Monroy 1

Hector Monroy

English 113B

Professor Lawson

12 May 2017

Project Text Final Paper

Word Count: 1,598

Credibility is Key

Hip Hop and Rap came to stay, constant music is always coming out as new rappers are

coming up and exposed. It is what the rapper does with his or hers spotlight that will determine if

they are here for a short time or a long time. Their background, past hard times and stories as

well as new life can influence their music and the stories told in them. Their appearance, attitude

and gender play a big role in their present and future success. This does not mean that they need

to look like ruthless gangsters and murders in order to be credible and successful, since rap and

hip hop is always taught to be associated with violence and drugs. It means that they must be

accountable for what they rap or sing, they have to make their fans and listeners believe that they

are the person who they claim they are in their lyrics and music. Their image and word is

important to the success of their music, since it is better if it is true to them and can be backed up

by facts.

Since the creation of Rap and Hip Pop, there have been common trends on fashion,

attitude, wealth, love, hate, crime, peace, eruptions or outburst, communication, dominance,

power and goals set out by these Rap artist and Hip Pop artist. They do differ in way by physical

and emotional factors which they portray in their music or on their bodies weather it be with

tattoos, jewelry, hair styles, genders and by the color of their skin. Their looks differ in the way
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they are portraying themselves in their music. Rappers and Hip Hop artist have common trends

which many have discovered as they researched and analyzed these performers. Most of them if

not all of these Rap and Hip Pop artist follow this motto of showing off their wealth and success

as Peter Katel stated is an ostentatious displays of "bling" big diamonds, big cars and big

houses.( Katel) While the ever-present young women who are portrayed as rappers' sexual

playthings, draping themselves around star performers and shaking their booties through

hundreds of near-pornographic videos(Katel). This difference is big because it shows that a

male rapper is idolize for his music, while a female rapper might be idolized by her music, but by

surrounding themselves around the star performers (Katel) and by shaking their booties will

give her a higher chance of becoming more famous and idolized by more people. On the other

hand, if they are not credible or authentic to their music, this could make them infamous other

than famous, to hip hop marketers, "authenticity" is a code word for thug culture and a never-

ending source of some black intellectuals' contempt for mass-market hip hop.(Katel )

Another factor is how their music reaches their audience and listeners. A negative way

which rap music can reach their listeners which comes back to haunt it is the promotion of

violence. Such as how Christina L. Lyons explained in her article Media Violence that people

such as police blame rap for increasing violence such as what happen in Colorado Springs. Lyons

explains that in Colorado Springs in 2007, police publicly blamed gangsta rap for contributing

to the city's growing murder rate. Meanwhile, Mexican and Mexican-American singers grew in

popularity with songs glorifying drug war violence south of the U.S. border(Lyons) Rap makes

its listeners believe that violence is a normal and okay thing to do, which is not. This is not going

to stop rap listeners to stop listening to rap because this is what they listen to it in the first place.

If rappers shock their listeners with their rap then they are doing their jobs which is entertaining
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there audience, as Marcia Clemmitt stated in her article, Shock of various kinds has always

been part of entertainment(Clemmitt). Which rappers just by rapping about money, drugs,

violence, killing and inequalities carry a shock, and they're beyond the norm of everyday life,

and that's what makes them interesting and entertaining(Clemmitt). By keeping it real it exposes

different people to a brutal luxurious life which they have never heard about. These factors

which I just mentioned can be a big significance in their careers and whether they make it or

break it. They gain popularity by keeping it real, which in my opinion is what helps them make

it.

Gender in my opinion is very bias in this industry, because females have to act and be in

tip top shape to show their beauty at all times in order to keep their fans and followers since they

are glorified by this. While male Rappers and male Hip Pop artist can be grimy and unattractive

but still have the same amount of fans, if not more than female artist without trying to hard to

show attraction because thats what their voice and lyrics do for them. Male or female their

appearance backs up their music and what they represent weather it be people, gangs, groups,

culture or their community.

