Tuesday 13 December 2016
intro draft 2
To what extent does the rap music genre reinforce negative stereotypes of black African-Americans, with particular reference to ‘Straight Outta Compton’?
Throughout this essay I'll be discussing the different ways that the rap genre is represented and how it portrays black African males through the film 'Straight Outta Compton'. The film was released in 2015 and is based on historical events that took place during the late 1980s and 90s in South Central La with rap group N.W.A. The group is known for the harsh lyrics that were used talking about their reality because of the society they grew up in. There has always been racism which has existed in American and this is seen throughout the film. However, the artists were criticised for the songs they've produced, “negative rap songs and their accompanying videos often instil erotic sadism in the black male child". This highlights the negative effects rap music has on black children because they seen themselves as these stars and desire to be like them and a way we can see this desire for fame is in 50 Cents album which is called "get rich or die tryin". This shows the importance that the rap genre has had on the audience as it has affected what they think they need to do in order to succeed in society through illegitimate means which rap promotes at times. Although we have this stereotypes about rap music, "Hip-hop is a form of expression - how we make and portray ourselves to the world"; this shows that rap music can also be influential rather than portraying negative stereotypes of black males but is used to push away from these stereotypes. We can explore the lifestyle and meaning of what people are trying to talk about which Straight Outta Compton does.
Throughout this essay I'll be discussing the different ways that the rap genre is represented and how it portrays black African males through the film 'Straight Outta Compton'. The film was released in 2015 and is based on historical events that took place during the late 1980s and 90s in South Central La with rap group N.W.A. The group is known for the harsh lyrics that were used talking about their reality because of the society they grew up in. There has always been racism which has existed in American and this is seen throughout the film. However, the artists were criticised for the songs they've produced, “negative rap songs and their accompanying videos often instil erotic sadism in the black male child". This highlights the negative effects rap music has on black children because they seen themselves as these stars and desire to be like them and a way we can see this desire for fame is in 50 Cents album which is called "get rich or die tryin". This shows the importance that the rap genre has had on the audience as it has affected what they think they need to do in order to succeed in society through illegitimate means which rap promotes at times. Although we have this stereotypes about rap music, "Hip-hop is a form of expression - how we make and portray ourselves to the world"; this shows that rap music can also be influential rather than portraying negative stereotypes of black males but is used to push away from these stereotypes. We can explore the lifestyle and meaning of what people are trying to talk about which Straight Outta Compton does.
Essay date
The dates I intend to write up the essay will be 21st-24th December and will be going to the BFI on the 20th of December.
20th December - Go to the BFI and get quotes
21st December - First 1000 words
22nd December - 2000 words
23rd December - Last 1000 words
24th December - Check over the essay
20th December - Go to the BFI and get quotes
21st December - First 1000 words
22nd December - 2000 words
23rd December - Last 1000 words
24th December - Check over the essay
Monday 12 December 2016
New notes and quotes
‘Black Demons: The deception Of The African American Male Criminal Stereotype’
"The news media, for example, have taken the lead in equating young African American males with aggressiveness, lawlessness, and violence.”
“Likewise, the entertainment media have eagerly taken their cue from the journalist, and these false images not only affect race relations but also create achievement can be predetermined for them by suggestions in the media.”
Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority
“The genesis of all these attitudes can be traced to American slavery. It was in America, in the ‘Land of the Free’ that Africans were chained and branded, both physically and psychologically, as subhuman beasts.”
“Blacks, who’ve been conditioned to expect less from people who look like themselves, automatically insert these high profile black achievers into the ‘exceptional expectation’ file.”
Chang, J. (2005). Can't stop, won't stop: A history of the hip-hop generation. New York: St. Martin's Press.
“’Keeping it real’ has become just another fad word. It sounds cute. But it has been pimped and perverted. It ain’t about keeping it real. It’s about keeping it right”
Charnas, D. (2010). The big payback: The history of the business of hip-hop. New York, NY: New American Library.
“When America desegregated, the music business itself remained one of the most segregated industries in the country.”
Chuck, D., Jah, Y. (1998). Fight the Power: Rap, Race and Reality. Delta
“For too long I’ve felt that this art form is tossed aside as a Ghetto game for black youth and that limited opinion is ignorant”
Dates, J., Barlow, W. (1993). Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media. Howard University Press
Historian Joseph Boskins statement – “To make the black man into an object of laughter, and conversely, to force him to devise laughter, was to strip him from masculinity, dignity and self-respect”
Dyson, M. E. (2004). The Michael Eric Dyson reader. New York: Basic Civitas Books.
