Hip-Hop Music

  • Thread starter Thread starter spec110
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I know this is a few years dead, but I’m new to the forum. Anyway, if you look at hip hop from an anthropological viewpoint, it emerged as a vehicle to empower a generation of inner-city youth who felt voiceless. Clearly it has fallen away from that initial genesis in many ways, especially if the radio is considered a barometer of the state of hip hop, but there are still dozens of rappers/emcees using the art form for its originally-intended purpose. I’d like to believe I’m included in those ranks in some small measure. As a high school Theology teacher/hip hop artist, I strive to make music that appeals to a new generation in a way that challenges them to question the moral relativism of their daily environment… anyway, that’s my soapbox. If you’re interested in hearing what I’m talking about, drop by:
paradoxhiphop.com
 
wabrams said:
I wouldn’t even call it music. Bunch of sampling and mumbling.
Click to expand...
I would love for you to come visit my blog some day and tell me what you think. I have an extensive entry on their on hip hop. I invite all lovers and haters of hip hop to check it out and let me know what ya think.

Peace

Social Matrix
 
paradox said:
I know this is a few years dead, but I’m new to the forum. Anyway, if you look at hip hop from an anthropological viewpoint, it emerged as a vehicle to empower a generation of inner-city youth who felt voiceless. Clearly it has fallen away from that initial genesis in many ways, especially if the radio is considered a barometer of the state of hip hop, but there are still dozens of rappers/emcees using the art form for its originally-intended purpose. I’d like to believe I’m included in those ranks in some small measure. As a high school Theology teacher/hip hop artist, I strive to make music that appeals to a new generation in a way that challenges them to question the moral relativism of their daily environment… anyway, that’s my soapbox. If you’re interested in hearing what I’m talking about, drop by:
paradoxhiphop.com
Click to expand...
“empower”? Empower who? If all the hip-hop artists in the world were the sand in the hourglass, then that tiny neck is all the fat cat record producers and owners of the radio stations. They decide what we hear. They decide what gets marketed. If they thought three minutes of a cat meowing on a record could make them money they’d do it.

A few years back, on a billboard on the east side of Detroit, I read: Sign up with XYZ Records. - and underneath that - Your ticket out the hood.

Oh yeah. Regular people can buy billboard space. No way.

If it’s working for you, great to hear it. But I stopped listening to corporate radio years ago.

God bless,
Ed
  • XYZ Records is not the real name of the Label. I did not want to embarrass or mock the company, just the message.
 
I’m not quite sure I see the point with your billboard example… Of course regular people can’t buy billboard space, but “regular people” also couldn’t even pretend to claim that they could present someone with an opportunity that would be their “ticket out the hood.” I really don’t see how that’s any different than the mass media portrayal of sports as another “ticket out the hood.” Both are just as delusional.

As far as who hip hop empowers, you seem to think the only way a people can be empowered is monetarily. You should check out “Bronx Masquerade” by Nikki Grimes. It’s an adolescent lit book about an inner-city high school English teacher who institutes “Open Mike Friday” where the students can recite poetry they have written in front of the class. Those who participate are better able to make sense of their reality by way of the exercise and critically evaluate the messages they are force-fed by their surroundings, implicitly including things like the music on what you referred to as “corporate radio.” Speaking of which, I haven’t listened to the radio in years and none of the artists I listen to are ever on the radio, because I agree that the people who decide what gets airplay at large stations have money as their bottom line. Nevertheless, with the advent of myspace, podcasts, facebook, youtube, twitter, kunaki, iTunes, and the myriad other technologies that make it easier than ever for an average person to potentially reach literally a worldwide audience, the “fat cat record producers” you speak of matter less and less. More and more artists, including big names like Radiohead, are opting to release their material independently, to phenomenal results (Read about Radiohead’s success with this venture here:
theseminal.com/2007/10/16/so-one-week-later-is-the-album-dead-yet/).

Just my two cents…
 
Good luck to you. My inner city Detroit teacher friend tells me the following about the young people he teaches:

Video games are their pastime.

They want to grow up to play in professional sports.

A lot of kids don’t finish high school.

