To date, we have discussed the four elements of Hip-hop,(MCing, DJing, Breaking and Graffiti)and their relationship to regional sounds of Hip-Hop music and culture. We have also began to link blackness as expressed by African Americans as having a specific tie to Hip-Hop culture. As you write about the key words BLACKNESS and HIP-HOP this week, think about the multiple ways that blackness is expressed in the music and culture of Hip-Hop in the United States. Some prompts to consider:
How do you recognize blackness in Hip-Hop if the person expressing it is not racially black and/or ethnically African American? What codes of cultural expression do you identify with Hip-Hop cultural production? Is blackness always a part of Hip-Hop?
Most people in America would tend to consider Hip-hop to be a “black” genre of music based on the history of hip-hop and how it was and still is today dominated by black artists. However you don’t have to be black to acquire “blackness” in hip-hop. According to Todd Boyd in the reading (Check yourself before you wreck yourself, Page 326) Vanilla Ice claimed to have “blackness” because of his association with African-Americans when he was growing up as a youth in poverty and along the same lines, Boyd talks about an all white rock group who claim that “blackness is a state of mind” because they felt oppression for being an Irish Catholic group in Europe which they claim is being the same as black in America. “Blackness” today doesn’t have the same effect on hip-hop as it did in the 80’s and 90’s. In today’s hip-hop, there are a wide range of artists who don’t use “black” terms in their music, just listen at what Asher Roth and Sam Adams are singing about. The lecture also pointed out that “blackness” was a main theme of hip-hop in the 70’s up until now. “Blackness” still has a huge role in most hip-hop artist’s lyrics today but it I feel like it is starting to lose popularity because it has been recycled by many hip-hop artists.
ReplyDeleteThe terms blackness and hip-hop for many go hand in hand. As mentioned in lecture, blackness is an expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and the African diaspora (Lecture 8/30). For many rappers, blackness seems like a proclamation that they must make to establish their identity. One interesting detail in the article “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self” is when Boyd mentions that white rapper Vanilla Ice and the white rap group Young Black Teenagers refer to themselves as black, not based on race but on the association they have with lower-class African Americans and a black “state of mind” (Forman & Neal, 326). This was interesting to me because in lecture when we talked about the fact that while some blacks may try to separate themselves from the collective “black” group and try to establish their own sense of self there are white artists taking on the identity of a black person. While blackness for some blacks provides a sense of pride and belonging, for others it seems like an obstacle which they desire to overcome and at the same time an identity desired by some whites. Either way, blackness can be seen in hip-hop across many aspects of the form from the language, style, and declared life experiences of the artists who construct it.
ReplyDeleteBlackness and Hip-hop are two terms that I have never thought of separately. I have always just thought that in order to have one, you had to have the other. Separating the two, we see that blackness is not just a color, it is an experience. Todd Boyd tells in “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self,” that white rapper Vanilla Ice encourages that he is identifying with blackness based on past class status, not race. He says that blackness is a state of mind (Forman and Neal 326). After thinking about this, I agree and am able to apply it to other artists, such as Eminem. He shows blackness through his language and the message he sends about his experience with his past social and economic class. I believe blackness in Hip-hop has always been open to other races, but is maybe just being seen now more than in the past. I am also realizing that not all Africa Americans in Hip-hop portray a state of blackness. Not all Hip-hop has to send a blackness tone and message When watching a Beyonce or Rihanna video, you can see their race, but when listening, you don’t sense a blackness background. Their work sends a different message of fun and sex appeal. Where as, the female rapper in “Re-Birth of Slick” by Digable Planets is showing a definite blackness in connection with Hip-hop. Beyonce and Rihanna are going for a more flirty Hip-hop sound. Hip-hop without blackness is growing in popularity, and the theme of diverse races having blackness in Hip-hop is becoming more accepted.
ReplyDeleteIn a simplistic way of viewing hip-hop, one would just automatically assume the term “blackness” went hand in hand with the music. After viewing the definition of “blackness” - “a sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and African Diaspora” (lecture 8/30), we can see why it’s so easy to assume the correspondence. So how is blackness identified when the artist isn’t racially black? Hip-hop was created to overcome ethnicity and racial differences (lecture 8/23), and in multiple senses it does. For instance, in this very scenario: blackness is found in hip-hop by various ethnicities through personal experiences of the artist(s). An example is provided by Todd Boyd, author of “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self,” “in other words, his (Vanilla Ice) class status made him “Black” (326). It is also important to note that “blackness” is not always a part of hip-hop. While 80’s and 90’s hip-hop contained more “blackness,” as seen in “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy, today’s hip-hop is definitely not the same. In many contemporary hip-hop songs, the message is about materialism—big houses, nice cars, picking up women, and popping bubbly.
ReplyDeleteMany people would be led to believe that Blackness is a direct correlation with African Americans. It turns out that Blackness is far more deep rooted in different parts of society. As pointed out in the lecture on 8/30, Blackness is a sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and/or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and the African Diaspora. Vanilla Ice claims that because he grew up in the midst of African American poverty and was once a victim of gang violence, and that because of where he grew up, his class status made him “Black” (Forman and Neal 326).
