Post-reading questions for week eleven

What I thought was the most interesting in the video was how much they degrade women in music videos. Like at first I thought the rap and hip-hop artists were only doing that because of the money but after watching that video, it made me realize that they’re doing it on purpose. I was also surprised by how Nelly suddenly dropped out from the bone marrow event just because he didn’t want to hear the women’s opinions about how his music video is showing women is a negative light. It definitely made me change my mind about how I thought of hip-hop because the video opened my eyes on how hip-hop can affect the lives of many people. Like I didn’t even think about what hip-hop could mean to the whites and how rap means so more to the blacks because of the way they could express the struggles they have been through. Like I strongly believe that rap has a much deeper meaning to the black people because the whites have not experienced the hardships, slavery, and pain that the blacks have. I definitely agree with the second one on how hip-hop is both homophobia and homoerotic because in the video we watched in class, when rap and hip-hop artists show their bodies in magazines, they’re not doing it just for the women, but also for the men. Furthermore, in the video, they talked about how guys who show emotion are less of man and loose their masculinity. For example, when Busta Rhymes was questioned about black gay men when it comes to music, he said he wouldn’t want to associate with them and just walked away. I also agree with number four about how the genre hip-hip is denigrating women. Like since these music artists are showing women in a negative way, it results women in real life being treated the same way just like those women in the video. For instance, in the video they talked about how there are two types of women: the “sisters” and the “bitches”. The sisters represent those who dresses classy and appropriate while the bitches represent those who dress all reveling just like the music videos being portrayed in hip-hip and rap. Some of the similarities between how black men were represented during slavery and Jim Crow and their representation in music today are that whatever they experienced or feelings they felt during those times; they will talk about it in music. They will talk about how being a slave was torture and how they would always have to work. They will rap about how the Jim Crow law segregated them. They will rap about all the emotions they have bottled up over the years. Yes and No I do and don’t believe hip-hop can be problematic. I believe it’s problematic because not only does the music video for the genre degrade women, but it makes people think that those who are gay are not masculine enough. No I don’t think it’s problematic because like I said before, the genre addresses the issues of what the blacks have gone through.

 

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