HIP HOP - BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES

Submitted by Ron Logan on October 4, 2007 - 11:08am.

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Byron Hurt begins his exploration on hip hop culture and male masculinity by saying:

"I love Hip Hop…but I guess what I’m trying to do is just to get us men to take a hard look at ourselves."

Check it out:

HIP HOP - BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES

Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53tvVk8jxi0

Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF_F7lH4Bqs

Makes me ask myself "Does a real man challenge the derogatory language he and his fellow men use?"

Media Education Foundation is the organization that has some of the best documentaries, including beyond beats and rhymes, on media and socialization:

http://www.mediaed.org/

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Progressive hip hop discussion

Submitted by amelia does on October 4, 2007 - 7:35pm.

Thanks for posting those videos. Really interesting stuff, too bad there's no part 3. I wonder if there is a corrollation between blues traditions and hip hop. Although Blues was not traditionally aggressive and violent as Hip Hop can be, I have heard it stated by Blues greats that the woman (as in my woman treats me so mean) is a stand-in for the boss or white man.

Usually the woman is not the subject of disrespect and violence in Blues (rather she is the thing that holds the man by the balls), but in Hip Hop she certainly can be treated this way. Has this tradition been perverted into modern and more violent language; the woman was something to be conquered in a relationship dynamic but is now something to be disrespected and dominated?

But who is, and always was, the real thing to be conquered? The business criminal/white man. All the way back to slavery African Americans have been oppressed and controlled by businessmen who according to the video, continue to help pervert and inform aspects of African American culture.