Pre-reading questions week eleven

I think issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, and social justice engage with hip-hop and the music industry is that when someone is oppressed, they often maybe write their feelings down on paper which results it turning into music. For example, I don’t know if this counts as one since its not hip hop but the song “Black or White” by Michael Jackson talks about the racism between the white and black people. Lyrics such as this song often approach the emotions and feelings of how someone might be dealing with this injustice. I think the purpose of hip-hop music is not only to entertain people, but also aware the people of how someone might be feeling about a certain topic such as their sexuality or race. For example, if someone is afraid to say what they are actually feeling, they would instead write it in a song and let the whole word know. For instance, take Frank Ocean. No one knew he was gay until he expressed his sexuality in his song “Thinking about you.” He probably didn’t want to tell anyone because he was afraid people would judge him so instead he wrote it in a song. I think the role that race plays in hip-hop is that there is this ideology that most rappers or artists are usually black people. Personally to me, I’d say that the consumers of hip-hop are racially homogenous but only because the rappers and artists of hip-hip I see are mostly black. Like I can name so many hip hop artists that are black but when it comes to naming one white rapper all I can think of is Enenim. I never really knew hip-hop was problematic but I think its so popular today because it’s what “in” today with the teens. Like hip-hop is something teens in this generation can listen and relate to. I think Rock feels the need to defend rap music because he is sick of hearing people say “Rap is garbage. How can you listen to that garbage? How can you listen to that trash?” I don’t know if this counts as some of the things that he thinks are bad about rap but he says in the video that most black rappers are killed and the government doesn’t do anything about it. Like he repeats over and over again how “the government doesn’t like rap” and I think what he means by that is if it was a different situation, like if a white rapper was always the one getting shot, then they would be all over investigating it. But when it comes to black rappers, they just ignore it. I think the positive aspect of hip-hop is like I said before; it informs the people about the oppressions some feel. I think some of its problematic aspects are that some hip-hop or rap songs do degrade women which often lead to these debates. I don’t think hip-hop is misogynistic because I don’t think the hip-hop and rap artists mean to intentionally degrade women. Like what Chris Rock said, women who love rap music wouldn’t really care. As long as the beats good, then they are okay with it. I think that’s mainly what hip-hop, rap, or the music industry is trying to do. Not to degrade women or other people of race or gender, but to basically make money in the business.

 

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