Hip Hop Effect Nowadays - Essay Example

Introduction Hip-hop refers to a cultural group movement that began in the early 1970s in Bronx, New York. It borrows upon the visual art, dance, political and social legacy of Africa Americans, Africans, Latino and Caribbean communities in the United States (Price 24). Hip hop started as a non commercial, independent musical and cultural form of expression. Rather it was all about enjoyment and having fun, nobody thought it could fetch money. DJ Kool Herc gets viewed to be the founder of hip hop; he could mix samples of existing records with his own shouts to the dancers and crowds. They formed the DJ Africa Bambaataa, a hip hop collective and later the Zulu Nation. Since its emergence from Bronx, hip hop style has spread to the urban and remote communities throughout the world. There are four collective elements of hip hop, comprising; hip hop dance, rapping, graffiti arts and Deejaying. Rapping This is the primary ingredient of hip hop music. It comprises spoken and rhyming chanted lyrics. It is different from spoken word poetry in that it gets synchronized in time to a beat. There are different types of rap; the old school rap (1979-1984) characterized by relatively easy raps with no lyrical technique. The golden age rap; period in which the greatest transformation took place, complex word play and lyrical kung fu introduced. Moreover, rap contains flow; the rhythm and rhymes of hip hop music and how they interact. Flow also refers to elements such as volume, timbre and pitch (Price 26). DJ (Disk Jockey) Rap music began with the Deejaying from the beginning rappers accompanied by a turn tablist who scratch to create a percussive sounds that are in sync with the rapper on the stage. The turn tablists are able to create a beat that ensures the rapper’s pitch, flow and rhythm are all integrated (Price 30). Hip hop dance This refers to the dance styles performed to hip hop music. It becomes viewed as evolved as a part of hip hop culture. Most notably styles include; popping, breaking, and locking created in the 1970s. Developed by dance crews, it gave hip hop mainstream exposure. Graffiti and Emceeing Graffiti involve writings or drawings always scribbled or sprayed on the wall or any other surfaces. It is a part of the hip hop culture. Hip hop artists and fans have used graffiti to express underlying political and social messages throughout the world. Graffiti also express a whole genre of hip hop. Moreover, the next element of the hip hop culture included emceeing, an individual in sync with the artist and deejay who stimulates and teases the crowd. It is the far most successful element taking different forms from spoken word to free styling (Price 31). The most significant aspects of hip hop culture are being authentic. There are three methods in which artist establish authenticity; being original (true to themselves), reflecting the society from which they come from and having respect and understanding for the origins and styles of the early hip hop. Hip hop has not escaped controversies in this modern era. Hip hop particularly gangster rap has often been criticized because of many reasons enumerated bellow. Glorification of Violence Hip hop has become criticized by many people on the basis of promoting violence amongst the youths and hip hop lovers. After the murder, of Tupac Shakur and many violent scenes created by hip hop rap music has promoted ugly scenes of violence among the youth and children. Today cable channels and satellite television portray rap videos of primarily young black men swaggering, group like, through estates projects and pulling imaginary triggers with their fingers. They perceive violence to be cool, and that should be embraced by kids and teenagers. Most recent case involved the killing of a London rap fan Alex Muamba stabbed to death in the streets. Many young people get attracted to danger; rappers describe their life as thug life with tattoos of gangster life all over their body. Artist such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Marion Suge founder of death Row Records been criticized of promoting a culture of violence (Price 40). Drug use This culture views drug abuse as a trend or swag. They have emulated the forefathers of rap such as Tupac and Notorious who abused drugs such as Cocaine and marijuana. A new study by the Pacific Institute For research states that when a person listens to rap music, he is likely to abuse drugs and other illegal substances and behave in an aggressive manner. Rap artists who reveal their love for drugs in their videos include; Lil Wayne, Jay Z and Snoop Dogg their videos of youth blowing smoke and trading drugs in the hood have an impact on the majority of the black community and youth and teenagers from the rest of the world. Drug and substance abuse impact on the youths in negative ways; addiction, truancy and defiance among youths increases. Cases of juvenile delinquency and teen pregnancy over years have increased through media encouraging the development of hip hop videos (Price 46). Homophobic and Misogynous lyrics Homophobic lyrics are lyrics that convey negative attitudes and feelings toward the homosexuality or