Take a minute-or in reality over an hour- to check out the complexity of Hip Hop culture in this video below. In it are both a pro and con side of and for Hip Hop. Listen to the arguments; engage in the rhetoric being said; and take in the complexities of a culture that is truly hard to define. This is a great clip to truly get an overview on some of the main arguments currently happening within and around Hip Hop studies. Moreover, it is important to understand the various viewpoints in a culture that many people only see as a musical genre.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

2 Comments »

1. 

   Dan, thank you for linking to this video. I watched the whole thing and was interested to see the variety of opinions expressed and learn more about what these commentators see as the pressing issues regarding hip hop. I am left doubting how helpful the simplistic question they were posed actually is. It seems like the real question to which people kept returning was whether misogyny and self-hatred are the leading issues for reform in or advancement of the hip hop community. Reduce the panel to just a few people and make the question more direct and grounded (and include more women, and clarify why the white panelists are there or should be there in the first place), and things might have gotten a bit deeper. I also wondered about the meanings of this kind of exercise as a social ritual, because a very similar set of “debates” was had in the 1980s about the alleged nefarious effects of major label rock/metal. All that said, it is useful to hear at least brief comments from all the speakers on where they see the key issues today, but unless it goes deeper I am not sure whether it really goes anywhere.

   Comment by Tommy Beaudoin — July 6, 2012 @ 8:32 pm

2. 

   Tom,
   Excellent points. I remember that debate on Rock, as well as several others, too. I think you ask a great question here in terms of what is that actual question. I know Ill Doctrine asks the same thing:

   http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2012/07/ill-doctrine-why-is-every-hip-hop.html

   But it does seem we move on to more in depth nuanced arguments in the Hip Hop community.

   Thanks for your post!

   Comment by dwhodge — July 7, 2012 @ 1:42 pm

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