Mehtab S. Dhaliwal
Georgia M. Roberts
B CUSP 117D
03 March 2012
“…I feel like murder but hip-hop you saved me…” (Lupe Fiasco) But what is Hip Hop? No one really has a concrete classification for this term, though many have their own opinions on what the culture of Hip Hop is. Some view the culture of Hip Hop as a door into a different culture, something one has never experienced first hand. While others claim that “…hip hop is primarily responsible for every decline and crisis world-wide except the war in Iraq and global warming…” (Rose) because of the negative influences it has on many people. Numerous parents believe their children shouldn’t be listening to this type of music due to the explicit lyrics. There are countless opinions of what Hip Hop means, but no one really converses about one actual definition. To me, Hip Hop is a way for people to express their opinions and experiences within their music. Hip Hop is distorted throughout history. It originated in the streets of New York City during the late 60’s early 70’s, specifically in the Bronx. Back then it was just a style of poetry, like a type of freestyle that young black men performed. Quickly this style started to become popular and the black youth began “…engaging in verbal duels with contenders like a linguistic match…” (Gates). Due to the geographic location of this formation of Hip Hop, it is considered a “black art form”. Other ethnicities such as the Caribbean and Latin peoples probably had some contribution towards Hip Hop, but it’s still considered black music. For example, Perry talks about the Afro-Atlantic theory which talks about how migrating patterns over the Atlantic Ocean led to the conception of Hip Hop, but states that it’s just “…a fantastic aspiration rather than a reality…” . She claims that it’s just a fantasy rather than reality because it’s just a theory that Paul Gilroy suggested. Gilroy wrote a book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness where he theorizes that the contemporary forms of cultural nationalism are disrupted, which leads to an opening of a new field of interest; African American. Hip Hop and Rap are considered a “black art form” because it originated in a black community, and has evolved from the earlier form used, signifying. Signifying is a way of narrating a story, a sense of wordplay. “Signifying is the grandparent of Rap, and Rap is signifying in a postmodern way…” (Gates). And even today black rappers express their experiences and views on life, as did the past generation in signifying. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the 1960’s and 70’s formed this culture of Hip Hop. For example, due to the unfair values and treatment blacks received from society, the objective was to respond to this discrimination. Speaking out was a way of making the Black community proud of themselves, showcasing the experiences they go through in their everyday life’s. This courage led to a revolutionary movement, which rooted the culture of Hip Hop. Songs such as “Say it Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” (James Brown) and “Fight the Power” (Public Enemy) demonstrate what was going on during that time, and what was being done to bring it to an end. “I’ve worked on jobs with my feet and my hands, But all the work I did was for the other man, and now we demands a chance, to do things for ourselves, we tired of beating our heads against the wall, and working for someone else” (James Brown). These lyrics show how Blacks were usually labeled as uncivilized and harmed, Hip Hop gives us the chance to hear of the experiences one has been or going through; a window into someone’s life. “Gangstas, hustlers, street crimes, and vernacular sexual insults…” (Rose) is what is necessary to make it to the top back in the 90’s. This is what the audience wanted, a new version of Hip Hop that they are vague too. Critics are quick to point out negative subjects such as drugs, violence, sex, and mistreatment of women in Hip Hop. In Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, there’s a scene where four white teens are asked about their opinion on Hip Hop, and they see it as a window of opportunity to learn about the culture. Mainly because they lived in the suburbs and they wanted to learn about life in the hood. Which led to all these negative black stereotypes, and rappers had to do what the audience wanted. Rappers couldn’t really talk about the positives, because all the audience wanted to hear was the negative stuff; which actually helps alleviate the stereotype. For example, N.W.A came out with a song branded “Fuck Tha Police”, and critics jumped on the bandwagon saying N.W.A are against the police and the government. “Fuck tha police, comin straight from the underground, young nigga got it bad cuz I’m brown, and not the other color so police think, they have the authority to kill a minority” (N.W.A). These lyrics can be seen in a variety of views, when I listen to it, I hear a cry for help because they are in a state of poverty and the government are treating them unfairly due to the color of their skin. Many people ask themselves why there’s such anger and violence in the Hip Hop culture, it’s because nothing was down for them. The Black community would be treated unfairly for many years, and even today; and for many years they pleaded and begged for help and fairness, but that was never granted, so they weren’t going to wait around, they took action immediately. The formation of the Black Panther Party was a great inspiration for the black community; it was a style of government that protected their rights. There were many inspirational individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and many others who strived for equality. There was transformation between peaceful and anger; follower to leader is the growth of Hip Hop. “I don’t write my lyrics for the casual fan…they may like the way it sounds…I write for that kid who really feels hopeless and can hear my lyrics and relate to them…” (Tupac Resurrection). People don’t see what these artists are saying between the lines, all they see is a bunch of thugs talking about aggression, instead of a society that has kept them locked. Giving a voice for the voiceless. “The trinity of commercial hip hop- the black gangsta, pimp, and ho- has been promoted and accepted to the point where it now dominates the genre’s storytelling worldview” (Rose). Hip Hop is just a business, whatever the audience wants, it gets; even if it means changing yourself completely to sell your music. During the 90’s, black music really was about those negative stereotypes of black men being gangstas, and the black women referred to as hoes or bitch. For example, in the movie there was a young black man that talked about how Hip Hop is all commercialized, “They don’t want you to see that we good businessman. We don’t just sell drugs. I sold water last summer. Holla!” (Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes). He’s stating that if he talked positive no one would want to hear it, they want to hear him talk about violence, drugs, etc; whatever sells. Even though most of Hip Hop is commercialized, there are still few artists today who actually talk about stuff that the majority audience doesn’t want to hear about and are still successful. Artists such as J.Cole, Drake, and Tyga rap about things that you wouldn’t hear about in the 90’s when you were considered to be “hard, no fear, power”. For example, these artists do some Rhythms and Blues (RnB), and if they did this in the 90’s they would be considered too soft. Kind of like signifying, they are talking about what they want, telling their own stories and experiences in an inventive way. So what is the true definition of Hip Hop? There’s no exact answer to this question because in my opinion all these previous definitions have some significance in it, but there are some flaws. For example, the title of this paper was a quote by Lupe Fiasco, “…I feel like murder but hip-hop you saved me…” Lupe mentions that through his life he experienced some tough obstacles, and Hip Hop was sort of a scapegoat for him. I think Hip Hop has really changed from the beginning to today, it’s become more commercialized, stirring up false identities and negative stereotypes. But it’s a way for people to express one’s opinions and experiences within their music.

Works Cited

Brown, James. "Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)." LetsSingIt. n. page. Print. .
Enemy, Public. "Fight the Power." Lyrics Depot. n. page. Print. .
Fiasco, Lupe. "Hip Hop Saved My Life." Rap Basement. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar 2012. .
Gates Jr., Henry Louis. "The Anthology of Rap." Foreword. In Adam Bradley & Andrew Dubois (Eds.). (2010): 22-27. Print.
Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Verso, 1993. 261.
Hunt, Bryon, dir. Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes . Sundance Film Festival, 2006. Film. .
Lazin, Lauren, dir. Tupac: Resurrection . Paramount Pictures, 2003. Film.
N.W.A, . "Fuck Tha Police." Lyrics Depot. n. page. Print. .
Perry, Imani. "Prophets of the Hood." Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. (2004): 10-36. Print.
Rose, Tricia. "The Hip Hop Wars." Basic Books. (2008): 01-30. Print.