Hip-hop to me is more then just a genre of music. Its a way a life, a style of dress, or an artistic expression. Hip-Hop is a culture.
Here are five hip-hop songs I heard for the first time during this week and five videos I saw for the first time.
Songs:
Slick Pulla "Gettin to the Money"
K'naan
New Boyz "Your a Jerk"
Travis Porter " Black Boy White Boy"
GLC " I Ain't Even On Yet"
Videos followed by brief descriptions:
Rick Ross Ft John Legend Magnificent
The visual story line is about Rick Ross gambling in a horse race.
Kid Cudi "Day N Night"
It is cartoon and regular video coming together to reality and what the person on the character views as reality
F.L.Y. " Swag Surf"
People on a bus performing and people in front of a bus dancing. At the end the group is a t a club performing the song while the crowd is dancing.
Young Money "Every Girl"
Alot of girls get out of a car and are dancing around it while the artists are rapping their parts of the song. Through out the video there are cartoon word pop ups that are random people. Here is the video if you would like to see it.
Busta Rhymes ft. T-Pain " Hustler's Anthem"
Busta Ryhmes and T-Pain are just in extreme close up shots and they are playing on the screen. They have numerous wardrobe changes.
Corporations have taken advantage of the scope of Hip-hop in their advertising's.
Scion car company( video below) and Orbit Gum are recent commercials that utilize hip-hop in its attempt to sell.Hip-Hop has influence television shows such as America's Best Dance Crew and mostly in advertising for some of the countries most well known companies. Hip-hop crossed over into mainstream language with words like "crunk".
My parents listened to Jazz, R&B, and Contemporary when they were my age. Rosson Rolland Kirk, a saxophonist, would play at local Jazz clubs in Houston, which is where I am from. My parents would go to see him regularly. My mom says that her favorite R& B song is " With These Hands" by the Temptations. They cited Michael Rolled the Boat Ashore as a contemporary song that they remembered. My mom thinks that music just isn't the same any more, while my dad listens to more hip-hop then I do.
When I had to look for Hip-Hop songs from artists that I had never heard before I thought it would be impossible. I listen to mostly hip-hop and R&B so I am aware of most artists. I actually had to look for artists who where more popular in other regions than the south and midwest because those are the regions I knew most of the artists from. Looking for videos I had never seen before was easier because I don't have time to watch television as mush as I used to. I tried to listen and look at these videos with more of a critical eyet than usual which was extremely difficult because I consider myself a part of the Hip-Hop community at large.
Hip- hop in the media has gotten a lot of negative feedback from those outside of the community. I believe this is because most hip-hop videos feature's women in less flattering ways then people want. Women are most often seen having little to no clothes on and treated as sex objects. This is also an issue when listening to lyrics of certain hip-hop songs. Women are referred to as tricks , sluts, and more vulgar forms of the previous words.
This is the negative side of hip-hop that gets the most attention, along side the gangster stereotypes being associated to some lyrics and videos.
These negative attributes of hip-hop are how some black people get stereotyped because this is a predominate image in the media. I am often asked by others if I become offended by hip-hop songs that exploit women or videos that do the same. And most often than not i honestly don't. Sex sells. Thats why it is used in every form of advertising and media. I guess I can say I have almost become immune to it. Is this a good thing? It is probably not a good thing at all. I often do listen to songs that say things that are unnecessary about women, but like so many women that listen to those same songs, we tend to disassociate ourselves from the females that are being described in the songs or the videos. I do struggle with this because it honestly is not progressive for women at all. But does that mean that I can't listen or support the music?
