Hip-Hop and Media

In my opinion Hip-Hop can be defined in different categories. Hip-Hop music is rap combined with a rhythmic beat, typically a beat one can dance to. Hip-Hop culture is what you see and hear on music videos and song lyrics. This culture typically involves, money, cars, partying, drugs, alcohol, killing and sex.

The five Hip-Hop videos I picked out were all songs on my ipod. I know these songs but have not seen their music videos. In my opinion these songs seemed to describe the Hip-Hop culture very well.

1. Dat Baby by Shawty Putt (feat. Lil Jon and Too $short)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywSr5AdEM8c

2. Got Money by Lil Wayne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtZF-Mxv2I&feature=PlayList&p=042F67F750A1E489&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=18

3. I'm on a Boat by Incredibad (feat. Akon)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU

4. Make Way by Birdman (feat. Lil Wayne and Fat Joe)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-wNNC2iico

5. The Boss - Rick Ross (Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTOEV6f7jB4]

The two main Hip-Hop and R&B stations in Oklahoma are Power 103.5 and Wild 104.9. The two most common advertisements on 103.5 were Subway sandwiches and the Harlem Renaissance exhibit at the OKC Art Museum. The two most common advertisements on 104.9 were Riverwind Casino and Mark Heitz Chevrolet.

Hip-Hop has made an influence all throughout media. MTV has a lot of shows that are highly influenced by the Hip-Hop image including From G's to Gents, MTV Cribs and College Life. A lot of Comedy Central shows have been influenced by the Hip-Hop Culture as well. Shows such as The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with John Stewart and Reno 911 have all used hip-hop culture to bring satire to their programs.

The main thing that Hip-Hop has contributed to mainstream culture is vocabulary. Hip-Hop has developed its own vocabulary some of which has become fairly main stream. A couple of examples would be "Ice" which means some jewelry, "Whip" meaning car, "Shawty" meaning girl or girlfriend, "Boo" meaning significant other, and "Stacks" meaning a lot of money. On top of vocabulary Hip-Hop is also responsible for setting a lot of trends such as large rims on cars and high end stereo "systems" in cars.

At my age My parents only listened to Rock & Roll. Both of them grew up in the 60s and 70s and Rock was by far the most popular genre of the time. Both of them pretty much listened to the same music: The Beatles, The Eagles, Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton and Wings. During that time a lot of music had a lot to do with the same thing Hip-Hop represents today such as: sex, drugs and alcohol. Some songs also dealt with love which today R&B deals with that today.

On a personal level, I enjoy listening to Hip-Hop, Rap and R&B. Growing up I listened to the Cronic Album by Dr. Dre and also really liked the Bad Boys 10 year anniversary CD. Now I mainly listen to Lil Wanye, I think he has revolutionized Hip-Hop and will continue to dominate record sales. Although I enjoy listening to Hip-Hop I do not necessarily agree with the lifestyle associated with it. Rap is a genre that takes a lot of heat for what lyrics are talking about but at the same time the artists aren't telling their listeners to do what they talk about in their songs. This is a lot like what was going on when my parents were my age, a lot of songs talked about reckless lift styles and as a result many people chose to follow those lifestyles. What people tend to ignore is that those lifestyles are a choice made by the person fulfilling them.

The Hip-Hop industry is also an industry dominated by black artists. Very few non blacks have broken into the industry putting the consequences of the Hip-Hop lifestyle on the black race as a whole. On the other hand there have been a few white Hip-Hop artists break into the industry (Vanilla Ice, Eminem and Increadibad) as well as a good number of Latin artists (Fat Joe, etc...). One of my video examples was a video featuring a white rap group and another was by Fat Joe.

Finally, I have found that Native American are now attempting to break into the industry. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=122422599

Race and Gender Imagery in Advertising

When I started this assignment, I began watching television stations that I tend to watch the most.  These channels consist of ESPN, FX, Fox, Comedy Central and TBS.  These are pretty much the channels I surf no matter what.  I originally thought I would be able to watch TV for an hour or so and notice diversity throughout the commercials.  This was completely false, I last there for about a half an hour and found absolutely no noticeable diversity in any of them.  I finally started looking closer and found that minority especially black people were not well represented in most commercials and in the commercials that they were represented they were usually upholding some kind of stereotype.  

10 Example Commercials:

1. SoBe involved more African Americans than Caucasian people in its 2009 Super Bowl commercial.  (the men featured in this commercial were professional athletes)

 2. Jello commercials featured Bill Cosby for years.

 3. McDonald’s Cha Cha Slide commercial featured a black family

 4. McDonald’s has commercials about the McDonald’s Latino youth leader of the month which features an all Latino Commercial

 5. Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial featured a black mother and daughter eating at KFC

 6. Lexus IS Commercials only feature Caucasian people

 7. Little Caesar’s Hot’n’Ready Pizza showed all white people and only one Black man who was in the back cooking the pizza (subservient to white people)

 8. Listerine commercial features a white black and Asian person

 9. DSW shoes commercial is very diverse featuring a wide range of different races

 10. Popeye’s Chicken features an African Americana women as the main focus of the commercial

The first commercial that had substantial minorities was a SoBe commercial and every person in that commercial was a professional football player upholding the stereotype that most African Americans are superior athletes.

The second commercial was actually replayed on the TV Show "Family Guy."  This TV show referred to the age old Jello commercials that featured Bill Cosby.  Although these commercials featured a an African American it is noticed that he's a famous icon and non-famous African Americans are generally featured in a long time commercial series as Cosby was in the Jello commercials.

The third commercial was a McDonald's commercial that featured a black family eating fast food while eating it to the beat of the Cha Cha Slide song which, is a rap song.  This is a stereotype in the fact that most African Americans are featured in rap as well as fast food commercials.

The fourth commercial was played during the Jeff Capel show and it was the McDonald's Latino youth leader of the month.  This commercial is a local commercial that features a different Latino Student each month.

The fifth commercial was a KFC commercial that featured a black mother and daughter enjoying KFC.  This meets the stereotype that the black community enjoy fried chicken more then other races and upholds the belief that African Americans are featured mainly in fast food commercials.

The sixth commercial was a Lexus commercial.  I particularly noticed that the Lexus IS commercials never once featured a race other than Caucasian.  With this being a luxury car this upholds the stereotype that Caucasians are the only race that can afford this vehicle.

The seventh commercial was a Little Caesar's commercial that featured all white people except a black man was barely noticeable in the background cooking the pizza.  This upholds the stereotype that African Americans are generally featured as subservient to white people.

The eighth commercial was a Listerine commercial that was the most diverse commercial that I witnessed.  It featured Caucasian, African American, and Asian people equally.

The ninth commercial was a DWS shoes which was also very diverse.  It featured a wide range of women ranging in race and ethnicity.  Although this was very diverse, Caucasian women were featured more often than other races.

The tenth commercial was a Popeye's commercial featuring a black women working at Popeye's.  This displays that black people work mainly at fast food restaurants, and also it upholds the stereotype that the black community enjoys fried chicken.

These commercials were just the commercials that stood out to me when monitoring race.  The commercials that did not however featured only white actors and actresses.  This goes to support the claim that minorities have had a hard time breaking into the commercial world and when they do they generally support some kind of stereotype.  Although these commercials may seem extreme and the fact that minorities are rarely seen in commercials this may have to do with the channels I tend to view the most.  Regardless, the lack of diversity in advertisements was very noticeable and catered the the Caucasian community.