Friday, October 3, 2014

Does Hip-Hop Degrade or Uplift African Americans?

"Now in the 2000’s, you have the opposite of what rappers have been trying to prevent for years. You have rappers such as 50 Cent talking about how he loves money, Gucci Mane beating girls up -beat is a slang for sex- and everyone’s favorite rapper Lil Wayne saying to “f**k these bit**es” and even dudes. Hip-hop has taken a turn for the worst. African Americans make up the majority of the demographics of hip-hop listeners. Does hip-hop culture degrade or uplift African Americans? How would activist of our past answer this question if they were alive today?. Right now, I would say that this hip-hop culture is definitely degrading to the race. However, there are cases where you might not find this in a lot of rappers. People like Soulja Boy Tell’em, Drake and Hurricane Chris have ruined the purpose of this culture, whereas rappers such as Ludacris, Nas and even Eminem have been continuing the real meaning of hip-hop.
Now, what if activist like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and more were still alive? Which side would they take to where hip-hop leads? I think they would choose that it has degraded African Americans. For what these people have struggled, hip-hop has gone the opposite way of what they fought in support of."
This is what Dushawn Roberts from Pennsylvania State University says about this topic. Do you agree with this viewpoint? Honestly, I believe that hip-hop doesn't degrade nor uplift african americans or any race of that matter, its just a genre of music that has many races involved. Sadly everyone seems to rap about "b**ches & hoes" no matter the race or gender, but as we're listening to the music and enjoying it we don't really pay attention to the lyrics as much as we do to the beat. Hip-Hop is a very fun genre of music and I really respect african americans for creating such a enjoyable genre of music. 

1 comment:

  1. I think I agree with Roberts, rap can be degrading because it's playing off stereotypes. I think that a lot of the things they talk about in rap music don't really happen in real life and it's portraying african americans in a way that isn't accurate all the time.

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