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Jensen Fay
Megan Malcom-Morgan
English 120-019
25 April 2016
The Misunderstanding of Hip Hop
Ask the average person, What is hip hop? and their answer will be somewhere along
the lines of a genre, or a popular style of music. Although hip hop involves music, it is much
more than that. Hip hop is an entire culture consisting of urban life, politics, art, dancing, and of
course, music. Under somewhat of a microscope in todays modern society, there are constant
efforts to place hip hop in a box full of blame and mockery. Lack of basic cultural knowledge
combined with a lack of acknowledgement for hip hop as an art has lead to a widespread
misrepresentation and misunderstanding of the culture.
It is completely impossible to understand hip hop as an art without understanding its
background. If one makes no efforts to analyze all the components of the culture of hip hop, they
are left only to judge the culture based off their own personal experiences through biased lenses
and stereotypes. Even those who listen to hip hop music/rap but do not completely understand
the culture, neglect to recognize the culture for anything outside of a genre of music. Becky
Blanchard of Stanford agrees that hip hop, cannot be understood unless it is studied without the
frame of its historical and social context.
Originating in the South Bronx in the 1970s, hip hop rose as DJ Kool Herc used
innovative turntable techniques to create new beats. Lyrics accompanying these beats were
recognized as raps. The lyricism embraced urban culture in these areas and represented the pain,
anger, and frustration of the repressed and underrepresented. This rhythmic music soon gained

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popularity and became a widespread form of entertainment, as well as an outlet for society. Soon
after, the art of graffiti and breakdancing accompanied DJing and MCing, resulting in the 4 main
elements of hip hop.
Now when people think of hip hop culture they often think of the glorification of sex,
drugs, and violence that is displayed through the lyricism. Many people will view hip hop as a
menace to society, as a distraction, and immoral, even going as far as saying that hip hop,
retards black success, as John McWhorter of City Journal claims. Aspects leading up to these
claims are the vulgar language, baggy clothing, and domination of a once repressed race.
Understanding hip hops history, we know that this is merely an accompanying attribute to the
music, and not the reasoning for hip hop. The key to understanding hip hop is to look below the
surface and listen to the story being told. A message that may sometimes be displayed in
violence, anger, and vulgarity, could very well be a message from an artist sharing their own
experiences and views of the world around them. Reverend Romal Tune agrees, stating that
perhaps rather than being concerned with the vulgarity of hip hop, itd be more conductive for
society to understand the stories displayed via gangsta rap. Tune claims that its crucial for us to
ask ourselves what we are doing as a community to reach out to those who are hopeless and
frustrated.
Rather than recognizing hip hop for its negative characteristics, society could
recognize it for the inspiration and developmental skills hip hop offers. Tom Barnes of Mic.com
explains how music in general helps develop important skills that students need to succeed.
Seeing as exercising musical abilities promotes neural activity, it is linked to strength of working
memory, speech, and reading comprehension. He claims that hip hop specifically supports this
because of its complex word play and verbal fluency. Due to the fact that hip hop originated in

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high poverty urban communities, hip hop is the perfect vehicle to promote education and
motivation for children in lower socioeconomic settings. He states that hip hop encourages
personal, educational, and economic empowerment; supporting the idea that hip hop culture
should be taught countrywide, if not for general stigmas and stereotyping preventing this
opportunity. A misrepresentation of hip hop combined with lack of acknowledgement of hip hop
as an art rather than a danger, directly neglects society because it denies people the opportunity
to learn from hip hops message. McWhorter claims that societys expectation that hip hop
offers nothing, as well as general stigmas encourage this neglect.
Of course, we should expect that hip hop has evolved from its origins to form to modern
demand, just as everything naturally does; but it must still maintain its core values to be
considered hip hop. This is why its easy to separate modern music recognized as hip hop from
actual hip hop music. What characteristics distinguish hip hop from modern rap? Its the
process. There is a clear distinction of lack of passion for the culture of hip hop when comparing
the two. Without the passion, the artist cannot follow the process that hip hop was founded off of.
Hip hop has been founded off of story telling, intense lyricism, and appreciation of the art and
culture. All of these take time, and without the passion for hip hop culture, an artist cannot create
meaningful work. Ask any hip hop head why they think bad rap is consumed and theyll
probably remind you that the average listener doesnt know any different. If the average listener
listens to music at convenience, theyre going to listen to whatever is popular and easy to access.
With commercialism and multi billion dollar labels overwhelming the industry, its easy for
simple minded artists to remain free from criticism while becoming poster boys for rap,
according to Sebastien Elkbouy of RapRehab.

