mass commication and how it affects todays youth Essay examples -- ess

From Eminems hardcore explicit lyrics, to Lil Kims outrageous outfits to the late Tupac Shakurs thug life image, the rap subculture has been under a lot of speculation. Many rappers lyrics contain violent messages that p bents fear are encouraging youth to become violent. The media has a field day covering protests against rappers, such as Eminem about their explicit lyrics towards gays, women and their promotion of violence. The main concern is how rap is influencing today, particularly towards the youth community, and the answer can be found in the media. There are a lot of articles, books, movies and documentaries written and produced each year with hip-hop being the main subject. This great plethora of media not only affects the youth but early(a) people as well. However, one needs to understand how the rap culture got started, and why the media found it interesting enough to give it a substantial list of coverage. According to Webster, rap is rhythmic chanting of usually rhym ing couplets to a musical accompaniment (Webster, 607). The rap subculture began in the African community residing in the Bronx during the 70s with rappers free stylingwhen artists rhyme without memorization or writing down lyricsin the park, on street corners and in apartment basements (Watkins, 63). This was a harmless focussing of determining who the best lyricist was. At the time artists such as Arrested Development made lyrics that sent a positive message to the African community. The radicals songs address topics ranging from homelessness to the search for spirituality and African Americans connection with Africa. Through their positive influence they received Best New Artist and Best rap music Artist during the 1993 Grammy Awards (Boyd, 44). During its birth, this subculture produced many other cultures such as graffiti art, break dancing and most notably rap music. This subculture was very expressive and paved the flair for latter cultures success. In his book, Fight the Power, Chuck D (a member of rap group Public Enemy) states, Hip hop is a subculture of Black culture. Its another(prenominal) term for Black creativity. Rap music is here to stay because its vocal over music, and as the music changes the vocals can remain the same because its one of the few live vocal styles ever used for recording music (p.g. 248). He was right because as the 80s wer... ...l Publishing. 19983.S. Craig Watkins, 1998. Balck Youth and the Ironies of Capitalism. In Representing Hip-Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema. Chicago University of Chicago Press.4.Nelson George, Hip Hop America. New York Penguin Books, 19985.Heru Ptah. A Hip Hop Story. New York Pocket Books, 20026.8 Mile, starring Eminem and Malik Phieffer7.Brown Sugar staring Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs8.Clarence Lusane. 1993 Rap, race and politics.. Black America The Street and the Campus. Special Issue of Reace and Class 351.9.Tricia Rose. Never Trust, 1996 page 6010.Todd Boyd. 1994. Check Yo Sel f before you Wreck Yo Self Variations on a Political Theme in Rap Music and Popular Culture. Public Culture. 71.11.Connie Buck. 7 July 1991. The Takedown of Tupac. The New Yorker12.Randall Sullivan. 7 June 2001. The Murder of the Notorious BIG. Rolling Stone.