Tuesday 18 April 2017

Critical Investigation final

“I was thirteen ran up on the plug stickin’ ‘em up for the drugs[1]”. 

How does hip hop represent black people, with specific reference to the song 'Plug' by Rich the Kid?

Hip Hop’s popularity is booming with a variety of audiences being encouraged to be a part of it. It is and has always been heavily affiliated with black culture which is why it is important to identify how the genre represents the ethnicity and how/whether the media has decided to capitalise from this confusion by attempting to demonise them. An artist like Rich the Kid has been on the rise in the American sub-genre of hip hop ‘trap’ which audiences would argue contains similar conventions of the main genre and this is where the representation of black people is constructed. When considering the track he produced called ‘Plug’ with two other artists (Playboi Carti and Kodak Black) we can see a negative self-portrayal of black people with the way they behave, their appearance and the lyrics used in the song. Perhaps a Marxist perspective would argue that an audience which has been influenced by large multinational news institutions, with hegemonic views, would perceive black people as ‘criminals’ through mediated news reports that they consume about ethnic minorities which could potentially reinforce their views and ideologies of an ethnic group. Or maybe the subject of the matter is self-representing themselves through these types of songs which would make the news institution’s exaggerations seem realistic. This could be the reason why some audiences do not take black people’s cries seriously when they are protesting about something controversial or political, like the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign.

An obvious example of a modern rap song which negatively represents black people is ‘Plug’, which was released in December of 2015 and is a self-representation constructed by young black artists. In the music video the three rappers follow the conventions of a hip hop song answering: “how true to real life the media representations are”[2] where they are portrayed as being ‘high’ or drunk which Fanon’s theory would typify them as being “decivilized” [3]meaning they show elements of being a ‘gangster’ or ‘pimp’. This particular representation is displayed throughout the video but is mostly evident when Rich the Kid and Kodak Black are in a car smoking, what an audience would infer to be drugs, which could explain why they behave in an overly hyped manner afterwards whilst excessively using the ‘N’ word which is a key convention from any era of hip hop. This means that Tim Wall’s question in his book ‘Studying Popular Culture’ can be answered “What sorts of ideological position about the world do these representations articulate?”[4] as dominant ideologies about black people can be reinforced from this self-representation suggesting all black people consume drugs linking to Perkins’ theory that “some stereotypes can be true”[5]. Perhaps the influence of the music genre on black people taking drugs is the reason police are displayed as having an agenda towards the ethnicity leading to the confrontational relationship between the two groups; increasing the likelihood of police brutality. For example, police in the UK (London) set up a “hip hop cop shop”[6] which was designed to attract criminals into the undercover “fake rap store and snared 30 gangsters for drugs and gun offences”[7]. The fact that the authority decided to use a hip hop shop, over alternative options, highlights the association the genre has with crime. This belief and ideology was actually supported as the shop had gained stakeholders who were criminals and in reference to the amount of black people: “19 of the 27 men pictured”[8], which also suggests that police are biased against them. It could be disputed that hip hop artists who rap about illegal activities had an influence on these criminals “aged from 16-41”[9] as they wanted to be able to relate with their favourite artists and the uses and gratification theory, which is an approach (created by Blumler and Katz) to understanding “how and why people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs”[10], can be applied to imply they built a connection with the rappers based on the ‘personal identity’ element and wanted to consume or produce hip hop material in the shop.

Furthermore, there are props used in the music video that connote a representation of the people displaying them. For example, the constant appearance of stacks of money and luxurious items could definitely influence an aspirational audience wanting to be wealthy and the lyrics of the song conclude that these rappers are scammers of the law: “it’s snowing in my attic, it’s snowing in my yard”[11], suggesting the artist has drugs in his house ready to sell or use through the connotation of ‘snow’. The cinematography effectively shows various close ups of the fancy cars and cash the artists own which a young black audience potentially living in the ghetto may aspire to acquire and the narrative of the song explains that the rappers had to sell drugs and steal to become successful and wealthy like they are now. Therefore, the youth listening to this song that live in deprived areas just like their favourite “trapsters turned rappers”[12] once did could be influenced into the criminal life because of the wealthy lifestyle the artists display on screen and so it would be the younger generation that would “confuse the stage performance of most music stars with what goes on in their private life”[13] . Another important factor of mise-en-scene is the setting of the video in contrast with the one of its audience which displays two completely different lifestyles. For example, we see Rich the Kid travel to the top floor of an apartment with a swimming pool which generates connotations of rich, successful and powerfulness whereas the audience of the song are probably living in a struggle, poor or ghetto lifestyles. Levis Strauss’ theory can be applied which “compares two themes that are completely opposite”[14] which in this scenario would be the representation of rich black people versus poor black people. Therefore, hip hop creates the iconography of black people being wealthy through the illegal activities portrayed in these music videos which right wing news institutions, like The Daily Mail, capitalise from to reinforce negative representations of the ethnicity thus satisfying the preferred readers as they consume news stories that fit their ideologies about black people.