ReplyDeleteI think hip-hop is tied in with blackness through the way the lyrics are expressed. Rappers and Hip-Hop artists are proud of being Black, and often in their songs they will chant it. In Run-DMC’s song, “Proud to be Black,” the lyrics at the end of the song are “Ya know I’m proud to be black ya’ll, and that’s a fact ya’ll, now Harriet Tubman was born a slave, she was a tiny black woman when she was raised, she was livin to be givin, there’s a lot that she gave, there’s not a slave in this day and age, I’m proud to be black.” A lot of African Americans are proud of what they have overcome, but many still realize that the lower class status exists. I think this is a great song that gives a lyrical definition of what it is like living in the ghetto, or lower class living, and how hard it is to overcome the “jungle”: http://vodpod.com/watch/299618-lil-flip-ft-lyfe-jennings-ghetto-mindstate . Lil’ Flip ft. Lyfe Jennings – Ghetto Mindstate
Hip-hop would not exist without the defining characteristics of blackness. These characteristics, as defined in lecture, are expressions of social, economic, and political factors, material deprivation, social inequality, and police brutality (Lecture 8/30). Although the term “blackness” gives the allusion of only referring to racially black people, “blackness” is actually a term that describes how a person is raised. These experiences “endured by most ghetto poor communities… have given rise to a form of musical expression that captures the terms of ghetto poor existence” (Dyson 63). Eric Dyson is saying that the major subjects and ideas of hip-hop are coming out of urban environments. Artists, no matter their race, are drawing on their personal experiences to produce their music.
ReplyDeleteWhite hip-hop artist Eminem is a very successful musician. His songs, such as “Despicable,” draw from his past for inspiration. The fact that he is a white rapper does not hinder his abilities in the slightest. Using its definition, “blackness” can be applied to Eminem, for it is his life experiences that drive his music.
The “blackness” that was associated with hip-hop in its early years stemmed from roots in the Black Nationalist movement led by individuals such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael’s “black power”. Artists in early hip-hop embraced “black” to express themselves, from Run DMC with their Black Panther-esque outfits to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”. As discussed in class (8/30) blackness was considered the expression of the people of African descent and the Diaspora. Black doesn’t necessarily equal African-American. Caucasian rapper Vanilla Ice exemplifies this when he claimed he grew up in African-American poverty and was a victim of gang violence. “He was identifying with Blackness based not on his race but on the extent of his association with lower-class African-American existence. In other words, his class status made him “Black”…The all-white rap group Young Black Teenagers claimed that Blackness is “a state of mind” (Boyd,pg.326). In BlackStar’s “Astronomy” Talib Kweli rhymes:
ReplyDelete“Black like the perception, who on welfare
Black like the faces at the bottom of the well
I’ve been there before”
The movement of conscious rapping and blackness in hip-hop has lost steam in the previous years for the more commercialized glossy, heavy beats for the radio.
The term blackness has tormented social constructs, riddled our ideology of a single human race, and spurred countless stereotypes contra to “American” equality and freedom. Truth be told, our form of government and social norms stems from the colorless European patriarchy; whose pedestal has been drug through the emancipation and back only to end up in profane, crude and mostly tasteless racial humor on Comedy Central. This color-line, as DuBois refers to has inspired movements and expressions of pride that only polarize social groups and wedge animosity between progress (Hodges Lecture 8/30). The more it is fought the more pronounced it became. The soul motivation behind this expression of black pride became recognition; since it has been picked up by the popular media it* has become the leading trends among these patriarchal suits.
ReplyDeleteThe term blackness has tormented social constructs, riddled our ideology of a single human race, and spurred countless stereotypes contra to “American” equality and freedom. Truth be told, our form of government and social norms stems from the colorless European patriarchy; whose pedestal has been drug through the emancipation and back only to end up in profane, crude and mostly tasteless racial humor on Comedy Central. This color-line, as DuBois refers to has inspired movements and expressions of pride that only polarize social groups and wedge animosity between progress (Hodges Lecture 8/30). The more it is fought the more pronounced it became. The soul motivation behind this expression of black pride became recognition; since it has been picked up by the popular media it* has become the leading trends among these patriarchal suits.
* “It” refers specifically to the musical productions and innovations made within the African-American community throughout the recent century. The prejudice that drives individuals from this group to cry out and create such profound sounds: the music of the soul. From Blues to Jazz which first took flight during the roaring twenties (Hodges Lecture 8/30); in fact many of the night clubs featuring these black artists did not allow African-American patrons in their establishments, with the exception of fantastic entertainment of course. Transpired from the trailblazing days of Langston Hughes came Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash that projected a message that could not be stolen or masked by the blinding flush of media fads. Songs such as “The Message” displays the urban crowd and competition for limited resources, made specific to “black” culture (Grandmaster Flash). Even more exclusive to this subculture is Run DMC’s “Proud to be Black,” which proudly proclaims the accomplishments of individuals who refused to be restricted by the term black. In recent hip-hop the term blackness is full of revolt for years of ignored retaliation and implies an exclusive right to ethnic pride.
