In the south region of the United States, Atlanta Georgia preferably, has been at the top of hip hop music production for the last decade. Several artists had used dance and dance instruction in combination with their lyrics to carry, and to have a concept of masculinities. Body movements works hand in hand with lyrics in the expression of masculinities, another commonly held misconception is that Black masculinity is a singular concept. Masculinities are communicated through hip-hop dance and are a non-verbal language. Black male rappers attempt to create personas where they are in control and money is pass to freedom, for many years black males have been frequently positioned as victims in southern history of emasculation lynching, violence, involuntary servitude and underemployment. The cultural traditions in the south have been able to sustain themselves for generations regardless of how the other regions of the country have had their traditions weakened by influence of popular culture. …show more content…
Both song lyrics and kinesic movements are put in social and historical context, as Black masculinities are removed and deliberated on. The hip-hop dances in the south are done homosocially, which can also be linked to rhythmic movements and songs that were done on Georgia chains gangs and as well as step-ping and/or blocking by fraternities and sororities. These movement are uniquely southern, but they also come out of the experiences of the Black males in Atlanta,
Ernest Papanek, a psychologist and the director of the Wiltwyck School for deprived and emotionally disturbed boys, as the author playfully expresses “probably the smartest and the deepest cat I had ever met” (Brown 1965). A child that has seen the struggles of his parents and grandparents, having traveled from the newly freed south to this so called promised land of New Your City. Was this bad kid just trying to reinvigorate the masculinity stolen from the ancestors on the journey here. A subject not ignored by the modern day African American entertainment community. In a dissertation aimed to highlight how rappers or entertainers posture themselves to project a strong, assertive, masculine image.
Hip hop has a message that reveals the social inequalities of our nations. In addition, McBride wants people to keep an open mind about hip hop and new thing that they may not be used to. In conclusion, he declares hip
Rather than a single standard of masculinity to which all men and boys are taught to aspire to, studies have documented a variety of masculinity that define manhood differently across racial , ethnic, class, sexual , and regional boundaries.(Kathleen Blee) In this quote the author states that due to intersectional differences, different racial groups of men might have different definitions on what it means to be masculine and what it means to perform masculinity. Gender roles are also modified by life experiences over time across racial groups. In the next images I presented are all images of my guy friends and cousins. More specifically they are all images of African American males in my life choosing to participate in gender and masculinity.
Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.
In her essay “hip hop’s betrayal of black women,” Jennifer McLune implies that “(h)ip-hop owes its success to the ideology of women-hating” (193). She does not agree with Kevin Powell’s article that hip-hop does not mean to “offend” black women, but instead artists are only letting out their temper throughout their music. McLune feels infuriated that many artists in hip hop (including black men) rap about their community and downgrade their own women. In the hip-hop genre, sexism is mainly used, not only by black men but also by many other race hip-hop artists. Artists assume that women-hating in their rap songs will be accepted by women, but do not realize that it is affecting all women.
Hip Hop is seen as something inspiring, but most people see it as a way to speak out the truth about a problem. As in “Hip Hop planet” being able say the truth can sometimes worsen any situation because sometimes what we say can promote violence and whatever happens after is not in our control. The essay is about how hip hop has changed into speaking out the issues that need to be taken care of in order to maintain a proper society. McBride talked about how rappers use violent lyrics to degrade women and gays and because of this it shows how the music has evolved into something entirely different that no one would have ever expected to have changed. In James McBride's essay “Hip Hop Planet,” he argues that hip hop has a negative influence on American Culture despite people thinking of it as inspirational and how people live through different experiences in life despite of your race.
The block parties, graffiti art, rapping, disc jockeying and diverse forms of dancing built Hip Hop by the black youth. They expressed their feelings, thoughts, but most importantly the problems they had to face, which were related to their race, gender and social positions. The rights that were given to black people during and after the Civil Rights Movement left the following generations at a lack of how to continue the fight for black rights. Hip Hop gave them this platform and with the usage of black nationalism, Hip Hop can explore the challenges that confront American-Americans in the post-Civil Rights Movement era. In the 1990’s Hip Hop lived its prime, sub genres started to appear and famous groups, MCs led the whole community, providing a voice to a group of people trying to deliver their message.
A cultural movement that defines hip-hop as "a collective term for black American urban art forms that emerged in the late 1970s; it is also applied specifically to a style of music that uses spoken rhyme (rap) over a rhythmic background mainly characterized by the manipulation of pre-existing recordings. " It is of interest to point out right away that this musical style originated in the United States. The key features of this musical style, as articulated by (Grove Online Dictionary of Music), include spoken rhyme (rap) and a rhythmic background. These broad characteristics can certainly be found in hip-hop music in Kenya. Where Kenyan hip-hop music is different than hip-hop music found in the U.S. is in smaller stylistic points.
Have you ever thought about how the hip-hop culture affects the society? The negative influence of Hip-hop on society. Hip-hop culture has been identified by the lifestyles of many. Hip-hop encouraged violence throughout society.
It 's being portrayed that being a man equals violence, poorness, being from the hood, can not be a sucker or you 're going to be tested, have your game face all the time, showing no emotion, and when they pick up a microphone they are a totally different person than who they really are. It was once said, ¨We teach boys to be afraid of fear, of weakness, of vulnerability. We teach them to mask their true selves, because they have to be a hard man. ¨Men want to have so much power, but they don 't have any power at all. The hip hop artist just has physical power over their body and how they display themselves, so they dress certain ways to get respect to feel powerful which also is hypermasculinity.
Nowadays, everyone wears the identity with pride. The genre was a testament to triumphing over hardships, to having enough confidence in oneself not to let the world drag you down, and to rising above the struggle, even when things seem hopeless. Violence in rap did not begin as an affective agent that threatened to harm America 's youth; rather, it was the outcry of an already-existing problem from youth whose world views have been shaped by the inequalities and prejudice they have experienced. The relentless wave of heroic new rappers arriving on the scene formed the golden age of hip hop in the 1980s, a newfound voice which rose from the impoverished ghettos during the 1980s and inspiring a generation of black youth to fight the police brutality they faced on a daily basis.
It has also shaped trends and fashion. Rap has also helped to portray black masculinity in many diffrent ways, from expressing strength, survival, and empowerment including the negatives of hypermasculinity emphasizing dominance and objectifying women. and supporting harmful stereotypes that contribute to the marginalization of women. While rap has a big positive impact on black likes, it also has many negatives.
Williams argues that hip hop is “detrimental” to the black culture. He believes kids growing up in the hood assume that they have to meet the stereo type mentioned in hip hop. This is the music they listen to when growing up leading them to believe that should be their way of life. Anybody who acts different is “acting white” because they are not following the typical black culture stereotype. (Williams)
Some of the main cores of Beat Street are the music, dancing, and graffiti art works – all of which are part of hip-hop culture. Scholars note that hip-hop as a movement originated in roots from African American traditions and are mainly used to express their culture as well as identity (Blanchard 24). Rap music, for example, comes from West Africa’s “nommo.” This idea refers to the power to deliver words to act upon objects and to bring it to life. The historical and traditional underpinning of rap, therefore, becomes representative of the rich and distinctive culture of African Americans.
The use of rhyme and rhythm has therefore been used to represent the plights of the black people The plights of the black people is seen to be stemming from slavery Hip-hop is largely seen a music genre pre-dominantly celebrated by the black people singing about the historical injustices as well as their fight for recognition, money and fame