Hip-Hop Wars by Tricia Rose

I was not born in the United States I came here when I was 13 years old so I basically don’t have a more real understanding when it comes to Hip- Hop music meaning that I really never care for it or affected me on any way. I have to say coming to the United States opened my eyes to see how much diversity and culture is all over and for my personal experience I learned to embrace and respect everyone not because I “had to” but because I in some way felt alienated (language barrier, no friends, starting all over again and so on) but you cope with it. When it comes to Dr.Tricia’s argument about the wrong perception of Hip-Hop meaning it is accused of glorifying crime and sexism. I liked how she gave a brief history of how Hip-Hop originated in New York around 1970’s, it was a form of self-expression of the people of the poor, struggling communities, and it was a form of an outlet for them and also creativity. Within the upcoming years it has become just more commercial and losing the real “essence of Hip-Hop. She mentioned on the Time Entertainment article: “Look, I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing everything about Lil Wayne and Jay-Z, because I'm not. I think they're both very talented. If you look at the metaphors Lil Wayne produces, they're amazing; they're very creative. It's the substance. What are you making metaphors about 24 hours a day? Same thing with Jay-Z. Even he has acknowledged that he's "dumbed his music down" so that he can sell records. This economic imperative has had more of an impact on hip-hop than [on] rock or soul or R&B”. Hip-Hop “was mostly for fun and for play. It wasn't primarily an economic industry, where people got involved more for money than for creativity”

 
Probably everyone heard that most parents blame “this music” for their children’s bad behavior such as being disrespectful, bad grades, the baggy pants. Is it really the music? It is something to really think about.