‘Cities are
built with language’: how poetry feeds on urban life
- · Covers all kind of poetry
- Tom Chivers ‘There is this energy and aggression and speed in a city that lends itself to poetry – cities are built with poetry’
- · Inua Ellams ‘poems are 3D portraits of the World using a few words as possible’
- · Hip hop – urban kind of poetry that has exploded I the past 30 years; expresses the experience of black Americans
- · Ellam believes there urban poetry can relate to other poetry with the example of ‘8 Mile’
Currently ‘Rhythm And Poetry’ is dominated through hip hop
which has developed its own stereotypes
and representations it has on people over the years. The typical ones
would be that rap is violent, abusive, racist etc. Poetry wasn’t always like this
as it says in the article it used to be an attraction for locals as it would
discuss issues and images in society. Furthermore, because the internet was a
mere shadow of other platforms like print and broadcast the poems were probably
be for locals distributed in newspapers and radios.
The Guardian
Female
rappers take a stand in Mexico’s capital of violence against women
- · Veteran rapper, Luz Reality, gets unnerved by the constant threat of assaults in Ecatepec’s clandestine concert venues
- · Woman was found burned on an empty patch of grass, was still alive and told the police but died shortly after through injuries
- · Neighbourhood has become Mexico’s ‘capital of violence against women’- since 2012 on average, one woman has been killed every week
- · In one of the concerts, the rappers began expressing their feelings about the crimes taking place of women so frequently - people were recording it with their phones
- · Luz first heard about rap in the early 1990’s which helped her connect with her family
Rap gives a voice to all kinds of people. The main group of
people that would come to mind is black people. We have seen through the years
the number of hip hop artists trying to tell a story, a real to life story
about the mistreatment of black people – police brutality. But this article
shows rap being used from a slightly alternative perspective. This is because it is women doing the
portraying and the audience in Mexico are the ones who would be the ones to
accept this change or not. The women just want equality in the dangerous
neighbourhood where women go missing on weekly bases which doesn’t seem like
much to ask for. I believe a political debate about this would not really
influence the people who are committing these crimes on the vulnerable women
because the article says police stay out of their way which suggests these
people are invincible. Therefore, rap allows these women to present their
feelings in a song and especially because they are big icons in Mexico it could
influence some of the people. In addition, Tesa Perkins’ theory can be applied to infer that
some stereotypes are true and the one being displayed in Mexico is that it is
an uncivilised country (some parts) and it could be the reason why some of them
decide to immigrate to the US.
Daily Mail
The hip hop
cop shop: Police opened fake rap music store and snared 30 gangsters for drugs
and gun offences
- · Police opened fake rap music store and snared 30 gangsters for drugs and gun offences
- · Total of 37 armed criminals and drug dealers have been jailed for a total of more than 400 years
- · Private back room of a hip hop store
- · Shop operated for more than 12 months with officers who were trained in the music they were selling
- · Criminals aged between 16 and 41 were charged with various offences
- · The shop has a sound booth for people to record music usually hip hop
- · 19 of the 27 men were black
The fact that the police decided to use a ‘hip hop shop’ and
not anything else obviously highlights the association the genre has with
crime. These artists who rap about criminal activity have had an influence on
these people as they are criminals now or possibly were criminals before
listening to rap and are now able to relate with the artists (Uses and Gratification theory –
personal identity). Also, ideologies of black people being criminals and negatively
impacting the UK would be reinforced because of this investigation because 19
of the 27 pictured men are black. Despite the men holding firearms or drugs, we
could argue that hip hop was used to keep them off the streets so would be less
likely to use them. They weren’t harming anyone and no one’s life was in danger
so this could suggest they were being passive.
EMC (English & Media Centre)
Reading
Rap: how do people interpret music? Rapper David Aidoo’s article
- · Music able to bring people together whilst simultaneously segregating us
- · Evident in social networking World of harsh tweets or hash tags
- · There is an obvious generation gap between the kids and the adults
- · Popular songs today have more power than before as they dictate social circles, fashion trends, clubs people visit, new memes, slang etc.
- · Prepubescent children being influenced because mainstream music is branded as ‘brainwashing’
- · Music today lacks structure, taste and feeling
- · Basic interpretation comes from ‘How does this (song) make me feel?’