I’m not against what you’re trying to do but I am against the hip-hop they play on the radio and TV. Have you seen any of the black culture magazines? They portray thugs, gangstas, guys on their way into and out of prison. On one magazine cover was a guy with tattoos and the word “rape” on his belt buckle. A lot of poor people can’t afford a computer. I go to the local main library and there’s black moms watching their kids play games on the computer. It’s free.

God bless,
Ed
 
A couple things:

While a school in inner city Detroit should definitely not be considered a true measure of the education system in the United States, since Detroit consistently ranks among the worst cities in America on a number of different indicators, including education, what your friend experiences is no different than what I experience at a Catholic, Cristo Rey-model high school in Austin, TX. My kids are also obsessed with video games and most of the males harbor a naive desire to play professional sports when they grow up (Soccer, actually, as the student population is 99% Hispanic). Additionally, many fail out, are expelled, or simply stop coming prior to graduation. And yes, many “black culture magazines” glamorize immoral behavior, but this is not exclusive to hip hop and definitely not exclusive to “black culture.” However, in my opinion, the points you raise are all the more reason why hip hop should be channeled as a positive influence. The youth are already listening to and being influenced by it, so how much more powerful an outlet it thereby becomes when used to spread the good news. I actually use magazines similar to the ones you describe to have my students explore the popular perception of “Freedom” as an “anything goes” mentality vs. the true meaning of “Freedom,” whereby we submit our will to the Creator. The former ironically results in various forms of enslavement, whereas the latter results in true fulfillment. My students can see that and recognize that the twisted portrayal of “Freedom” is not what they want for themselves.

I appreciate the discussion…
God bless.
 
I have never liked Hip Hop music very much for a variety of reasons.
  1. I find modern Hip Hop is very repetitive. I can’t tell one song from the other. This may be a fault of my own (although I am musically trained and can generally tell a song by it’s first few bars) but I am, quite frankly, bored by Hip Hop.
  2. I have yet to find any Hip Hop that doesn’t contain a: swearing, b: ideals contrary to my own. It seems every song is glorifying a way of life that I’ve never really agreed with. It’s funny because in the last two years I’ve fallen a bit off the path of a Christian but I’ve never been comfortable with music that glorifies modern lifestyles.
  3. I work in retail. I hear music repeated over and over and over - quite frankly any mainstream music annoys the heck out of me because I hear it so much.
 
Sometimes you may not like what hip hop says but sometimes it can be brutally honest. Like when chicago rapper Qwel tackles the issue of domestic violence when he raps in his song Harriet Turban;

“Home is where the heart is I’m hoping dad dies/Love can leave a women blind mom and so can black eyes”

I love music that connects with me emotionally. here is a song from Rhode Island rappper Sage Francis, its called “inherited Scars.” The song is about how Francis has a hard time re-connecting with his sister since their fathers death. He tries to convince her not to cut yourself to deal with her pain. They both are into art.

Inherited scars

P.S. there is one curse word.its Sh$$# So hopefully you can ignore that and listen to the song in its entirety.
 
nickybr38 said:
I have never liked Hip Hop music very much for a variety of reasons.
  1. I find modern Hip Hop is very repetitive. I can’t tell one song from the other. This may be a fault of my own (although I am musically trained and can generally tell a song by it’s first few bars) but I am, quite frankly, bored by Hip Hop.
Click to expand...
By repetitive do you mean that the beat repeats? The beats tend to be more repetitve in hip hop because the rapper has to have something to rap over. It would sound akward to rap over something like lady Gaga or Carribean Queen. (I dont know why i thought of those examples).

There is hip hop music that tries to incoporate other insturments, besides drums, into its production. Aesop Rock’s “Labor Days” for example uses horns in one track, and another a harmonica.

Have you heard of any insturmental hip hop like RJD2 DJ Shadow, Prefuse 73 or Sixtoo. These hip hop producers tend to be more experimental with their music because they dont have produce their music in a way that follows the rythm of a rap lyrics.

have you heard of how the violin is being used in Hip hop lately;

check this out

hip hop violin
 
“brutally honest”? That’s a marketing gimmick if I ever saw one. You don’t need hip-hop to tell the truth or be honest.

God bless,
Ed
 
by “honest” I meant to say is that alot of Hip Hop deals with isues most music chooses to avoid.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top