Sunday Discussion: Hip Hop, Art Or Poison?
CNN posed this question to millions across the country all this week. Out of 10594 votes, 51% voted Hip Hop as a poison(Link). CNN had some specials talking about the negatives of Hip Hop, while PBS aired a documentary talking about homophobia, violence, sexism and stereotypes in Hip Hop. I was watching CNN later on and they asked is Hip Hop an insidious art form, or a new trendy phenomenon. Is everyone putting Hip Hop on blast because of they have nothing better to report, or is Hip Hop really that terrible?
Hip Hop has given various individuals a chance to come from poverty to become rich legally. People that could have ended up in jail or worse dead, have become huge figures in the entertainment world. These millionaires are able to help other people out of horrible conditions and allow them to make something of themselves.
With that said, people can’t ignore the negative side of Hip Hop. It does portray woman as sex objects, is homophobic, promotes violence and stereotypes. While rappers may just say something because it rhymes, little kids on the streets take it to heart. With the family structure breaking down in America, kids look to Hip Hop for how to behave instead of their parents.
I don’t want to get too detailed, want to here what you guys have to say….
Suggestion Box
February 25th, 2007 at 5:49 am
About two months ago I made a blog about Hip Hop is the background affect of the rising murder rate in Philadelphia (where I live) I personally think that Hip Hop controls a young mind more than any other thing, and most of the things that Hip Hop “markets” is negative. I for one is sick of every rapper being a former drug dealer/addict
February 25th, 2007 at 8:47 am
I love Hip Hop, but as I get older it becomes clearer that the images and lfiestyle that the music promotes is slowly destroying black people. That is why I voted for poison.
February 25th, 2007 at 9:01 am
“It does portray woman as sex objects”…….
Not really,women portray themselves as sex objects.They call each other bitches,they dress in short revealing outfits,etc.If I so happen to rap about it,i’m the horrible one
You see scantily clad women in hiphop,pop,and rock music everyday,look at Justin’s videos for example.
The main and only reason why Hiphop is the main target out of these ^,is because of the explicitness of the lyrics involved.
Here’s a line from a downsouth rapper:
“Booty Callin 24/7 boy/Straight wood aint no need for em rubber toys/….”
Here’s a line from a Pop song:
“I’ma get you naked guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurl…….”
Being a lover of all music genres,it’s evident that Hiphop is the most targeted one.
G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-GUNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 25th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Damn…..Hip-hop is pure art.PERIOD.
February 25th, 2007 at 10:56 am
hip hop is poison but thats y we like oldheaddddddddddddddddddd
February 25th, 2007 at 10:58 am
If they dug deeper into Hip Hop they’d notice that it’s a very balanced music genre but as for as commercially, Hip Hop is starting to become a poison; But theres alot of underground artists that spit the truth but record labels don’t wanna buy into that because they’re afraid they won’t sell commerically.
February 25th, 2007 at 11:13 am
ppl keep saying hiphop is poison all it talks about is women homosexuality money etc. the south came and introduced a funer side with all the dances and party songs then nas come talking about hiphop is dead everybody jump on the bandwagon when the south gave everybody else something new and different to listen to and do where their not disrespecting anybody but the media still says hiphop is poison I admit some of these rappers talk and do the same thing over and over there is only so long u can show praticly naket hoes in a video ridin in a car but dude was right the women exploit themselves nobody is forcing them to dance damn near naket in a video and nobody iis forcing ppl kids to watch or listen to it parenting starts at home i listen to it and im not out robbing or shooting anyone
February 25th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Living in a city that had 2,000+ shot at last year, I wondered if the current music in Hip Hop had anything to it. Hip Hop is supposed to be the reflection of the streets, right? I still don’t know if that is the case but I do feel that at this point, there are some issues within the genre
Is Hip Hop derogatory towards women? Absolutely. I have never heard so many references to getting head, smacking ass, running trains, derivations of the word “hoe” in my life. As I female, I can’t sit up here and say that I’m not offended sometimes but when I realize that its music, I kind of let it go. My issue lies that young boys feel this is an acceptable way to act and talk towards females. Grabbing my ass in the street is not right even though you saw a female willingly take that type of sexual abuse in a video.
As for the chicks who are dressing provacatively…they are a reflection of what they see. They feel if they dress with all their stuff out in the open, then it get a man’s attention because the only girls getting attention are the ones that are doing that in video. You have girls doing mess they shouldn’t be doing on YouTube because it what they see in video everyday. Women are willingly turning themselves into object to be gawked at and that’s my issue
February 25th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I totally agree with Shaz #6.
I mean not all hip hop exploits women because real hip hop always becomes overshadowed by its awful side like all things. The hip hop I grew up listening and still love does not promote sexism, discrimination etc… instead it was something that I could listen to if I wanted to get away from the real world cause it was REAL. And now I feel really awful for the kids that have to grow up watching and listening to the mainstream trash that major corporations put out now, it’s truly tragic.
I feel this topic is way too overly discussed and has been dissected enough, come on it’s 2007 for god sakes! People have been talking about this for nearly 10 years now and nothing has really changed although the crime rate might have gone up. Commercialism is the one to blame or the corporations that sign these trash artists. And how are they going to have Young Joc as a hip hop spokesman? His Flow, Rhymes, Metaphors, World Play, are all crap. I can easily name 50 better people to speak on behalf of hip hop than him but thats not the issue.
