What is the message of
HIP HOP
Hip hop’s many
different faces
• What are the stereotypes of Hip Hop
artists according to you???
• What comes to your mind when you hear
Hip Hop??
• Is it positive, negative, none..
• Do you listen to hip hop?
BLACK STEREOTYPES:
Athletes
Different clothes=>brands : Sean John, FUBU, expensive,
jewelry
Different dialect + accent
Loud
Gold teeth
•
4 main elements
of Hip hop culture
are
• MCing = rapping
• DJing
• Graffiti
• Breakdancing
=
b-boying
• Further elements
beatboxing,
fashion, slang, …
• Hip-hop emerged in
the late 1970s and
early '80s from South
Bronx (section of NY).
• BY Afrika
Bambaataa, DJ and
community leader from
the South Bronx,
Caribbean orig.
• DJ Kool Herc:
Jamaican origin (funk
music -> jazz origin)
• Grandmaster Flash
and the Furious Five
Fuses classical,
jazz
and folk music
many different
cultures and
musical styles
Hip hop created …………..
•
•
•
artistic expression designed to
cope with: urban frustrations and
conditions=dealt with the problems
of contemporary urban life = has
stayed within this tradition by
actively addressing the role of
anger and violence.
Question: how can one refuse HH
for its violence, since the violence
is only a reflection of someone’s
life=>
HH created an open dialog to
society, dialog about issues
concerning AA community and
its reality
• “CNN of the Black
community”
Hip Hop addresses:
• HH: address racism,
education, sexism, drug use,
and spiritual uplift, social
conditions=> social criticism
• Hip-hop criticism: primarily
focused on the music's negative
and antisocial characteristics,
slang, clothing, often connected
with violence, drug abuse,
objectifying women, or even
misogyny
leaves out hip-hop’s side
Hip Hop and anger
Black Arts literary critic Addison
Gayle, Jr.,
notes that Black art has
always been rooted in
the anger felt by AfricanAmericans, and hip-hop
culture has remained true
to many of the
convictions and aesthetic
criteria that evolved out of
the Black Arts Movement
of the '60s, including
calls for social
relevance, originality,
and a focused
dedication to produce
art that challenges
American mainstream
artistic expression.
Historical events= examples of
Black frustration and rage:
for example, the Los Angeles riots of
1992 and the riots that followed the
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King
in 1968. “
. . . anger-raw and unhollywoodishis what we are talking
about," writes Haki Madhubuti.
"Anger for unfulfilled promises,
anger
toward legislators who back
stepped
on policies decided, passed and not
implemented, anger pouring
undiluted
toward a rulership that feeds on
greed
and exploitation and views Black
people
as enemies or as necessary
burdens
to be thrown crumbs like animals in
their latest theme park"
Dave Chappelle
“ANGRY THROUGHOUT HISTORY”
Poem ~ Hip Hop
We want "poems that kill."
Assassin poems, Poems that
shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops
into
alleys
and take their weapons leaving
them
dead
with tongues pulled out and sent
Let there be no love poems
written
until love can exist freely and
cleanly.
(Written by Amiri Baraka)
Dilemma
• Main question: how should HH
deal (reflection of minority)
function in capitalist
environment , should it
produce for mainstream
audiences, conserve its
aesthetics criteria
• the Harlem Renaissance:
Can one's art go unaffected by
commercial considerations,
and are the effects of
commercialism necessarily
negative?
Effects of commercialism
•
•
Positive: music reached wider audiences,
other minority groups, middle-class whites,
wider impact on society=>gets to know about
issues AA community must face
Negative:
– wants to appeal to white culture=>AA
cultural values lost
– commercial concern damaged: HH’s
aesthetics, political, racial, and
social consciousness lost, reinforcement
of negative stereotypes, many artists
worried commercialism will destroy the
genre
POP?
– Busta Rhymes worded:
“…What happened to creativity, dignity,
integrity. . .Understand that word and how
you
use it, rap is business music, hip
hop is cultural music. “
•
Ex.: Duke Ellington (famous Jazz composer,
pianist, etc) didn’t receive the Pulitzer Prize,
artists suggest for DE to receive PP, he would
have to compromise in his artistic performance
His reaction at 67 years old: "Fate is being kind
to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too
young."
=>GAP: growing btw. “real”/ underground
• “Should we really be concerned about
recognition from a society that
oppresses us, exploits us . . . ?