Blackness and Hip-Hop to me have always been two ideas that go hand-in-hand with one another. The definition of blackness, “a sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and African Diaspora” (lecture 8/30) shows why the term “blackness” and Hip-Hop are likely to be joined with one another. However, even when an artist is not racially black they can be identified to have “blackness”. For example, in the text, Vanilla Ice compares himself with Blackness because of his affiliation with the lower-class (Boyd, 326). Eminem is another great example of a person who can identify with “blackness”. Even though racially Eminem does not fit the assumed criteria for blackness he can very well relate with the African American’s that identify with blackness by his social and economic hardship. I do not think that blackness is necessarily always a part of Hip-Hop. Blackness is not just a racial term but it is used to describe many of the individual’s experiences in Hip-Hop. However, I do not think that blackness is associated with Hip-Hop when it comes to artists like Kanye West. Kanye West did not have any major hardships like most African American’s, therefore, I don’t think he experienced the “blackness” in Hip-Hop.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Hip-Hop, I think of “blackness.” Hip-Hop’s upbringings are based around the idea of “blackness” and the environment in which “blackness” originated. “Blackness” is emphasized in early Hip-Hop through artists’ expressions of social, economic, and political inequality. (Lecture 8/29) Throughout history, the term “blackness” is encompassed by the environment in which African Americans live. African American communities have been the victims of “social isolation, economic hardships, political demoralization, and cultural exploitation.” (Dyson 63) The “ghettos” in which African Americans have grown up a part of has helped influence Hip-Hop in every way. Without this outward expression of anger and oppression, Hip-Hop would be a totally different musical experience. Artists such as Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” show how the poverty of the ghetto’s continued to oppress those who live there. This is a common thread in many artists’ songs. Hip-Hop used to be the political voice for African Americans. “Rap represents the emotional range of urban, mostly male, existence.” (Boyd 326) Now, according to Todd Boyd, Hip-hop is moving away from its political reign and into a new segment of society. This may occur, but Hip-Hop can never lose its ties with the black community and it’s affiliation with “blackness.”
ReplyDeleteAccording to lecture, blackness is a “sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and/or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African American descent in Africa and the African Diaspora” (lecture 8/30). For me blackness and Hip-hop have always been one in the same. The sound of Hip-hop is blackness as well as the lyrics and artists are blackness, or so I thought. Blackness has become less and less prevalent in Hip-hop in the last decade or two. White artists have recently made it big and in some cases this has taken away from the blackness but in some ways just added to it. Even though some white artists are not black in color they are black in the sense of where they are from and how they have lived. Simply being African American does not make these artists black though. Hip-hop artists of all racial backgrounds use Hip-hop as a way to express their blackness. I recognize blackness in music by the lyrics and the stories they tell. Many artists celebrate their blackness and want to share it with the world. They also use it as a way to work through their struggles.
ReplyDeleteAll-white rap group, Young Black Teenagers, referred to “Blackness” as a ghetto mindset (Boyd, 326). The idea of a color, which is focused on a specific race, has gained a stereotypical culture for the African decendentants and has painted a picture in many minds (of all ethnicities) a specific attitude and mentality one must have to attain this “Blackness.” “Black” could refer to African American, Jamaican, French (et cetera) because of a skin tone. Yet, “Blackness” has little to do with actual color. It is the ethos that is possessed. As Young Black Teenagers stated, a ghetto mindset. Ghetto could be taken different in today’s culture. Ghetto, not as in a trashy way of life, but a battle throughout life. Similarly, Blackness often times is all about the struggles, the fight, and the lesson of how to survive. Genaro Armas in Wealth Gap Between Races Widen shows that, in 2002, white families median net worth was more than 14 time than that of blacks (341). Paul Krugman in The Son Also Rises discusses how almost always the children end up making very similar income as their parents. That is the way of the world: The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. Blacks certainly never had the opportunities that whites did, so many hip-hop songs sing of the distraught living conditions of being the minority. Grandmaster Flash raps in The Message: “Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice” (lecture 8/30). It is the Blackness that embraces many blacks’ social conditions and it is that Blackness that is used to fuel themselves to break the social norm or barriers and succeed.
ReplyDeleteImmediately when I think of Blackness in Hip Hop, I think it’s pretty undeniable that African and African-American culture founded Hip Hop and thereby it’s a very strong racial link. But moreso past that, I think the most important thing to keep in mind with the Blackness in Hip Hop is the “double consciousness” that W.E.B. Dubois presented to the world: the conflict between one’s outlook on their respective identity and their society’s outlook on themselves. This blackness then sparks the question of how does one come to terms with their own identity when they are locked into another? How can they expect things out of theirselves when there are so many different constructs of society hitting them? This is where the Hip Hop comes in: Hip Hop Leads To Self Expression. This was how people could understand the world that they live in, and more importantly their own identity. So in terms of whether this DJ or B-Boy is racially black or ethnically African, I think that it shouldn’t matter; Hip Hop is a mode of expression and personal exploration. If you can relate to the music on either a musical or lyrical level, and express yourself with that medium, then you are all good.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, when the term “blackness” is used, most people directly associate it with the musical world of hip-hop. According to lecture, blackness is defined as a sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social and political embodied expression of life experiences of people of African descent (Lecture 8/30/2010). Blackness has in fact been a factor in hip hop since the beginning as it is used as a form of expression of social, economic, and political factors (Lecture). Although most people still associate hip-hop with blackness, it is clear that blackness has spread beyond just the black community. In Todd Boyd’s article , Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self, white hip-hop artist and rapper, Vanilla Ice, associates himself with blacks not based upon his skin color but on his class status (Forman and Neal 326). I found this parallel interesting because for so many years being or viewing yourself as black was frowned upon as white superiority was so prominent in American society. Today’s hip-hop artists and music have transformed as fewer black artists are racially confined. Hip-hop has slowly strayed away from the days of black pride seen in the Public Enemy video, “Fight the Power,” and has begun to encompass a more universal form of music proudly listened to by whites and blacks alike.
