Hip-Hop started as a way of young impoverished minorities voicing what was going on in their neighborhoods and lives. Hip-Hop was seen as a fad a renegade type of music, many questioned the longevity it would have. Yet it’s arguably as strong as it has ever been. Hip-Hop has had dirt thrown its grave several times and blamed for a lot of what goes on with today’s youth and the supposed negative culture manifested by it. Hip-Hop catches the brunt of its criticism from those who believe it is changing the moral and social compass of its listeners to the detriment of society. I find this absurd what people are complaing about in hip-hop is very much a social problem, the things that are talked about are actual events that go on regularly in the neighborhoods. People need to first realize and understand that these societal ills that are talked about were brought on by racism and classism. So to blame someone for being in a way a reporter of the ‘hood news’ is crazy. Do people feel the same when they watch the evening news and see all of the harmful and disgusting things going on in america. Of course they don’t they say reporters are just doing their jobs. Like they say perception is reality. The perception is that Hip-Hop is devisive and teaches people to rebel against the norms of society. It is also perceived that it glorifies, guns, drugs, money, and demeans women only showing and talking about them in sexual ways. The reality is that america actually loves all of these aforementioned things you can look at commercials, popular sitcoms, talk radio, movies, billboards. They all have elements of what is being talked about in hip-hop, yet aren’t being singled out as hip-hop is. America is a society that loves violent movies, raunchy sitcoms, and now more than ever reality shows. That’s what hip-hop is reality how more real can you get it’s reality at its finest. The notion is that television and movies don’t have the same affect on people as music does. How do you even begin to quantify that. You can look at all of the copycat crimes that have taken place throughout the years and that’s has a direct correlation to people seeing it on the news and movies. You can look at fashion trends or all of the fad diets that seem to change week to week and are said to be the best thing for you, judging your appearence and what you want to feel and look like. All of these can be found in just about any store. Nevertheless hip-hop is seen as a large reason for the moral and social decay of this country. No one blames all the horror and gore movies. Just about any genre of entertainment depending on what you like is available to you in this country, few are viewed as more deplorable than hip-hop.

There are some things about hip-hop I don’t like, but that has to do with the record label. The record label decides what music they will put out, and a lot of the music they decide to promote is laden with sex, money, drugs and partying. I don’t necessarily have a problem with the content of the music, because that is what goes on in society and several other genres have the same content. The problem lies in the fact that there are many rappers that have a lot more positive content whether it be education, spirituality, or trials and tribulations of life and how to deal with it. These rappers mostly go unheard or are forced to go the underground route to get their music out. The reason for this is that record companies are not in the business of losing money, so they many times put music out to feed the masses their seemingly insatiable appetite for money, sex, drugs, and partying. So detractors of hip-hop need to understand that a lot of music that is pushed and put out is for those very reasons. As a whole hip-hop has been a very good thing it has created thousands of jobs that didn’t exist before. You have artists that can now provide better lives for themselves and their families. It has inspired countless amount of our youth to aspire to do things with their lives they might not thought as possible. Many hip-hop artists have started their own record companies, their own clothing lines and apparel. They have been used endorse several Fortune 500 companies products. So with knowing that how can hip-hop be devisive?