Jorge Espitia
English 114B
Hip-hop
Have you ever felt that
you have been discriminated based upon the music you listen? Believe it or not music is considered to be a
space and a “space”, which is any part of your surroundings that can help,
define a person. So I ask myself what
message does Hip-Hop send? To get a
better understanding of hip-hop and the message it sends or tries to send I
wanted to analyze the history of hip-hop.
I will also be looking at the main figures in hip-hop and their
influences on both the industry and society.
Finally I will show the progression of hip-hop in present day.
The story of hip-hop includes major events,
controversies, and talent. The story of
hip-hop begins in New York specifically the Bronx in the early 70s by a
Jamaican DJ known as Kool Herc. (dy) He
was trying to incorporate rhymes over his reggae beats. “Unfortunately New Yorkers were not into
reggae” this lead him to replace the reggae beat with beats of one sometimes
two songs that were popular at the time.
This blending created a new style and a new way to produce what would be
a new genre of music. There were five
new elements brought into the game beat boxing, mc, DJ, graffiti art, and b
boying. Not only were the sounds
different but for the first time global view and issues were being incorporated
into the lyrics. Leading artists from
the island at the time Bob Marley and the roots were rapping about the
struggles Jamaica faced while trying to receive its independence from Great
Britain in 1962 (Garrett 53). Such
struggles included political turmoil and reconstruction and intensified street
violence. The struggle for power leads
the streets of Jamaica to become a battle ground not only for corrupt politicians
but for gang members as well. Bob Marley
sung the following about the early music “Some are leaves, some are branches,
but I am di roots.” The rapping about current events and harsh living would
later strive in hip-hop.
Although rappers weren’t facing the hardships such as a
battle for independence but they were battling being part of a minority group
and facing the recession of the 1980s.
The period of the 1980 was considered to be the Golden age of Hip-Hop
because groups and artist arose and began to speak out not only against society
but to the government as well. Hip-Hop
was influencing society to try to create the identity that was being portrayed
by their role models. Powerful groups at
the time were the N.W.A and Public Enemy which already had created an image of
Gansta rappers. You see according the documentary
Planet rock Cocaine impacted hip-hop into the harder identity. This was because the music grew in the
ghettos but rappers were poor because they couldn’t get jobs due to the
recession their only customers were drug dealers because they were the only
people with money. This lead drug
dealers to become sponsors for rappers that they liked motivating them to make
music that they would like to listen to.
If they weren’t making music for drug dealers they were
becoming drug dealers. Many role models
such as Snoop Dogg, B-real, T.I., Ice T and members of Wutang admitted to using
drug money to keep their success in underground hip-hop going. They were making thousands of dollars weekly
and continued to put out their cds. Dealers
liked to hear music about aggression and frustration of the rappers struggles
in society. Many rappers told stories of
their loses due to gang violence and abuse they face from government officials. Many began to argue that music was a cause
for violence. A quote was taken from the
trail of Ronald Ray Howard, a man who was executed for shooting a state
trooper, “He grew up in the ghetto and disliked police, and these were his heroes…
these rappers… telling him if you’re pulled over, just blast away” it meant to
show how music took a negative effect on society. (David Carson pg.33) Many rappers were taking sides in the gang
life and started claiming sides were better from others. These negative views had no limits on targets
even police were attacked lyrical the most controversial song Cop killer. This was happening on both sides of our country
a genre that was originally created to express African roots and blending of
styles turned into another way for “beef” to initiate.
That is exactly what happens the term beef is used to
define the problems between to individuals or in music record labels. The industry began creating groups such as Niggas
With Attitudes, Public Enemy which were represented by record companies such as
Death Row records and Bad Boy Records. These
two powerful record labels each had their face rapper with Tupac Shakur
representing the west coast and Biggie Smalls representing the East coast. Both major cities, New York and Los Angeles,
had a growing number of gansta rappers that liked to bad mouth each side. But to understand the greatest feud in
hip-hop you have to read about the influences the record labels had. People argued the following “this is the
music for sociopaths, just look at their icons.
In the beginning the two were friends but after certain events it lead
to controversial songs that would later influence certain members in society to
act out exactly how their role models rapped.
Tupac young into his career faced legal trouble in New York and ended up
in jail. Death row records offered to
bail him out in exchange for him to sign a deal with them which he did. Suge’s, the owner of the record label, had
launched a campaign against Bad Boy records and Tupac was ready to carry
through with it because he believed that they had set him up to get shot in
Times Square the year before. (Garrett 225)
The beef between East and West coast would lead people to
wonder what effect the music was taking on society. A showdown between both labels occurred backstage
during the Soul Train Awards and Suge continued to antagonize Biggie and Puffy.
(Garrett 225) Shortly Tupac released his
single “Hit ‘Em Up” which took a shot at Biggie and his entourage. This lead to more artist insulting the other
sides through different songs, but unfortunately this would lead to violent act
that passed song lyrics. One day while
Snoop Dogg tried to shoot his New York New York music video in New York his
crew was shot at. That wasn’t the only
acts of violence that would occur everyday fights and threats of war were
taking place and another artist Ice Cube, another gansta rapper from Compton,
created a hand signal that stood for west coast also now stood for war. Then we started to see icons fall on September
7, 1996 Tupac was killed in Las Vegas this event lead to the death of Biggie
Smalls.
Finally government officials decided to intervene and
began creating unit dedicated to rappers and their actions. That and the different interests in society
had hip-hop growing and changing. Instead
of gangsta rappers rapping about drugs, sex, money, bitches and hoes the rap
game began to expand. It opened the way
for a cultural change white and even Chicano rappers started to emerge examples
of the new figures Eminem and Kid Frost.
Hip-Hop has gone mainstream and became “radio friendly” the blend
between pop and hip-hop created hits that people could dance to like MC Hammer
in 1990 releasing “U Can’t Touch This”. This
was the mentality that Hip-hop would have until present day. Now you see
diversity in the rap game great examples are Honey Cocaine an Asian girl rapper
and Drake a rapper that has a lot of hype who comes from Canada. The music has changed as well the genre
really has no boundaries now songs have beats from other genres and includes
instruments from others as well. Many hip-hop
song include collaborations between rappers from both sides of the country and
can even include rapping and singing.
Hip-Hop has certainly gone a long way from reggae DJ's in
new York. But the perception has also
changed now people don’t believe that people who listen to hip hop aren’t just necessarily
gang members or drug dealers. Now rappers
send almost a positive message by telling their stories and discouraging drugs,
gangs, sex. For many such as T.I music
saved his life and donates money back into music programs to encourage kids
with talent to strive for a better future.
So next time someone tells you that you are a thug because of the music
you listen to you tell them about the change its gone threw.
