Hip-Hop, a Culture or a Genre?

Hip-Hop, a Culture or a Genre?

When I was young and I would think of Hip-Hop many different things would come to mind such as rap, bass, and gangsta. The generation before me probably associated Hip-Hop with other things such as poverty, Dj’s, and slick rhymes.  Even though the characters and characteristics changed the messages were still the same. First, it’s about hope, by having hope even the most poverty stricken individual could break the barriers of his or her surroundings. The next message was unity. Unity amongst friends, unity amongst races, unity amongst gangsters, dancers, taggers, and anybody else that wanted to be heard. The third message is perseverance in which all things where possible. This belief enabled one to be able to say “ How you gonna tell me what I can and can’t do. The final but probably the most important message was equality. This message I hope would be self-explanatory. These reasons were the cause of Hip-Hop being branded a culture instead of just another music genre. This brings up an interesting question. Does Hip-Hop still have the right to be called a culture?

Modern day Hip-Hop artists while being better compensated and more quick witted than their predecessors seem to be lacking culture. Artists like Drake and 2-Chains have amazing sounding music that consists of memorizing dynamics and a thunderous bass pattern, and more so Drake has an ability to put words together in a way that soothes the ear. However, with lyrics that ranges from money, clothes, girls, cars and clubs, one cant help but notice that there are no messages in any of their music. They may tell you how pretty you are, or even to forget what people say about you, but they offer nothing for the soul. They do not promote unity as they will frequently tell you how much better they are than you. They offer no hope and inform you of how you should not have hope as they will crush your dreams cause they be stunting like that. The only perseverance that they promote is self-perseverance.  Final, why would they promote equality when telling you how much you suck seems to sells so many albums?

What used to be a machine of positivity and a guide to strength as to find positivity in all your negativity is simply nothing more than a music-producing monster. This leads me to the reason for this blog. This blog is a place for all hip-hop fans to have their opinion heard on whether or not Hip-Hop is true to its origins and culture or simply another business market to sell music.