Hip-Hop “Just Keeping It Real”

Taylor Heeg

• -the claim that hip hop is just keeping it real is usually made in response to negative social conditions that encourage violence, representing the criminal life, supporting sexism and homophobia.

• Robert Morgado, VP Warner Communications, “Rap music provides a window on our urban culture. Through it we can gauge the realities of life in our inner cities, which would otherwise be obscured, realities that are deeply troubling…the music can be frightening. It is violent and hard to understand, absolutely. Much of modern life is like that. Music and the lyrics reflect a reality that can’t be censored. “

Hip Hop Destroys America’s Values• Hip hop is continuously telling a story about culture and feel and emotion.

In a sense, it is a personal illustration that stresses pain and hardships that have been overcome by perseverance and fighting through “the struggle”. Indefinitely hip hop is a distinctive art form that is conveyed in songs, paintings, and fashion. If expressing yourself based off of your values and beliefs is contributing to the destruction of America’s values, then there is a lot more issues that we have as a society. Implicating irrational standpoints and condescending presumptions seems very closed minded for a country that is “land of the free, home of the brave”.

Style and fashion play a leading role in the heart of hip hop culture. Baggy jeans, tracksuits, oversized jewelry and sneakers are all iconic items of clothing that have been absorbed by mainstream fashion. Brands including Adidas, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger have been instrumental in bringing hip-hop fashion to the masses. Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton have all incorporated essentials of hip-hop fashion on the catwalk.

Significant quotes that allocate that meaning of music telling a story

• “ One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain” – Bob Marley

• “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” - Albert Einstein

• “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imaginationand life to everything.” - Plato

• “People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands - literally thousands - of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss.” - Nick Hornby

Commercially, large corporations such as Sony have used graffiti in marketing campaigns. Thus, making it an influential and marketable form of art.

Cultures convey messages just as history repeats its own self

• Peace sign = respect, son • Peace sign = peace and love, man