Hip-Hop

1.    

   Rewind to the inner cities of New York, during the mid-1970’s/early 1980’s. Break-dancers and emcees would entertain the crowd while deejays would spin the hottest records. Fresh graffiti would be on the walls, subways, and every other public place paintable. This was the roots of hip-hop. As time went on, hip-hop became more commercial and by the 1990’s the original aesthetics of hip-hop were diminished by the representation of hip-hop in the media. The media felt Black men had various women always surrounding them, with large chains, and fat/“phat” wallets. Now hip-hop has evolved in rap. According to Week 10 lecture, cultural appropriation is the adaptation of some specific elements of one culture by a different culture group. In this case, hip-hop was taken over by the media and once it rose in popularity, it began to decline in authenticity. Because of hip-hop’s evolving, rappers are shown in a negative light more often than actors. The original meanings of hip-hop have been destroyed while its reinvention attempts to take over the hip-hop game.