Despite ‘Plug’ meeting various key conventions of a typical hip hop music video, there is one major element missing from it, the physical objectification of women. So this slightly subverts the stereotype hip hop has on the way women are treated in the genre because they are not shown wearing revealing clothes or behaving seductively because they simply are not shown at all. Maybe the stereotypes of black people and hip hop mistreating women are incorrect or not as prominent as we see a typical rap song not exploit women like the media suggests. Alvarado’s theory can be applied which explores “racial representations”[15] to argue that even without the use of women the media context uses the ‘exotic’ element because of the appearance of the successful artists and they also fit into the negative category of ‘dangerous’ as they are presented as criminals through their gestures and props. An audience of the three artists would expect to see an emergence of females in this music video firstly because it occurs in their other productions and because of the lyrics used in this song. For example, Kodak Black raps “she said “baby you ain’t gotta rush” but I already caught my nut whatchu expect I booted up”[16]  which suggests he does not value the girl enough to be in a committed relationship and only used her for sex whilst being on drugs thus reinforcing the stereotype of black males treating women as objects.

Institutions who collaborate with these young and sometimes low key rappers are also trying to develop their brand in the genre of hip hop. The producer of ‘Plug’ is Mexikodro who is from Atlanta where modern rap is rising from and is “one of the more prominent producers coming out this new wave of alternative rap”[17]. This is an appropriate example of the positive opportunities hip hop has given black people without hope because he once lived in the ghetto where it is a struggle and has many influences into a life of crime but he decided to work arduously into the music industry. A UK rapper, Jammer, says: “I started playing music from seven years old, I was unsettled at school. The only thing I liked was the music class”[18] which emphasises the significance hip hop and music as a whole that has now been embedded into the black culture which arose from the nineteen fifties in ‘Mowtown’. The distributor of the song was WorldStarHipHop which is a famous hip hop music YouTube channel that releases the latest songs which is permitted by the artists. The channel has four million subscribers with a strong following on other social media’s like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The song ‘Plug’ has twenty eight million views which would certainly increase the artist’s image worldwide because of the significance of the YouTube channel’s global following. WorldStarHipHop has other songs on its channel that meet key conventions of hip hop music videos meaning that dominant ideologies constructed by news institutions and opinion leaders are reinforced which the two-step flow model suggests audiences to be “opinion followers”[19]. This is because other songs have self-representations of black people being criminals which Alvarado’s theory suggest through the ‘dangerous’ theme. Therefore, an audience who use WorldStarHipHop regularly would expect any song released on the channel to contain criminal self-representations of black people and so “its listeners and institutions that produce it, which provides us with an explanation of why music is as it is today”[20].

The power of hip hop universally over the years has been significant especially when considering its growth in its fan base. It has evolved so much so that it no longer only caters for black people but has diversified to suit all people of all races because it has been appropriated by white people which seems typical seen as “America loves appropriating black culture” [21]and because most cultures are being Americanised the world learns to appropriate the same behaviours in their countries which ties in perfectly with cultural imperialism. This is the dominance of Western, particularly US, cultural values and ideology across the world. The main reason for this is the simple fact that hip hop’s image through the years has been altered because of the changes in society through different generations. For example, the primary text this essay depicts called ‘Plug’ by Rich the Kid carries the key and generic conventions of modern rap music videos which has been adopted through some of the appearances of these mainstream public figures. These specific public figures are in the eyes of young people so it would make sense for multi-national corporations to utilise this fact and target them through celebrity endorsements in music videos because “there is no better way of marketing something to youth than to link it to hip hop[22]. Rich the Kid is seen wearing, particular clothing brand, ‘BAPE’ which has recently been in the spotlight of many of the young generation in the US, UK and Japan. It could be argued that the popularity of the song and the artists included in the media content made the “multinational corporation’s product cool”[23], which influenced audiences watching the music video as they see Rich the Kid boast about his designer garments. This could possibly have a knock on effect on young people as they would want to meet social trends which BAPE is certainly associated with increasing their brand image all because of hip hop’s influence. Therefore, people would then learn to associate that particular brand with gang life and black people because we have been taught to believe “hip hop culture influences styles of behaviour and dress”[24].

