Rappaz and da media

Othas Who Feel Me

2004-06-02T08:19:00.000+10:00

I have managed to get the puta working again, thank goodness!
If you are into the commercialised rap groups such as I have been analysing, check out Doug's page. However, Chris has provided us with a more localised and if not alternative perspective to the lesser known hip hop artists, check him out.

As I said yesterday, I have been checking out a few books to further enlighten myself (mmmm...) and I think you should check out a book called "Rappin' and Stylin' Out" it is an edited collection by Thomas Kochman and it covers pretty luch every angle of hip hop culture possible! From Non-verbal communication to The hustling ethic! Definately worth a look.

Trouble follows me everywhere

2004-06-01T11:34:00.000+10:00

Especially when it comes to trying to find stuff to answer the qustion I have decided to answer for my next essay - hmmm.
I have been discovering a few other people who are into hip hop culture, YaY!! But unfortunately, I was going to attach them to my webpage now, but the uni puta has put its foot down and decided I can't connect to anyone else's blog right now, so I will have to wait until I get home to show you all what others have been doing on the same subject.

As far as new information goes, I am currently reading a few books on rap music and its connections with mainstream America, hopeully these will uncover some hidden secrets for me which I can reveal to you later on (and if you're lucky, I may even include the references!!)

Ice-T Gives the media a rap on the wrists.

2004-05-27T09:54:00.000+10:00

Gangsta rap has been blamed by the media for exploiting women, promoting violence and the use of drugs, the Mediascope Issue Brief into the treatment of women, stated:
"In particular, gangsta rap, a popular West Coast music style distinguished by lyrics that graphically describe scenes of gunplay, sex, drug use and violence, often depicts women negatively; their roles rarely extend beyond being kidnapped, held hostage, brutally gang raped at gunpoint, or murdered. 24 Studies have found that exposure to rap music does, in fact, "tend to lead to a higher degree of acceptance of the use of violence (including violence against women)." 25

In his article, Ice-T acknowledges this, by stating that gansgta rap is about "Shit-talking", it is all about the lie and the story to make you look something bigger in order to illustrate your message. After all, who's going to sit down and listen to someone rap about the logisticall politics of the War on Terror? Noone!! Unless there is a story, a bit of eggagertation here and there and a bit of fantasy and BAM you have an interested audience.

However, Ice-T but also points out that the media themselves embelish in sex stories in order to sell papers, to advertise, and to promote. So really, how different are the media to the rappers they constantly criticise?

Finally, a direction!

2004-05-25T20:54:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since my last post! Would just like to say a big Thank You!! To all those who have been posting comments, you have been so helpful in pointing me in directions I never thought of - and even (heaven forbid) encouraging me to think deeper into what I write on my Blog!!
My time away from this blog has not been totally wasted, for I have discovered the direction to take for the next essay. I have devised the research question (along with some helpful assistance from a certain tutor) "How has the mass media shaped gangsta rap and shifted it beyond the original meaning/ideology."
The remainder of my blogging time will be spent pumping out ideas related to this question.

Some Random Thoughts

2004-05-19T09:32:00.000+10:00

The more I delve into the depths of rap music and its fundamental concepts, the more I discover the severe impact the mass media, especially newspapers, are having on the freedom of expression of rap artists. Many of their references to rap artists and their lyrics are worded to create moral panics. 2 Live Crew were condemned in the media, and their album "Nasty as they Wanna Be" was subsequently banned by the court of law in Miami. Similarly, Eminem was treated in the same way, and although his albums weren't banned, there was heated disucussion around the themes of his songs, and also debate over whether a white boy from America should be having the same, if not more, of an effect on white kids around the world!
The presence of the media has meant that artists have to be more selective in the songs they release into the public, as while all publicity is good publicity in the music industry, excessive negative exposure can affect the way a record company views its signed artists. For example, to use Eminem again, one of his greatest Top 40 hits in 2000 was the song titled "Purple Hills," the publiclcy release version seemed to be a trippy daydreamish song about "blue and yellow purple hills." However, this was merely a ploy to gain air time on national and interntaional radio as the album version, undoubtedly the original version, was actually titled "Purple Pills," and is a song about excessive durgtaking and the consequent trips.

Expansion on the concept of the Organic Intellectual

2004-05-17T10:56:00.000+10:00

The Organic Intellectual, as outlined in Bolwing and Washington's article is oncovered through the use of language to "provide the basis for a the continued revolution and evolution of the African Diasporic aesthetic." The African American oral tradition has been a useful force since the days of black slavery. It was utilised as a means of expression on a wider scale in the late 1980s and early 1970s, through rap music. But the more current style of rap music, which boasts extensive lyrical composure has boosted the tradition's rep.

