GUNS GUNS GUNS

This is a picture of the guns that rapper T.I. was arrested trying to buy. These are automatic rifles that you find people who plan terrorist attacks with. These are guns with drums of ammo, instead of just a clip. They are intense illegal guns, and there are a lot of them. Why would anyone outside of military members need weapons like this. A common idea of hip-hop is the need to have guns. Guns provide a sense of power, and a sense of control. If something happens with a gun you have the ability to take control of the situation. But why not just purchase a legal firearm, instead of these highly illegal unregistered weapons. Guns as a sport can be a very fun activity, but these guns don't seem at all like they are for range shooting. These guns are designed with the specific intent to kill humans. Guns give people a sense of power, but why would anyone need guns to this extent? A rapper like T.I, a person who has been arrested 32 times, said he felt that he needed the weapons for protection. In this interview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfbjpXio0NI, T.I. stresses that he wants people to not admire him for the bad things he has done, but instead because he has become a man an admitted that he was wrong and accepted the consequences. T.I. had enough money to buy the weapons, and expressed is power in this way. Having this many weapons of that caliber really makes me question the type of person that T.I. was. I feel like there is a lot of his history that is unknown to the media, but maybe that is what makes him so popular. The idea that he could of been doing some serious damage with those guns, especially a man with his criminal history.

Pictures of hyper masculinity

The picture of Tupac is a great example of his hyper-masculinity. In his left hand there is what I'm assuming to be a blunt suggesting that he smokes weed. The posture that he presents with the finger, and his natural body language shows that he doesn't really care about what people think. He is a very physically fit man and has a great deal of tone. His gold chain shows that he has enough money to buy expensive jewelry. There is a gun in his waist suggesting that he is always ready to use it, and that he should not be messed with. His body shows tattoos that say thug life, and one has an AK-47 suggesting that he is willing to kill, and is a thug. This picture really presents Tupac as being hard, but at the same time is willing to chill and smoke a blunt.

The picture of 50 cent takes the ideas of masculinity to a whole new level. The first focal point of this picture is the gun. 50 is pointing the gun directly at the camera. A lot of 50's persona is based on violence, and he is constantly presenting it through the media. He is wearing gun straps around his shoulders suggesting that he is always strapping heat. There is a large diamond cross around his neck, suggesting that he is rich enough to afford those kinds of things. His posture almost suggests that he wants to kill people, where in comparison Tupac was ready to if need be. I think the comparison of these two pictures really shows how rap as changed over the years. Everything has just been taken to the next level of masculinity. Instead of having a gun he is pointing a gun, instead of being in good shape 50 is abnormally jacked, instead of a gold necklace 50 has a diamond necklace.

many views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpe6_VgZIg&feature=channel

In this video there are multiple opinions expressed. In discussing the issues with hip-hop music there are multiple explanations to them. In an artists eyes there is nothing wrong with their music because they are using their freedom of expression to detail certain aspects of their lives. They feel that by calling someone a bitch or slut isn't a problem because they don't feel that all women fall under these categories, but they feel that some women are. The question to this then is why are there so many instances when women are called these degrading epithets. The argument is then brought back to the record company, and how it is there fault for promoting these ideals. It is hard to figure out who should be blamed for this, but the only thing that is for certain is that the hip-hop industry is make large sums of money, and more and more people are making it to the big screen. More wealth is being put in the hands of blacks who for the large majority of the history of the United States, and to this day still have economic inequality. Even though rap music seems to have bad effects on the community, it is a form of entertainment, and that is how it should be understand. I think the rap is being taken to seriously by its audience, especially since it has recently been over dramatized. The money that hip-hop promotes often promotes greed and other issues that stem from money.

sexism and misogyny in hip-hop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2q5zlgkKas&feature=related

In this video women in hip-hop music are objectified. In most of the videos they used just as eye candy, objects of the mans desires. When the model is asked about her experience with videos she says she treated it as a job, and because there is so much competition on the set women are willing to do anything to get the camera attention. The videos shows young women that the images that are seen are all that women can be. The women are beautiful, but that is all they are portrayed as. Some women want that attention from the rappers. They want the to get with rappers, and they want them to do the things they do. Those women don't seem to much have respect for themselves, and it could be because they have grown up in a culture that doesn't depict them as respectable, but instead as an object of men's sexual deviance. There is heavy structural and symbolic violence that has negative effects on the youth that sees these videos, and this miss treatment of women in the hip-hop community. Women's role in hip-hop has artists are few and far between and female records are becoming less common. If they are an artist they usually rap with a male counterpart, and that seems like the only way for them to be successful. Hip-Hop is dominated by men, and it is almost impossible for women to be successful without them. It is historically a very sexist industry. Women have to look good, sound good, and really try and sell themselves.