“hip-hop culture, to the chagrin of a whole lot of black folk, has literally darkened the face – some would say given it a black eye – of popular music”
Gangster Rap and its social cost: Exploiting hiphop and using racial stereotypes to entertain America
“Other observers have asserted that hip hop is the result of young people’s being locked out of the American economic mainstream.”
“The belief that one’s actions are more important than one’s words originated in the gang peace dialogue and became a core value of hip hop.”
Ghansah, R. (2013). When the Lights Shut Off: Kendrick Lamar and the Decline of the Black Blues Narrative. LARB
“In the summer of 1945, Ralph Ellison wrote a review of Richard Wright’s ‘Black Boy’, Wright’s semiautobiographical novel about his tough boyhood in Mississippi. In Ellison’s piece he suggested that ‘Black Boy’ is shaped more by the blues tradition”
Hip Hop matters: politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement
“Significantly, the event was arranged because there was a genuine fear that the already violent feud between Ja Rule and his chief nemesis, superstar rapper 50 cent, was spiralling toward another hip hop tragedy."
Hip-Hop revolution: The culture and politics of rap
“The popular fixation of black people as criminal, lazy, witless miscreants in American popular culture has been well documented.”
M.K. Asante – It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip Hop Generation
‘Post-hip-hop is an assertion of agency that encapsulates this generation’s broad range of abilities, ideals, and ideas, as well as incorporates recent social advances and movements’
Politics in Rap
“Upon mention that Eminem was white, Dr. Dre famously remarked, “I don’t care if he’s purple, as long as he can rap.” His defense of Eminem’s ability in light of his race is notable: Hip-hop, a predominantly African American genre with ever-increasing nationwide popularity, presents a valuable opportunity to examine how racial tension still manifests itself.
Pulse of the People: Political Rap Music and Black Politics
‘Clearly, Hip-Hop has a strong relationship with political and social issues’
Rose, T. (2008). The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters. Basic Civitas Books.
“if the late Tupac Shakur were a newly signed artist today, I believe he’d likely be considered a socially conscious rapper and thus relegated to the margins of the commercial hip-hop field”
Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics
‘Perry defines rap realism as rap that is chiefly concerned with the social conditions of (black) working-class (urban life)’
Suspicion Nation (Trayvon Martin)
“Historian David Levering summarizes it: “Whites commit crimes but blacks are criminals.” While whites can and do commit a great deal of minor and major crimes, the race as a whole is never tainted by those acts. But when blacks violate the law, all members of the race are considered suspect.
The Black Male Handbook” A Blueprint For Life
“I had grown up fatherless, reared by a poor young black woman in Jersey City. My concept of manhood, of black manhood specifically, had been shaped by the absent dad and the destructive images I saw all about me: street hustlers, thieves, pimps, numbers runners, drug dealers, and bootleg preachers who seemed to have more interest in our meagre earnings than our souls”
The impact of rap and hiphop music on American youth
“It is from Big Pun’s “Brave In the Heart” lyrics that affect the minds of young Americans by telling them that they must use violence in order to win or survive.”
“Ever since the rise of rap and hip-hop music, teens have been turning to them to help solve their problems. However, these kinds of music can be very destructive to teens. It is not the youth’s fault, it is the content that the music contains”
The Socialist’s Journal: The Effects of Rap Music
“Rap music is different from other kinds of music. Stylistically it is distinct from all other vocal music in that the artists are speaking rather than singing the words to the songs. That is the surface difference though.”
Tuesday 6 December 2016
bibliography
BOOKS
Collins, H., & Rose, O. (2016). This is grime. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
D, C., & Jah, Y. (1997). Fight the power: Rap, race, and reality. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.
Dyson, M. E. (1996). Between God and gangsta rap: Bearing witness to black culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dyson, M. E. (2007). Debating race: With Michael Eric Dyson. New York: Basic Civitas Books.
Lee, H. (1960). To Kill A Mockingbird. United States. J. B. Lippincott & Co
Monteyne, K. (2013). Hip hop on film: Performance culture, urban space, and genre transformation in the 1980s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Monteyne, K. (2013). Hip hop on film: Performance culture, urban space, and genre transformation in the 1980s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Porter, M. (2006). Rap and the eroticizing of black youth. Chicago, IL: African American Images
Rose, T. (1994). Black noise: Rap music and black culture in contemporary America. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Rose, T. (2008). The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters. Basic Civitas Books.
