Hip Hop Reflects Black Dysfunctional Ghetto Culture

The Hip Hop Wars
Hip Hop Reflects Black Dysfunctional Ghetto Culture

When I began reading this chapter, I became very attached to it immediately. For example, most of the things that I read I was able to relate. More or less witness it for me to be able to understand it better. I was able to totally agree with it before reading the whole point presented to me. In this chapter, Tricia Rose speaks about so many different points that when I was reading I had to take a step back to decide whether or not I understood what she was saying. When authors do this, this helps me understand the bigger picture than what is written on the paper.

           To begin with, Tricia Rose talks briefly about how Hip Hop is not considered the origin of dysfunctional but it is a promoter. When I read this statement I totally disagreed, however when I began to actually think deeper on the meaning I quickly changed my opinion. I agree with her because for the most part, if you really think about it people only associate Hip Hop with the black culture. For example, when one think of Hip Hop one automatically think about black culture, not allowing Hip Hop to obtain more than just the black culture being apart of it. Hip Hop can contain as many cultures as possible; blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asian, Germans and so on so forth. However society portrays this idea that anything that is associated with  Hip Hop consists of the black culture.
           One thing I disagreed with was hip hop being "proof" of the black urban underclass dysfunction. In a way this can be true but, then again who really knows if the people who rap about hip hop is speaking the truth, or keeping it real as stated in previous chapters. One cannot automatically think that everything that comes out of another persons' mouth is the complete truth. We all tell lies, and we all tell stories. Also, in the society we live in today, we quickly base our knowledge on what others said, instead of stepping out the box ourselves and finding out the real truth. Then once one has their mind set they run in to things that support their decisions. For example, hip hop being "proof" of the black urban underclass dysfunction. We'll notice a little dysfunction in hip hop and automatically assume that it leads to the black urban underclass, without actually looking deeper into the situation.
            Lastly, one thing that stood out to me the most was the part that stated that slavery wiped out African approaches to many things. This was a deep meaning and as i read it is usually hard for me to grasp a deeper meaning in specific readings. However, when I read this, I believe my mind automatically went into that deep thinking stage. Now I can sort of see how slavery affected African Americans in the moment. As the African American was being slaved the whites were able to get ahead in life, basically a head start.  Then when African Americans were finally freed they became behind in everything and until this day they still try to catch up and it seems as if there is no way.