Thomas Campbell - rap and hip-hop discussion
I really enjoyed the panel discussion this week. It was a very interesting look into today’s culture of hip-hop and rap, along with the challenges, and changes that have occurred. Both Professor Pate and Melissa Riviere’s ideas were very interesting. I was not aware of the major differences between rap and hip-hop, and before this panel just thought they were both regarded as the same genre. Professor Pate claimed that hip-hop is a culture, and rap is the literature of that culture. I further learned that hip-hop is meant to bring people together, while gangster rap looks at police brutality and racial tensions. This was very surprising, as I personally did not separate the two music genres.
It was very interesting to hear about the development of rap and hip-hop genres over the years. Both music genres are much more political than I thought. Melissa Riviere mentioned that on a global level, hip-hop is very political. Rose explained, “ rap’s (or Hip Hop’s) political development sustains that rap music was not always political� (pp. 276). Today, it isn’t used as much as a means for social change, which was the case when it began as an apolitical “party music�. Public Enemy was an example of the emergence of rap as a political cultural form. According to Rose “Public Enemy’s success opened the door too more politically and racially explicit material� (pp. 276). It was clear during the discussion panel that the use of rap and hip-hop is important, and has been used to be politically active. It was great to hear that, in parts of the world rap and hip-hop are still used to fight political power worldwide.