quantity over quality and its effects

In John McWhorter's article, How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back, he discusses the problems with Hip-Hop. He feels that rap "retards black success." He thinks that it reinforces stereotypes, and teaches the youth a way of life that is counter productive to success within society. He argues that the mannerisms that are adopted from the videos that are seen makes future employers wary of the person's attitude towards life. By "glamorizing life in the war zone" Hip-Hop has engrained the message in society that blacks are uncivilized, and makes it hard for people growing up there to remove themselves from that lifestyle. He makes an interesting point that black Americans had more to be frustrated about in the past, but yet the music of the time was hopeful, positive, and affirmative. As of now 5 of the top 10 highest sellers have had incidents with the law. Many of rap's superstar been murdered. Including stars like Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Big L, and many others. It seems to me that this image of being hardcore comes with the highly violent American media culture. I think that earlier in the timeline of rap the lyrics really showed the conditions of life that certain rappers had grown up in, but I feel things have over exaggerated, and created more for the aspect of making money. Now granted, some of the stories are true, but to what extent are they bedazzled, and to what extent are they all true. Rap may have once been "poetry of the streets," but now it seems like the media has taken over and turned this poetry into a industrialized type of music that creates a negative image for blacks. I love Hip-Hop and will never stop listening to it, but the direction that hip-hop is traveling makes me think less of American Society because it traps people within a type of structural violence that can't been seen by many of the people being oppressed by it. America's need to mass produce takes the quality out of everything from McDonalds burgers, to cars, to the switch from CD's to MP3's, and rap music in general.

John H. McWhorter
How Hip Hop Holds Blacks Back
Violence, Misogyny, and Lawlessness are nothing to sing about
Summer 2003
http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_3_how_hip_hop.html

Blame the manufacturer

In Glen Ford's article in the Black Agenda Report, he disagrees with the common claim that the artist should be blamed for the content of the lyrics. He uses the image of a McDonalds where the workers conduct is unacceptable for a service type market. In this case people would maybe blame the employees, but most likely they would blame the McDonalds corporation instead. He compares this with rap music, and shows that "The artist, the song, the presentation -- all of it is a corporate product." There is no room for rap music to flourish unless it is backed by the major label companies, and the major label companies only back a certain kind of rap music. A type where "the thug-and-ho-ification of the genre is now all but complete. The point that Ford makes is true. There is no room for individual rap to flourish. The large corporations, and media control what is seen by the public, and the only image they want to present is a thugged out slutted out version of hip-hop. A type of hip hop that promotes a lifestyle that is often times true, but often times over exaggerated as well. The violence found in hip-hop is eternalized by people of that culture and creates a cycle where their ideas of what they should grow up to be have been fostered by an oppressing force. Also how is new genres of rap supposed to emerge if record companies are only permitting the gangster genre to make it to the big screen. I think that the more that violence is promoted and shown, the more it is going to become the norm, and then there will be a real problem.

Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
Hip Hop Profanity, Misogyny and Violence: Blame the Manufacturer
http://www.alternet.org/story/51543
Posted May 7, 2007

Hyper-Masculinity

Hip-hop culture projects and image of a society that is hyper-masculine. Male artists are presented as being physically strong, tough, rich, and as having many different female partners. The projected toughness shows how the society they grew out of was a place where life is hard. The hyper-masculine image is presented by many artists, but especially artists like 50 Cent. 50 Cent is one of todays most popular rappers. In many of his music videos he is shown has a hyper-masculine person. In his "Get up" video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSg4m1hpEFI, he is shown shirtless working out, and is very jacked. He is dressed similar to character from a military movie, and is running around blowing things up. At the end of the video he saves a beautiful woman, and after saving her he becomes intimate with her. In his "Many Men" video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D3crqpClPY, he is depicted as being shot, and surviving. By the end of the video he gains revenge on his enemies. Sending the message that he can't be killed, and if you try he will kill you after. Throughout the video he is shown, again shirtless and oiled up. Many of his videos depict a lifestyle where he is the ultimate man, a sort of untouchable man. He can't be killed, he can get away with murder, he has unlimited amounts of money, he has lots of different women all over him, he as fast expensive cars, and pretty much anything that money can buy. This hyper-masculine image is easy for me to lose myself in. Hearing the stories of people like 50 Cent and seeing their music videos gave me an impression that those standards of living is what defines manliness. Growing up as a kid I always wanted those fast cars, I wanted to be able to be shot 9 times and live, I wanted to have extremely attractive women all over me, and I wanted to be jacked. Listening to rap music is a way for me to submerse myself in a culture that is different then mine considering I have been a middle class white kid who has grown up in a rural area. It is something that I am not, but my ideas of masculinity have somewhat been shaped by the idea of masculinity that Hip-Hop presents to its followers.

