The History of Rap Music and Its Influence on America Culture

1.0 Introduction

1.1 History of Rap Music

Rap music is a style of music that has to do with the use of rhythmic speech without

accompaniment or rhyming being crooned and followed by a background music usually provided

by a Turntablist, DJ, or a beat boxer. The origin of Rap music can be traced to the African

American community in Bronx, New York city in the United States in the 1970s but it became

trendy when in 1979, a Rap Hit was released by Sugar Hill Gang’s titled “Rappers Delight. DJ

Kool Herc is usually acknowledged as the person who started up rap music. He is known for

using his record tables for creating loops and plays similar beats over and over again while

extending the instrumental part of a song during his back-to-school parties in the 1970s. He

discovered that this kept the crowd excited during his parties and invited his friend Coke La

Rock to help host events and this birthed Rap over the Loop (Jeff Chang and D.J Kool Herc,

2005).

1.2 Thesis/Argument

This thesis argues that Rap music has detrimental and beneficial consequences for the society

and that understanding both sides is critical. The various available empirical data as revealed in

this research showed that Rap music has greatly influenced the American Culture both

innocuously and insidiously.

2.0 Rap Music Attitude and General Perception Scale Overview

Rap music has long been seen as a form of music that promotes gangsterism, violence, illegal

consumption of alcohol and hard drugs, sex and sexual exploitation of women, and many other

social vices. Rap music is also known for the use of boorish words and strong profanities.
In 2005, the Academy Award for the best original song in a feature film from the film Hustle

and Flow was given to Three 6 Mafia for a controversial song ‘‘It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp’’.

Here is the lyric of that song:

That’s the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly pimpin’,

Gotta have my hustle tight, makin’ change off these women.

You know it’s hard out here for a pimp,

When he tryin’ to get this money for the rent.

‘It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp’’—Three 6 Mafia.

In spite of the pejoratives in this song that exalts the exploitation of women, it was still allowed

to be performed at the Oscars. But its performance at the Oscars provoked a storm of criticism

immediately. This is just the beginning as more people kept on criticizing the way rap music

presents women. A few years before, rapper Eminem won a Grammy Award for his 2001 album,

The Marshall Mathers LP—this album contained lyrics of intense hostility and brutality toward

women. The Award was swiftly condemned by Women’s groups. Recently, in 2005, a campaign

against sexism was launched by the African American women’s magazine. The magazine

condemns the portrayal of Black women in rap and requested response from readers on how to

confront it. According to research, a lot of the criticism directed towards rap music is inexplicit

and has to do with a handful of stories, rather than a logical analysis (Ronald and Charis, 2009).

Despite all these pessimism recognized with the Rap music, it has yet received a huge fan base

and recognition particularly among youths. While this style of music has been seen as unhelpful,

criticized by the media and some organizations as having contributed to the social problems in

the society and also a terrible influence on the society, it also has its helpful effects. It can serve

the purpose of improving social consciousness. This is possible because it creates awareness to

some of the issues faced in the society. According to Tyson (2019), a well documented research

showed that the “perceptions and appraisals of rap music” revealed many significant emotional,
discernable, and psychosomatic constructs. For instance, the preferences of the youths for sexist

rap music and violence have been linked with precarious sexual behaviors (Tyson, 2006).

Rap music mostly explains the kind of life lived by the African Americans. Most of them grew in

an environment filled with drugs, gangs, guns, and other vices and their style of music is often

full of vulgarity, curse words, boorish statements, and harsh tones referring to violence and drugs

with deeper meanings that cannot be easily deciphered except when closely listened to. Research

has shown that these inflammatory words and pejoratives associated with the rap music is also

linked to corporate pressures, as producers marginalize or reject artists who do not focus on

misogyny and violence in their lyrics.

3.0 Influence of Rap Music on American Culture

3.1 Positive Effects of Rap Music

One of the benefits of rap music is that it has served as a medium to bring people together. Rap

music is not just limited to the African Americans alone. The growth of the rap music is

prominent in the dress sense and behaviors of youths as they tend to imitate the artists in their

dress culture so as to give them a sense of belonging (Tyson et al., 2019).

Rap music has also been a means of creating social awareness. It creates an avenue for people to

speak freely about political and social issues. This serves as a channel for youths to be aware of

the world around them and the challenges they are facing and also helps them to proffer solutions

to such challenges. Some of the issues that rap music has identified include racism, police

brutality, determination, courage, and so on. It also creates awareness about the condition of

citizens in the lower class and other important issues in the society (Tyson et al., 2019).