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Modern day artists such as Fetty Wap, Future, and Chief Keef are prime examples of rap
music that contributes to the negative stereotyping of hip hop, with little to no meaning or depth
in their music. Simply reviewing their lyrics and understanding the artists perspectives on
music is enough explanation in itself to reveal this. This music is entirely created for revenue
earning purposes and commercialism rather than expression or passion for hip hop. In his article
Is Hip Hop Destroying Black America? Elkouby addresses the fact that hip hop today is not
what true hip hop is, due to the efforts made today to redefine the art. The degradation of hip hop
in its evolution from a beautiful culture into a simple minded genre could be at fault of the
music industry and mainstream media, as well as consumers for supporting and entertaining
music that tarnishes the name of hip hop. The only difference between modern mindless rap and
meaningful hip hop is substance. Being that hip hop was founded off of substance and cultural
empowerment, the actual context of a hip hop song cannot be compromised lyrically without
directly compromising its value.
If one benefits nothing at all from listening to music, then why listen at all? This is not to
say that music should not or cannot be listened to for sheer pleasure of sound, or that music
always has to be heavy and abstract. But, if one does listen to music, its important to not be
closed off to a specific type of music merely due to perceived expectations, and it is even more
important to be aware of the actual message being displayed from the heart of the artist. If
society is so concerned with the message that they expect hip hop to display on the surface, then
why is society not equally as concerned with the actual messages being displayed in hip hop?
Essentially, hip hop is a direct solution in itself, an alternative to violence, gang activity,
discrimination, and much more that these artists experience, because it provides a voice to those
who cannot be heard.

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As far as true hip hop, there are two main variances that hip hop can fall into: gangsta rap
or conscious hip hop. Both can be outlets to critique and understand the world the artists live in,
each with an individual approach. Although many view gangsta rap in a negative way, it is
respectable because its a real life representation of the struggles and experiences of an individual
that someone could turn into an art form to share with the world. Both are socially conscious art
forms, but much cursing that occurs in hip hop music usually diverts from gangsta rap. Although
many claim that gangsta rap glorifies violence, misogyny, and drugs, it actually represents the
harsh realities of life, without sugar coating everything, thus supporting the use of cursing in hip
hop. Theoretically, if hip hop were to exclude the harsh or even vulgar aspects of the music,
itd inherently be excluding the harsh realities of the real world that these artists experience in
their every day lives. To ask an artist to dilute their art forms derived from their own personal
experiences is to reduce the value and reality of the art itself. For this reason, gangsta rap is
justifiably hip hop. For example, widely known rap group N.W.A provided a voice to the
underrepresented black population on the west cost. Their popular song Fuck Tha Police,
proved as a verbal weapon to represent the repression and racism that faced much of the public.
The song caused much controversy among the police force, the general public, and the black
population in Southern California in 1989. Although efforts were made to prevent N.W.A from
releasing and performing the song, the artists had freedom of speech and justified that their art
was a reflection of their reality. Although this music may seem vulgar and contain curse words, it
is still considered hip hop because it reflects society and the world through a nonviolent,
meaningful form for the public. This music was not merely created to sell records or to make it
big, but was derived from a place of passion.

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It is a common claim often spoken that Hip Hop is dead. Of course, there are mixed
opinions on this claim. One who agrees that hip hop is dead may claim that its taken for granted,
that too much music is labeled as hip hop too often, while not even representing true hip hop.
One may state that the modern definition has not so much evolved, but has instead has been
tarnished by a growing amount of falsified, unpassionate artists who value quantity over
quality. Although, if one does not consider modern self proclaimed rappers as hip hop artists, and
excludes them from the consideration of whether hip hop is dead, then one may claim that hip
hop is alive and well- at least in the hearts of those who love and appreciate hip hop culture.
After all, how can hip hop die if Wu-Tang is forever?

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Works Cited
Blanchard, Becky. "THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RAP & HIP-HOP CULTURE." THE
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RAP & HIP-HOP CULTURE. Ethics of Development in a Global
Environment, 16 July 1999. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
Elkouby, Sebastien. "Is Hip Hop Destroying Black America?" Raprehab.com. N.p., 8 Oct. 2013. Web.
"Examining Hip Hop Culture." PBS.org. Tavis Smiley, n.d. Web.
McWhorter, John. "How Hip Hop Holds Blacks Back." City-Journal.org. City Journal, n.d. Web.
Tune, Romal J. "What Does Hip Hop Tell Us About Faith and Society." Huffingtonpost.com. N.p., 2
Nov. 2011. Web.