Pre-Reading Questions Week Twelve

        I believe that hip hop can be used to further social justice up to a certain extent. Hip hop started out as an “artistic expression of, and a way to survive, on-going poverty and social disenfranchisement”, but now it’s more than that. Nowadays all rappers talk about in their lyrics is money, getting girls, and more money; you don’t really hear about the struggles that had to deal with before all the wealth. I believe that hip hop is now seen as more of a tool for critique than social justice because of the music videos and the violence in the lyrics. Everyone watches music videos, whether if it is their favorite song or if it is just a good editing for the video. The audience normally judges the artist in the video because they are dressed weird sometimes, for example Nikki Minaj or Flavor Flav.

I think that hip hop could be used as a powerful tool for activism because of the large fan base, but I do not think it is more useful than other music genres because all types of music have its own meaning and its own crowd of listeners. For example, Ac/Dc is an older well known rock band that also has a large fan base, but their lyrics are about doing drugs and having sex. Regardless of how provocative the lyrics can be, there will always be fans and followers.

Common is one of the many hip hop artists that I listen to. There is more to his songs than just beats, but there is deep meaning and it delivers a powerful message as well. For example, the song “The People” talks about the people of Common’s hometown and how he can affect people’s lives by his music. If you look at the lyrics, there is neither cussing nor does he talks about killing or doing drugs and yet this is one of his most heard songs. Rap can still be expressed in a conscious matter and still get the message across without violence and drugs.