ReplyDeleteBlackness could be defined as being a “sonic, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and/or theatrical expression of the life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and the African diaspora” (Lecture 30 August). Ideas about Blackness cannot be separated from Hip-Hop, because Hip-Hop is a musical expression that has “retrieved historic black ideas, movements, and figures in combating the racial amnesia that threatens to relegate the achievements of the black past to the ash heap of dismemory” (Forman/Neal 66). Hip-Hop has been an important social tool in giving voice to an underrepresented community. The idea of Hip-Hop serving as a barometer for the pressures on the urban poor has come to be associated with the condition of Blackness, but is also inseparable from class status. Vanilla Ice, a white hip-hop artist, conflated class status and race completely when he chose to identify as a black artist (Forman/Neal 326). Hip-Hop is a genre that has benefited from the contributions of many ethnic communities. In its commitment to identifying with and aligning itself with “demoralized, demobilized, depoliticized and disorganized people,” it has become an important tool for articulating Blackness in its many forms.
ReplyDeleteWhen considering Hip-Hop and Hip-Hop culture in the United States, the idea of blackness has been commonly attached since the beginning. As defined in lecture, blackness is a “sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and/or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African American descent in Africa and the African Diaspora.” Though blackness has been a part of Hip-Hop and its culture since the beginning, its influence and connotations have undergone a transformation since the earlier days of Hip-Hop. Blackness at the birth of Hip-Hop developed in response to the social, economic, and political factors that oppressed African Americans. Rappers such as Ice Cube and the group Public Enemy used Hip-Hop as a way to spread messages and lessons of black pride and power to the masses, acting as a call to action, hoping to generate a response. Many artists with these intentions believed “African American complacency was as detrimental to progress as the most vile forms of white supremacy” (Boyd, 334). Blackness at the beginning was a synonym for pride and power in one’s cultural identity. Now, however, blackness has become less about pride in one’s culture and more about pride in one’s possessions and luxurious lifestyle. In the time of the birth of blackness in Hip-Hop, Ice Cube and Public Enemy would have frowned upon the lyrics of many of today’s popular Hip-Hop artists, because according to them, such boasting will “cause those who are oppressed to lose sight of their oppression as a result of this willing, yet uncritical, relationship with dominant society” (Boyd, 336). Regardless of the change in meaning, blackness continues to be associated with Hip-Hop and Hip-Hop culture.
ReplyDeleteIn today’s society, the majority of people right off the bat associate the term “blackness” with the African American race without even thinking about who else and what it involves. Even though there are a wide variety of ethnicities and races that participate in the whole spectrum of hip-hop, it is for the most part dominated by the black community. In “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self,” Young Black Teenagers, the all-white rap group said that blackness is only a “state of mind” (Boyd 326). While this is believed to be true for some, others believe that blackness is how people are raised and what their background is growing up. Take for example Eminem, an extremely successful artist who has won over the love of many hip-hop fans, yet the color of his skin is not an issue. The reasoning behind the characteristics of hip-hop and blackness is not what people look like, but the “social inequality, police brutality, drug addictions, depressed living conditions, and material deprivation,” (Lecture 8/30). Hip-hop artists rap about the struggles they have endured and use those hard times to encourage them through their lyrics. Blackness should not be generalized anymore by the way someone looks, instead it should be thought of as people’s life struggles and a type of therapy to let go of any frustration. No matter the race of a person, their talent and love for hip-hop should be the most important factor in determining blackness.
ReplyDeleteBlackness is certainly not always a part of Hip-hop, however, in most of society’s conceptions, the two entities go hand in hand. One of the greatest ways Black people relate themselves as Black is by their class struggle. Often times, a rich Black individual will be ridiculed for not truly being Black. This class struggle shows up in Hip-hop also. Artists are constantly singing about their struggle of starting off without any money, food, or shelter. However, Forman and Neal state, “The reliance on the now-clichéd narrative and the media’s eager embrace of the ghetto lifestyle encourage the eventual transformation of the ‘hood’ scenario from initially sublime to utterly ridiculous” (327). It has become marketable in Hip-hop to sing about the lack of opportunity one once had. However, there are artists like Eminem that can be considered Black that do not have black skin. Black can be a categorization that stems beyond skin color. The biggest of these extra factors is the class struggle that many Black people relate to. Another trait that Black people allude to is being surrounded by Black people. Vanilla Ice claims his Blackness comes from his immersion in Blackness rather than his actual skin color. The word Black refers more to a culture than a skin color in Hip-hop.
