hip hop essay

In this essay i will discuss ‘how the emcees we have studied criticise the reel?’. By also making the point of the positive message that hip hop puts across. one way to answer my question is by criticising the REEL. But first i will discuss how hip hop has come to what it is today and its changes through the years. hip hop descends from the blues and jazz which slaves created in order to communicate with each other. Hip hop has essentially carried down the history of black people so has a deeper meaning rather than what meets the eye. Hip hop originates from the Bronx in new York in 1970 when the Bronx expressway was created essentially which was when hip hop used to hold the real truth such as police brutality, racism etc. Before hip hop was Invested in, the music content was about things that affected inner city communities. when hip hop became bigger, major companies bought smaller labels which put a turning point on hip hop. the white suburbia dictated the bars, into hyper violent lyrics. this is because socially conscious lyrics were not liked by the White suburbia who are the majority of buyers thought they Weren’t experiencing authentic blackness so for it to be profitable the reel bars started coming out.

The reel is a concept created by an author called m.k Asante who he himself is a rapper. the word originates from the word show-reel meaning to act. The reel in music-hip hop, is when people act a certain way to ‘fit in’. The reel now controls what what black rappers must talk about rather than (the real) what people really experience in the inner city. the reason that they feel they are expected to rap in a certain way is all down to the white suburbia. the white suburbia dictates what is produced based on what they like to hear. they like the feeling of being submerged into the the stereotypical ‘black life’ which is to rap about a hyper-masculine and hyper-violent life also seen as an example for people who are trapped inside the box of the reel. m.k Asante also puts the point across that the concept of idolizing the reel may be dependent on the music that you listen to.

Mos def is a Brooklyn born rapper who has socially conscious lyrics. Another quote of his in mathematics is ‘two columns for who is and ain’t. Niggas’ here, his point of what defines a black person is put across. It suggests that dependent on how you act defines whether your a true black person which as I have stated before is a hyper masculine and violent life which people in the reel turn towards.An emcee that has his own view on the reel is mos def. he is an artist that I have studied and uses irony to put the message of ‘reel’ across. Mathematics is a song of his which criticises the reel, a example of this is a bar which he looks upon how the rap industry is exploitative of emcees. This point is put across when saying “like I got 16 to 32 bars to rock it but only 15% of profits ever see my pockets”. Here, his efforts of producing bars are overlooked since his labour is is taken advantage of and his record labels rob him of how much his bars should be worth. The sibilance is apparent in the repeated ‘s’ sound, which in his lines implies towards snakes which a contemporary audience would understand as a traitor which in other words is his record label. As for the name ‘mathematics’ showing relations between the bars and the profits.

Bronx native yc the cynic is another artist who criticises the reel through his music. One way that he does this is by using repetition. In yc the cynic’s song ‘negus’ the use of repetition is apparent in his hook.  He shows this by saying in his hook ‘I’ll ride for my negus, die for my negus’. The repetition is used for effect in his song. The repetition of negus is important due to the words meaning. This is because the word comes from the Ethiopian language meaning royalty. Here, yc the cynic suggest that black people were royalty before they were ever slaves. In comparison the word ‘nigga’ is a derogatory word used to insult people of black origin.’For my negus My negus negus, my negus negus’ is another piece of repetition used by the artist where  negus is again the word that people catch onto but for the wrong reasons. this is due to the fact that the word ‘nigga’ is used in the too casually and in the wrong context.He continues the repetition through his song to emphasise the key point or the meaning of other words.

mick Jenkins is an american artist from Huntsville, Alabama, his song martyr criticises the lynching that used to happen and compares it to the context of what black rappers now rap about by using satire to criticise the reel words of black rappers. his satire blatantly put across in his hook When he says”It’s a shame that’s the game on these young niggas minds like, I’ma get all this money, I’ma buy all this shit, I’ma fuck so many hoes,Nigga, I’ma fuck yo bitch, I’m just with my niggas”. he implies that the goals that black rappers now have portrays the stereotype that the white suburbia see us as. he is also a very socially conscious artist.

My judgement on ‘how the emcees we have studied criticise the reel?’ is that the reel is something that people have different views on. most people who aren’t in the reel criticise it for the worst, but those people apart of the reel don’t even know that they are. So to summarise, my view is that the emcees we have studied criticise the reel as a fake life that people seek. I have come to this judgement because of articles i have read from authors and rappers themselves. so their opinions on the matter have enlarged my mind to see the bigger picture of the reel. Their criticism is is based on the reality where the word real comes from so the context is real ,not reel.