The Black and the White Voice in the Hip Hop Culture

Hip Hop and American Youth Culture

Everyone enters a stage of growth when a strong urge to break out of parental dependence, when he recognizes his own person and desires to assert himself. This sense of individuality is an inherent in the American character, especially the youth. Aligned with this restlessness is the restlessness endured for centuries by the Blacks. Their elders may have learned to live with the malignity, although without yielding to it, or have less energy to fight. But African-American youth found a way to vent their revulsion towards the discrimination and abuses to which they are subjected as a race. That discovery happened in the 70s when the hip-hop spirit evolved into a concept and then into music, dance, poetry and many other creative forms of letting the sea of anguish flow out of their soul.

The voice of the young American who seeks individual freedom and assertion has merged with the voice of a spurned and beleaguered race. Through the hip-hop culture and lifestyle, young people of all cultures find what they seek in common -- a separate identity they could not find anywhere else. From a mere musical genre, it transposed into multiple phases. It attracted industries and penetrated the different sectors until it transformed into a lifestyle or an ideology of youth itself. The singularity of purpose and sentiment has blurred races, classes and genders among these youth. Their newfound sense of belonging and identification with something that is theirs and is them is irreplaceable. It influences them profoundly as they profoundly influence and dictate its very substance. They are at home in it. It is their very home because it understands them. They find more than expression in it. They find themselves in it. It knows and values their feelings and thoughts, whatever these are, and accepts them. It is there for them. [2: Christina Blandon. "Hip-Hop and Youth Culture for Today's Society." Itzarap (2013). Retrieved on November 30, 2015 from https://itzarap.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/hip-hop-and-youth-culture-in-todays-society/]

Hip hop articulates the contemporary American youth culture.

II. Body

Life is Movement

The very first sign of life is the felt quivering of gestating fetus in the womb. The excited parent identifies the stirring as that made by a knee, an elbow or a shoulder. Regardless of the body part, the faintest movement is ascribed to as that of a developing life and the lack of it, a sign of non-life. From thereon, movement is an assumed barometer of animation, which from birth, takes on many forms throughout one's life span. It is the basis of all culture and its very expression. One evocative expression of culture is dance. [3: Gerald Jonas, "Dancing- the Pleasure, Power and Art of Movement," Educational Broadcasting Corporation and Gerald Jonas (1992), 3] [4: ibid. 3]

Dance is Expressive Movement

Dances are for courting, entertainment, weddings, funerals, healing, teaching and for myriads of other purposes. They stimulate a thought or emotion, celebrate, mourn, inspire, tell tales, extol, worship or exhibit rage or turmoil. All these expressions possess power. The new discipline called dance anthropology imparts the concept and execution of dance in its social and cultural context. In this form, dance's techniques and structures possess inherent meaning and value to the dancer and those who share these with him or her. This is the case with dances and dancers at social events, such as weddings, for spectators. There are many dance forms according to events and structures of presentation. There are ritual or religious dances for the gods, waltz by newly married couples, sexual dances and the ballet dance drama form. [5: ibid, 3] [6: ibid, 8-15]

Dance is Communication and Interaction

As in other forms of performance, a dance presentation accomplishes its purpose when the passive audience actively internalizes what it watches and participates in it. Spectators move their bodies in unison with the performers as though they are performers themselves. The message or experience executed and embodied by the performers moves to the spectators, establishing a kind of relationship between them. this connection between dancers and their spectators is precisely one of the most fundamental objectives of dance. It was reported as central to the North American natives before the arrival of Europeans. [7: Gerald Jonas, Part 2, p 2] [8: ibid, p 2]

The Beginnings of the Hip Hop Culture

Thoughts and feelings, especially burning ones, will always find a way to vent themselves. In their dejected state, young and urban African-American working classmen found one outlet in hip hop music and accompaniments through which to vent their rage. This rage built up with every event such as the murders of rappers like Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG who were blamed for the shooting at a school in Little, Colorado. The authorities expectedly placed the blame on the growing trend of violence among the practitioners of the then-evolving rap music from the hip hop culture as embodying youth violence. But critics of the time were just as quick to counter that the message from the lyrics of the music could not be understood so sweepingly understood without knowing its history and its social context. [9: Becky Blanchard, "The Impact of Rap Music on American Youth: the Social Significance of Rap and Hip Hop."Ehics of Development in a Global Environment (1999). https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/socialsignificance.htm ] [10: ibid, web page 1]

