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Rap Music

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Rap Music
The Media’s deceptive characterization of Rap Music If the average person is asked to picture an image of a rapper, images of a man with his body covered in tattoos, wearing gold chains with smoke pouring out of his mouth and swearing to every second word he says would be some of the first things to come to his or her head. If the person is asked again to describe how they picture a rap music video to be like, her or she would probably describe the video centered on a rapper with the features previously mentioned, surrounded by women with alcohol involved being derogatory and vulgar. If the person was told that part of the reason the usage of crack cocaine has declined in the United States is because of rappers who have rapped about using it and how it has ruined their career, life and families ("Positive Influences of Rap."), he or she would have a hard time believing it because it goes against the things he or she is used to seeing in the media about rap music effects. Rap music is an “American minority artist creation” that originated in the Bronx, New York in the 70s (Rhodes, Henry). Rappers first began to rap at local house parties along funky party music that people danced to. At this time of the music’s evolution, rapping would go on for about fourteen minuets and often times it would be turned into rap battles. Forwarding couple of years, rap music began gained popularity in the media and in the 80s it became a “distinct musical genre” (Wood, Joann). The more fame the music got, the more of a controversy it became in the United States. The explicit lyrics, usage of drugs, alcohol, and the violent behaviors that some rappers began to mention in their music became a big target for the media to depict as it was seen as a “negative influence” to the youth. Nowadays, rap music and the artists behind it is solely depicted and represented in a biased way by the media that the public’s main perception of the music is that it’s a nuisance and poisonous to the


Cited: Denton, Rodolfo. "Why Rap Gets a Bad Rap." Greater Good. N.p., 31 May 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. "Does Today 's Music Have a Negative Influence on Our Youth." WolfWikis RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. Harvey, Bonita M Kirchheimer, Sid. "Does Rap Music Put Teens at Risk?" WebMD. WebMD, 2003. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. "Music." : Critical Media Literacy. N.p., 21 May 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. Olson, Bruce. "Rapper Nelly Moves Forward in Life by Giving Back." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 23 Dec. 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. "Positive Acts of Rappers and Hip Hop." Hip-hop 's Affect on America. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. "Positive Influences of Rap." Rap Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. Rhodes, Henry A Shakur, Tupac. "Changes." Greatest Hits. Death Row Records/Interscope Records, 1998. CD. Wood, Joann. "Rap Music." Rap Music. N.p., Apr. 2004. Web. 8 Feb. 2013.
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