Recognition from dominant white society
should not be the primary aim of
the black artist. He must decide that
his art belongs to his own people. This
is not to deny that there are some
"universal"
factors at work; but we are living
in a specific place, at a specific
time, and are a specific set of people
with a specific historical development.”
Understand that rap is rebellious
music
therefore only the rebels should use it
the pop artists abuse it
when the audience hears real rap
they boo it
see rap music is a culture and
every one outside that culture is a
vulture
the vulture makes money on the
culture…
("How Not to Get Jerked)
“Don't wait for your company's promotion staff
promote yourself with your own cash
but this might mean ya' can't buy gold
ya' might have to put that on hold”
("How Not to Get Jerked")
• Solution for many artists=
create own independent
(of white)
institutions=>aesthetic +
economic independence;
nowadays=underground
HH
• NOTE: Something Cornel
West would propose;
greatly encourages the
same for Black academy
•
Third view: art cannot exist for its own
sake, it has always been and is a reflection
of the conditions from which it arrives,
should be relevant to its present conditions
“Poems are bullshit unless they are
teeth or trees or lemons piled
on a step. Or black ladies dying
of men leaving qickel hearts
beating them down..”
•
Hard to answer, even during Black Arts
Mvm. many views, looking for framework,
definitions=>defining it also means limiting it
All views: agree art should function to
better the condition of African-Americans
•
4view: The hip-hop trio De La Soul "It might
blow up (succeed), but it won't go pop." =>
they might reach the same level of success
within their community, but not sale on
mass level, pop culture level
•
One of its members claims: "mending,
bending, compromising any of my style to
gain a smile.“
•
Many real HH against this “Hip Pop!,”
Hip hop and SLANG:
in particular the word “Nigger”
• Probably the most powerful and controversial word in
today’s American English+ society, can be viewed as
offensive, as well as a term of endearment. It is both
hated and admired. The term “Nigger” has been
declared illegal to say or write. It is being cut out of
many songs, video clips and speeches that are
broadcasted by television or radio programs.
• Its frequent employment by both Black + White
community is the core of the great controversy
• It is one of the major issues of American “political
correctness” world, referred to as the “N-word”
same as HH
•
Dilemma: should everyone be allowed to use the term, or just some people.
Some say that the word “Nigger” acquires either positive, or negative meaning
in relation to whether a Black, or a White person employs it, i.e. if Blacks use
the term “Nigger” = “ok,”, if Whites= racist.
• Black use: Some Blacks hold really tight on the word
“Nigger” as they consider it as something their own,
something that only belongs to them; their voice, emotions,
power, social standing, personal expression…all what they
had to battle and undergo is transformed and
accomplished by the word, yet only when used by them.
• Others argue that the term “Nigger” can be used by anyone, no
matter what color is their skin. They view it that it simply depends
on the intention with which the term is used; therefore, the context
is the final factor that determines either its the positive, or the
negative connotation.
• Also: since the Blacks designate each other with it, that it can not
be a racial insult.
• How do people outside AA know Blacks use it=>hear it in music
• That’s one of the negative images of HH, its frequent employment
of this term=> its effect on today’s language =>common
appearance of the term among people
• But because of the process
this word has undergone
through out the history, it
carries a stigma that will never
leave it just a simple, plain
word. It is impossible to destigmatize it; therefore, it
should not be used by
anyone, whether black or
white.
• Many Blacks (and Whites-not
hurt) are very angry at the
youth for using it;
• correlates with terms; slave,
servant, inferiority, racism,
white supremacy… it reflects
their humiliation, white
prejudice, racism, self-hatred,
ignorance…even more, their
conformity to the white,
mainstream culture.
• In reaction to the “political
correctness,” “the N-Word” created
• During last February (Black
History Month): NY city
councilman Leroy Comrie (AA)
symbolically banned the “N-word”;
mostly aimed at the hip hop
community and the
entertainment industry; such a
declaration of a “symbolic
moratorium” on this term carries no
weight in law
Hip-hop, rap: a positive term
•
•
•
Black hip hop / rap artists and young,
namely male members of the AA
community.
Their point of view: term has already
undergone its alteration and therefore,
it has (when used by them) an
affirmative context in which it
symbolizes brotherhood, same as if
they were saying “brother,” “bro,”
“dude,” “hey man,” etc.
