Commonword Blogs

Dear Hip Hop.

Your journey is overwhelming,
Your message is radical,
You story- never-ending,
You’re a sanction- a sabbatical.

Your people are strong and misunderstood,
Your media misrepresents you,
And fabricates the truth.

Your illustrations are bold,
Your home- a concrete jungle
Your clothes-bright and baggy,
Sometimes you’re proud, sometimes you’re humble.

Your words explain the unexplainable,
Your music captivates the unattainable,
You’re a dichotomy for the streets,
Your message weaves through your beats.

You’re transient, you’re global,

“Is Hip Hop really the catalyst for the low qualifications, high teen pregnancy, psychological and spiritual issues and the emerging ASBO culture of our youth today? Or is Hip Hop and excuse politicians and pre ASBO generations use to avoid facing accusations of bad parenting, poor education systems, neglected mental and health problems by the government and the possibility of the glamorisation of other media forms passed on throughout the years that really contributes to youth crime?”

“…There isn’t a relationship between Hip Hop and violence, its just the misconception of what Hip Hop is that makes it appear that way. People see 50cent as the dude who got shot nine times and make a direct correlation between him and what Hip Hop is but don’t know much about those who try to promote peace and happiness….” (Frisko: 2008)

Is Hip Hop really to blame for the state of our youths psychological issues, decrease in spiritual awareness, misogyny, poor qualifications and ultimately, violence? Or is it being used as a sacrifice, carrying the sins of the corporate world?

“…boys and girls are eroticized through their exposure to negative Rap music and videos…their sexuality is being manipulated and strongly influenced by the lyrics, video images and personalities of the Rap industry- and it is an industry.” (Michael Porter, ‘Rap and the Eroticizing of Black Youth’ 2006). It seems sex has become a necessity for the lyrical content of rap music, but is this really another reason for the British youth crime?

This article focuses on what happened when the corporate world made Hip Hop mainstream and inspired the Hip Hop gangster fairytale.

The Gangster story was not invented by the Hip Hop scene, but has inspired artists imagery since the corporate world came to play.

Since the 1930’s, Gangster films have glamorised the lifestyle with moguls/bitches, (trophy women), guns, expensive clothing, cars, houses, drinks and authority over every day people and the law.

“The quality of lyrics eventually came to be dictated by record labels unfortunately, in order to move CD’s off the shelf rather than move people for change.” Smith and Jackson: The Hip-Hop Church, 2005.

Now people! We’re approach the nuclei of our discussion as we look into how the exploitation of Hip Hop via Record labels paved the way for critics to draw parallels between Hip Hop culture and youth crime. It began with rap and slowly other Hip Hop elements followed. Join me as I explore how and why.

So how does a mesh of Thatcherism, dub reggae and a bunch of angry people pave the way for Brit hop?

We open Pandora’s box and reveal a whole bunch of theories from this article onwards as we review the social problems amongst British youths of the era. We look at how reggae and hip hop gave birth to a multitude of Brit hop sub genres including techno, jungle, garage, drum n’ bass, trip hop and grime.

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What came first: The culture or the crime? Are young people easily influenced by hip hop or is hip hop easily influenced by young people? Who or what is responsible for the rise in young offenders?

In order to answer the questions, one must start by looking at the birth of hip hop.
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Is hip hop really the catalyst for low qualifications, high teen pregnancy, psychological and spiritual issues and the emerging ASBO culture of our youth today? Or is hip hop the excuse politicians and pre ASBO generations use to avoid facing accusations of bad parenting, poor education systems, neglected mental and health problems and the glamorisation of other media forms passed on throughout the years that really contributes to youth crime?