Week 3

I have never really tried to look into a hip-hop artist's personal life. One assumes that their music reflects thier lives and values. This, intriquingly enough, is not all that true. Eminem does his best to instill in his daughter how to be morally upstanding and does his best to keep his life from affecting her negatively. It's not all about murder and violence, even though those two things are definitely overtones in the hip-hop culture. Many of the hip-hop moguls take a mass amount of effort and time to teach their children right and wrong and seem to try to protect them from the dangers of the lives their parents are leading.

These readings did not really do much to change my opinion on hip-hop. The music is still stained with violence and drugs; while many fight against the violence, many still integrate violence, drugs, sex, and alcohol directly into the lyrics. There was a change from hip-hop to make a point into hip-hop becoming the definition of gangsta, if you will. Most of the prominent hip-hop artists today come from a dark childhood and a dark environment. Eminem was born in an impoverished family. His life has been both dark and despondent. 50 Cent hustled to make money at the age of 12. Biggie Smalls sold crack and was put in jail when he was only seventeen. Is it even possible for someone to be accepted into the hiip-hop beat if they haven't sold drugs, mugged people, or came from a harsh childhood? Will they be accepted in? Even more to the point, can someone be called a hip-hop artist if none of this occurs? The public expects angry hip-hop, with virulent emotions running directly into the lyrics and out into society. What is hip-hop without all the anger nowadays?