Racial Issues and Music Essay Example For Students

Racial Issues and Music Essay Throughout the years African American musicians have played a substantial part in the music industry. They have evolved from playing jazz music, to creating electronic and providing people with rap and hip-hop. However over the years, African American race has been portrayed in a negative perspective. Rap and Hip Hop music and their videos depict them as to being violent, criminals, and unruly. Articles all over the internet have the same remarks to pose â€Å"Rap these days is all about bitches, hoes, and drugs. † In a sense, rap is generalized by a few songs and the messages poised by the songs are assumed to be the three things listed above. In actual, this is untrue and there are various artists that rap about problems they faced in the ghetto and real life situations that African American’s face in their day to day life. However, for this blog write up the main purpose is to prove that songs like Hot Nigga by Bobby Shmurda coincide with the stereotypes that rap songs are basically portraying African American’s as violent individuals who partake in illegal actions such as the consumption of drugs and the use of weapons. The specific idea of race being portrayed negatively in this song is very easy to comprehend. Almost everyone in this song is an African American residing in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Shmurda goes onto rap about his friends and gang members that carry weapons such as a 9 millimeter pistol. It is also evident in the video that Shmurda’s actions specifically reference the use of weapons. This links in with the stereotype that black people are linked with violent actions and connected to the use of weapons. Moving on, there are also references made in the lyrics of the song and the video where the listener has a glimpse of the use of marijuana, another point that helps connect African Americans to the use of illegal substances and unruly behavior. However, not every African American should be generalized into a category of gangsters that Shmurda portrays them to be, the general public feels it is right to paint every African into the same category. This is the reason why in America there are brutal killings of innocent African Americans. The population of people postulate the African race to be indulged in matters of violence and illegal activities due to people like Shmurda. I, myself am an avid listener to Rap music and artists like Bobby Shmurda, however his songs have a beat that helps me liven up the atmosphere. When it comes to lyrics and actual rap music, I would pick artists like Kendrick Lamar who rap for the African race and outline the struggles they go through. I feel it is wrong label the African American race as gangsters because at the end of the day they are humans and should be treated with due respect even though due to a few rotten apples their name is tarnished in society.