- · He believes people wouldn’t be able to enjoy hip hop songs if it’s hard to understand what the artists is saying
- · He believes majority of hip hop fans don’t even understand the lyrics and he thought they just looked like chickens on a farm bopping their heads
- · Elder generation have a tendency to blame rap for the violence amongst youngsters
- · Is it the media that creates and reinforce violent stereotypes or is it the media producers simply constructing a reflection of society
This article demonstrates the way audiences in hip hop enjoy
their music. In some cases, which is similar to 80’s and 90’s rap, people
listen to rap songs for the lyrics and the feelings they build from what the
artists are saying. Considering that these rap songs were mostly associated
with violence, drugs and sex it could be the reason why people were influenced
into the criminal lifestyle. I can apply the Uses and Gratification theory to
infer that a few people constructed a personal relationship and/or personal
identification. This could be because those people probably lived similar lives
(in the ghetto) and have gone through the same struggles as their favourite
artists so may regard them as a role model performing the acts the rapper
glorifies in their song. Therefore, this could reinforce the stereotypes of rap
being a huge influence on people especially those without much hope (lacking
education) which could be black people as they are associated with this
representation in society mainly because of the link between them and the
ghetto – run down areas.
EMC (English & Media Centre)
Representation
in Rap - 50 Cent
- · 50 is sexist, misogynistic, materialistic, arrogant and proponent of violence as a solution to the many problems he comes across in the ghetto. Shocking role model but he still has a healthy fan base
- · He stars in films, shows, computer game. Most of these are successful and his audience seemed to enjoy the content he created
- · Need to view 50 Cent’s media texts in a different perspective; consider the socio economic reality of black America
- · 50 Cent’s behaviour is music videos is typical of a black rapper and it reinforces the stereotypes people have formed on hip hop and the black community – objectifying women
- · Article says, ‘no one would seriously confuse the stage performance of most music stars with what goes on in their private life’
- · The hustling, pimping and hoeing are all part of a carefully controlled image designed to sell as many records as possible
- · His fans respect his grind and the work he put in to escape the ghetto
This article shows a balanced viewing of the famous hip hop
artists, 50 Cent. It begins with the content he creates and the reaction from
his fan base to some of the discriminating and immoral scenes in his music
videos or computer game. I believe his audience wouldn’t be too fussed with the
explicit images on display because they like 50 unconditionally and it’s common
in the industry of gaming and music. For example, the way women are portrayed
in these videos can be disturbing to some people as he objectifies them
lyrically and physically. In addition to this, the audience are pleasured by
this as the women wear revealing clothes and behave in seductive ways.
EMC (English & Media Centre)
Ghetto
Culture – ‘City of God’ and ‘La Haine’
- · Text is ‘City of God’ which is the story of a favela and its inhabitants through the sixties – eighties
- · The people from the favelas live in extreme poverty and are surrounded by gang violence and the drug trade.
- · Film was financed by TV Globo (Brazil’s biggest TV channel) and O2 films
- · Budget was $3,300,000 and grossed over $24 million worldwide which suggests it appealed to a mass audience
- · Typical representations of young black males in gangs, shooting guns and taking drugs
- · La Haine set in 1990’s and the protagonist lives on the outskirts of Paris
- · Deals with police brutality, racism and civil unrest
- · Opens with immediate context: real footage of riots that regularly took place between youth and police between 1986 and 1996
- · Made for approximately $3 million which had also won awards
- · Narrative inspired by American independent films such as ‘Boyz N The Hood’ and film makers such as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee
- · The films take a similar to approach with American film narratives where the protagonists wants to escape the ‘hood’ and the life of crime
- · These protagonists portray a more positive viewing of young black people
- · However, other characters reinforce stereotypes constructed on the ethnic minority
- · There are characters in both films who are both drug dealers
- · The characters aren’t living wealthy lives, selling drugs to provide for family
- · Favelas were initially created to house freed slaves
- · La Haine: characters all refer to each other with racial banter; it is argued that people from ethnic minorities often do this to celebrate their difference from the rest of society
- · A defining characteristic of these ghetto cultures is their antagonism towards the police
- · Representation of police in both films is almost entirely negative (COG – corrupt)
- · City of God: Police sell guns to gangsters, shoot suspects (including an innocent youth on his way to school), steal money and drugs from dealers and never seen helping anyone
- · La Haine: police brutality witnessed when two of the protagonists are tortured
- · City of God is based in Brazil and La Haine is in France ‘life is not as cheap on the European streets as it is in the Brazilian favelas’.
