what is the message of hip hop hip hop’s many different faces

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What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

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Page 1: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

What is the message ofHIP HOP

Hip hop’s many different faces

Page 2: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• What are the stereotypes of Hip Hop artists according to you???

• What comes to your mind when you hear Hip Hop??

• Is it positive, negative, none..

• Do you listen to hip hop?

Page 3: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

BLACK STEREOTYPES:AthletesDifferent clothes=>brands : Sean John, FUBU, expensive, jewelryDifferent dialect + accentLoudGold teeth

Page 4: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• 4 main elements of Hip hop culture are

• MCing = rapping

• DJing• Graffiti• Breakdancing

=

b-boying • Further elements

beatboxing, fashion, slang, …

Page 5: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Fuses classical, jazz and folk music many different cultures and

musical styles

• Hip-hop emerged in the late 1970s and early '80s from South Bronx (section of NY).

• BY Afrika Bambaataa, DJ and community leader from the South Bronx, Caribbean orig.

• DJ Kool Herc: Jamaican origin (funk music -> jazz origin)

• Grandmaster Flash

and the Furious Five

Page 6: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Hip hop created …………..• artistic expression designed to

cope with: urban frustrations and conditions=dealt with the problems of contemporary urban life = has stayed within this tradition by actively addressing the role of anger and violence.

• Question: how can one refuse HH for its violence, since the violence is only a reflection of someone’s life=>

• HH created an open dialog to society, dialog about issues concerning AA community and its reality

• “CNN of the Black community”

Page 7: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Hip Hop addresses:

• HH: address racism, education, sexism, drug use, and spiritual uplift, social conditions=> social criticism

• Hip-hop criticism: primarily focused on the music's negative and antisocial characteristics, slang, clothing, often connected with violence, drug abuse, objectifying women, or even misogyny

leaves out hip-hop’s side

Page 8: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Hip Hop and angerBlack Arts literary critic Addison

Gayle, Jr.,

notes that Black art has always been rooted in the anger felt by African-Americans, and hip-hop culture has remained true to many of the convictions and aesthetic criteria that evolved out of the Black Arts Movement of the '60s, including calls for social relevance, originality, and a focused dedication to produce art that challenges American mainstream artistic expression.

Page 9: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Historical events= examples of Black frustration and rage:

for example, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the riots that followed the

assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968. “

. . . anger-raw and unhollywoodish-is what we are talking

about," writes Haki Madhubuti.

"Anger for unfulfilled promises, anger

toward legislators who back stepped

on policies decided, passed and notimplemented, anger pouring

undilutedtoward a rulership that feeds on

greedand exploitation and views Black

peopleas enemies or as necessary

burdensto be thrown crumbs like animals in

their latest theme park"

Dave Chappelle “ANGRY THROUGHOUT HISTORY”

Page 10: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Poem ~ Hip Hop

We want "poems that kill."Assassin poems, Poems that

shootguns. Poems that wrestle cops

intoalleys

and take their weapons leaving them

deadwith tongues pulled out and sent

Let there be no love poems written

until love can exist freely andcleanly.

(Written by Amiri Baraka)

Page 11: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Dilemma

• Main question: how should HH deal (reflection of minority) function in capitalist environment , should it produce for mainstream audiences, conserve its aesthetics criteria

• the Harlem Renaissance: Can one's art go unaffected by commercial considerations, and are the effects of commercialism necessarily negative?

Page 12: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Effects of commercialism• Positive: music reached wider audiences, other

minority groups, middle-class whites, wider impact on society=>gets to know about issues AA community must face

• Negative: – wants to appeal to white culture=>AA

cultural values lost – commercial concern damaged: HH’s

aesthetics, political, racial, andsocial consciousness lost, reinforcement of negative stereotypes, many artists worried commercialism will destroy the genre

POP?

– Busta Rhymes worded:“…What happened to creativity, dignity,

integrity. . .Understand that word and how you

use it, rap is business music, hiphop is cultural music. “

• Ex.: Duke Ellington (famous Jazz composer, pianist, etc) didn’t receive the Pulitzer Prize, artists suggest for DE to receive PP, he would have to compromise in his artistic performance His reaction at 67 years old: "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young."

