Introduction

Introduction

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

This should clearly introduce your primary text, the media issue or debate you are addressing and what angle your essay will use to approach the question. It needs to engage the reader, pose some questions and give a clear indication of what direction the essay will take. The word count will vary but you want to aim for around 200-250 words.

Hip Hop’s popularity over the years has significantly been booming with a variety of audiences being incentivised to be a part of it. It is and has always been heavily affiliated with black culture which is why it’s important to identify how the genre represents the ethnic group and how/whether the media has decided to capitalise off of 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 portrayal of black people with the way they behave, their appearance and the lyrics used in the song. Perhaps an audience who has been influenced by large multinational news institutions (with hegemonic views) would perceive black people as ‘criminals’ through mediated news reports they consume of the ethnic minority which could potentially reinforce their views and ideologies of the ethnic group. Or maybe it’s the subject of the matter self-representing themselves through these types of songs which would make the news institutes exaggerations seem realistic. This could be the reason why some audiences (white folks especially) don’t take black people’s cries seriously when they are protesting something political like the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign.

Notes:

“They ain’t ‘bout it if they don’t listen to it”. These are the words of a female African American teenager who, some may argue, has no guidance in life. This is one of many responses Andreana Clay received in an observation she executed with black teenagers in an after school program called Brain Power in America. A music track like ‘Plug’ by Rich the Kid is the reason black people (especially young people) are influenced and encouraged to commit crimes. In the song, the artists show off their wealth and success through living the life of criminality. Now it is responses and behaviours like the one of the teenager displayed by black people because of hip hop that emit negative vibes towards middle and upper class folks especially white people. They aren’t able to establish the struggles black people have gone through or are going through as experiencing something first hand is completely different to reading/watching it. This is why some white people disagree with the ‘Black Lives Matter Campaign’ as they believe black people are disobedient; exaggerate these stories and that ‘All Live Matter’. Black people have turned towards hip hop to amplify their voice so society can hear their cries and struggles. But the genre has developed an image of racism and discrimination so people find it difficult to take the genre serious. 

·         Semiotics – non-verbal codes, denotation/connotation

·         Generic conventions – iconography, style, setting, narrative, characters, themes

·         Documentary elements – observational documentary, actuality

·         Mediation – constructed, mis-representation

·         Liberal values – progressive values, anti-racism, multi-culturalism

·         Patriarchy – system of society which men hold power

·         Matriarchy – system of society which women hold power

·         Narrative elements, sequences – strands, multi stranded narrative

·         American dream – cultural myth based on the belief that the USA is a land of promise and opportunity where anyone who works hard can achieve all the good things in life (love, esteem, wealth)

·         American nightmare – Malcolm X used this term to express the inequalities particularly with race and opportunity experienced by black people

·         Audience theory – hypodermic needle model, cultivation theory, effects theory, reception theory, two step flow model and uses and gratification

·         Cultivation theory – examines the long term effects of television, the longer people send ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality

·         Barthes and Roland – action codes and enigma codes

·         Binary opposition – Levis strauss, narratives are structured around oppositional elements in human culture

·         Blaxploitation film – films of the 60s and 70s had black actors featured in principal roles usually with whites

·         Bootleg – illegal copies of CD or film

·         Bricolage – French term for the random assembly by culture groups of various cultural signifiers to form new and often unintended meanings (skinheads with shaved heads)

·         Copy-cat crimes – crimes committed by individuals who appear to have imitated crimes either reported in the media or fictional crimes represented in film or television programs

·         Cultural competence – describes the advantage given to middle class children in the education system as a result of their parental and cultural background

·         Cultural imperialism – the dominance of Western, particularly US, cultural values and ideology across the world

·         Demonisation – media portrays groups of people as evil and makes them a focus of moral panic