip-Hop started in the Bronx with a Jamaican

DJ by the name of Kool Herc in the early ‘70s. He would ad-lib his rhymes over Reggae music.

Herc and other disc jockeys, such as Grand Master Flash, would perform at house parties, street

parties, and parks. This lets you know that hip hop started as a feel good, party music. In 1978,

the number of people involved in hip hop shot up and attention shifted from DJs to rappers
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(emcees). This shift altered hip-hip. When rappers became the front man of hip-hop, more

emphasis was put on what a hip-hop artist was saying and how well a rapper’s words “flowed”

from his or her mouth than on just a good beat to dance to. All of a sudden music became the

way black people conveyed their thoughts about society and what we go through in life.

The infrastructure of commercialized hip-hop has changed to meet the needs of youths of

every race, but hip-hop is part of black culture. No matter how much young black people loved

blues, jazz, or R&B, they never felt a need to dub themselves as the “R&B Generation” or the

“Jazz Generation”. Hip-hop has brought on a generation of young people who limit their

identities to the perimeters established by hip- hop. No black music form before hip hop has ever

received as much corporate attention, media visibility, and intervention as hip-hop receives.

Tricia Rose teaches twentieth- and twenty-first-century African-American culture, music, and

gender issues at Brown University. In her book The Hip Hop Wars, Tricia Rose states that, “We

have arrived at a landmark moment in modern culture when a solid segment (if not a majority) of

an entire generation of African-American youth understands itself as defined primarily by a

musical, cultural form.”(8)

I know so many people who live according to the rules of hip-hop today. From the way

they dress to the way they talk, walk, and see the world, hip-hop fans in the hood are the

archetype of hip-hop culture. I am from a neighborhood where the life expectancy is only high if

you know how to shoot a gun faster than another human being. Hip-hop is the pulse of the

neighborhood. When we hear a real Hip-hop soldier rap it’s like he or she is talking at our souls

and minds trying to get us to understand where he or she is coming from; yet they already know

we feel them. I’m talking about the hip-hop legends like Big Daddy Kane and KRS One. Many

boys in the hood don’t have dads, and hip-hop becomes a “paternal figure” in their lives.
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“Gangsta” rap, or “hardcore” rap, is the reason that so many young black men in the hood

destroy each other every day. They come from the same destruction as the artists on the songs.

When a “paternal figure” tells you to fight back by killing, make money by selling dope, and to

represent your hood by gangbanging, that is what you do.

To clarify my points on hip-hop I want you to understand that I am a young black man

living in America. Each day I get up and get dressed, knowing that I will be judged based on

what I wear. For example, because of main stream hip-hop culture, I can’t wear a do-rag on a

bad hair day for risk of being marked as a thug. As Tupac defined it, a thug is someone who is

going through struggles, has gone through struggles, and continues to live day by day with

nothing for them. Truly expressing his anger and pain, the legendary hip hop artist Tupac Shakur

once stated that, “The American dream wasn’t meant for me, cause lady liberty is a hypocrite,

she lied to me; promised me freedom, education, and equality never gave me nothing but

slavery; but now look at how dangerous you made me; calling me a mad man because I’m strong

and bold.” With Tupac’s untimely, unexplained death, Hip-Hop and the black race lost a true

soldier for humanity. I’m not saying that everything Tupac and other hip-hop artists say is right.

However, if you know history then you can tell that above all the negative aspects and hype hip-

hop is a rich, powerful music that calls all to analyze the world and how race, social differences,

and self-destruction have affected life as we know it.

To conclude, these so called “radical” statements made by artists like Tupac have

disappeared from main stream hip-hop today. Radical statements against society are the first step

to bringing radical change. When society rejected powerful statements from hip-hop artists, hip-

hop lost its power to change and opened the door to contamination and destruction. You can still

hear the faint heartbeat of hip-hop in artists like Nas and Dead Prez, who rap about the
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empowerment of this generation. Hip-hop may be in crisis, but things can change. Black people

didn’t come from hip-hop, hip-hop came from black people. Anyone who follows the hip-hop

culture needs to start analyzing what they are promoting. As long as a rapper can get paid

millions of dollars for a party song and not get paid any for a socially conscious song, hip-hop

will stay the same and generation after generation will stay the same.. At least there will always

be “underground” hip-hop.
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Works Cited

Rose, Tricia. The Hip Hop Wars

Dyson, Michael Eric. Know What I Mean. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2007. Print.
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To clarify my points on hip-hop I want you to understand that I am a young black man living in

America. Each day I get up and get dressed, knowing that I will be judged based on what I wear.

For example, because of main stream hip-hop culture, I can’t wear a do-rag on a bad hair day for

risk of being marked as a thug. I