=>GAP: growing btw. “real”/ underground HH and commercial HH

Page 13: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• “Should we really be concerned aboutrecognition from a society thatoppresses us, exploits us . . . ?Recognition from dominant white societyshould not be the primary aim ofthe black artist. He must decide thathis art belongs to his own people. Thisis not to deny that there are some

"universal"factors at work; but we are livingin a specific place, at a specifictime, and are a specific set of peoplewith a specific historical development.”

Understand that rap is rebelliousmusictherefore only the rebels should use itthe pop artists abuse itwhen the audience hears real rapthey boo itsee rap music is a culture andevery one outside that culture is a

vulturethe vulture makes money on the

culture…("How Not to Get Jerked)

Page 14: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

“Don't wait for your company's promotion staffpromote yourself with your own cashbut this might mean ya' can't buy gold

ya' might have to put that on hold”("How Not to Get Jerked")

• Solution for many artists= create own independent (of white) institutions=>aesthetic + economic independence; nowadays=underground HH

• NOTE: Something Cornel West would propose; greatly encourages the same for Black academy

Page 15: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• Third view: art cannot exist for its own sake, it has always been and is a reflection of the conditions from which it arrives, should be relevant to its present conditions

“Poems are bullshit unless they areteeth or trees or lemons piled

on a step. Or black ladies dyingof men leaving qickel hearts

beating them down..”

• Hard to answer, even during Black Arts Mvm. many views, looking for framework, definitions=>defining it also means limiting itAll views: agree art should function to better the condition of African-Americans

• 4view: The hip-hop trio De La Soul "It might blow up (succeed), but it won't go pop." => they might reach the same level of success within their community, but not sale on mass level, pop culture level

• One of its members claims: "mending, bending, compromising any of my style to gain a smile.“

• Many real HH against this “Hip Pop!,”

Page 16: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Hip hop and SLANG:in particular the word “Nigger”• Probably the most powerful and controversial word in

today’s American English+ society, can be viewed as offensive, as well as a term of endearment. It is both

hated and admired. The term “Nigger” has been declared illegal to say or write. It is being cut out of

many songs, video clips and speeches that are broadcasted by television or radio programs.

• Its frequent employment by both Black + White community is the core of the great controversy

• It is one of the major issues of American “political correctness” world, referred to as the “N-word”

same as HH

Page 17: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• Dilemma: should everyone be allowed to use the term, or just some people. Some say that the word “Nigger” acquires either positive, or negative meaning in relation to whether a Black, or a White person employs it, i.e. if Blacks use the term “Nigger” = “ok,”, if Whites= racist.

• Black use: Some Blacks hold really tight on the word “Nigger” as they consider it as something their own, something that only belongs to them; their voice, emotions, power, social standing, personal expression…all what they had to battle and undergo is transformed and

accomplished by the word, yet only when used by them.

Page 18: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• Others argue that the term “Nigger” can be used by anyone, no matter what color is their skin. They view it that it simply depends

on the intention with which the term is used; therefore, the context is the final factor that determines either its the positive, or the

negative connotation.• Also: since the Blacks designate each other with it, that it can not

be a racial insult. • How do people outside AA know Blacks use it=>hear it in music• That’s one of the negative images of HH, its frequent employment

of this term=> its effect on today’s language =>common appearance of the term among people

Page 19: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• But because of the process this word has undergone through out the history, it

carries a stigma that will never leave it just a simple, plain

word. It is impossible to de-stigmatize it; therefore, it should not be used by

anyone, whether black or white.

• Many Blacks (and Whites-not hurt) are very angry at the youth for using it;

• correlates with terms; slave, servant, inferiority, racism, white supremacy… it reflects their humiliation, white prejudice, racism, self-hatred, ignorance…even more, their conformity to the white, mainstream culture.

Page 20: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• In reaction to the “political correctness,” “the N-Word” created

• During last February (Black History Month): NY city councilman Leroy Comrie (AA) symbolically banned the “N-word”; mostly aimed at the hip hop community and the entertainment industry; such a declaration of a “symbolic moratorium” on this term carries no weight in law

Page 21: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Hip-hop, rap: a positive term• Black hip hop / rap artists and young,

namely male members of the AA community.

• Their point of view: term has already undergone its alteration and therefore, it has (when used by them) an affirmative context in which it symbolizes brotherhood, same as if they were saying “brother,” “bro,” “dude,” “hey man,” etc.