The term 'organic intellectuals' conveys the fluid nature of rap music. The term 'organic' was derived from the fact that rap music is based around the lifestyles of the rappers themselves, the content and topics vary greatly between rappers, and even between the songs of the same rappers. "Intellectuals" was used as the rappers have to undertake some deep thought while in the composing stages, and therefore their lyrics are the result of an analysis of the situations that young african americans experience.

Hope this clarifys the meaning of the terms a bit more.

From Original Gangstas to Organic Intellectuals

2004-05-14T20:43:00.000+10:00

Last Tuesday's tute got the old brain juices flowing around the concept of Rap as a form of communication. I always thought it was all in the lyrics, but then non-verbal messages can also speak volumes. So, technically, when you combine the two into, say, a music video - wouldn't the messages be amplified?

An article found here contains a detailed analysis of many aspects of how rap was formed, and therefore how the messages conveyed in music videos contain powerful messages that are both a relfection of the musical past and an affirmation of the current situations of the culture.

This is demonstrated by the historic transofmration of the outlaws to original gangstas to organic intellectuals. This transformation has created such a tight-knit subcultural community that the images portrayed on present music videos still conflict with the multiculturalism that is accepted throughout most of the world, a few of these include:

mixing of color video with black and white images;
narrating stories that combine main and subtext stories;
directing messages to the viewer in "debate";
detailing message format in background signs, letters on hats and shirts; interrupting noises (e.g., sirens, crashes, etc.); and
stage performing; re-enacting flashbacks, and so forth.

Check out the article, it'll absolutely open your eyes with its in-dept analysis of a seemingly new musical genre.

Got Beef? Meat or Issues?

2004-05-11T19:53:00.000+10:00

Being able to define rap music is becoming harder as time goes on!

The Online Rap Dictionary - yes they indeed have one, don't they have one for everything these days? However, as amusing as this dictionary is, there is no definition of rap.

My Boyfriend once told me that RAP actually stood for Rhythm and Poetry, but when asked to recall where he got that information, he'd forgotten. So far I haven't been able to find a source to support his thesis, but I believe it to be a rather good one.

Anyway, back to the dictionary. It looks to be a rather useful source, I found it hard to decipher the hidden messages laid by rap artists within their lyrics when I wasn't sure of their slang usage. For example, take the simple word beef - ordinarily meaning a type of meat from a cow that we eat, no no no!! the dictionary carries this definition:

beef
1) (n) And argument or discrepancy with another individual or group of individuals. The following citation is from the book Juba to Jive: the dictionary of African-American slang, by Clarence Major. Beef n. (1930s-1940s; 1960s-1970s) an "old" word dating back to general criminal use in the thirties. For young black in the sixties and later it meant roughly the same as it had earlier: a complaint or argument; a disagreement in progress.
2) (n) Sexual meat, like a penis. "No service of beef ... meaning to have sex" -- NWA (Parental Discretion Iz Advised [??])

This gives a whole new meaning to the Snoop Dogg song "Got Beef"!! The underlying theme of it is, if you've got a problem, (beef) say it to my face so I can deal with it.

Emergence of Pop-Rap? Overlapping musical genres

2004-05-08T15:07:00.000+10:00

Upon receiveing the new essay options for media studies, my poor little brain has been grappling with the concepts of how to define rap music and its culture in a modern sense. The overlapping of musical genres that is presently occurring makes it harder to categorise music. 2Pac, Snoop Dog and other artists who have been around since the early 90s are easily classified, but how do you describe more recent acts such as J-Wess or Usher - pop-rap?

Censorship turns into Legals Battle in the 1990s

2004-05-05T11:46:00.000+10:00

As I mentioned earlier this week, censorship has been a huge hurdle for rap artists during the break through into the global market, round about the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first highly publicised censorship case was that of the now infamous (thanks to the mass media) rap group 2 Live Crew. Their legal battle can be found on numerous sites simply by gogle searching their name - which highlights the enormity of the event.

The "Dirty as they Wanna Be" album was held under the microscope to decide whether the lyrics promoted the demeaning of women, promoting gang violence and other dilenquent behaviour and whether the album as a whole was overtly sexually explicit.

