According to your readings, does hip hop/rap reinforce stereotypes, or does it give a realistic depiction of urban life in African American communities? Similarly, in readings, film clip, and as you heard in the music from this week, we see how the struggles both before and after the riots are felt by the community and manifest in the hip hop and rap that is stemming from the community. We hear the struggles being sung about in hip hop/rap, and how those struggles lead to an outright explosion of tensions in Southern California with the LA Riots. What led to these tensions? Do you think anything could have been done if the music was taken seriously by those outside of the community? (10 points)
**Remember, this is not a post that tells us whether you like hip hop/rap, etc. In this assignment, that’s not as relevant as the meanings we can glean from them. 700 words
Spotify Playlist from Uprising: Hip Hop and the L.A. Riots
Question to consider: How did Hip Hop shape American culture, society, and politics and how was it shaped by these things in return?
Key words: Hip hop, music, American consumerism, race, police profiling, history, politics, society
just watch the clip below, be sure to take good notes on the readings as they do a great job of covering the material for you. Lastly, be sure to listen to the Spotify playlist of songs from the film. *If you don’t have a Spotify account you can sign up for one for free.
I did find this short clip from another earlier Vh1 documentary about Hip Hop: “Gangsta Rap And L.A. Riots 1992” from Vh1, Time Machine
Please be sure to at the very least listen to these songs from Spotify. They’ve got explicit lyrics, and some very problematic language, but you can still weed through it for content.
Some examples of music pre-riots:
N.W.A. “Fuck the Police.†Straight Outta Compton. Priority, 1988. CD
Ice Cube. “Black Korea.†Death Certificate. Priority/EMI Records, 1991. CD.
After the Riots:
Ice Cube. “We Had to Tear this Muthafucka Up.†The Predator. Priority/EMI Records, 1992. CD.
Dr. Dre. “The Day the Niggaz Took Over.†The Chronic. Death Row Records, 1992. CD.
Sublime. “April 29, 1992.†Sublime. MCA, 1996. CD
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