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David Ruiz
english 3
essay first draft
Debating hip hop
Since the up rise in New York around the late 70’s,the musical genre “Hip Hop”
has caught people's ears all around the world and has grown to be one of the most
popular music cultures ever to exist. It has impacted the way people act, dress, and
even talk! It started off as an artistic culture where kids could show their creativity by the
five different stylistic elements of hip hop (Mcing,DJing,Graffiti
Writing,Breakdancing,beatboxing). But due to violence, money, and drugs hip hop has
turned from a creative culture to a bad influence on todays society.
Hip hop has made a bad influence on todays youth by certain lyrics that are
chosen by rappers. Modern “Gangster Rappers” use a lot of drug use in their lyrics. For
example in a famous rap song from the artist’s YG & Meek Mill there is a line that says
“Cocaine-selling two time felon Y'all n**** telling, f*** around we crack your melon all this
kush I be inhaling” (Meek Mill, “I’m a thug”). This really shows how a lot of mainstream
artists use profanities and suggest drug use in their music. In addition with all drugs
comes violence. That is why most mainstream rap lyrics usually involve a rapper talking
about how he has or wants to hurt an enemy. The most popular hip hop artist of this era
by the name of “Lil wayne,” was sentenced to a year in prison for gun possession. Long
before this was caught for this he had a song called “Gun walk”. In this song he uses
the following lyrics: “I'm strapped up, n**** f*** a gun law. See me walking with a limp,
that's my gun walk don't do
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no arguing', I let the gun talk. I'm strapped up, n**** f*** gun law,”These lyrics
show how this specific artist is rebeling by carrying a gun. Its also pretty funny because
most of the music that is played on the radio or songs that are popular for teens have
these lyrics.
In addition to that artists are extremely disrespectful to females. They use
language that is often offensive to women. One word that has been spread throughout
all of gangster rap is the word “HO”. This specific word describes women in a very
sexual and disrespectful way. It helps the artist seem more tough because they have
females, money and, expensive cars. On the other end,gangster rap artist's can argue
that they are just rapping about what they are going through. They are just expressing
what they are going through every single day just in a different way.
If the hip hop culture was the same as it was in the mid 70’s and 80’s, it wouldn't
be looked upon as such a bad thing. When hip hop was first started it was used as a
getaway for kids in the low income areas of new york to express themselves creatively.
It was a positive movement for kids to get away from all of the violence and drugs in
their 0n2eighborhoods. This shows how hip hop was meant to be a positive movement
before mainstream society exposed people to gangster rap. When they saw that teens
were liking this new movement they played it even more and more. This has lead to kids
looking up to their favorite gangster rap stars and making bad decisions. For example
there is a term that is used amongst todays generation, this is the word “yolo”. This
phrase abbreviates the words “you only live once”. This song motivates kids to make
bad decisions because of the
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fact that you only live once. Let me also include that it reached No. 1 on the U.S Rap
chart. (wikipedia the motto article). These make songs like this only because they want
to have a big hit and be famous.
Hip hop is no longer the same because of the newer gangster mainstream rap,
but it is not completely dead yet. There is still underground artist who know the true
culture of hip hop and want to keep it alive. They do this by expressing themselves just
like the artist who started hip hop during the 70’s in New York. These Mc’s use positive
encouraging lyrics that is good for the soul. They don't do it for money cares or any of
that BS that is played on the radio. They do it for the love of hip hop. It would be great if
this was all just a faze for this era and in the next one hip hop would be the same
stylistic culture that it was born to be.
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Works Cited
"Drake – The Motto Lyrics." Rap Genius. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2013.
""Gunwalk" Lyrics." LIL' WAYNE LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2013.
"Hip-Hop: The "Rapper's Delight"" Hip-Hop: The "Rapper's Delight" N.p., 05 Aug.
2008. Web. 08 May 2013.
"History of Hip-hop Style." History of Hip-hop. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2013.
""Im A Thug" Lyrics." YG LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2013.
Katel, Peter. "Debating Hip Hop." (n.d.): n. pag. Print.