Rap Act THE NEGATIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH HIP HOP

It is not rocket science that hip hop is more than just a genre of music. It is a cultural ideal that is seen to embrace certain values. Hip hop music and by extension rap music is a manifestation of the hip hop culture. Hip hop is associated mainly with African American culture and until recently, was the sole domain of African American musicians. This is because the rise of hip hop began as African Americans were struggling for civil rights in the United States of America.

Originally, hip hop started as a fun, catchy category of music. Groups such as ‘The Sugar Hill Gang’ popularized it with songs such as ‘Rapper’s Delight’. Hip hop songs were then sang to speak on what the hip hop culture was about. It was said that hip hop was based on deejaying, emceeing, breaking and rapping. These were concepts that were new to the music scene and which the African American community was proud of introducing.

The 1980s witnessed a lot of discontent among African Americans due to the rampant racial discrimination in society and this began being reflected in hip hop music. The harsh reality of living in the ghettoes and trying to survive in those conditions made their way to hip hop music. Radical activists such as Malcolm X played a primary role in stirring dissension among African Americans. The message being promoted at that time was that the black community’s patience had reached breaking point and that the grave inequalities existent had to be addressed immediately. The dominant theme of songs switched from hope and entertainment to desolation and grimness, a reflection of the cultural shift.

Hip hop and rap music adopted a gangster style and chose as its recurrent theme, the ghetto life reality. This led to the association of negative images and ideals with hip hop, especially when Hip hop burst into the lime light in the 90s.

An example of these negative images was the celebration of street warfare. An analysis of hip hop lyrics at the time shows a morbid obsession with fighting and killing one’s haters. Murder was portrayed as the only way for dispute resolution.

The common enemy was seen as the police and many lyrics spoke extensively on the need to be rid of law enforcement. One of these songs was ‘Cop Killer’ by Tupac Shakur which portrayed how a man had shot and killed a particularly bothersome police officer.

Another theme that hip hop was seen to promote was that of promiscuity. The disrespect of women became rampant and the implication that they were mere sexual objects was strongly made. The number of women that one had was portrayed as directly proportional to his success and fidelity was completely done away with.

Another negative image that became associated with hip hop was that of drugs. Popping pills and smoking weed were made the epitome of cool with no reference as to the negative effect of drug addiction.