What's So Bad About Hip Hop?

In the essay from the book Writing Arguments entitled "A Woman's View of Hip Hop" the author, Tiffany Anderson, starts off by posing the question "Is there anything good about hip hop?". Anderson states, "I found the aggressive, ego-driven, star-powered, competitive male image of hip hop devoid of value, especially the beat and the strong language." Today, hip hop is constantly criticized for its "vulgarity" and "lack of substance". Many argue that all hip hop has to offer are rhymes about sex, money, cars, and drugs on top of basic, uniform cadences. These slanders against hip hop are used to defend the claim that hip hop is not music. Before we can decide whether it is or is not music, we must first define what "music" is.


By definition, music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. Does hip hop incorporate the stated elements? The answer is yes. Since the creation of the genre, hip hop has served as an artistic depiction of the everyday lives of America's working class. Songs like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" displays the struggle of all people, not just African Americans, living from paycheck to paycheck. The chorus states, "It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under." Here is an example of hip hop portraying emotions.

Hip hop also expresses ideas, for example, the song "Self Destruction" provokes the idea to start a revolution of the mind, stop violence, and embrace all people. This song warns the generation that the things that were happening in the community were contributing to destruction of their people.

Another example is Tupac Shakur's "Keep Ya Head Up", a song glorifying the strength of women encouraging that men evaluate and change the way they treat them. 

 

Many argue that hip hop music is solely about the gangster lifestyle. These opponents obviously have not listened to works by rapper, Lupe Fiasco such as "Kick, Push", a song about a skater who does not fit in with society; or "Day Dreaming", a song about a boy taken with a female. There is also rapper Eminem who has songs that tell stories like "Stan" and "Loose Yourself". There are also hip hop songs about love like Wyclef Jean's "911".

Lupe Fiasco

Eminem

Hip Hop is music because it presents variation of songs expressing diverse emotions and ideas. It is a form of music that many can relate to no matter what race or walk of life. 


Works Cited:

Anderson, Tiffany. "A Woman's View of Hip Hop". Writing Arguments. A Rhetoric with Readings 8th Edition. Longman. 2009.
 

Bgjoker. 2Pac –Keep Ya Head Up. Youtube. 2006.
 

Darquekyss. Self Destruction. Youtube. 2007.

Shubhammaurya12. Grandmaster Flash: The Message. Youtube. 2010.

Exceptional Women in August Wilson's Plays....Extra Credit

On March 23, 2012, in honor of Woman's History Month, Howard University's department of Theater Arts presented short scenes and monologues from playwright, August Wilson's works. These scenes came from the plays, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Seven Guitars, Fences, and Jitney.

Each scene depicted a woman and a man arguing about their relationship. In all cases, the male had done the female wrong in some way, either by committing adultery, ignoring her, or not putting their all into the relationship. In each scene, the male character practically begged to be taken back and forgiven. In most cases, after the male's charming and persuasive plea, the female would take the man back and attempt to forget about what had happened in the past.

Another famous work by Wilson is a play entitled Fences.....

At first I was taken aback by the portrayal of women and how easily they would succumb to the persuasive plea of men. Then I realized that although these plays took place during the mid-1900s,  the relationships are much like those in 2012. In this day and age, women have been told that they have to think like males but act like ladies. However, at the end of the day, women are women, and despite the changes in society, women have not really changed.

Is Just a Movie....Extra Credit

On March 22, 2012, Howard University was graced with the presence of the amazing storyteller, Earl Lovelace. The Trinidadian author has written many great novels including, Salt, The Whine of Astonishment, The Dragon Can't Dance, and the Schoolmaster. Howard University students, professors, and those of the community were truly in for a treat in having Lovelace come and share an excerpt from his latest novel, Is Just a Movie.

The scene that was shared with the audience depicted a male who had just scored a role in an action film. His character's purpose in the movie was to be killed. The protagonist found issue with the fact that he was being paid to die. He felt that as a gifted actor, his talents should be portrayed in a way that viewers would recognize and respect.

The actor did not want his character to simply die. He wanted his character to be profound and remembered by anyone watching the film. Unfortunately, he was not the star of the film, therefore, his character's purpose was to illuminate the star by dying a quick, sudden, and meaningless death.

