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.

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