• They can express the most racist thought through it, as well as give it the most loveable aspect. According to the context in which they use it, especially in songs or among each other, it seems as they wish to “de-stigmatize” it, to turn it into something positive.

Page 22: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• Others: find it ridiculous as it catches even more attention

• There is not such a word as the N-word

• Funny: The American server RollingStone has already been making fun of such a resolution, and did not forget to emphasize the vanity of such a measure, especially in a city, where “hip hop was born.” The image of the hip hoppers new way of greeting: “Hi, how are you, a person of an African, or Caribbean origins,” is indeed very funny.”

• “violation of the 1st Amendment”, “banning words, for any reason, is the first step in legalized government censorship.”

Page 23: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

DO YOU USE THIS TERM, IN WHAT SENSE? DO U HAVE ITS EQIVALENT IN YR. LANGUAGE?

• My research for BA thesis: CZ HH, frequent employment of the term “nigger,” always in positive connotation, they even created a Czech version “Negr,” “Negrice.” The love Black music, visible in their lifestyles: clothes, language, attitudes: no racism detected among them (Gypsies are another story)..=>result:

• Hip Hop connects people worldwide and those who otherwise would not get to know AA, they learn about their culture =>even more the message of HH should be positive?

• Czechs most the time don’t understand it, love the music, if anything=>are motivated to study English (and date Black guys:)

Page 24: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• The X axis reveals with the terms that correspond with the numbers in this order: 1= Negro, 2= Nigger, 3= Colored, 4=Black, 5= African American.

Page 25: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• What is the message, the result?• Its impact worldwide, HH culture = mainstream culture in Czech too and

what about in your countries??• Real hiphop stays true to battles, freestyling, spontaneous

performance, life audience in clubs=>those are the real judges, not white public masses which are detached from AA life

• Real HH= reflection of AA oral tradition• HH as misunderstood today as jazz in its emergence• Should Hip Hop be art, which escapes from realities of daily life vs.

reflection of them?• Hip Hop mainly funded by white America• Hip Hop is by many referred to the aftermath of the Civil Rights Era• Others say talkin' loud and ain't sayin' nothin‘• Misogyny, one of most important controversial issues: Black community is

very angry about this => break down of AA families, many AA women trying to fight this

Page 26: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• Songs today more relevant to youth than MLK’s “I have a dream,” are the songs gonna be remembered in couple of years?

• HH reflects philosophies of Marcus Garvey, MLK, Malcolm X & other significant AA leaders

• Even Cornel West cooperates with HH artists nowadays;)

• Definitely the most visible item from AA culture

• HH community, very diverse=> many hip hop “wannabees”, white guys pretending to be Black => ALI G Blacks arguing hip hop is only theirs=>yet USA so diverse, hard to define who is what • DAVE CHAPPELLE : RACIAL

DRAFT• Argument: White people can’t make

music and danceDAVE CHAPPELLE : WHITE PEOPLE

CAN’T DANCE

HIP HOP CONNECTS PEOPLE WORLDWIDE

Page 27: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

Bibliography

• Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap Music Performance Cheryl L. Keyes The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 113, No. 449. (Summer, 2000), pp. 255-269.

• Hiphoprisy (in Conversations) Ishmael Reed; Michael Franti; Bill Adler

• Niggas with Beatitude (in Conversations) Joseph Simmons; Daryl McDaniels; Amy Linden

• Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What about the Message? Rachel E. Sullivan Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 33, No. 5. (May, 2003), pp. 605-622.

• The Black Arts Movement and Hip-Hop (in Popular Music) Marvin J. Gladney, African American Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, Special Issues on The Music. (Summer, 1995), pp. 291-301.

Page 28: What is the message of HIP HOP Hip hop’s many different faces

• Hip Hop versus Civil Rights? (in Essay Review) The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop Todd Boyd Review author[s]: Derrick P. Alridge The Journal of African American History, Vol. 88, No. 3. (Summer, 2003), pp. 313-316.

• Can Hip-Hop Be the New Driving Force behind Increased Racial Integration? (in News and Views) The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 38. (Winter, 2002-2003), pp. 64-67.

• Slouching toward Bork: The Culture Wars and Self-Criticism in Hip-Hop Music Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2. (Nov., 1999), pp. 164-183.

+ 3 personal videos by DAVE CHAPPELLE