Hip Hop and Violence

The argument of if Hip Hop may be deemed responsible for violence occurring in the black community has been quite potent for quite some time now. Interestingly is my own new understanding that there are many people, academics, who do believe that hip hop can be directly drawn to violence within certain communities. Furthermore, after the readings, I am left with the question: which came first, the violence or the hip hop? This meaning, I don’t believe hip hop began as such an outlet, expressing such things, so, with this being said, what has happened in the history of all our days in which hip hop embarked on such a voice? If the beginning of the hip hop movement was started to transform tragedy into something young men and women could use and in reverse, turn into art, where after the movement began did violence rise to such a tremendous force. Chang, in Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, pin points this to a certain extent, however, when considering this, and other materials or facts, how strong was hip hop as a movement if after delivering rap as a voice and going commercial, it somehow began a new entity?

            After reading this weeks material, I questioned rap, what it is, versus what I always thought it to be, and I questioned hip hop, how something so strong could ever be seen as weak and “dead” to a certain extent. My “conclusion” if it may be called that is that due to the social conditions faced by the black and Latin community, as time progressed, the ills of the community became real, and in return, the voice changed, the view of life changed, and what was important was somehow able to be compromised, hence forth, rap music is our story, as of now.-by Kaitlyn Dowd