ReplyDeleteMost often people associate "blackness" directly to the genre/lifestyle of hip hop. While this is understandable, since hip hop is largely influenced by what is implied in the term "blackness." As stated in our lecture on 8/30, blackness represents the "sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embedded and/or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent and in African diaspora." This definition, case in point, describes exactly why so many people relate blackness and hip hop so closely together, and while the two have a lot to do with one another, they don't have to always be exclusively tied. Rapping isn't particular to one race, for example a rapper like Eminem, who is obviously not African American, shares many struggles, obstacles and criticisms of the society he was brought up in, like many rappers that are in fact of African American descent. This displays that rappers don't need to be ethnically or racially identified as "black" to be able to press the issues that are coming from their neighborhood. As stated in “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self”, “The all white rap group Young Black Teenagers claims that blackness is a state of mind” (p.326). I'm not really sure if blackness is synonymous with hip hop. By definition it would appear that you don’t need to be of African American descent to experience hip hop, however I kind of see "blackness" as a broad term just as I see "hip hop" as a broad term. “Hip Hop” by many is seen as a lifestyle and something that you live out, and I kind of view the term “blackness” the same way, almost as a view into that particular rapper’s life, experiences, and opinions. I see both terms represent life and experiences, so while I’m not positive if they are synonymous with one another I do believe they have a lot to do with one another. Maybe not every rap song will have an embedded message of political criticisms and social commentary, but I do think those songs will always continue to exist and be made, so I think blackness will definitely always be a part of hip hop.
ReplyDeleteStepping back and viewing the term blackness as a living, moving thing rather than just the color of someone’s skin can really broaden the spectrum of everything it shares with hip hop. As it was discussed in lecture 8/30, it is understandable to see why many people would associate hip hop with a predominantly black society. With the music taking off from the time and place that it did, many artists were sharing their political views, and social / economically depressed living conditions they were going through at that time. This gave the people of the communities (who were mostly black) grounds to relate to and share with one another. Like Public Enemy’s song and video “fight the power” was used to spread their ideas of what was going on to their culture at that time and what should be done about it. Talked about in lecture, blackness does not have to be related to just those of African American descent. As Todd Boyd describes in “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self (Forman & Neal pg. 326). Vanilla Ice uses the term blackness to associate his youth to growing up alongside African American poverty. The same goes for the group Young Black Teenagers who associated themselves with blackness based on their relationship to a working class community.
ReplyDeleteHip Hop, had it emerged in the pre-World War II years, would probably have been called ‘race music.’ This is because it was practised primarily by black musicians, leading to an assumption of ‘blackness’ being a key ingredient of the genre.
ReplyDeleteW.E.B Dubois wrote in 1903 “the problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color line.” Such ‘color-consciousness’ has enforced much of the thinking on race in this and the last century, and blackness is key to this debate.
In the United States, blackness refers to the experiences and ideologies surrounding people of African descent – it is an elusive concept often translating into a ‘state of mind’ for African-Americans living in deprived social and economic conditions. These experiences transfer into hip hop culture, and it is here that they find currency with people who are not of African descent.
Here is perhaps hip hop’s greatest strength; its ability to transcend social and racial boundaries – to speak to Caucasian artists such as Eminem and Brother Ali who can relate to its themes and, moreover, its ‘blackness.’ The blackness that defines this genre is not a racial confine, but instead a liberating expression of identity that ultimately challenges ‘race.’
Blackness is and will always be a part of hip hop because it is a crucial element in the root of hip hop music and culture. To some people, like an all white rap group named Young Black Teenagers for example, blackness is merely a “state of mind” (326, Forman and Neal); but as I understand it, blackness in hip hop refers to the unique cultural situations and subsequent creative interpretations of African Americans and members of the African Diaspora. Hip hop music was born from the need to speak out about lifestyles, experiences, and injustices and has succeeded because those who have shared in similar positions have embraced it. Hip hop has become known as creative expression of artists and has caught on because of the vast number of people who can relate to the messages being sold. On a more literal note there are strong African influences such as drum rhythms and tribal-like backup vocals still present in hip hop music such as “Power” by Kanye West.
ReplyDeleteEven though the hip hop culture has been adopted by people of all races and geographic locations, its origins are still rooted in the predominantly black neighborhoods of New York.
I believe that blackness and Hip-Hop have always been two ideas that go with one another. When the word blackness is used most people associate it with the word Hip-Hop, however the definition of blackness is, “a sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and theatrical expression of life experiences, of people with African descent in Africa, and African Diaspora” (lecture 8/30/10). However the term blackness does not always refer to the color of ones skin. In the reading for today “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self,” it states that white rapper Vanilla Ice encouraged that he identified with blackness based off his social class, and his state of mind” (Forman, Neal 326). After much thought, I agree with Vanilla Ice statement and if you look throughout Hip-Hop other white artists followed Vanillas claim. Rappers like Young Black Teenagers, Beastie Boys, and Eminem are great examples of other white rappers to go beyond the stereotype of skin color but associate themselves with blackness due to the culture they grew up in. According to the Young Black Teenagers, an all white rap group they stated that, “blackness is a state of mind” (Foreman, Neal 326). Instead of seeing blackness as a term of race, I see both “blackness” and “Hip-Hop” referring to life, and experiences that anyone can face.