Thoughts on Behind the Beats and Rhymes

After watching behinds the beats and rhymes I found that my enthusiasm for hip-hop music intensified. It is strange because Byron Hurt takes a deep look into hip-hop and its culture. It is no surprise that guns are the symbol of masculinity in a society where, according to Michael Dyson, “violent masculinity is the heart of American identity.” American society is a society where violence is one of the dominating images that people see growing up. Mainly through the media violence is absorbed by everyone and becomes the norm to society. Growing up I have seen action in movies, the news, and video games. From an early age I have been raised in a culture that seems to promote violence. The violent lyrics of hip-hop are often considered to be a way for the artists to show the realities of their lives. I believe that some rappers do rap about violence because it has been a large part of their lives, but the part of Behind the Beats and Rhymes that really struck me was that the white male power structure controls the record companies. The record companies promote violent lyrics because it sells, and largely to the white community. It was said in the movie that 70% of records are sold to white buyers. When Byron Hurt asked aspiring rappers why they rap about violence, he found that people choose not to rap in a righteous way because they feel that they won't get signed by a record company. In essence the white owners of the record company want to portray images of blacks as being “thugged out”. The white record companies create an image for black society that is self-deprecating. This is a form of structural violence. It promotes false ideas about blacks, and creates a self-destructive cycle where the image of the black man is stuck in this box.

2Pac

2Pac is considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, and many argue he is the best. His lyrics focus on social issues that he endured throughout his life. His mother was a crack fein, his father left, and his step father was and black panther, and was on Americas list of most wanted. Being raised into a family with a crackhead mother, and a black panther father figure, it is easy to see where his deep lyrics came from. He didn't just rap about killing people and dealing drugs, he often rapped about racial issues that have existed since the civil rights movement. He used rap as a way to show what he thought the problems with his society, and used rap to explain how he felt about those issues. In lyrics from the song “or my soul” Tupac say, “the choice is no stranger to poverty, your soul or government assitance, I'm 18 in a country with no path for a young un-addicted Black youth with a dream, instead I am given the ultimatum”. Almost all rap that exists preceding has had some influence from 2Pac. He was involved with beef with Biggie over a shooting that took place at Tupac's studio. Tupac died the night after he got into an altercation with a Crip gang member, but people suspected that Biggie had put a hit on Tupac. It has been speculated that Biggie was responsible for the killing. For me Tupac's music has the most meaning to it, and the most diversity to his songs. Pac seems to be the last hip-hop artist that wasn't forced into the stereo type of a black male. Often he talks about loving women and respecting them, he often wrote songs about the hardships women in the ghetto endured. In "keep ya head up" he says, "And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up"
He seems to have a greater social understanding of the problems with his society and the effects of his lyrics on society. I think Tupac's image is something the following years of rap tried to emulate, especially after the content of the lyrics changed when he had beef with Biggie.

Origins of violent hip hop

Some People would argue that hip-hop creates violence, and no doubt it plants misguided ideas in the youth of society, but hip-hop originated as a way to express there mentalities on live. Hip hop really took off with N.W.A and artists like Ice Cube, and Eazy E. The general focus of their lyrics was to explain how life was in South Compton. With songs like “Ghetto Bird”, and “Fuck the Police” these people were able to express the terrible conditions of their living conditions. Living conditions that were forced upon them by the United State's Government. If anything hip-hop should be viewed as a reflection of the social conditions that we forced blacks to live. People were reliant on factories as a source of income, and when they shut down a large majority of black people were out of work. Conditions in the city went down hill and crime rates went up. Groups like N.W.A have lyrics that are a social outcry for how terrible the conditions were. They expressed the actions they took to survive through there music. A lot of the songs focus on crack dealing, and killing. Once the expressive songs were out there is a good chance it could of influenced younger generations. If the youth sees people they admire making it big by rapping about things like killing and crack dealing then it is easy to see why they would be influenced to do the same. These artists started a trend that eventually lead to modern day rap which is generally focused on material things, drug dealing, weapons, and violence. Only the government can be blamed for the start of violence in hip-hop.

site of cultural encounter

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Casey Hull

Professor Torres

12 February 2010

My topic is hip hop culture and violence. I have always enjoyed listening to hip hop, and I'm interested in the effects that the music has on the mind. I want to learn if there is a correlation between violence and the explicitness of the lyrics of the music, specifically hip hop, that the people are listening to. I am interested to see if the music really has an influence on the choices people make in regards to violence. I have been raised off Tupac and Notorious BIG, and I have never committed a violent crime; knock on wood. I will be asking the question of is hip hop a reflection of a lifestyle, or an influence on lifestyles. I hope to learn more about the music that I have always listened to, and hope to better understand the relationship between the culture and the violence, whether there is a correlation or not.