Zach Blackmon

ENGL 1020T
Elizabeth Kent
3 March 2016

Hicks, Jeffrey. "How Hip-Hop Destroys the Potential of Black Youth." National Leadership
Network of Conservative African-Americans. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
I got this article from simply googling rap destroying black culture. It was the second site on
the search. The author is Jeffrey Hicks, a member of national advisory council of the lack
leadership network Project 21. Project 21 is an organization that promotes the views of blacks
who try to live successful lives. From knowing what Project 21 is, I can tell that Hicks will
provide information that will try to help his views of the organization. In the article, Hicks talks
about how hip-hop/rap lyrics greatly destroy the potential of the youth, specifically the black
youth. A strength of this article is that he has very good opinions on the topic, showing what is
beyond the music, and how the behavior develops. He also talks about not only the young boys,
but also the young girls. The major weakness of this whole article is that it seems to be very
opinionated. I am not sure if this information will be able to stand on its own as a valid
argumentative point; however, it does have a lot of points that I could use in my essay. Some
things that I see that I could use in my essay are stuff like what hip-hop actually is, how young
black girls play into the destructive culture, and some things about the white youth.

Saxena, V. "Rant: Watch Me Destroy Rap and Black Culture in 400 Words." Downtrend. Web. 3
Mar. 2016.
I got this article from googling, contemporary rap destroying black community. It is an article
from a website called Downtrend, which is an opinionated political news site. The author is V.
Saxena who is a conservative news writer and social/political commentator. In the article, he
talks about the lyrical content of contemporary rap and how it effects the black community. One
of the strengths in the article is using quotes from songs and people to back up his point. He also
gives a lot of examples of other people continually degrading blacks in many examples. The
biggest weakness of this article is that it is a rant, meaning it is very opinionated. Even though it
is opinionated, he makes good points. I do feel as though this can stand on its own as an
argument because it has examples of how contemporary rap has gone wrong in lyrical content.
Using this is my essay can be beneficial because Saxena provides many links to other websites
that could also potentially help me. Some of them being different racial articles about black
people and the music they listen to.

Strachan, Owen. "Rap Battles." Christianity Today 57.5 (2013): 13.Academic Search Premier.
Magazine. 3 Mar. 2016.
I got this article from the Academic Search Premier. The author of the article is Owen Strachan,
who is an associate professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
From this I can know that what will be said in the article will be from a Christian. Also the article
is from a magazine called Christianity Today. In the article, Strachan talks about all of the
developments in Christian rap. He says that Christian rap is entering a critical phase. One of
the strengths of the article is that he talks about more than just one of the Christian artists. Some
being Lecrae, Sho Baraka, and Trip Lee. Another strength of this article is that it uses bible
verses to help support what the artists are doing. The only real weakness I see in the article is that
within the PDF, it only shows the first page of the magazine because in the bottom right hand of
the page it says continued on 14, but other than that, I do not see any other weaknesses because
it is talking about the current condition of Christian rap, not really trying to prove an argument or
anything like that. I think I can use this by talking about where Christian rap is right now. I can
also pull some information on different artists if I decide to talk more specifically about them.

Tanner, Julian, Mark Asbridge, and Scot Wortley. "Listening to rap: cultures of crime, cultures
of resistance." Social Forces 88.2 (2009): 693+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3
Mar. 2016.
I got this article from the AUM database, Opposing Viewpoints in Context. The author of the
article is Julian Tanner; he/she works at the Department of Social Science at the University of
Toronto. From this I can tell that she is going to be a good source for my topic because she has
studied in social science. In the article, Tanner talks about a sample of high schoolers who listen
to contemporary rap and how they fall into the statistics of crimes. One of the biggest strengths
from this article is the statistics at the end. It shows the number of cases in different measures.
Another strength of the article is that he/she divided his/her points in several sectioned off parts.
But this also is a weakness because some of the sections I could not quite understand too well,
and I just felt that they did not contribute too much to the main argument. Even though some of it
I could not understand, I think that Tanner did a good job at presenting his/her argument. This
article will be helpful to me because I am pretty much going in the same direction as Tanner;
how rap can and does damage certain people. Tanner mostly focused on the younger music
listeners, but I think I can still use this effectively in my essay.

Whitaker, Lang. "Can Lecrae Save Hip-Hop's Soul?." Billboard 126.30 (2014): 60-63. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
I got this article from the Academic Search Premier. The author of this article is Lang Whitaker.
From this specific article, there is no information on his, but after a quick google search, I
learned that he is a writer for NBA.com. For thirteen years, he was a writer for SLAM Magazine,
which is a rap influenced magazine. So now I know that he has plenty of experience researching

hip-hop topics. In the article, Whitaker talks about how Lecrae Moore (known as Lecrae) can
potentially reshape the hip-hop culture through his Christian rap. A strength of this article is that
Whitaker uses a lot of quotes from Lecrae and explains what his motives are to explain to
someone what he meant. Another strength is that this article talks about Lecraes background.
Lecrae was not always the person he is today; he had a very hard life, living life with the world.
Whitaker tells of his struggles and how he got past them. One weakness I can see is that I think
the article focuses too much on Lecraes history and not totally on his music and his message, but
I feel as though I can still use the information. Using this is my essay is going to be pretty easy
because one of the arguments I wanted to add is how someone who is deep in the world can
come out of it and eventually try to change it.