ReplyDeleteBlackness have been in linked to the music scene since the late 1800's when the blues got its start and many other following music genre afterward followed, jazz, Rnb, and hip-hop of course. Blackness has been often capitalized as a cultural characteristic of black culture. But I have to say it's hard to describe and use the term blackness as for everyone of dark colored skin. For example blackness expressed by Jamaicans of African decent may be different then blackness expressed by African American (Lecture). But I do believe that blackness is in the musical genre talked about earlier, blackness is not described as a cultural characteristic for just blacks or African Americans, but for a other people who can relate to blackness as it is a form of a life expression from slaves in the 1800's started the blues, and 1950-60's civil rights movement started rock n roll etc. For example Eminem is neither black or African Americans but his songs that he raps can be related to blacks and African Americans etc that are going through the oppressions that he has gone through. Blackness to me is not to characterize a certain group of people but blackness is an idea that helps those with similar hardship lifestyle expresses their identity and their race. I do believe that blackness is going to always be a part of hip-hop because it's an art form to express one lifestyle. You can hear the hardship that most rappers have gone through their life and how they are living it up now.
ReplyDeleteBlackness plays a tremendous role in Hip-Hop music, as well as the Hip-Hop lifestyle, which we learned in class, includes MCing, DJing, breaking, and graffiti (Lecture 8/23). The general public tends to associate the hip-hop lifestyle with the term “blackness”. In lecture it was stated that “blackness is an expression of life experiences of people from African descent” (Lecture 8/30), with that being said, blackness is not only a way of life, but also an expression of life and lifetime experiences. If you view it that way, it makes sense that blackness is associated with hip-hop considering the lifestyle is predominately run by African Americans. Many may wonder how this image began or what started “blackness” in hip-hop. Blackness in early hip-hop was an expression of social, economic, and political factors that shape racial identifications in the U.S. (Lecture 8/30). Some examples of these social, economic, and political factors would include material deprivation, lack of social voice, police brutality, drug use, and abuse. These factors are what shaped the black image or blackness in hip-hop. In today’s hip-hop music you can still hear lyrics rooting back to some of these social and political problems, although these were more apparent in the early 90’s with groups like N.W.A, Run DMC, and Public Enemy.
ReplyDeleteIn the article by Boyd he states, “Using the ‘ghetto’ or the ‘hood’ as the dominant metaphor, rap music has vividly presented emphasis on the lower class.” The same article later goes on to explain, in reference to white rapper Vanilla Ice, “his class status made him black.” (Foreman and Neal, 326) His basic claim here is that in order to be accepted into the rap genre one must be black or representative of the black culture, which is rooted in being the oppressed lower class. In lecture we learned that hip-hop began as underground music in the places of the US that needed to express themselves in an inexpensive way, therefore it became most popular with the black and Latino communities. Since then these two groups have been seen as the primary producers of the music, and it seems to be that the only way to be successful in hip-hop is to either be black or come from a background that would make you relatable to the black community. Those non-blacks that are successful in the industry tend to rap about the difficult life in the ghetto, or some other form of oppression that they faced.
ReplyDeleteI have always associated blackness with Hip-hop. The reason for doing so is because black is the dominant color in the industry and was what I always saw when watching music videos and interviews on TV. I didn’t really have a definition for blackness until we discussed in class how it is a multitude of things. Blackness is “sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social political or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and the African Diaspora” (Lecture). Through rap the hardships of living in poverty and barely making it through and the struggle of life in general is voiced. It brings attention to the issues in the ghettos and the hoods. Dyson states, “It (rap) expresses the desire of young black people to reclaim their history, reactivate forms of black radicalism, and contest the powers of despair and economic depression that presently besiege the black community” (Forman and Neal). This statement really stood out to me, rap isn’t just about blowing off steam and complaining, it is also about remembering history and moving forward. I can see this most in early rap songs like Grandmaster Flash’s - “The Message”. However, in recent rap the lyrics seem to be more about the individual and not the community. Blackness seems to me to be taking on a different definition. In Hip-hop beyond Beats and Rhymes, the film stresses how manliness in rap is what everyone tries to achieve. Artists want to be tough and intimidating, not weak. I can hear this cockiness in Eminem’s - “Despicable” when he claims, “when I die so does hip-hop” and in Kanye’s -“Power” when he states that he is, “Doin it better than anybody you ever seen do it”. It seems to me now that blackness as it is expressed through hip-hop is more about gaining everyone’s respect and letting everyone know not to mess with you instead of trying to spread knowledge on issues.
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ReplyDeleteThe two subjects of ‘blackness’ and the evolution of hip hop have always gone hand in hand. Each contributes to the movements of the other. The term blackness doesn’t necessarily refer to skin tone, but more of a lifestyle expression of people of the African diaspora, as mentioned in the class lecture. Many rappers, not of the African diaspora, have considered themselves to be ‘black’. White rappers, Vanilla Ice and Young Black Teenagers had considered themselves to be black, not racially, but by association (Forman & Neal 326). On the other hand, when listening to Black Star’s Astronomy, we can see completely different perspective. Talieb Kwahli and Mos Def paint a picture for us of their view of what it means to be ‘black’. There are many references in the song to ‘black’ movements, ideas, and hints to ‘black’ lifestyle, “Be unlucky for you, like a Black cat…A Panther.” The line that stuck with me the most from the song, and goes best with our theme for the week is: “BLACK, LIKE THE PLANET THAT THEY FEAR, WHY THEY SCARED?”
