Talking Points #4

A Style Nobody can Deal with: Politics, Style and

the Postindustrial City in Hip Hop

Tricia Rose

After reading this article by Tricia Rose, my head was actually pounding. The way she tried to define the meanings of hip hop and rap completely boggled my mind. She would use words that I have never even heard of to describe something that seemed so easy to relate with. I needed to have dictionary.com on my tab at all times, or else I would have been completely lost. For example, her opening sentences frustrated and confused me to the point where I almost did not want to continue reading the article : "Emerging from the intersection of lack and desire in the postindustrial city, hip hop manages the painful contradictions of social alienation and prophetic imagination....attempts to negotiate the experiences of marginalization , brutally truncated opportunity...". Is she serious? I didn't want to have to be a rhode scholar to understand this article.

One definition she had for hip hop that I thought was relatable was "..hip hop combines elements of speech and song, of dance and display to call into being through performance new identities and subject positions". She is trying to involve the reader with the way hip hop was brought into the culture and media. In the article, Rose teaches us that rap and hip hop have been passed down from the earlier Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American cultures to make it into what it is today. She specifically talked about the social and political terrain in NYC around the 1970s that brought about the emergence and early reception of hip hop. She talks about how this music has helped decrease "long-standing racial and gender-based forms of discrimination. Being from New York, it was interesting to read about the South Bronx and how it was dubed the 'home of hip hop culture'. Rose showed us the Blacks, Jamaicans, Puerto Ricand and other Caribbean people were living in the devistating region of the South Bronx. "Negative local color in popular film exploited the devastation facing the residents of the South Bronx and used their communities and a backdrop for social ruin and barbarism." The people living there then answered back in the form of art and song through rap and hip hop.

I think part of Rose's arguments and claims stand up in 2008, but in a differnt way. When I look at rap/hip hop, there are artists who take it very seriously and and proud of the work they bring into the community, and then there are those who broadcast women in such a negative way and are only in it for the fame, the expensive cars, the mansions and of course the money. One quote I found to back up my opinion that her arguments don't match up to 2008: "Even as todays rappers revise and redirect rap music, most understand themselves as working out of a tradition of style, attitude and form which has critical and primary roots..." I don't necessarily agree with that quote from Rose. If I were to turn on HOT97 (a NY rap/hiphop station) 9 times out of 10 I would be listening to a catchy tune about demoralizing and degrating women. One recent song that people cant get enough of "Superman that Hoe"...I'm sure the majority of people don't know what that term means, yet they sing and bounce to it in their cars, on their ringtones or at the clubs. My friend recently told me what it means, and I was soooo disgusted. My little nephew thinks he's some kind of 'gangster', walking around with a little 'swagger', thinking he's tough and singing these pointless songs. Meanwhile, my sister and brother-in-law think it's hilarious. I want to strangler her! He's 11yrs old and doesn't need to be listening to rap songs that talk about having sex with 'hoes' and have explicit language.

I understood the point she was trying to get across and I found it very interesting to learn about the history of the culture, but her use of over-dramatic words and her constant run-on sentences really threw me off with this article. I just found it hard to follow. Although, I did enjoy her argument and I thought her piece was well rounded and developed.

Talking Points #2

Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us

Linda Christensen

The authors' main idea of this article was to bring attention to the way cartoons depict everyday life and how they shape our behaviors and our ideas. She tries to bring out the 'bad' parts of the cartoons that millions of us as well as the younger generations have watched or are just starting to watch. She wants her students to realize that a lof of what they have learned throughout their lives has been planned out for them in the cartoons they watch. "Look at the roles women, men, people of color and poor people play in the cartoon. Who plays the lead? Who plays the buffoon? Who plays the servant? The body type of each character. What about woman other than the main character? What jobs do you see them doing?" She is trying to open the public's eyes to a whole other way of thinking.

"Young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother's or father's lap." I completely disagree with that statement. I understand exactly what she is trying to say, but in my household, I was never allowed to watch a lot of television and whenever I was, an adult was usually somewhere nearby. It just sounded like the parents don't have much control over what their children watch. Although, I do agree with it half-heartedly. My sister just throws her children (5 & 7) in front of the tv and then wonders where they get the vocabulary of a 16yr old from. Sometimes I think people have waaaayyy too much time on their hands to be breaking down such innocent things and making such a big deal about nothing. I am not saying that I don't respect what people are trying to point out, I just feel that sometimes people try so hard to pull something out that's really just not there in the first place. Basically just starting drama where none is needed.

• Babar? From what I remember Babar depicted a happy-go-lucky family of elephants dealing with everyday 'problems'. There was a mother, a father and a couple of children. In no way did I think it was racist, sexist or anything like that.
• A Black Cinderella??? Disney made a movie staring Brandy as Cinderella and every person in the movie was of a different ethnicity. So yes, people are willing/wanting to see a change.

When I was 13....

When I was 13, I thought I was so tough. I thought that no one could tell me what to do unless I agreed on it. I was beyond excited to be called a 'teenager' finally. It felt like I was starting to become an adult. I had started high school and was determined to break my 'nice/shy girl' appearance. I used to get teased all the time because of how shy I was with everyone. I don't think anyone knew I even existed sometimes. Up until high school, a teacher was lucky if she could get 3 sentences out of me the entire year. I just didn't feel like it was necessary to talk...and yes, some of that has followed me to this day. Highschool was an opportunity for me to start off a new reputation for myself. Unlike the majority of my friends, I ended up going to a Catholic Highschool (which I will NEVER subject my children to) that was in another town and the students came from all over. It took some time for me to have the guts to make new friends, but once I did, I found out that I could actually be outgoing if I wanted to be. I LOVED the friends that I made. My friends and I started acting out in class and talking back to the teachers that 'pissed us off'. Before I knew it, me and my friends were sitting in detention everyday after school; loving the fact that we were considered 'bad'. I started getting into the music scene and went to shows every weekend. I began wearing heavy dark eyeliner and either very baggy or very tight clothes. My mom had no idea what to do with me. My friends and my music were my life. I thought there were no boundaries and that everyone who got in my way was just looking for a fight. Freshmen year in high school was the first time I tried smoking marijuana. This seemed to be the popular thing between my friends. I never thought of the consequences or even cared. Needless to say, this behavior increased and became much worse as I went throughout highschool. I'm not ashamed at all of how I acted in highschool, although some people might think that I should be. It was who I was and it was how i grew into the person that I am today. I think that in life you are bound to make mistakes, and you can either learn from them or gain nothing from them and be ashamed of yourself. I decided to learn from whatever mistakes I made and use them to my advantage.