Controversy_in_Hip_Hop_Subculture

Controversy in Hip Hop Subculture For the last ten years hip hop has state one as one of the most popular, and successful type of music here in the United States. Artists are successfully becoming rich in these short amounts of time as being a result of selling millions of copies of their albums. The music of hip hop has been a controversial topic for many years because of its offensive lyrics, and influence of violence to the general public. Activists are fighting to pass a measure in congress that would possibly restrict rappers from using their negative lyrics. Their goal is to save the reputation of hip hop and stop the bad usage of curse words, and offensive messages to certain groups of people. People would not stop acting violent if censorship would be enforced to hip hop. Censorship is not the answer for solving the issue of violence in the society. The reason why hip hop is so popular is because the rappers are allowed their freedom of speech and express themselves in their songs the way they chose to. Some rappers write about the things that they experience for example being in the clubs, growing up in poor neighborhoods, spending money and of course women. This relates to how some teenagers or even adults live their lives and even if they do not live this life they get an outlook of what the lifestyle is like based on the lyrics that they hear. When it comes to women in the hip hop world there is a lot of controversy. Most people say that the way many rappers put these women in their videos is degrading to most women and shows that most men have no self-respect for them as individuals. As Hannah O’Connor stated, “Hip hop and the so-called gangsta rap sub-genre in particular is notorious for the exploitation of women and sexually explicit lyrics, there’s no doubt about it. Politician and anti-rap activist C. Delores Tucker called the genre "pornographic fifth," claiming that it was demeaning and offensive to African-American women.” Most women that are in these videos have no shame in showing off their body but this is where the question comes in about women having more respect for their selves. This is one of the controversies that may need more attention. “Some people, like John H. McWhorter in a 2003 article for City Journal, believe that hip-hop and rap music glorify violence, drug use and misogyny and influence listeners to commit crimes. Others, like rapper Xzibit, believe that hip-hop and rap music are merely a result of a tough, urban lifestyle and that artists are merely reflecting on the lifestyle they are forced to grow up in” (Glimore). This is not necessarily true hip hop and rap music does not influence its listeners to commit any type of crime. People can control their actions and what they do it is not the music that they listen to. If a person is easily persuaded to do something just because of what a song says then obviously they do not need to listen to any music at all because not just hip hop music is offensive music. In ways Xzibit is right because many rappers in today’s society just like the ones in the early beginning of hip hop rapped about their tough and hard lifestyle and what they all encountered coming up in the world. Drug use is another controversy in the hip hop subculture. In most of the rap songs that are made today you hear many rappers talk about their love for what they call “Mary Jane” which is another word for marijuana. “Admittedly the use of cannabis seems to be culturally accepted within the hip hop world (despite being an illegal substance in a vast majority of countries worldwide), as is explained in a 2006 XXL editorial by Byron Crawford, which called substance abuse "The new fourth element of hip-hop." In the genre’s lyricism, however, for just about every reference in favor drug abuse, there is one against” (Stweart). In many ways marijuana is used constantly in most of the songs rappers make today. Marijuana is glorified by many rappers even though it is wrong and shouldn’t be used it is still said that if other rappers can talk about it then others rappers should be able to voice their own opinion too. Violence is said to be the most common controversy in hip hop. Many say that the violent things that are being done today are coming from the music that is being listened to. This is not true at all hip hop has a less influence in encouraging people to act violently. It is clear to say that hip hop has a small percent roll in why people act violent. “Many overlook the powerful message of fighting oppression that such symbols represent. Critics are quick to recognize the word ‘gun’ in hip hop lyricism and seem to develop selective hearing with the messages that follow” (Malone & Martinez). People have their own minds and control what they do and how they act it is not necessarily the media that has anything to do with the amount of violence being done in today’s society. If the music and videos people watch today is that influencing then it along with many other music genres would be banned and prohibited. The controversy within the hip hop culture will always be there. There is always going to be something that is going to come up to make people think why is this music still being made and why are these rappers still rapping and talking about the same thing. The different controversies that goes on within the subculture is what makes it what it is today. If there were no controversy in subcultures then most subcultures would not be what they are today and still growing. When people are involved in a certain subculture they are going to put their all into it to see and make sure that that subculture grows. Subcultures are just like big families that will do whatever it takes to stay together no matter what. Works Cited Stewart, Jesse. "Real To Reel: Filmic Constructions Of Hip Hop Cultures And Hip Hop Identities." Interdisciplinary Humanities 26.2 (2009): 49-67. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. Malone, Christopher, and George Martinez. "The Organic Globalizer: The Political Development Of Hip-Hop And The Prospects For Global Transformation." New Political Science 32.4 (2010): 531-545. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. O’Connor, Hannah. “Controversy in Hip Hop: Misogyny, Violence, Weed & Hypersexuality.” Rap/Hip Hop Music. (2010).Web. 22 Mar. 2012