Males on the other hand are not always the ones on top nor do they always have

automatic respect by other rappers in the Hip Hop and Rap industry. They are usually not on top

due to the color of their skin, background, looks and rapping skills in general. The most obvious

difference between the males are their skin colors, in a industry with mostly African American it

is hard for a white boy to just walk in and become successful. This type of discrimination

happens because people false sense of assumption automatically makes them believe for a odd

reason that because someone is black they know or live a gangster lifestyle and if someone if is

white that they are generalized as spoiled, rich people and that have never gone through any hard
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times or had had to fight for anything. The reality is that the pigment color of your skin does not

tell your story, your mouth does and the people around and your background support it. Anyone

can claim to be anything but if they can not back it up what good does that do for them. Black or

white rappers have to back up what they are about at all times, some use violence to do so and

others their mouths. At the end they are doing the same thing with their music which is

producing music which people who listen to rap want to hear as Katel puts it that rappers see

what people buy(Katel) These rappers still expose Americas imperfections, Gangsta rap is just

a reflection of America. America is sick(Katel) Their color did not stop them from doing this,

their dislikes and personal views did, which is a imperfection of the American people.

An opposing claim against rappers and hip hop artist is that their music is bad and they

are bad influences to their younger audience even though their music was not intended to be

heard by them. Since rap and hip hop music has focused on its glorification of violence, sexual

exploitation and crime.( Katel) These rappers also shape the mindsets, views, and make their

audience want to dress like them as Christina Hoag wrote in her article Fighting Gangs.

Christina States that rap and hip-hop music popularized and glamourized the gang

lifestyle(Hoag) and their younger dress like them as well as talk like rappers as she puts it

Permeating American youth culture were baggy pants and T-shirts and baseball caps worn

sideways or backwards, plus the use of slang such as bling for shiny jewelry and homies and

homeboys for friends(Hoag). Other famous people not involved with hip hop or rap, such as

Bill Cosby critic and views gangsta rappers are terrible role models for impressionable inner-

city youths(Katel). This because black males are increasingly endangered six times more

likely than white males to die in homicides( Katel) By rappers and hip hop artist glorifying a

criminal lifestyle it does not help break the trend and help the situation which is occurring. Some
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rappers, such as the rap group Migos claim not to glorify violence as Peter Katel stated. Migos is

made up three upcoming rappers which their rap names are Offset, Quavo and Takeoff. They

make it clear in their song Slippery when they said the verse, I'm a murderer nigga but I don't

promote violence (Migos). This lyric may have double meaning but to most people it sounds

like they are simply saying they murder other rappers at rapping or in other words defeat them

other than actually taking them out to get to the top, they use their music to get them their not

violence.

In conclusion Rap and Hip Hop is a way of expression to expose the wrong of the world,

communities, and social injustice. In the industry itself these same social justices and wrongs

which they are trying to expose are very clear and present in the Rap and Hip Pop industry. Rap

is viewed to be doing more wrong than good to people and especially youth. Like all industries

and communities they have their followers and their haters, it all depends on the person and

whether they like that type of music or not. Maybe these rappers and hip pop artist are not all bad

and are just viewed in a bad way, maybe they are just trying to get their voice out there and speak

for those who can not and be successful. Not all of them are the same, they have their own

unique characters and personalities or else they would not be know, they must have been

different to get noticed.

Works Cited

Katel, Peter. "Debating Hip-Hop." CQ Researcher 15 June 2007: 529-52. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.
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Clemmitt, Marcia. "Shock Jocks." CQ Researcher 1 June 2007: 481-504. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Lyons, Christina L. "Media Violence." CQ Researcher 14 Feb. 2014: 145-68. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Hoag, Christina. "Fighting Gangs." CQ Researcher 9 Oct. 2015: 841-64. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Migos. Slippery. Youtube, https://youtu.be/jPajWtrDRFk. Accessed 26 April 2017.