Hip-Hop Takes A Stand

Hurricane Katrina struck the south in the summer of 2006. Katrina was one the worse hurricanes to every hit United States. All of the houses in New Orleans and Mississippi were destroyed. Even parts of Georgia and Florida were destroyed. Aid was sent to Florida but very little aid was sent to New Orleans and Mississippi. The President didn’t really send aid to them, I believe because he didn’t see them as a priority and because they weren’t well off.

The conditions were horrible dead bodies were lying and deteriorating in the street full of water. You would have thought that this was a third world country instead of the United States. BET hosted a telethon, Saving Ourselves. The telethon raised millions. The performances were very uplifting. The telethon conveyed the message that we will succeed and overcome and for those who aren’t willing to help us then we must help and over come on our own.

Entrepreneurship in Hip Hop

Hip-hop was become a get way for business vendors to become successful. Many businesses and record labels were started by people that couldn’t get signed so they started their own label. Roc-a-fella one of the major record labels right now was started my Damon Dash and Jay-Z. Jay-z couldn’t get a record deal so after selling cds on his own he teamed up with Damon Dash.

Russell Simmons one of the most popular entrepreneurs started Def Jam. He later ventured into creating Phat Farm clothing line. When he married Kimora Lee Simmons she started Baby Phat a subsidiary of Phat Farm but a woman clothing line. Russell Simmons opened the way for many who couldn’t get a break from someone so they gave themselves one. Sean Combs popularly known as Diddy started his own label, clothing line, and cologne fragrance. Hip-hop has opened the door for many new and inventive ideas for people to get into the business industry.

http://www.hiphop-network.com/articles/mcarticles/biggerthanhiphop.asp

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/01/0104_hiphopreneurs/image/intro.jpg

Hip Hop & Violence

In the hip-hop world there are various artists that influence the community, particularly the youth. The clothing mostly seen as gangster wear or extra baggy clothes are worn by rappers. Some of the clothing that the artists wear is very expensive. For some of the kids to afford them they feel they need to sell drugs and hustle in order for them to maintain a certain image. The kids that are hustling are getting younger and younger. They may feel the need to provide for their family.

Gangs influence the youth because it portrays the image of them having some where to belong if the don’t quite fit in at home. Artists such as Snoop Dogg, Game, and Jim Jones are involved in gangs. The videos show artist showing off their bandanas making it known that they all of apart of a “family.” It portrays the image that if they all are apart of the same gang and they hustle or sell drugs they too can get out of the hood. This is a false image because the only way for anyone to get out the hood in a legit way is to truly be successful.

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/jhaberkorn/edpsy399ol/gangsigns.jpg

How far does freedom of speech go?

Don Imus the radio show host of Imus in the Morning took his right of freedom of speech a little too far. One morning on the radio Imus referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy headed ho’s” when he was discussing the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. Imus said that the Rutgers players were rough looking girls with tattoos and the girls of the opposing team, Tennessee, were cute. There were black female players on both teams but he attacked the Rutgers’ team only and claimed it to be found amusing.

Imus issued an apology after the demand for him to be fired come into play. Imus appeared on Al Sharpton show and he admitted to going to far. The players of Rutgers were very upset because Imus had stolen their moment of victory from them. NBC decided to fire Imus because this was not that the first time he was in this type of controversy. Although Imus did meet with the players of the Rutgers team after he was fired to apologize. Imus has the right of freedom of speech but when you violate someone’s rights then your rights are to be questioned. I think Imus deserved what he got because his comments were racist and uncalled for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Imus
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International Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop is one of the major successes of music nation wide. Originating in the United States it is now listen to and created all over the world. Hip-Hop in different cultures uses a range of diverse instruments, languages, tradition, and styles. Outside of the United States most of the MC’s are more political, because the mainstream artists are activists. Hip-Hop allows the activist message to get across to people especially to the future generations.

The Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival was the first major global festival. It was held at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The festival was organized by Magee McIlvaine, DJ Magee, a senior at Trinity in International Studies. McIlvaine sees Hartford as a diverse place so it was the perfect place for the festival. Artists from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, France, Haiti, India, Israel, Iraq, along with many other counties came out to represent. They performed about different issues ranging from Israeli/Palestinian hip-hop, gay and lesbian hip-hop, African hip-hop, to graffiti in the age of terrorism. Mexican rapper, Bocafloja, reflected on the festival by saying “It showed that even when we don’t speak the same language we can communicate through rhymes, beats, flows or energy. We are oppressed by the same system in different parts of the world, so our local experiences help a lot for a global strategy looking for social and political change.”

The festival allowed others to see how important hip-hop is internationally. Many times United States does not acknowledge everyday events in other countries when it is not affecting the United States. Hip-Hop makes others aware of what maybe going on in the country by listening to their music. Hip-Hop is a message conveyer.

http://xxlmag.com/online/?p=1226

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History of Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop music also known as rap came into existence in the middle of the 1970s. The four main components of Hip-Hop being rapping (MCing), DJing (production and scratching) along with hip hop dance (break dancing) and urban inspired art, graffiti. Hip-Hop is a cultural movement to the African American and Latino cultures.

