Race, Gender, Media

Hip hop is a culture. It is a way of life. It is interesting, because when I first read the question I thought about the movie Brown Sugar when Sanaa Lathan character Sidney Shaw would ask “When did you first fall in love with hip hop”? Hip hop is a form of expression, spoken word, a mindset, a lifestyle, a state of being and has been for generations and will continue to be for generations to come. Listed below are the 10 artist we were asked to look at for this assignment:

Five hip hop artists:
MC Sniper (Korean Artist)
Ms. Dynamite (U.K. Artist)
K. Maro (Lebanese Artist)
Chutzpah (Jewish Rap Group)
Doom (U.S. Artist)

Five hip hop videos:
Eminem -We Made You
Kanye West feauring Young Jeezy - Amazing
Methman/Redman featuring Saukrates - A-yo
Rick Ross featuring John Legen - Magnificent
Busta Rhymes featuring T-Pain - Hustler’s Anythem 09



Corporations that have utilized hip hop to advertise their products are Allstate and Gap

Allstate Commercial

Cool Allstate Commercial With Hip-Hop Music - The most amazing videos are a click away

Gap Commercial:


Where else can you find the influence of hip hop in the media?
The is a significant hip hop influence in the media. You can see this is magazine advertisement, movies, commercials, in all honesty, you can see it in everything. The real question is, is it always a positive influence. You see the hip hop influence in the beer advertisements, the cigarette advertisements and things of that nature. You really do not see too many positive ads that feature hip hop or anything with an urban impact.

What things if any have come from hip-hop and become part of mainstream culture?
Of course the use of slang has and will always be a part of the mainstream culture. There is even an ebonic dictionary that translates the common terminology people use on a day to day basis.

What music did your parents listen to when they were young?
This is an interesting question because my parents have a very diverse taste in music. Growing up, my mother would listen to anything from Barry Manilow, Jackson 5, Luther Vandross, to Teddy Pendergrass. My father on the other hand grew up listening to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Guy, and N.W.A.


State of hip hop in reference to representation and images?
Hip hop in 2009 is a bittersweet thing. There are some artist who have a positive message and constantly enforce that in there songs. Unfortunately, artist like Common, Mos Def, and Lupe Fiasco do not get the airplay that other artist like 50 cent, Young Jeezy and Soulja Boy, who do not have a positive message in there music. Artist like 50 cent and Soulja Boy rap about the materialistic things in life or how to get and belittle women. Women use to be represent by artist like Queen Latifah and Sista Souljah in a positive and enlightening way however when women like Little Kim and Foxy came around, all of that change. Now, you see women more so as a decoration with little no clothes on in the back of some music video.