They can express the most racist
thought through it, as well as give it
the most loveable aspect. According to
the context in which they use it,
especially in songs or among each
other, it seems as they wish to “destigmatize” it, to turn it into something
positive.
•
•
•
•
Others: find it ridiculous as it
catches even more attention
There is not such a word as the Nword
Funny: The American server
RollingStone has already been
making fun of such a resolution,
and did not forget to emphasize
the vanity of such a measure,
especially in a city, where “hip hop
was born.” The image of the hip
hoppers new way of greeting: “Hi,
how are you, a person of an
African, or Caribbean origins,”
is indeed very funny.” 
“violation of the 1st Amendment”,
“banning words, for any reason, is
the first step in legalized
government censorship.”
DO YOU USE THIS TERM, IN WHAT SENSE? DO U
HAVE ITS EQIVALENT IN YR. LANGUAGE?
•
•
•
My research for BA thesis: CZ HH,
frequent employment of the term
“nigger,” always in positive
connotation, they even created a
Czech version “Negr,” “Negrice.” The
love Black music, visible in their
lifestyles: clothes, language, attitudes:
no racism detected among them
(Gypsies are another story)..=>result:
Hip Hop connects people worldwide
and those who otherwise would not get
to know AA, they learn about their
culture =>even more the message of
HH should be positive?
Czechs most the time don’t understand
it, love the music, if anything=>are
motivated to study English
(and date Black guys:)
• The X axis reveals with the terms that correspond with
the numbers in this order: 1= Negro, 2= Nigger, 3=
Colored, 4=Black, 5= African American.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• What is the message, the result?
Its impact worldwide, HH culture = mainstream culture in Czech too and
what about in your countries??
Real hiphop stays true to battles, freestyling, spontaneous
performance, life audience in clubs=>those are the real judges, not
white public masses which are detached from AA life
Real HH= reflection of AA oral tradition
HH as misunderstood today as jazz in its emergence
Should Hip Hop be art, which escapes from realities of daily life vs.
reflection of them?
Hip Hop mainly funded by white America
Hip Hop is by many referred to the aftermath of the Civil Rights Era
Others say talkin' loud and ain't sayin' nothin‘
Misogyny, one of most important controversial issues: Black community is
very angry about this => break down of AA families, many AA women trying
to fight this
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Songs today more relevant to youth
than MLK’s “I have a dream,” are the
songs gonna be remembered in
couple of years?
HH reflects philosophies of Marcus
Garvey, MLK, Malcolm X & other
significant AA leaders
Even Cornel West cooperates with HH
artists nowadays;)
Definitely the most visible item from AA
culture
HH community, very diverse=> many
hip hop “wannabees”, white guys
pretending to be Black => ALI G
Blacks arguing hip hop is only
theirs=>yet USA so diverse, hard to
define who is what 
• DAVE CHAPPELLE : RACIAL
DRAFT
Argument: White people can’t make
music and dance
DAVE CHAPPELLE : WHITE PEOPLE
CAN’T DANCE
Bibliography
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Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female
Identity via Rap Music Performance
Cheryl L. Keyes The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 113, No. 449.
(Summer, 2000), pp. 255-269.
Hiphoprisy (in Conversations)
Ishmael Reed; Michael Franti; Bill Adler
Niggas with Beatitude (in Conversations)
Joseph Simmons; Daryl McDaniels; Amy Linden
Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What about the Message?
Rachel E. Sullivan
Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 33, No. 5. (May, 2003), pp. 605-622.
The Black Arts Movement and Hip-Hop (in Popular Music)
Marvin J. Gladney, African American Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, Special
Issues on The Music. (Summer, 1995), pp. 291-301.
• Hip Hop versus Civil Rights? (in Essay Review)
The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the
Reign of Hip Hop Todd Boyd Review author[s]: Derrick
P. Alridge The Journal of African American History, Vol.
88, No. 3. (Summer, 2003), pp. 313-316.
• Can Hip-Hop Be the New Driving Force behind
Increased Racial Integration? (in News and Views)
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 38.
(Winter, 2002-2003), pp. 64-67.
• Slouching toward Bork: The Culture Wars and SelfCriticism in Hip-Hop Music
Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30,
No. 2. (Nov., 1999), pp. 164-183.
+ 3 personal videos by DAVE CHAPPELLE 