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Sorry if this post is like 500 words long :P
Rap or hip hop is another type of art. I like to say that I’m really into music, and even though I really don’t listen to rap or hip hop, I can say that I could appreciate what their message is.
My brother likes hip hop, and sometimes he tells me to listen to some of the songs that he likes. And I notice two things: it’s all about the cool beats and the lyrics. He tells me that he hates all that “mainstream” rap that most people listen to because they are all about stupid stuff like who’s got the more money or how many women you have in your bathroom. But one day he made me listen to this song about how a black/Latino guy was walking down the streets and he finds a group of guys who are trying to kill him unless he abuses this woman that they have captured. This guy didn’t want to get killed so he violates the woman and later to recognize her face and realized that he just violated her own mother…
This song made me think about how women are treated in society, just like Bell Hooks said: they are sex objects in music videos and the lyrics are all about her body and stuff that guys want to do to her. But this song is different. True, it shows how women are physically weak against men and rape as something empowering that men can do because of this. But the thing that I didn’t mention is that this song is not about showing off. It’s about how society is all messed up, most likely because of the lack of education and mistakes that people make because of it. This song is about realizing that we need to change those people who think making this guy rape her own mother is funny.
Sure any song about a cat or about dancing can be meaningful for some, but when I think about what some, not every, kind of music that is degrading to people, in this case women, I don’t like to consider them as true artists. I do think that the artist from the last paragraph is in fact and artist, because he is not degrading people; he is telling the truth about society. Some people might say this artist created this music just for the money, and it might be true, but not all artists create rap or hip hop as a source to get richer and richer. Some want to make themselves heard and teach us a thing or two. I do agree that the media likes to show us that kind of nonsense music, but some give us a meaningful message and you can either take it or leave it.
This is fasinating and different from a lot of the other blogs I read.
ReplyDeleteI cringed at the theme of the song you described, but when it comes down to it, essentially everything is a message. Even the mainstream hiphop songs that, like you said, talk about how many girls they can get in their bathroom, have a message of their very own. Just the fact that these songs are popular, and that they are not often questioned as being popular, tells us that society does have their own perception of what is the norm.
Just like Johnson said, it is when we start questioning and stop fearing difference is when we can start to "all get along."
Thanks for the complement! and sorry that you had to read all 500 words :P I'll try to make it shorter next time...well it depends on the topic haha
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting perspective -- as in, most music in general (today) is not interested in such a profound message. I would also like us to keep in mind that although "hip-hop" was highlighted in the video, in no way is it more guilty than other music in terms of sexism and misogyny; we can look at country music, metal, and even classical.
ReplyDeleteGood post!