Wheatley, S. (2010). Don't call me urban: The time of grime. Newcastle upon Tyne: Northumbria University Press.
T. (2011). Who's afraid of post-blackness?: What it means to be Black now. New York: Free Press.
Womack, Y. (2010). Post Black: How a new generation is redefining African American identity. Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books.
ONLINE ARTICLES
(n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-racism-uk-post-referendum-racism-hate-crime-eu-referendum-racism-unleashed-poland-racist-a7160786.html
(n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/08/dallas-shooting-a-democracy-as-racist-as-america-will-never-be-a/
Baton Rouge footage shows police killing of Alton Sterling – video. (2016). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/jul/06/alton-sterling-baton-rouge-police-video
Charity, J., Diaz, A., & Drake, D. (2014). A History of Rap Songs Protesting Police Brutality. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://uk.complex.com/music/2014/08/rap-songs-police-brutality/
Does Hip-Hop Drive Negative Stereotypes Of Black Men? | The MSU Spokesman. (2013). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.themsuspokesman.com/2013/12/21/does-hip-hop-drive-negative-stereotypes-of-black-men/
Donaldson, L. (2015). When the media misrepresents black men, the effects are felt in the real world | Leigh Donaldson. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/media-misrepresents-black-men-effects-felt-real-world
Growing up with racism in Britain. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://socialistreview.org.uk/351/growing-racism-britain
Hip-Hop Reinforcing Stereotypes Against Black People. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://rapreinforcesstereotypes.weebly.com/
Marcin, T. (2016). Racism In America: White People Think It's Worse For White People, Research Finds. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.ibtimes.com/racism-america-white-people-think-its-worse-white-people-research-finds-2393588
Myrie, C. (2016). Is white America blind on racism, or just playing dumb? | Clive Myrie. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/18/white-america-blind-racism-majority-ignore-black-minority-bubble-privilege
Reggie Yates: How I confronted police brutality on the streets of Chiraq. (2016). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/oct/10/reggie-yates-how-i-confronted-police-brutality-on-the-streets-of-chiraq
Reggie Yates: How I confronted police brutality on the streets of Chiraq. (2016). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/oct/10/reggie-yates-how-i-confronted-police-brutality-on-the-streets-of-chiraq
Siddique, H. (2016). Black Lives Matter protests block roads around UK. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/05/black-lives-matter-protest-sparks-heathrow-traffic-chaos
The Stereotypical Rapper - Southwestern University. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2016, from http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=0B0B89CDDE814ED4B36D6871E82F0041&CID=09F2F90F46236CBE08E4F0ED47126D75&rd=1&h=TIanoS0C6cZCM_F63kFNwyas6GXHTbvyUBpzOPlN9Os&v=1&r=http://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/projects/flatley/Stereotypes.html&p=DevEx,5083.1
@. (2014). Young Black Men Counter Negative Media Representation With Creative 'Suit & Tie' Video - Atlanta Black Star. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/04/15/young-black-men-slam-medias-representation-suit-tie-music-video/
CNN Is Very Worried About Violence At 'Straight Outta Compton' (n.d.). Retrieved March 09, 2016
CNN Surprised ‘Straight Outta Compton’ Didn’t Cause Violence, Earned Record Money Instead. (2015). Retrieved March 09, 2016
Bradshaw, P. (2015). Straight Outta Compton review – how hip-hop pioneers NWA took on the world. Retrieved March 09, 2016
The One Scene in 'Straight Outta Compton' That Resonates Most in 2015. (2015). Retrieved March 09, 2016
Does Hip-hop Drive Negative Stereotypes of Black Men? | The MSU Spokesman. (2013). Retrieved March 11, 2016
The Impact of Rap and Hip-Hop Music on American Youth. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2016
Brookins, T. (2013). The Socialist's Journal: The Effects of Rap Music | EURweb. Retrieved March 11, 2016
JOURNAL/ARTICLES
King, D. (2006, May/June). Black filmmaker. Soundtrax: Experimenting Hip-hop.
Spence, J. (2004, September/October). Black Filmmaker. Partners in Porn.
Spence, J. (2004, July/August). Black filmmaker. Rappers vs Actor.
MOVING IMAGES
E. (2009). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMZi25Pq3T8
D. (2009). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-TTWgiYL4
2. (2011). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvBjCO19QY
K. (2015). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-48u_uWMHY
P. (2015). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr_Gzz6ZRaE
2. (2011). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvBjCO19QY
K. (2015). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-48u_uWMHY
P. (2015). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr_Gzz6ZRaE
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