Most times, rappers rap about their past poverty situation and challenges. They rap about the

obstacles they face growing up and how they overcame the obstacles. Many grew up in the midst

of poverty, parents who are drug addicts; gang dominated society to mention but a few and still
ended up being successful. This gives hope and inspiration to other youths who may find

themselves in similar situation. In addition, because the rap artists grew up living in hostile

environments, this puts them in the best position to describe such environments. The fact that

some of them admit to participating in some of those activities doesn’t mean they are glorifying

it. Sometimes, they tell the story to encourage others that even though they may have made a

mistake in the past, it doesn’t stop them from changing their lives and working towards having a

better future. Just like other genre of music, rap music main purpose is to entertain its audience.

The fact that they paint a picture of spending recklessly, getting drunk, having sex with several

women or participating in a criminal activity does not mean they actually do it. Most times, it is

just a fictitious depiction of the message they are trying to pass across. This can also be found in

other entertainment industries particularly the movie industry (Tyson et al., 2019).

Rap music is also now being used as a form of therapy. The music is used to engage youths and

get them to reflect on their past experiences while listening to rap music. One of such

organizations recently created is the “project spit fire.” It was founded by Henry Mann and what

this organization does is to pair young musicians with professional producers who help them

record songs and videos. Their goal is to sign artists who can teach the youths that there are

alternatives to gangs and violence. They give young rappers the opportunity to tell the stories

about their past life and experiences to give hope that can cause a change in the young culture

(Tyson, 2006).

3.2 Negative Effects of Rap Music

Rap music has been known to focus predominantly on the negative aspects of life. The lyrics are

known to venerate drugs, violence, and degrade women. This genre of music has been highly

contentious and linked with increased rate of crime and violence in the society. While there is

significant apprehension regarding the thematic expressions and imageries used in rap music

videos, there is little or no empirical research available that has investigated the effect rap music
videos has on the behaviors of adolescents (Jones, 1997). Many youths think it is cool to act

what is denoted in the rap lyrics and videos. Another negative aspect of rap music is the

sexualization of women both in the lyrics and visual representation of rap music. According to

the research by Carolyn West (University of Washington), many young women do not believe

they can be successful without using their bodies. This is a very degrading and wrong

misrepresentation of women. The promotion of drug use in rap music has glorified drug use

among youths who seem to think illegal drug use is cool and make them feel they can try it out.

Studies show the rise of domestic violence, particularly towards women who may have

connections to the world of the rap music as many of the lyrics advocate violence

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, many of the rap lyrics

contribute to suicide, violence and inappropriate sexual behaviors. It also influences teens to take

part in drugs and alcohol at a younger age. It is believed that males who listen to rap music have

more violent tendencies when compared to those who don’t. This includes them being more

aggressive and disrespectful towards women. According to a study conducted by the American

Journal of Public Health (Wingood et al., 2003), teenagers who listened to rap music were three

times more likely to fight with a teacher, 2.5 times more likely to get arrested and 1.5 times more

likely to partake in illegal activities such as underage drinking, drugs and acquire a newly

sexually transmitted disease.

Another study from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine found that the top Rap

songs for teenagers had 77% mentions of drugs and alcohol. This was a problem because most

teens idolize Rap artists and see them as role models and this affects the way the dress, act and

behave. One of the first researches with ample empirical data to reveal the relationship between

increased exposure to rap music videos and the incidence of risky unhealthy behaviors with the

possibility of laboratory confirmed new STDs a year later was done in 2003 (Wingood et al.,

2003). According to another study by Mast and Mc Andrew (2011), violent lyrics played a
considerable role in encouraging hostile behaviors in the participants. The r suggests a likely

relationship between hostile genres and hostile behaviors due to negative lyrical language and

perceptions depicting hostility and anger. Likewise, the areas of the brain activated during

conception of emotions and language in the temporal lobe are similar to the areas activated when

listening to music (Besson, Chobert, and Marie, 2011).

4.0 Conclusion

The influence of Rap Music on the American culture cannot be underestimated. It has influenced

the youths both positively and negatively, providing both beneficial and detrimental

consequences. Just like other forms of entertainment, the Rap music has come to stay, so it is

important to understand both the upside and downside of this genre of music in order to

creatively proffer workable solutions aimed at curbing the downside of the influence of Rap

music on the American Culture. Additionally, based on studies where experimental designs were

used to establish that there is a relationship between human behaviors and certain genre of music,

particularly the Rap music (William N.G and Larry J., 1997), it can be inferred therefore that the

influence of this kind of music should not be underestimated.

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