- · Women are underrepresented in both these films
- · The characters lack jobs, education or any reason to feel pride, so they resort to carrying guns and insulting women to make themselves feel like men
- · La Haine uses hip hop to set the scene
- · The films bring harsh social realities to the screen in educational and visually exciting ways with interesting characters
This article discusses how two similar films have portrayed
representations of ethnic minorities. These representations are closely related
to young people of the ‘ghetto’ with both City
of God and La Haine having
protagonists from run down areas of their countries. The characters in the
films are mostly black youngsters and carry out a number of criminal activities
like drug dealing, having possession of a gun, violence etc. This reinforces
stereotypes of black people and teenagers as well of being a disobedient towards
the law as the film shows the black characters antagonise the police. In
addition, the article says both film’s characters refer to each other using
racial banter just like what we witness in hip hop with the use of racial words
only for a different context. It argues that people from ethnic minorities
often do this to celebrate their difference from the rest of society. Furthermore,
in City of God police abuse their authority by stealing from people and killing
innocent people no matter their age. This heavily links to the ‘black lives
matter’ campaign being held in America because the police there are doing the
same thing by taking people’s lives and people who are usually innocent have
died.
YouTube
DJ
Akademiks – ‘Detroit goon robs 2 people then tells black man “You good, I only
rob white people”.’
- · Black male committing crimes
- · Armed with two pistols attempts to rob two guys in their car
- · Stole an Apple watch, rings, laptop
- · Hit the victims with the gun and try to get away in car but has difficulty starting the car
- · A bystander (black person) comes over to assist the thieve, not knowing of the events that had just occurred, by instructing him on how to start the car
- · Thief points gun at the good Samaritan and tells them ‘even though I’m pointing the gun at you... you good. I only rob white people’
- · He got arrested in his short escape
Akademiks is a YouTuber who publishes satirical commentary
on topical social issues. His YouTube channel specialises in posting news on
the latest stories in the hip hop World like rumours and stories about rappers
in the game. This story he tells us shows a black male reinforcing the typical
stereotypes society has formed on black people. He is explained to be violent,
disobedient and racist which perfectly supports those ideologies of white
people from middle to upper class which reflects negatively on black people as
a whole. Moreover, the influence of hip hop could have swayed the beliefs of
the thug especially because of the black lives matter campaign. This is because
he may have generalised the behaviour of some white police officers with all
white people so maybe has lost respect for them as a whole.
YouTube
DJ
Akademiks – ‘ASAP Rocky under fire for “lets talk about black on black crime”
comments.’
- · Rapper ASAP Rocky talks about how people who are for the black lives matter movement aren’t looking in the mirror at themselves
- · He wants black people specifically to question whether they are against white people killing black people or if they want to abolish killing as a whole
- · For example, when a police officer kills a black person there is a protest and ‘mixtapes’ are formed. But when its one black person killing another black person its a way of life (gangster/ghetto lifestyle)
- · These rappers are the ones talking about killing others and glorify it but want to make songs about justice
- · Specific rappers can only protest in a song without audiences questioning the artists
- · If rappers aren’t reciting a party line like ‘F*** COPS’ or ‘Black Lives Matter’, then people may not respect the artists. They may feel the artist is betraying the black community or siding with the police. Also occurred with Kendrick Lamar
I side both with the people for the campaign and ASAP Rocky
to an extent. I do believe these gangsters need to understand constantly
killing people isn’t reflecting positively on black people as a whole. This is
because these people are the ones reported in the news on a weekly basis trying
to create a moral panic and reinforce white people of middle and upper class’
ideologies and beliefs on black people. Therefore, some of them form
stereotypes of the ethnic minority in the US or UK and generalise it amongst
all black people. So ASAP Rocky is right in a sense because black people need
to show the World that they shouldn’t be feared because they have done nothing
wrong. However, the fact that some black people are letting down the black
community shouldn’t result in all black people being treated as criminals by
the police and justice system. Its not right that police abuse their authority and
are killing these innocent people. Therefore, some rappers feel the need to
express their and the community’s emotion on the matter through songs. Artists
like Kendrick Lamar and J Cole are known for giving black people a voice
because they all feel the same on the injustice behaviour by the police. Also,
I don’t believe artists like these two are being hypocritical because they don’t
promote gun violence or glorify killing like most rappers do.
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