Hip Hop Art or Poison? At this moment of time I believe it is posion. Evidence? Watch 106 in Park thats evidence enough and if you don’t watch BET anymore, pat yourself on the back. Hip Hop’s foundation was Art but like all paintings and architecture, they start to deteriorate overtime, unfortunately. Solution to this pandemic?(I believe so) People need to start off small by not buying into these fake gimmick artists. Although we all do love hip hop, we need to set our standards slightly higher. Like global warming we have expectations we need to live up to. I understand that there are always going to be critics but we shouldn’t promote artists that hurt what we love, including people.
Essentially, I believe we need more charismatic, influential, and intelligent people if we are going revive and restore this art form. Hip hop’s a beautiful struggle so don’t give into the poison no matter how tempting it looks!
February 25th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Most of the comments made good points but I’m going to take this one step POWER.
We will agree that most if not all the video are shown on TV right? MTV, VH1, and BET is owned by viacomm. Viacomm president has be critizise in the past for making Joe Biden -ness comments in the NY POST.Refering Black people to be rarely smart people.And most rappers are signed to Jive, Vigin, and other major companies owned by white people.These companies continued to put “dumb down” music to keep black at a certain level. Thank God for Kanye
There are pleny of blamed to go around and it starts at the top. With the CEO’S
Studio Exes – For not anybody with diffrent views out there
Rappers- Not being leaders (ex lupe, kanye and few others)
And just concentrating on Money, hoes and cars.
Combined with some god awful lyrics.
Customers who continues to by this form of hip hop.
Wanna be Actors and Video Vixen- Who want to be actors and figure they need to get expose by shaking your ass. Nobody
is going to take you serious as an actress if your shaking your ass or expose most of your skin unless you going for porn.
Hip Hop is not poison just certain aspects and forms of hip hop. I think Paula did us a favor by exposing the bad side of hip hop, Hopefully it will make a difference
February 25th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I think it’s wrong to blame the rappers that raps about thing like that, they just stupide. The big problem is the audience, radio stations, tv-stations and so on cuz they play the garbage. And only the garbage! It’s no balance in hip-hop today!
February 25th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Every time is the same ohh story,they attacking hip hop again.why they never toke about Rock music,are metal,are pop music.I know they hip hop now is all about money and cars ,But there are still rappers out there how is positief 4 this music.But one thing is 4so Hip hop will never die.One love
February 25th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
wow, so before i read the comments, i voted it as an art…but now i realized we’re talking about hip hop right now…..see guys, when you analyze this whole genre, you have to udnerstand that there are two sides to this…hip hop and rap…i believe rap is whats put out these days…the garbage that is floating amidst the main’stream’…there are perfectly good artists out there today that portray a positive vibe, you know? like lupe! but they get shunned by the industry since theyre going against the predominant current of derogitory rap. hipe hop is an art my people…hip hop is a social movement, a collection of feelings, a method of change…and many things encompass hip hop (i.e. bboying, grafitti, mc’ing, dj’ing)…i will not lie though, its fun to dance to some of these “snapping” songs, but when you stop and look at it from an objective point of view, you realize that sex and materialism is the foundation! people, wake up! Are we no more than robots who like to fuck and ‘throw d’s’ on our cars? What happened to knowledge is power? what happened to caring about our fellow man? I for one am glad that all these media outlets are criticizing hip hop…it’s causing us, the hip hop community, to stand on the defense for OUR music…this is an opportunity for us to realize where we went wrong and try to change it….i can feel something monumental coming in the world of hip hop…maybe a revolution, and since we have these idiotic media companies flocking to the outlash against hip hop, this revolution WILL be televised….and radio’ized, and bittorrent’ized, and even realtalkny’ized…
i should be typing up a paper right now but i got sidetracked and saw this post…fuck it, im gonna go hit a blunt and think about the love of my life, hip hop…peace
February 26th, 2007 at 4:22 am
I posed this question on my Myspace page last week. Hip hop is supposed to be a reflection of urban life, at least that’s what it started as…..to people that have lost their identity from the past years of hate, I think we have embraced it as a way of life instead of the way life is. Art is no longer imitating life but life is now imitating art. It shows when a rapper raps about something and folks go out to buy it or imitate it. They keep saying Hip Hop is a culture..no it’s not, it’s a product of the BLACK CULTURE.
February 26th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
the whole blame is misplaced. hiphop is the scapegoat that gets the blame. the news reprots can’t attack the labels that puts the music out, so they attack hiphop. yes the music has the minds of the youth, yes it is violent, homophobic,and sexis, but who puts this type of stuff out? and who do they market this towards? and its b.s. for these people to talk about hiphop. you mean to tell me bush is fucking up, people are still homeless cause of katrina, soldiers are still dying and all these peolpe can talk about is hiphop. these people need to focus on the real issues.
March 7th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
maybe im out of line or just seeing from a different point of view, but i dont believe hip hop is posion. i believe those who let it take control and take it to heart are being posion. but we still have to remember that not all of it is real. i think if your mature enough you should listin to rap. if your mature enough to know that it is just music and nothing all. people shouldn’t follow it like its the bible, but more of another mans story or someone venting because they had a horrible day. maybe like eminmem and 50 cent said we should just lose the parental label because this is grown folks music. and the last thing i want to say is that rap is the music and hip hop is the culture. break dancing, dancing, clothing line, and the language is part of that posion. so i think that people should take in to consideration too.