Despite some of the positive images the music genre conveys, it has always been in controversy for supposedly causing moral panics. Stanley Cohen is the theorist who constructed and developed the idea of moral panics which he believed “a major issue was the “fundamentally inappropriate” reaction by much of society to certain relatively minor events and conditions”[25]. Using a typical rap song like ‘Plug’ to identify key conventions of a hip hop music video and what is being displayed suggests why moral panics of the genre and black people is evolving and supported over the years. Some would argue large conference news institutions like The Daily Mail mediate news stories where they associate the ethnicity with crime because they are an opinion leader which is explained by the two step flow model which believes “audiences are thought to be gullible and consume information provided by the news whilst agreeing with them”[26]. However audiences could dispute the beliefs from theorist of the two step flow model and hypodermic needle model, which believes ‘news organisations provide news and audiences are injected with a syringe into the brain influencing their views and values’, and could possibly debate that it is the rappers themselves reinforcing ideologies representing them negatively toward society. For example, the use of drugs and suspicious amount of money is what the audience would expect to witness in the video and it perfectly supports the ideologies of the ethnic minority which could be the reason the moral panics of black people being criminals for example still exists. Using Perkins’ theory, which she explains “some stereotypes can be positive or true”[27], we could infer that hip hop is representing black people through stereotypes which are actually true because the music videos would certainly have some type of impact on an audience because “...you can’t listen to all that language and film without it affecting you[28]. This negative self-representation, constructed by the young black rappers, could answer the question of “how hip hop culture maps out these real and imagined relations between people and the tools used to bring people together” [29] because people amongst the culture feel as if they must follow trends to be accepted.  Therefore, the “constant pressure to perform and behave the right way – based on hip hop” [30] could be the reason why black audiences are constantly in the news as they want to execute copycat crimes of their favourite hip hop artists. Hence the reason people of the middle and upper classes tend to disagree with the Black Lives Matter movement as “no one has the right to be upset at a brutal sex crime or mindless thuggery if he is not prepared to drive sadistic videos out of our high streets[31]. This is particularly relevant with hip hop artists trying to promote the campaign where a specific rapper (A$AP Rocky) believes “we must eliminate black on black crime first”[32] suggesting police brutality is not as much of an issue until black people resolve the murder rate within their ethnicity (and any ethnicity).
Over the years, the representation of black people within the hip hop genre has transformed substantially. The pioneering rap group, Public Enemy, are particularly significant when considering the transition of the genre; in their iconic song ‘Fight the Power,’ the artists express their emotions as “victims of this American system” [33] rather than “an American dream”[34] that the media constantly displays through media content to audience’s universally. This song is an accurate example of where hip hop has given “black and Latino hope and recognition” [35] as it highlights the issues ethnic minority groups are facing in society and acts as an activist anthem. Thus, the genre has essentially provided marginalised groups of people with a voice through music and Public Enemy capitalised on this and created a song that would challenge these ideologies of people and large news institutions who are the opinion leaders. This could be a potential explanation as of why hip hop as a whole has significantly grown because people with previously right wing, conservative, hegemonic views have listened to songs like ‘Fight the Power’ allowing them to view different groups of people from a variety of perspectives, challenging ideologies formed by opinion leaders. This subverts the hypodermic needle model because it shows audiences, who are oppositional readers, are able to form their own opinions on issues surrounding the representations of black people, through hip hop, rather than merely what the news feeds them.