The beginning of hip hop music is generally believed to have occurred in New York's South Bronx in 1973 by Kook DJ Herc, a Jamaican. At his younger sister's Halloween dance party, Herc innovatively stretched a song's drug break by using two identical records in succession in playing the song's break portion. It caught attention and turned into some kind of prototype for break-dancing, which later became an ingrained style in hip hop music. Break-dancing was accompanied by extended drumbreaks, usually played by DJs at dance parties in the City. It caught fire. By mid-decade, hip hop in New York was the treat among DJ Grandmaster Flash, afrika Bambaataa, and Herc. And in 1979, the rappers of Sugarhill Gang came up with the first commercially acclaimed piece called "Rappers' Delight." [11: ibid, web page 1]

The Expansion of a New Form of Communication

There were massive efforts in all organized quarters to inhibit its growth but this newfound expression, which evolved in the last quarter, could not stop its spreading popularity among the young. While it began as urban music and dance, hip hop proliferated into a special form of communication, especially by the young, which breached national limits. It has reached other countries in a common effort of expressing what is un-expressed. Hip-hop also breached its limits as to interpretation modes from rap music and break dancing into a gargantuan industry, which asserts its influence across industries and various human endeavors. It is now a symbol of most everything that seeks self-expression from design of automotives, fashion, television programming, sports, marketing and advertising. It has incorporated itself into the culture of the young so intimately that it has become a way of life to many. [12: Carl Taylor and Virgil Taylor. Hip Hop and Youth Culture: Contemplations of an Emerging Cultural Phenomenon." Reclaiming Children and Youth 12, 4 (2004), p 1] [13: ibid, p 1]

An Appeal for Recognition

As earlier mentioned, the Hip-Hop concept emanated from the first young players of rap music, DJ wizardry and street-corner dressing in an attempt to convince adults who rejected the concept to accept and assimilate it into their own as legitimate. Most of these adults whose acceptance or recognition was valuable to these youngsters were parents. They and other authority figures mostly did not understand, like or accept and also warned the young who practiced the concept to drop it. But the more their older folks opposed Hip-hop, the more these young people engaged in the concept and deepened their involvement. [14: ibid. p 1] [15: ibid. p 1]

A study explored the reasons why the young practiced and enjoyed street dance between February and May 2010 in Timisoara, Western Romania. It gathered and interviewed 46 girls and 103 boys, half of whom came from inferior social classes and almost half from the middle clsse. About 83.89% of them regularly practiced break dance for more than five years. Their physical condition, artistic sense, and knowledge, physical discipline, culture and way of life all reflected that they, indeed, engaged in the dance on a regular basis. [16: Simona Petracovschi, et al. "Street Dance: Form of Expressing Identity in Adolescents and Youth." Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal 3, Issue 6 (2011): 1-7] [17: ibid, p 1]

A Sense of Oneness Across Borders

Most of the volunteers said that they engaged in street dance because of its non-conformist nature and live style. These come along with the new moves, new ideas and new styles that they approve and enjoy. They also found street dance an enjoyable way of socializing with others who share their interests and values. At the same time, street dance made them feel nicely separate or detached from their parents and other authority figures for a much desired sense of freedom. These young Romanians may not be exposed or riddled with the same social situations and problems of violence as young people of America, but they embrace and enjoy street dance like them as a means of expressing their individual identity as well as an indication of their opposition to violence, conformism and other social afflictions confronted by more advanced countries. [18: ibid, p 6] [19: ibid, p 6]