Hip-Hop is popularly known for its rhyming lyrics and punch lines. Some of the first major rap artists were Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation, Big Daddy Kane, The Sugarhill Gang, and Run DMC. As the years went on the music started to change. In the early 90s gangsta rap was created. Artists such as Tupac, Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Dog, Bones Thugs-N-Harmony started this new movement. Gangsta rap is most known for its controversial lyrics promoting violence, promiscuity, drug use and misogyny (degrading of women). The new era of hip-hop had a lot of animosity towards it. Music artist was look down upon because of their choice of words, but wouldn’t the government be violating their right of freedom of speech if they weren’t allowed to express themselves the way the wanted to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music

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Freedom of Speech

The First Amendment is apart of the Bill of Rights which is apart of the United States of America Constitution. This amendment guarantees the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, the free exercise of religion, the freedom to petition, the people's right to keep and bear arms, and the rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and compelled self-incrimination.

The Constitution was ratified, on March 4, 1789, but United States knew that it wasn’t finish setting up the structure of the government. The Bill of Rights came into effect on December 15, 1791. It was created by James Madison. The Bill of Rights was created because the original text of the Constitution generated some opposition on the ground that it did not include adequate guarantees of civil liberties. United States was founded on the concept of liberty and justice for all. Unfortunately, it has come to be liberty and justice for some.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Background

http://literacy.calumet.purdue.edu/student/barnom1/Images/Bill_of_Rights_Cropped.jpg

Hip-Hop & Freedom of Speech

The First Amendment of The Bill of Rights for the Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech. Over time the freedom of speech has been fought for and debated. By the U.S. guaranteeing the freedom of speech you would believe that we are allowed to express ourselves in anyway that we would want but that is not the case. Hip-Hop has always been a target for being the scapegoat for things that are going on in the world. “Hip-Hop is corrupting the minds of the youth,” as many adults and government officials say time and time again. Artists are just speaking as they once felt as they were growing up or on their own life experiences. Teenagers can relate because we are already at that state or already experienced some of things that they are rapping about. I’m not saying that every artist and the songs they write are appropriate but you can not blame that on the whole community. Artists are just as any other people in the world, there are some good and bad but everyone always seems to put the bad first and let them represent the whole community.

http://www.riaa.com/issues/freedom/history.asp
http://www.dapslyrics.com/display.php?sid=852

http://www.lyricsplanet.com/index.php3?style=lyrics&id=5177

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Parental Advisory

In 2001 the government stated that record companies had to put parental advisory labels on all marketing materials such as recorded material, promotional items, CD covers and web sites. The government feels that the parental advisory provides enough information for the parents. The Recording Industry already voluntarily places labels on CDs it considers inappropriate for children. Russell Simmons organized a Hip-Hop Summit after the parental advisory laws were put in effect. At the Hip-Hop Summit he discussed freedom of speech, racial profiling and other topics that were affecting the community. The Federal Trade Commission now fines entertainment companies that market explicit material to children.

In my opinion placing parental advisory on CDs isn’t a bad idea because only certain age groups should be listening to explicit hip-hop music. The age that they allow you to buy the parental advisory CDs is too high. You shouldn’t have to wait to buy a CD without your parent being present until your 17. I think about 14 is a good idea. I think they should take into consideration what type of environment you live in because if you grow up hearing explicit things, music isn’t going to really have an affect on you.

http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=14192

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Misogyny in Hip-Hop

In the lyrics and videos of today’s hip-hop music many of them degraded women. In the lyrics many disrespectable terms are used towards women. It betrays an image as it being okay for a guy to talk to a female anyway that he wants. In videos the females’ majority of the times have tight clothes on or barely anything at all. Younger females may think that by dressing like the same way or going with the flow for everything for everything that a guy may say even if you disagree with it, are the only ways to get a guys attention. Some females even think that it is funny or cool to be called a bird or a whore. Some guys think they live a life style of a pimp and some females may think it is okay to be apart of it as long as they are getting material things.

I feel the way young men as well as young woman are brought up determines if they feed into the hype of everything. I know many of guys that listen to hip-hop and don’t refer to all females as the derogatory terms that are used in the music. It all depends on how a female carries herself and the standard she sets for herself. If a guy would call me a hoe I wouldn’t care because I’m not one. Hip-Hop does play a role in the mind set of some people but it can’t just be blamed as the only thing that does because there are many other factors.

http://www.mysistahs.org/features/hiphop.htm

http://www.tolerance.org/images/teens/stories/torg_masculinity_hiphop_15.jpg

Ban of the N-word

Recently, the State of New York along with other states was discussing to ban the N-word from being used. They want to stop the word from being used so casually. It is seen by many African Americans to be one of the most offensive words in the English language. Many rap artists and young New Yorkers toss the word around as a term of endearment or as a substitute for black. It angers some of the black leaders who consider those who use it as ignorant of the word's hate-filled history in slavery and segregation. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are two of the big supporters of the banning.

I personally never really use the N-word but it is very common used among other teenagers. Hip-Hop artist still continue to use it and I have heard some of them say that they would still use it because it’s apart of whom they are. I think with out artist using the N-word music would be very different. In my opinion I see nothing wrong with hip-hop artists not using the n-word because they will just create another word to substitute for it and if they stop using it first then other people will follow after.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070228/tv_nm/newyork_word_dc_2

http://www.thecreativelife.com/2005/redneckgraffiti/NWord.jpg