Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Hip Hop Controversies

Dr. Tricia Rose is a professor of Africana Studies and specializes in 20th century African-American culture and history.  She is dedicated to her work and is very passionate about what she studies and teaches others.  She has a list of books that she has written, including Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America and The Hip Hop Wars, where she tells her readers about her views about hip hop culture and how it has changed over time.


While reading about Dr. Rose and her thoughts about hip hop and black culture, it made me think of the Cinderella Ate My Daughter article because of the way the authors talk about the impact that media has on our lives, especially the youth.  I found Rose's thoughts and views about hip hop culture very interesting because I have never thought of the controversies this way.


Rose stresses that between race and gender, popular culture is what we share and what we have most in common.  She states that we think that we know each other's cultures through popular culture.  In the Time magazine article, she discusses her book's meanings and tells us about black culture.  She points out that the sexual deviance and violence that rappers write about in their music "defines" black culture.  I found this interesting and also realized how much people in our society today stereo type black culture based on music and who sings/raps it.  Today, hip hop music is about killing people and disrespecting women, which gives black culture a bad name.  I found it interesting when Dr. Rose told us about hip hop from the past, and how it used to be about politics and trying to change society for the better.  I wonder what made it change so drastically.


3 comments:

  1. Jen, i liked your connection to the reading, Cinderella at my daughter, i didnt really think of the connection until you mentioned it. i agree that media has a huge image on our every day lives, especially in media.

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  2. especially in hip hop culture *

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  3. i really loved the last part of your blog and what you wrote about how we think we all know each other through popular culture. i find myself guilty of this without even realizing it.

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