ReplyDeleteWe can see through this week’s videos that to some, blackness provides a since of pride or belonging to a group, but to others it is an obstacle to overcome day after day (Lecture). Either way, there is no way to deny that ‘blackness’ and hip hop will continue to evolve together and be seen as one in the same.
“Blackness” and Hip Hop can be very synonymous terms with one another, but they certainly do not have to be. That is not to say the two still are not linked, but one must look at groups like The Beastie Boys and Vanilla Ice as examples of where hip hop is not directly associated with blackness. Vanilla Ice said in the readings that he acquired his blackness from the company he kept growing up. While blackness in this instance is still present, it is a white man with no inherit blackness in him that is successfully creating hip-hop. However, I still do believe that blackness cannot escape hip-hop. Even with young disc jockeys and white rappers that are up and coming, these people still have a degree of blackness in them, and I think that is necessary, in some respects, to make successful and worthwhile hip hop. We discussed in class how blackness is different in African Americans and Jamaicans, or Africans and I think that is the beauty of blackness. Every different type of “black” has a different aspect of blackness to them and that can be translated to hip-hop.
ReplyDeleteIt can most likely be concluded that most people in today's world, both in the united states and overseas, associate blackness with rap and other subgenres of hip-hop. A main reason attributing to this stereotype is probably due to most of the genre's dominant figures are black and the freely used word "nigga". From the reading on the bottom of page 331, it defines the word as someone who realizes he/she is oppressed and wallows in it. Eminem is a good example of a superstar that used his skin color to his advantage; Showing he had the competence to keep up with the big league black rappers, he often jokes about his skin color in his raps and opens up doors to prove you don't have to be black to be a successful rapper. Another white rapper who made a large mainstream appearance, Vanilla Ice, fortified his reasoning for having a "black" swagger by claiming his acceptance to the black community . From the reading, he justifies his "blackness" by describing his relation with growing up in a struggling black community. I think today there is more of an evolved hip hop "demeanor" that has taken over a direct association with skin color. There are also many hip hop artists who do not lyrically portray any association with a defined race. It is often that someone reading the lyrics would find no race association. I think today's artists are looking for a new way to express themselves to one up the competition by moving away from cliché blackness in their lyrics.
ReplyDeleteBlackness and hip-hop . . . two words I believe are inseparable. African-Americans have been creating music and in most cases, pioneering new genres of music since the 1800s. Blues, disco and funk are examples of how the emergence of hip-hop was inevitable. Blackness is a sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodies and/or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and Africa Diaspora (Lecture, 8/30/10). These ideas of what blackness is, is exactly what hip-hop has turned into. The expression of gender and class, which helped create hip-hop have lead to making hip-hop not only a music genre but also a way of life.
ReplyDelete“It is difficult for a culture that is serious about the maintenance of social arrangements, economic conditions, and political choices that create and reproduce poverty, racism, sexism, classism, and violence to display a significant appreciation for musical expressions that contest the existence of such problems in black and Latino communities” (Forman and Neal 63) Dissecting hip-hop, allows us to see that this type of music is merely expression of feelings, which makes it easy for people to relate to the message being delivered from hip-hop.
I feel that because hip hop came out of the black community and culture, many people have directly associated the music with being purely black. Today and even from its conception, this has never been the case. I do believe that because hip hop is so closely associated with the black community, and is dominated by so many African American artists, it is in its form today considered culturally a black genre of music. But just because something is culturally black does not mean that it is singularly black as a whole. While hip hop retains much of the African American culture, it also contains a lot of influences from other cultures and races as well. When you look at artists such as Eminem, or even someone like Matisyahu, you see that while hip hop is associated with the black community, its struggles, and its lifestyle, that the same concept can also describe or explain the life and struggle of non- black artists as well. So when talking about Blackness and hip hop, and whether or not hip hop is purely black, I would say that hip hop is not about race, it’s about a way of life.
ReplyDeleteThe terms Blackness and Hip Hop are not synonymous, but Hip Hop would not be what we know today if not for Blackness. According to in class lecture, "Blackness is a sonic, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and or theatrical expression...of African descent in Africa and the African Diaspora (8-30-10)." Because African Americans and racially black Puerto Ricans from Queens and the Bronx are almost entirely credited with starting the Hip Hop movement in the 1970s, the histories of Blackness and Hip Hop do coincide. And this is not a new trend for America. The problems of social inequality, as expressed by W.E.B. Du Bois and others, has led to Negro spirituals, the blues, the Harlem Renaissance and other culturally significant periods throughout history. And Hip Hop, as a lively expression of social inequity, will never be completely unassociated with Blackness.
