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.