Explicit Content in Rap Lyrics.

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Gorres  

Pat Gorres

Explicit Content in Rap Lyrics


        All it takes is one push of a button on the car radio, and I am bombarded by lyrical images of murder, drug use, and the degradation of women.  Another push of a button on the TV, and the same images flood the screen. This is not a bad day of news reports or R-rated movies; this is today’s music. The creators of these lyrics are earning millions of dollars, topping the Billboard charts, and winning Grammies. USA Today reports that over 25% of teenagers stated if given only one genre of music, they would listen to hip-hop and rap. The overwhelming majority of these teenagers also claim that they know the lyrics to at least 75% of the songs they listen to. Like it or not, explicit hip-hop music has become one of the most prominent genres of music in youth America. So, if the youth are the future, then the influence of hip-hop is certainly a worthwhile topic to consider.

        This extended essay seeks to analyze hip-hop lyrics to answer the question: “What are the reasons for justifying explicit content such as drugs, sex, and violence in hip-hop lyrics?” I will treat this question in a number of ways. I will provide a brief history of hip-hop music to understand the context in which it is created. I will then present several examples of explicit, controversial rap lyrics, and then analyze and compare what professional critics have written in articles and books concerning the graphic content. In this way, I intend to treat rap lyrics like literature by looking closely at its content and drawing inferences and conclusions about the artist’s motivations.

 

In the late 1960’s, a Jamaican named DJ Kool Herc introduced to West Brooklyn the Jamaican tradition of “toasting” which involved improvised rhymes over reggae instrumentals. The people of New York were not interested in reggae music at the time, so DJ Kool Herc adapted his style by incorporating his toasting with popular instrumentals instead of reggae. His created his new sound by remixing samples from of jazz, funk, disco and Motown soul; and it caught on quickly, especially with young partygoers. The first example of rap was simply acknowledging the crowd at a party with a popular phrase or slang. This was not called rap yet, but was known as “emceeing”. DJ Kool Herc teamed up with two friends known as Coke la Rock and Clark Kent; he would focus on mixing instrumentals while the other two emceed to the crowd. This was the very first rap group, known as Kool Herc and the Herculoids. (Cook) By the late 1970s, artists had starting recording and Rap became a big business. Groups such as The Sugarhill Gang became international hits and sold millions of albums. (Rapworld.com)

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        Dave Cook effectively explains that rap became popular for several reasons. It offered young urban New Yorkers the “chance to freely express themselves, and more importantly, it was an art-form that was accessible to anyone” (Cook 3). It did not require expensive lessons or instruments, and it could be practiced virtually anytime anywhere. Also, it did not impose any difficult rules; anything was possible as long as an artist was original and rhymed on time to the beat of an instrumental. A rap artist could speak about virtually anything he wanted. In addition, it allowed the artist to easily incorporate ...

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