After coming to grips with the fact that he had to die, the protagonist became fixated with the way in which he died. It was bad enough that he was being paid to die; he decided to add meaning to the way he died in the film. When it came time to act out his death scene, he added a dramatic effect to the way his character died. The director quickly interrupted, saying that the protagonist was "dying too slow".

The actor argued that he did not want to solely die without it having any emotion. He wanted his death to live. It was now the battle between the importance of money and the importance of his dignity. Was he going to conform to the wishes of the director and die a quick death for the sake of a pay check? Or was he going to make sure that the viewers would remember the poignancy of his death despite the fact that it would over-shadow the "star" and contradict what the director had envisioned?


In case you wanted to hear some of Is Just a Movie for yourself....

Black Indians?

In the book, Black Indians by William Loren Katz, the presence of Black Indians is highlighted. Some of the most prominent figures in African American history has Indian heritage. People like Paul Cuffee, Frederick Douglass, and Langston Hughes are all Black Indians. Beyond the discipline of history, in culture studies, it is evident that many African Americans in popular culture today are Black Indians.

Paul Cuffee was a Dartmouth Indian ship merchant. Cuffee was one of the first African American advocates and pushed for African American migration to Africa. He became the founder of 'back to Africa' movements in the United States having paid for the travel of 38 black Americans to Sierra Leone.

Frederick Douglass

Langston Hughes

Today, in African American popular culture, there are many Black Indians who play a big role in music and film. Rapper and Actor, Andre Lauren "Andre 3000" Benjamin has made an extremely big influence in rap and hip hop, being a part of the award winning group "Outkast". Some of his hits range from songs like "Hey Ya" to "Roses".

Another Black Cherokee Indian in African American culture is James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix. Hendrix revolutionized music and became one of the most famous guitarists in the rock genre. Today he is considered the greatest electric guitarist in the history of man. His hits range from songs like "Voodoo Child" to "Freedom".

In this video I talk about the book Black Indians by William Loren Katz and the points made about the separation of Africans and Indians during the slavery era.

 

Works Cited

Katz,William Loren. Black Indians. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 1997.

Africa Everywhere

 The essay by Ivan Van Sertima entitled, "They Came Before Columbus", examines the parallels between the royal traits of Ancient Egypt and the Olmecs. This essay shows that many aspects of the Olmec monarchy originated from Ancient Egypt. Famous aspects of the Olmec monarchy such as the double crown, the royal flail, the color purple, and the artificial beard were all adopted from African royalty. This shows the influences of Africa on the world began before modern civilization was established.

The Royal Flail

The Double Crown: used in Ancient Egypt as a symbol of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

 African influence did not stop with the Olmecs. There are traces of Africa everywhere. For example, the Tango is a very big part of Argentinian culture and was created by Africans. Although Argentina claims to be a "pure" race and rejects their African backgrounds, Africans played a large role in molding Argentina into
 what it is today.

Works Cited.

Sertima, Ivan Van. "They Came Before Columbus". Revelations: An Anthology of Expository Essays By and About Blacks. Pearson Custom Publishing. 2010.

Swingininthehood. A Brief History of the Black Roots of Argentina. Youtube. 2011.

Afro Latinos in African American Culture

Rapper, Juelz Santana, actress, Zoe Saldana, and athlete, Carmelo Anthony; we've seen them on television or heard them on the radio, and looked at them, without doubt, deeming them African American....but did you know that they are really Afro Latino? This week’s blog is about Afro Latinos in African American culture. I’m going to be talking about people like Zoe Saldana and Carmelo Anthony who, today, play a significant role in African American culture and are Afro Latino. Through the discipline of culture studies and the discipline of history, I'll attempt to prove that Afro Latinos and African American are connected.

After researching this connection, my question for you to think about is why don’t people want to acknowledge the relation between African American culture and Afro Latinos? Why is it that people still prefer that there be a distinction between African Americans and Afro Latinos?

 

Works Cited

Burgos, Adrian Jr. "Left Out". Duke University Press. 2009

Domino-Rudolph, Jennifer. "Pidieron Cacao: Latinidad and Black Identity in the Reggaeton of Don Omar".Centro Journal. 2011.

Paposwiggity. Perdomo, Willie. "Nigger-Reecan Blues". Youtube. 2010