However in today’s media infatuated society, the infrastructure of music has changed drastically, especially when considering a song like ‘Plug’, so the representations of black people in hip hop music has embodied vanity and success rather than powerful commentary because “the days of making powerful, thought provoking and entertaining music videos” [36] are now a thing of the past which means audiences of middle and upper classes will have less resources available to them to challenge the stereotypical views of black people and subvert Alvarado’s idea of them being ‘decivilised’. Dominant ideologies and representations of black people remains the same or could potentially become worse if ethnic minorities do not decide to ‘Fight the Power’. In the past, hip hop was used to show the mistreatment of black people by those in power; taking white privilege into consideration, it is evident that their opportunities are different from black people. An “African-American inner city neighbourhood, who are shouting the words “Fight the Power[37]  provides this sense of community and togetherness, which portrays the care that Public Enemy had for themselves as well as their community. In their video, they used a number of extras alongside them, to protest and display large numbers of people rather than highlighting the artists as central figures. This would certainly reinforce their movement as they work together with ordinary people to challenge the government and major institutions negatively representing black people. Therefore, Public Enemy used their power to influence audience’s ideologies because ‘hip hop gives voices to the urban culture’. [38] The whole video is shot in one setting, a conventional street. The fact that this video lacks several settings almost focuses on the main point and purpose of the video, to politically comment on the issues of the government. There are constant uses of iconography, revealing posters of Martin Luther King and banners that read Brooklyn and other states. The iconography of ‘Fight the Power’ is seen throughout the music video, from the banner float to people wearing t-shirts and holding posters of the words; these iconic words highlight the anthem as a political protest anthem. The constant repetition causes the song to become influential through the catchy melody and iconic phrasing that cannot go unforgotten. It shows how Public Enemy is in favour of Pluralism and the idea of a liberal state of freedom of speech. In contrast with ‘Plug’ we can see the black rappers care more about their success and struggle in escaping the ‘ghetto’ through the iconography of materialistic aspects such as the designer brands. There is no encouragement shown to younger audiences to avoid the criminal life but it is the complete opposite and does not maintain an audience in the way Public Enemy did with a “strong and demanding visual presence”[39]. Consequently, rap is not taken seriously as the audience have been “brainwashed[40] by the fantasies and money so are becoming less aware of socio-economic affairs.

Rich the Kid glamorises the rapper lifestyle within the song ‘Plug,’ conveying his lack of respect for his portrayal as a minority; as a voice that young people listen to he has the ability to fill his music with meaningful content, addressing important themes such as the Black Lives Matter campaign. However, rather than supporting this, he supports the struggle of holding his pants up throughout the video, despite the fact he is wearing a belt; it is behaviours like this that has led onto serious discrimination of race. Police brutality is an on-going issue within society and just last year in America there were “708 documented deaths in 2016”[41] caused by police and “173 of which have resulted in the deaths of African-Americans”[42]. As a result it has led to significant public figures and hip hop’s audience asking the question whether the genre is negatively representing black people. It could be argued that police brutality as whole in America is a concern not only for black people but the citizens that the authority is supposed to protect and serve. However, the black community have rebelled against the discrimination and decided to build the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign (through the social media platform) as there was a significant increase in the number of black people being killed in the summer of last year by police. Hip hop artists who share similar conventions of the old generation of rap like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole were prompted to create songs focusing on the issues society are facing. These conventions are similar to ‘Fight the Power’ and there are “only a handful of artists today who consistently sought to bring awareness to socioeconomic issues[43] affecting the African-American community. For example, J Cole perfectly describes the actions of police and how black people “are out here dyin from police that flash the siren then pull up and jus start firin” [44] which could have an impact on the audience. This is because the lyrics used are showing the “American nightmare”[45] black people are going through and it represent black people as victims who are being targeted by the police who are portrayed as the ‘predators’. This could then lead to other racial groups having sympathy for black people as they build a personal relationship (considering uses and gratification theory) with J. Cole. Despite the efforts of social and political rappers, it has not been as successful as the ‘trap’ side of hip hop and Michael Eric Dyson’s theory suggests that political rap did not get the support it deserved in the eighties and nineties. Thought provoking music portraying societal issues has reverted to sexualised, criminal rap such as Rich the Kid, who continues to portray the ‘gangsta life’ as something of significance, which highlights a major problem due to this music becoming all the more prominent and mainstream in today’s society.

A criticism of black representation in hip hop is the objectification of black women, which is explicitly evident throughout the lyrics of ‘Plug’ but interestingly not within the video itself. The constant reference to women as ‘hoes’ and ‘bitches’ portrays his misogynistic and negative views of women, proving to be an obvious issue for their avid audience. Interestingly, no women appear in the video, which therefore focuses the audience attention on the rappers themselves and their glamorous lifestyles in terms of material. In a typical rap music video an audience would expect to witness women dancing half nakedly trying to seduce the artists while they are performing the song which has a negative and unrealistic reflection of females. More specifically, the women are usually black which means the representation is of black females being sex freaks so they would be viewed as inappropriate to society. This could certainly influence young black children from the ‘ghetto’ as “cheap fiction for working class juveniles encouraged and even instigated delinquency”[46] so would be incentivised to have sex at early ages or possibly commit rape. Perkins’ theory can be applied to suggest young black children are reinforcing the stereotype by having sex “aged twelve to eighteen and the rates of sexual activity and sexually transmitted diseases are highest among African-Americans[47]. However, it could be argued that news institutions are trying to “distract us from the real causes of crime like child abuse or parental neglect”[48] by branding hip hop and the culture as the main culprits for crime or “is it the media producers simply constructing a reflection of society?[49]. With reference to the primary text something that is unique about this song is that women are not being objectified by the artists physically like other hip hop music videos do. This is probably because there are not any women in the music video. So Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze would not be appropriate in this song because there are not any females to look at. It immediately would infer the song will be about something more serious or about the artist's lives because they do not want the audience's attention to be distracted by the women. It also subverts the stereotype of women being portrayed as sex freaks which was formed decades ago with the introduction of rappers from groups like N.W.A and Mobb Deep. However, with an artist like J.Cole “those [/these] videos did not need to depend on obligatory scantily clad females”[50] to create an iconographic music video to gain audience’s attention.