individuals perceived as homosexuals. It is like racism and seeks to dehumanize or deny dignity a group of people. Misogyny refers to the hatred of women. Rap music has desensitized men and boys to the pain and suffering of women and girls. Rap encourages mistreating, torturing, raping and even murdering of women in their lyrics, for example, in Eminem’s lyrics. Girls get influenced to be attracted to boys who do not respect them. Dre another rapper and producer also undermine the black women and all women he produced most degrading songs about women such as “Bitch Aint Shit”. Moreover, hip hop lyrics has increased to an art form of the act of verbally and degrading women and gays (Price 50). I have chosen the above factors since they are the crucial areas that have been influenced significantly by hip hop. Moreover, the areas affect all walks of life including children, women, youth and adults. This means that such issues affect all the people in the society hence a national issue. Furthermore, they influence key areas in the society. Violence affects both political, social and economy of a nation. Issues of drug abuse among the youth deteriorate their education levels and lower their productivity. In the modern society, gender issues are extremely sensitive, and respect towards the both genders gets seen as a step towards democracy. Racism, prejudice and discrimination should never be ignored in the society and hip hop should not be an exception. Personally, I believe that the controversies affect everyone. Issues of drugs and substance abuse, violence and dirty and homophobic lyrics generate evolution of youths that believe in these factors. This makes poor socialization take place amongst the society. Integration also gets derailed since people’s views and beliefs are different depending on what influences one’s attitudes. Insecurity becomes a serious problem since youths solve their misunderstandings using archaic and dangerous ways such as using weapons, torture and even murder. Hip hop has both perpetuated these controversies and in a minimal way tried to help. Hip hop has done so little to make the current situation better. The fact that some hip hop artists advocate for peace is hypocritical since there has been the emergence of gangs in the United States. Some artists from hip hop have always expressed discontent with the state of rap hip hop. Rappers are more concentrated on material wealth such as jewelry, cars and expensive clothes, rather than crucial social issues that concern their inner neighborhood societies. In a nut shell, hip hop promotes man eat man society filled with greed and capitalistic ideas. Juvenile delinquencies caused by media exposure of the dirty videos and lyrics have increased. On the other hand, hip hop has managed to create employment for the various artist and players in the industries, example the deejays, event mangers, music producers and promoters Hip hop has acted as a global magnet that has brought people and inspired many individuals from other music genres to borrow its beat. Some hip hop music have created awareness of how living in the ghettos and projects can be so difficult, they have been able to show the shortcomings people from these areas face. Issue like security has made the government introduce other methods of curbing crime and drug peddling through active policing such as the community policing. The current situational controversies can be changed through a number of initiatives. The same way controversies surrounded advent of jazz music and rock hip hop still can learn from these genres of in order to make a national transition of acceptance. Hip hop through the artist must themselves produce educative music that have a positive effect to the society. They must stump out all the atrocities associated with rap songs and promote moral values. It is the responsibility of the artist and executives at these larger than life music corporations have a part to play in protecting what the youth and the children listen. There is no doubt that hip hop will revitalize around the world as tradition values fused with American forms of music. Hip hop is a culture and changes often, but not all of hip hop is positive. Discussing hip hop and controversial issues such as drugs and violence is crucial to understanding the society. The once ignored and dismissed hip hop has proven that it will stay in power. Though controversial as ever among politicians, parents and teachers, rap music is listened to by millions of people around the nation and the world. It is a culture that cannot be under looked. The fashion revolution it has brought has also seen many of hip hop artists signing deals worth millions with fashion and perfume companies. Through their influence, majority of them have developed their own clothing lines and promotions that have undoubtedly inspired the evolution of hip hop. Many organizations and facilities in the United States have been providing programs and spaces for communities to explore hip hop, Harvard University amongst them. This shows the significant impact of hip hop culture in the world. Works cited Price, Emmett G. Hip Hop Culture. Oxford: Abc-clio, 2006. Print. Read More