ReplyDeleteLike mentioned in class the other week, I think that blackness is expressed in Hip Hop music, especially in earlier Hip Hop music, as a channel of communication. The majority of Hip Hop artists being associated with blackness have used this channel of hip hop to help their communities, themselves, and their people. Whether they are black or not I can’t assume based on it being Hip Hop, sure there were/are a majority of back people at the front of Hip Hop, but I cant always assume or associate Hip Hop with “Black”. I think that the need for an association with blackness and Hip Hop comes from the roots of Hip Hop. The streets as their auditoriums, the mix tapes and their record deals, the fan base as their neighbors friends and family. It was once an underground close knit industry that has blossomed into a huge art. However, the codes of cultural expression that I associate with Hip Hop are the basics, like any artists, they write about their surroundings. Family, living situation, struggles, relationships, dreams, etc. those are the topics I associate with Hip Hop. I think that Blackness will always be apart of Hip Hop, but Hip Hop is not only limited to Blackness.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the years the “blackness” of hip hop has faded but is definitely still intact. To be a solid, successful hip hop artist there are many standards that the artist must meet and I feel like having some sort of “blackness” about them is one of the standards society seems to think they should have. If you think about the majority of hip hop artist, they do have a “black” background. Even if the color of their skin isn’t black, a lot of artists still come from a black community or experience things with black individuals. This leads me to explain that the term “blackness” does not always have to do with the skin color of an individual but more of where that person was raised as well as how they were raised. An example of this is when the white rapper, Vanilla Ice speaks about how he portrays his “blackness” through his past and how he grew up with African Americans therefore he holds that “black“ aspect in his life as well. Poor and ghetto communities tend to have that “blackness” aspect. I believe this is because it makes an individual strong and ready for the hardest things in life because they have already expierenced well near the worst. Not all artist come from poor backgrounds but the ones that do always seem to spit and write their lyrics about the “blackness” within their lives.
ReplyDeleteBlackness and hip hop are words that almost exist simultaneously with each other. It is from black culture that these beats first originated. Although hip hop has come a long way, you have to look back from where the originals emerged. They were coming out of predominantly black communities. Although it is commonly viewed that all hip hop artists came from poverty stricken conditions, I think that is more of a façade now. Hip hop does not have to necessarily be ghetto or angry. Hip hop is more about the approach to the beats. Blackness is more than just the color of skin. It has to do with a deeply rooted style that goes back generations. The roots of the style of hip hop can be traced even further back to African styles of music. In America blackness is associated with African-American but blackness exists all over the world in different realms. Today there are all different ethnicities that create and collaborate together, but it started with people of African decent. Still today most of the hip hop artists are black but there is room for other new up and coming artists as well.
ReplyDeleteBlackness is expressed in many ways in the music and culture of Hip-Hop in the United States. One way is rapping about the social injustices that black people had to endure in the United States. The racial injustices were more prevalent in the 1960’s than they are today. Today blackness in hip-hop is molded around “ distinct articulations of talented contributors to culture who desire to align themselves with demoralized, demobilized, depoliticized and disorganized people in order to empower and enable social action and, is possible, to enlist collective insurgency for the expansion of freedom, democracy, and individuality” (West, 1990,19-20). The term blackness is described as the "sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embedded and theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent and in African Diaspora” (Lecture 8/30). That quote encompasses many ways that blackness is shown through hip-hop. Even though blackness here is referring to African decent and African Diaspora, blackness is related to Islanders and the French Quebec as well. If a person is not black you can still recognize blackness in their freestyles. Some examples are Vanilla Ice, who grew up in a primarily black community expresses blackness from his past experiences through his own eyes. Eminem shows blackness through his choice of words, attire, and style of living. On the reverse, blackness doesn’t always have to be in Hip-hop. You can freestyle about anything in ones life related to their own culture.
ReplyDeleteWhen you define Blackness, as a “sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and/or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and the African Diaspora,” it has many ways to be linked to the to hip-hop. One way, that comes to mind, linking blackness to hip-hop is visually. There have been many fashion trends in hip-hop and fashion can be looked at as an expression- hip-hop and fashion have had a link from the beginning. One trend that comes to mind with hip-hop is the white tee. Back in the 50’s or so you have teenagers and young men wear tight white shirts. A few years ago a trend in hip-hop started where teenagers and young men wore extra large white tee. The 50’s style was dominated by “white” race and the recent trend dominated by “black” race but doesn’t subject that only each race only did them because black and hispanic youth wore the tight white shirt in the 50’s and some white and hispanic youth today wear the extra large white tee. The white tee is associated with blackness because “black” youth put there own style to an old trend and others see that.
ReplyDeleteWhen first hearing the word blackness I first think skin color. However, after Monday’s lecture and the readings I’ve learned it is more than skin deep. According to Monday’s lecture blackness is defined as a sonic, oral, visual, stylistic, artistic, social, political embodied and/or theatrical expression of life experiences of people of African descent in Africa and African Diaspora. Blackness can mean many different things to different people.
ReplyDeleteI’m not confident that my new definition of blackness is correct, but this is how I see it: The term blackness came about from society identifying black populations with having low economic or class status, living in harsh environmental settings (i.e. violence, gangs, etc.), having bad criminal and drug records, and being “ghetto.” I put ghetto in quotes because that can also mean different things to different people. Ghetto originally came about to describe bad living conditions, it wasn’t a positive term by any means. Today the word ghetto is thrown around lightly and is used heavily in rap songs as a slang word. It isn’t exactly a negative meaning; it is often played up by calling lifestyles “ghetto fabulous.” Although Dyson uses ghetto to describe the poor blacks and states, “...rap music is emblematic of the glacial shift in aesthetic sensibilities between blacks of different generations, and it draws attention to severe economic barriers that increasingly divide ghetto poor blacks from middle and upper-middle-class blacks (Dyson 63).