A Changing Set of Mechanisms

Hip-hop must be viewed as more than music or dance but an entire gamut of values, concepts and ideas, which embody an entirely new set of changing mechanisms of expression. While it is popularly music, dance, film, poetry and fashion, it is not limited to these. It is characterized by a kind of rhyming, called rapping or rap, which is a new form of art. Rapping is these young people's way of expressing themselves creatively. Their ease in the use of rap or rapping was instrumental in its phenomenal growth and spread. [20: ibid, p 1] [21: ibid, p. 1] [22: Carl S. Taylor and Virgil Taylor. "Hip Hop and Youth Culture." Journal of Urban Youth Culture (2014).Retrieved on November 30, 2015 from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_HIP_HOP_YOUTH/]

Rap music lyrics ad styles dating back to the mid-70s asserted individual appeal to the young, especially those in urban communities. Different types appealed to different demographic areas, regions, territories and localities. The music industry did not take it seriously in its early days. When it began adopting a violent and volatile slant, it called the attention of the music industry as a probable money-making genre. The invention of television and more sophisticated and expanded forms of communication brought in new cultures. The continuing trend was greatly encouraging to the young who want to assert their independence more and more. They also wanted to express their opposition or intolerance to the hypocritical rules and values of adult society. The battle of values was declared. If conventions state that family, school, church and community must be the priorities and strongest influence of the young, Hip-Hop asserted the opposite. [23: ibid, p 1] [24: ibid, p 1]

Negative Impact on Youth

A strong objection to hip-hop music and culture is the heavy stress or message on violence. [25: Phil Thao. "The Impact of Rap an Hip-Hop Music on American Youth." Teen Ink Emerson Media (n.d.).Retrieved on November 30, 2015 from http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/all/article/303133/]

Parents and other adults who oppose this trend or craze among the young are most apprehensive it is contributing to the already high prevalence of violence among the youth. Many parents, law enforcers and other authorities involved in peacekeeping believe that the spread of hip-hop culture and the rise in youth violence and crime was not a coincidence. These young advocates openly admit turning to the culture to express or ventilate their rebellion and opposition to the excesses of authority. It is their expression and symbol of the freedom and individuality they seek and fight for. It solves their problems and fills the gap in their lives. They verbalize these sentiments in the lyrics of their music and acting-out activities. The hip-hop environment serves to fill the gap between their generation and their elders'. [26: ibid, web p 1]

While the young have a right to be heard, their parents and other guardians of peace, order and civility in society place the blame not on the young or their need or right to be heard. They put the blame on the incendiary lyrics of the songs they sing and emphasis on rebellion and violence as alterative solutions. All young people go through that stage, an identity crisis, where they and their parents and other authority figures clash. Parents and authority figures are placed in charge of the young to guide them, both as a right and a duty. Children and youth should understand that. But parents too should understand the stage that their children go through. During adolescence, children develop their own character or personality. They begin to learn and to want to speak for and decide for themselves. This is nature's preparation for their adulthood. This change in attitude is not something easy for parents to accept. It makes them feel they are losing control or value if they based their importance on the dependent relationship On the other hand, the young are less and less willing to compromise their individual freedom. [27: ibid, web p. 1] [28: ibid, web p 1]

A recent experiment engaged the participation of 700-15-year-olds who were exposed to rap music. A third of them were asked to listen to songs with strongly sexual content and songs with degrading sexual lyrics were given to the 2/3 to listen to. The volunteers were then asked what thoughts they had after listening. All of them said that their thoughts were on sex, which is categorized as degrading. It was also alarming to the researcher, considering the strong influence that hip-hop music has on young Americans. This was not all. [29: ibid, web p 1] [30: ibid, web p 1]

Another experiment attempted to establish the connection between rap music with violent lyrics and spicy foods. It had a sample of 20 teenagers who did not like spicy foods and were made to listen to rap music. Ten of them were asked to listen to music with violent lyrics and the other 10, to music without violent content. After listening to their respective music, the volunteers were asked how much hot sauce they would give their teen-age companions. The 10 who listened to violent music said they would give four times as much hot sauce as those who were not given music with violent content. The result of the experiment suggested that violent lyrics or content from rap music would tend to increase the feeling of aggression in a teen-ager than if they were not made to listen to the music. [31: ibid, web p 1] [32: ibid. web p 1]

