Compare the ways in which hip hop culture is represented in three hip hop music videos.

        Cornell Haynes, Jr or also known as Nelly, his stage name is an American rapper, singer actor. His origin was St. Louis, Missouri and has been in a rap group called St. Lunatics since 1993. The music video produced by this artist that i will be analysing is “pimp juice”. The song is about how rich and wealthy Nelly is. It’s also about objectification of women, and what you need to be able to attract them. Expensive features such as jewellery, a grand house, dices and expensive cars are depicted in the video. Gambling with a lot of wealthy looking people and women in a club is also represented in the video. As rich as Nelly appears to be, he is not posh. Maybe this is how it is to be rich through pimping and hip hop. The amount of gambling in the video suggests that these people earned their money easily so they feel okay to lose it. A close up of dice is shown in the beginning; straight away this highlights the significance of the dice and a lot of wealth. A two shot with Nelly close to the camera and another woman in the farer side is a technique used by the director which portrays males as very dominant and signifies women as objects. The first message being conveyed in this video is the important of money and gambling in hip hop culture. Another message being conveyed throughout this video is that women have sexual and non sexual sides, but the sexual side is portrayed more in hip hop videos to emphasise male dominance and money. [266]  

      Curtis James Jackson, or also known as 50 cent, his stage name is an American rapper. His origin was south Jamaica, queens. He was a drug dealer at a young age but then started to pursue a rapping career. The music video produced by this artist that I will be analysing is “ill still kill”. The song is about a violent culture in prison and that when they come out their still who they used to be and won’t hesitate to kill people. The song is also about racism. The video depicts 50 cent and Akon in prison with scenes of their violent masculinity. 50 cent seems to feel he has to prove himself if he wants to go back into the hood. 50 cent also considers himself as a role model for everyone else and that people look up to him. In the beginning of the video there is a close up of 50 cent and Akon in tank tops to show off their muscle which gives a very intimidating affect. A point of view shot of 50 cent looking through binoculars to find the white target shows us the criminal nature of 50 cent and shows us that the white Americans have been racist towards 50 cent so he wants revenge. The black and white effect of the video makes the scenes more scary and intimidating. The messages conveyed in this video are mainly about the racism in America and the violence that hip hop brings. 50 cent and Akon are portrayed as a feared man and cannot be messed with. The white Americans are promoted to be racist and targets if they continue their racism. The video also promotes the dominance of males and manhood.

        Public Enemy’s, ‘fight the power’ and Nelly’s ‘Pimp Juice’ both portray two very different messages and values about Hip Hop culture. Public Enemy portrays positive messages such as; black equality and righteousness which leads to a good cause. Whereas Nelly portrays negative images such as; power leading to money and money leading to women. Everyone in ‘fight the power’ are portrayed as equal people and are shown equally. However in ‘pimp juice’ the camera shows Nelly more and he also classifies himself as above the rest because he has money and women. In ‘fight the power’ Chuck D says, ‘people, people we are the same’, this portrays equality between male and female, but in ‘pimp juice’ Nelly say’s ‘she only like me for my pimp juice’. This portrays women as objects below men and gold diggers.

       50 cent focuses on a completely different segment of hip hop culture than Public enemy. They have a few similarities but they express it in different ways and have different meanings. Both public enemy and 50 cent talk about fighting but in different ways. ‘Fight the power’ is about fighting for injustice whereas, ‘I’ll still kill’ is about fighting to gain power through violence and aggression. Both videos make the audience feel intimidated in different ways. In ‘fight the power’; the crowd comes towards the camera with aggression but no violence. In ‘I’ll still kill’, 50 cent and Akon are seen as hyper masculine and this is shown by the exposure of their muscle and physical power. Public Enemy portrays a good cause; fighting for injustice. 50 cent portrays a bad cause, fighting to gain power and respect.

       Nelly’s ‘pimp juice’ and 50 cent’s ‘I’ll still kill’ are about completely different parts of hip hop culture. Nelly focuses on wealth and women, while 50 cent focuses on violence and prison life. However they both emphasise on male dominance in different ways. Nelly shows the male dominance over women. We can see this from a two show of Nelly and another woman in which Nelly is closer to the camera than the women. Alternatively 50 cent shows male dominance of violence. We can see this from his lyrics and the fact that no women are featured in the video clip, as this may be because women would make him look weaker and softer. ‘Pimp Juice’ portrays the message that money is everything and women crave for people with money and power. Correspondingly ‘I’ll still kill’ portrays the message that Akon and 50 cent have a violent and criminal nature. It also symbolises the hatred of enemy and agrees with violence being used against them to overcome hatred.

       In conclusion I believe that hip hop culture can portray different messages. By these videos I have also been introduced to the different aspects of hip hop genre. It is common in hip hop culture for women to be used as objects and that portrays wealth and money too. The videos changed from aggressive but non violent to aggressive.