Hip Hop Controversies

Free Writing:

This article reminded me of Oriensteins "Cinderella ate my daughter" because they both expressed memories from their past that implemented what they said in their article. Tricia Rose is a professor of Africana studies at Brown University. She is also the Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the university. “Professor Rose is also on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and Black Girls Rock, Inc (Van Evers, 2014).” 

She is best known for her award winning book, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, which is about the emergence of hip hop culture. 

Her primary position on the contemporary world of hip hop in the US is covered in her lectures and seminars. Rose argues that hip hop artists and the commercialization of black popular culture more generally has more power than ever to shape racial and gender images, perceptions, and policies (Van Evers, 2014). The people who are on her team and support her work are MSNBC, CNN, NPR and other local media connections as well as in Time, Essence, The New York Times, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Her speech in the YouTube video was very educational. I liked when she talked about playing basketball while she was growing up and how the creative players would rap on the tape. I agree with her when she says that hip hop music has been “dumb down” and its creativeness has really escaped. A lot of it has to do with being able to sell the product and it has effected hip hop to be commercial than inspirational. The article on “Hip Hop Wars” was also very powerful and filled with knowledge. She is trying to get the point across that hip hop isn’t what it used to be and it is because of media and the “need to sell” that is affecting its original origin. Hip hop music used to be about implementing change for the better in society and people’s lives. She talks a lot about this in this article. I like that she is passionate about hip hop and see’s the good that it was and still can be but also acknowledges that change needs to take place and I couldn't agree more!