Hip Hop Causes Violence

The Hip Hop Wars
Hip Hop Causes Violence

When I read the title of the chapter I totally disagreed with the statement. I do not think that hip hop causes violence. However, as I continue to read through the quotes that were thrown on the first page it made me change my mind a little bit about hip hop causing violence.

            When I continued to read through the chapter, I quickly jumped back to my first opinion about believing that hip hop does not cause violence. Tricia Rose makes a lot of great points about how hip hop causes violence and provides heavy examples for it but, I will still continue to disagree with her. For example, she points out how the youth see the way rappers dress, listen to their songs and most likely follow them. I agree partially because they would follow in their footstep because that specific artist may be their role model. However, people may dress like that due to society not because hip hop makes them go into that direction. Also, when people listen to the song they usually like the song because they know the lyrics. Nine times out of ten, people hardly understand the lyrics; they just are able to repeat it over and over.

Tricia Rose states, “Clearly, everything around us, past or present, has an impact on us, in one degree or another”. I definitely agree with her, however, we as the person choose to let these things around us impact us in a positive way or a negative way. This is where we choose one of our paths in life. Many people choose to go downwards while others choose to go the opposite way.

I think this chapter was a confession and the reason being said is because she breaks down how hip hop causes violence from socially too economically. She is basically confessing to the reader in my opinion. The reason for this is because the way the blacks and brown youth were brought up.

In the end the topic of hip hop is very controversy. Some people think it is terrible for the human mind while others think it is great for the human mind. There is no right or wrong answer here. In our mind we choose to believe what we want to believe, whether we think it is right or wrong.

Imitation 2 (1960's): The Four Top, Reach Out I'll be There

Assignment # 3
Rap & Spoken Word

The song “Reach Out, I’ll be There” by The Four Top is about a guy who notices a girl that needs help and is willing to go that extra mile in order to help her, get through her situations. I believe the context of this song is based on emotions and how a person is feeling at a given time. For example in the first few lines, he points how the girl may be feeling down and all her hope is gone. Throughout the entire song he tries to guess all the possible things that may be wrong with the girl and whatever is wrong with her; he is sure he can cure it if she reaches out to him.

Now if you feel that you can't go on
Because all your hope is gone
And your life is filled with confusion
And happiness is just an illusion
And your world around is tumblin' down
Darling, reach out
Reach out, for me.

I think this song is a boast. The reason I say this is because the author brags about how he would constantly be there whenever she needs him. For example when she’s down and there is no one around, or feeling confused all she has to do is reach out and he’ll supposedly be there waiting for here. Also he makes it seems like he want her to need help so he can be the one to help her.

The rhyme scheme of this song is A, A, B, B. The author uses a lot of rhyme scheme throughout the song and then at different points he began to use internal rhyme, which brings me to the literary devices he uses in his song. Some literary devices he uses in this song are tone, rhythm, and end rhyme. The tone of this song is very strong and content. The things he talks about you would think the tone will be dispirited. However, his voice sound very determined to get what he seeks out for. The rhythm is to a bob of the head and even if you two step you’ll be able to keep up with the beat. He uses a lot of end rhyme in this song and usually I do not go for end rhymes because people usually just think of the first word that comes to mind to rhyme with the word they already used. Well, I typically do that. However, in this song, it does not seem like the author was just trying to rhyme, he was actually making sense like they usually do.

Imitation 1 (1960's): Langston Hughes, Theme For English B

Assignment # 2

Rap & Spoken Word

            The poem “Theme For English B” by Langston Hughes is about a colored black man, age twenty-two who seems to have a little trouble trying to understand himself. Even though he is in a classroom full of white students and being the only black man in his class he strongly feels that there is a reason for that. Also this may be a huge difference; there are many similar traits that they share with each other.

I guess being colored doesn’t make me NOT like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white---
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.

I believe the context of this poem is based on environment. The man is sitting in a classroom, probably looking around wondering how he is the only colored person in his class. I think this poem is boasting because as I read it, it seems to me that the author is bragging about how alike whites and blacks are even though they both two completely different races.  He points out the fact that he wonder if he were to write his paper would the professor expect his paper to be different than the rest of the students in his class.

The rhyme scheme of this poem is A, A, A, B, A, C.  Langston Hughes doesn’t focus on rhyming more or less content and being able to get to the point in the fewest lines as possible. When doing this he makes his point in the clearest way possible.

Some literally devices used in the poem are end rhyme, literal meaning, lyrical poetry, narrative poetry, and tone. End rhyme is when the poet uses the same sound at the end of a line. Usually poets do this throughout their whole poem but her Hughes does it a little. The literally device he uses the most is literal poetry, which mean that the poem gives an opinion or emotion about a particular subject. He simply gives his opinion about races and points out we all are very similar in many ways. The tone of this poem is very assertive. Hughes make sure when he is speaking he gets his point across. Lastly, Langston Hughes uses narrative poetry which means tells a story. In the beginning of this poem he tells a story of his background like where he is from and where he lives so the reader can have an idea of where he come from and where he bases his ideas on.