The Portrayal Of Masculinity In The World Of Rap Music - Essay Example

the portrayal of masculinity in the world of rap music 2009 The history of hip-hop culture began as early as in 1969 in South Bronx – the black ghetto of New York. The term ‘hip-hop,’ was coined much later, when the growing culture gained a lot of popularity and needed its own name. Hip-hop was born under the influence of traditional Jamaican street dancing, where the Disco Jockey (DJ) puts on the records with reggae and the poets recite their verses to this music. The main feature of such events was their independent, street character, and the leading role of the DJ. Before hip-hop came into being, an American DJ was a ghost-like personality, a paid worker in a big club playing what his employers wanted to hear – and they normally ordered boring and hackneyed white pop. In Jamaica, things were different, the DJ was the King of the sound system, and he determined the overall flow of the party and cooperated with street poets or recited himself. Then, a DJ in South Bronx became a creator, a master of ceremonies, and this marked a significant change for many black and Puerto-Rican teenagers – literally their cultural revolution. The source of information for the black community before hip-hop appeared were the black broadcasting stations as they lived the same life as the people in ghettos, discussing their fights and problems, playing their favorite music and making people feel ‘at home.’ This was before the beginning of the 1970s when the black broadcasting stations started being commercialized, and playing white disco. That is when hip-hop was born. Hip-hop culture is a wider notion than rap music, as it also includes, for example, break dance. However, the emergence of rap is by right considered the biggest breakthrough of the hip-hop culture. At the beginning, Disco Jockeys (or Masters of Ceremonies, as they were now called) started to talk to the dancing crowds during break dancing. This reminded Jamaican tradition of reggae. At first very simple phrases were used, then short verses appeared, and at the end the fantasy of the street poets was unleashed! Hip-hop consisted of ‘freestyling,’ where a rapper came up with lyrics to the DJs music, on the spot. The lyrics usually contained explicit language. The versus showed hatred, violence, and feelings of power. The rappers competed against each other reciting their lyrics, which were against each other, and their families. For examples, rappers recited lyrics against each others mothers, sisters, and other family members. Lyrics also contained ill-language, and spoke of violence and murders. Before the advent of freestyling, Afro-American people had an old rooted tradition of “rap-like” competitions in the forms of the so called “dozens” and “signifying” (sometimes called “talking shits”). The competitions were normally conducted by teenagers, and the goal was to improvise a clear and rhythmical verse created according to strictly set canons, and this text consisted of three quatrains (hence the name “dozens”). The two competitors had to exchange “dozens” in an increasingly fastening rate until one of them gave up. The goal of these “dozens” was to insult the competitor. The first quatrain was devoted to proclaiming the improviser’s own virtues (obviously with huge exaggerations); the second one was full of contempt towards the competitor; and the third and the following ones told about the improviser’s alleged raping of his competitor’s mother, her physiology and other details, and about the events in the black community. This competition could go on for hours! And if the winner could not be determined for a long period of time, the competitors simply fought with each other, being helped by their buff. “Signifying” differed from “dozens” by the freedom of improvisation, the use of syncopation, complicated versification and virtuosic alliteration, whereas their meaning and goal were pretty much the same. This tradition of these “dozens” is probably rooted in traditional for many nations fights for dominance and male prevalence. In fact similar traditions can be found in almost all cultures, and even in the animal world where the males often try to prove to each other that they have the power, the right to have the best woman, and are superior. These elements of violence have become crucial features of rap at practically any stage of its development – from the early hip-hop to “gangsta rap”, but still this “violence” was of different character for different epochs. The most controversial style of the rap music genre is gangster rap (gangsta rap). It has become globally famous due to its homophobic, misogynistic, and vivid sexist lyrics and its aggressive portrayal of the urban slum life (ghetto life) in the United States of America. The popularity of gangsta rap has brought other styles of rap music to the attention of people worldwide. Even though gangsta rap started in New York around late 70s, it is widely connected with the West Coast, due to the large sale of artists like Tupac , Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, etc, in Los Angeles. Though Los Angeles claims to be the home of gangsta rap, it originated in South Bronx where gangsta lyrics and style were a part of the hip-hop scene in mid the1970s. This particular style of the hip-hop genre in the 1980s was inspired by Criminal Minded a Boogie Down Production, and D’s Smoke Some Kill, in the year 1987. The track “9mm goes Bang” of the album Criminal Minded, is seen as the revolutionary force in gangsta rap’s progress. In 1985, the Miami band 2 Live Crew hit the headings of all media after the release of their album ‘As Nasty As They Wanna Be’. This was the first ever album in the USA to be called “indecent”, however the guys justified themselves in the courts saying that they live in a democratic country whose basic value is the freedom of speech, and they have the full right to say whatever they want in their songs. In 1987, Ladies Love Cool James or LL Cool J created his own image under the influence of the Run D.M.C. band – that combined “traditional” rap values with romanticism, manliness and sexuality. In 1982, Public enemy released their record “The Message” speaking about the horrible conditions of life in the black ghetto – and that is how rap gained its status of ‘political music.’ At the end of the 80s, because of bands like Public Enemy and KRS-One, the propaganda of anarchy became the main content of rap. Rap singers inherited from “Black Panthers” the key words of their political lyrics, ‘Babylon’ or ‘the rotten world of the white cop,’ ‘motherfucker, which they did not invent – but it is thanks to them it became popular. They also started shaving heads and dressing up in military clothes – this became an ordinary phenomenon at the rap stage. Public Enemy caused a real sensation in the American society with their tough position and the deep socio-political meaning of their lyrics. The world saw politically directed and revolutionary hip-hop music. Gangsta rap made its mark in the American music scenario with Ice T, a west coast based artist’s Rhyme Pays which incorporated amusing brags and stories of violence, crime and outright hatred for women, along with Niggaz With Attitude’s (N.W.A.) underground album Straight Outta Compton. The term “gangsta rap” was coined by Ice Cube of N.W.A. in their song “Gangsta Gangsta” Gangsta rap undermined the fundamental system of the “old school” rap that was based on the ideology of positivism proclaimed by Bambaata (“we prefer dance to fighting and cultivate traditional black values, love and justice”). Even Public Enemy who appealed to fight were struggling for justice. When it came to N.W.A. – they simply did not care about it, in their lyrics, they just demonstrated pure criminal immorality. The cruel pictures of ghetto in N.W.A. songs reminded to a certain extent the socially-oriented lyrics of Furious Five and Public Enemy – however, this resemblance was only a myth, as the “gangsters” were openly boasting that they are ready to commit crimes. The importance of gangsta rap, according to E. Quinn, “derives from its emergence as the voice of an oppressed community during a time of socioeconomic transformation”: gangsta rap “speaks to the social ills that were the result of destructive government policies, chronic unemployment, political disaffection, and Read More