To conclude, hip hop of this generation is argued to be changing through the evaporation and decline of social commentary songs and the evolution of meaningless profanity which is being forced to the audience of the music genre. More specifically ‘trap’ has become a burden on the growth of race equality because of artists like Rich the Kid who construct songs that conform with dominant ideologies of right wing audiences (Marxists) who believe all black people behave the same as the rappers displayed in their music videos. Audiences care more to “bop their heads like chickens in a farm without understanding the lyrics”[51] when listening to trap music and this is where the reflection of certain groups evolves.  So it’s obvious the representations created from hip hop songs like ‘Plug’ have mainly been negative because of the influence it has had on black people persuading them to accept the inequality in society and encourages them to follow the illegal footsteps of rappers who were once in their position and are now gloating about their success in songs. Considering a right wing perspective, they may use these artists as prime examples as to why a moral panic has been formed between black people and hip hop because of the way they fantasise crime. Therefore, the representation of black people in hip hop overall will mean that it becomes harder for political groups of black people, like the campaign of Black Lives Matter, to convince the world they are not all the same.


















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Moving image
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Work consulted

MM38 – page 5 There’s a riot going onhttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0i5diL3vrEiSGxRNHIyZmM4Ums - journal

Michael McCrudden Kodak Black before they were famous [Internet]YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jyP3eu_FmA – moving image

Michael McCrudden Rich the Kid before they were famous [Internet] YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9MN4BGvQI – moving image

D.J Akademiks Kodak Black gets banned from South Carolina and put on House arrest [Internet] YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HO2ZT0mWGM – moving image

The Guardian Justin Timberlake uses black culture says hip hop star Vic Mensa [Internet] The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/01/justin-timberlake-uses-black-culture-says-hip-hop-star-vic-mensa - news article
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[1] Rich the Kid. (2016), YouTube.
[2] Wall, T. (2003), p7.
[3] Fanon, F. (1952), p13.
[4] Wall, T. (2003), p7.
[5] Perkins, T. (1997), p75.
[6] Edwards, A. (2016), Daily Mail.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Parker, B. (2000).
[11] Rich the Kid. (2016), YouTube.
[12] Akademiks, D.J. (2015), YouTube
[13] Johnson, L. (2016).
[14] Dumont, L. (2003), p23.
[15] Gabbadon, N. (2006), p165.
[16] Rich the Kid. (2016), YouTube.
[17] Genius. (2016).
[18] Collins, H. (2016), p16.
[19] Stanley, B. (2005).
[20] Wall, T. (2003), p7.
[21] Finely, T. (2015).
[22] Wall, J. (2006), p6.
[23] Ibid, p10.
[24] Carol, M. (2008), p243.
[25] Goodle, E. (1994). p23.
[26] King, C. (1970). P47
[27] Perkins, T. (1997).
[28] Springhall, J. (1999), p150.
[29] Clay, A. (2003), p1349.
[30] Ibid, p1351.
[31] Springhall, J. (1999), p148.
[32] Akademiks, D.J. (2015), YouTube.
[33] Mossberg, D. (2012), YouTube.
[34] Ibid, YouTube.
[35] Clay, A. (2003), p1348.
[36] Spence, J. (2009), p4.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Margolis, L. (2000).
[39] Spence, J. (2009), p15.
[40] Aidoo, D. (2013).
[41] Williams, J. (2016).
[42] Ibid.
[43] Davis, R. (2016), essence.
[44] J, Cole (2016) YouTube.
[45] Mossberg, D. (2012)
[46] Springhall, J. (1999). p71.
[47] Dionne, P. (2007).
[48] Blanchard, B. (2016).
[49] Aidoo, D. (2013).  
[50] Spence, J. (2009). p16
[51] Aidoo, D. (2013).