For a summary of the details, check out the Unofficial 2 Live Crew website. The album was banned in Miami in the end, a successful result for the likes of the government, some women's rights movements and also to the relief of older African Americans. However, this case set the precedent for other rap artists and their work to be examined under the judicial system - effectively reducing their right to freedom of expression for fear of prosecution.

How can the global rap artists we hear on the radio and MTV in 2004 be an accurate reflection of the life of young African Americans in the deindustrialized inncer-cities of Detroit and Compton, when they cannot express themselves overtly like they had once done in the early 1980s?

Censorship Woes Reflected in Lyrics

2004-05-03T12:04:00.000+10:00

During my morning wake-up time I found myself reflecting on the world of hip hop, and their relationship with the media and the government. It dawned on me that this issue is dealt with lyrically by many artists. This is an example of how rappers reflect the real-life issues they face day to day. For example, check out Ice-T's song titled Freedom of Speech. The site Original Hip Hop Lyrics Archives also houses the thoughts of many rap artists on this issue.

Rap's First Media Source is THE Source

2004-04-29T09:37:00.000+10:00

During research for the first MSTU assignment, I found numerous references to the rap magazine The Source. The Source was attributed in the later 1980s as being one of the key players in the east/west side conflict, often giving east side artists better reviews and comments than the newer west side style of gangsta rap.

Interestingly enough, although this was the first magazine to devote its entire content to rap music, it is also still successful in America, with new editions every month.

The burst of rap onto the international scene in the early 1990s may have helped to sustain the magazine. In fact, there are probably too many artists to write about, it's a matter of choice now rather than a matter of where to find the artists to write about! Top 100 artists

New Media Enlightenment

2004-04-26T11:41:00.000+10:00

It was only last week that I was introduced to the blog, and already its technical abilities and potential impacts are mind-boggling.

The blog opens up a whole new level of communication and interaction on an academic level, and I am hoping to harness this to enhance my understanding of rap artists and the mass media.

Popular culture and the effects of the media, be they positive or negative, are widely debated topics. I am hoping that by utilising the blog, alternative perspectives and arguments will reach me through feedback and criticism of my postings and also general comment. In this way, i think the blog will be a tremendous asset to the production of the second essay.

I will endeavour to use the blog to publish findings as I come across them, and I hope to generate interest from other bloggers to add their perspectives on the topics I have discovered, or to enlighten me on a direction I have totally missed.

Ahh, technology at it's greatest...

New Media Enlightenment

2004-04-26T11:19:00.000+10:00

As I mentioned, last week I was introduced to the world of the 'blog'. This is all very new and exciting for me, considering I haven't learnt any new computer technology since grade 12, a few years now...

I am hoping that my blog will enable me to look at rap and it's media influences on a whole new level. The interaction blogs are famous for will definately provide an opportunity for me to explore things more thoroughly.

The opportunity to tap into people's feedback and comments will also ensure many different perspectives are heard. Music and popular culture are always topics of discussion, argument and alternative perspectives, so the blog's interactivity, I hope, will foster these principles.

Anyways, back to the grindstone...

Rap's First Media Coverage

2004-04-23T15:27:00.000+10:00

I've come across a book that details the history of rap, including the extent of its media coverage in it's early days. It can be found in the Architecture Music library, it's reference is:

Yasin, Jon A. "In Yo Face! Rappin' Beats Comin' at You: A study of how language is mapped onto musical beats in Rap Music." Michigan: UMI, 1997.

I recommend it to those who have no idea about the musical value of rap music and its underlying themes. The information that strikes me as interesting is that rap music did not get substantial media coverage until the 1980s, after being a musical genre since the 70s. This signifies the community value of the genre. You had to be 'in the know' to be part of the audience as performances were originally conducted within communities, not in cities until the 80s. Media coverage would have been a major factor to the transformance of rap music from what it was then, reality and neighbourhood based, to the glamorised image it has today.

2004-04-21T12:22:00.000+10:00

Well, this is the first time ever using a weblog! Could be interesting... This is my chance to gain more technological experience with computers! This is being doen for MSTU2000, in a bid to gain more knowledge of the impacts the mass media on rap as a musical form and culture.

2004-04-20T19:22:00.002+10:00

I have found an article by Maya Dollarhide about the history of music censorship. This is relevant to the rap genre as it has been highly censored throughout its past.

2004-04-20T19:22:00.001+10:00

I found this article by Maya Dollarhide . It investigates the history of the music censorship in America. This is very applicable to rap music, as rap has been heavily censored in the past.

2004-04-20T19:22:00.000+10:00