Findings of other studies also found that young people who listened to hip-hop music eventually became drug users. Some of those songs introduce or talk about drugs, which are new to the listener. These songs lure them to obtain the drug. Moreover, established rappers strongly associate with alcohol manufacturers. That made these rappers easier to write about the drugs. This was part of the conclusion of a study recently conducted on random 12-20-year-old African-American youngsters who were exposed to a beer advertising 66% more times than any other young people, according to researcher Thandi. Listening to rap music glorifying th us of alcohol and drugs while taking them could only show how immersed they were in these substances. More importantly, the dual action illustrates the extent of the influence of rap music on the vices. [33: ibid, web p 1] [34: ibid, web p 1]

The Vulnerability of Youth

Marketers and advertisers find a ready and forceful prospect in the youth who are impressionistic and thus vulnerable to promotional inducements and seducements. Their search for identity is amorphous and product marketers and promoters take advantage of that. It is almost like telling the young what to do, think or say. It has been emphasized how the hip-hop culture makes the young feel good about themselves and accepted for what they are, that they belong here. The affluent young are made to feel important and famous or what they can afford to buy. Low-income youth, like African-Americans, fall for the hip-hop magic because of their lack of a satisfying role model on which to mature. They substitute rap idols and artists for the appropriate role mode at home. They imitate the behavior, habits, preferences and points-of-view of that role model. These include their vices or crimes. Marketers are the medium of adhesion. They assure that the ideals and preferences of the role model, no matter how inappropriate or even criminal, stick to the consciousness of the American youth. When these young finally grow into adulthood, they shall have become troublemakers or street thugs who are moved to action by dazed hip-hop music. [35: ibid, web p 1] [36: ibid, web p 1]

Some Proposed Positive Effects of Hip-Hop

Some sectors attribute positive consequences to hip-hop and rap trend. They say it makes the involved young feel good in that it makes them feel accepted and important. It raises and strengthens their self-esteem. It enables them to think critically over the issues of concern to the group or movement, which they otherwise would ignore if they were not part of the group. Hip-hop makes them more politically aware. Politics and civic-mindedness did not mean anything to these youth until the movement gave importance to these matters and sentiments. The leaders of the movement serve as role models to the youth who idolize them. If they teach proper values, the youth will absorb and live these values. Hip-hop culture has a history of its own, which speaks of solidarity in families and values. This is something that the culture should be proud of and pass on to the current generation. Its music can be a true form of creativity that must be developed. But it must used as a vehicle for good. And if hip-hop serves as a voice of the American youth, white or Black, it should be considered a good consequence. The youth is the largest social sector that well deserves a voice that is authentically theirs. [37: ibid, web p 1] [38: ibid, web p 1]

Interventions for Negative Effects (UCLA 2002)

Music and other hip-hop forms, which depict violence and perverse sexuality, are subjected to legal measures. Schools implement similarly legal strategies, which impose appropriate dress codes and fashion, especially on students who are known to have crossed the line into gangsterism. The Education Commission of the States endorsed these measures as enhancing to students' achievement of their academic goals. Other proposed interventions include advocacy of using the subculture itself in developing learning and collaborating with the media in helping instill positive values in youth development and learning. Some proposed commercial efforts are a hip-hop education literary program for grades 3-12 for improved cognitive development; and non-profit interventions, such as a kind of hip-hop education itself, which will teach the positive effects of the culture on students. The second will focus on promoting healthy development and a proactive attitude towards problem risks, and addressing actual, chronic and severe problems confronted by the students. If implemented correctly, these interventions will confront the inherent problems of the American youth and make the hip-hop culture unnecessary as a refuge. [39: UCLA. "About Hip-Hop Youth Subculture." The Center for Mental Health in Schools (2002). Retrieved on November 29, 2015 from http://smhp.psc=ych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/youth/youthhiphop.pdf] [40: ibid, pp 4-5]