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Hip Hop

Hip-Hop: Negative Effects on Today's Youth

Arthur Baker said, "I remember being told 'Someone's gonna make a fortune out of this rap thing' and thinking 'no way'," ("Rap Quotes" 1). Arthur Baker was one of the most noticeable and widely-emulated of the first hip-hop producers ("Arthur" 1). Little did he know what the negative effect that this form of music would have on today's youth. With violence and drug use rising, one must wonder, "What's the cause"" Though hip-hop is definitely not the only cause, it doesn't help. With some minor changes in artists' lyrics and persona, today's youth wouldn't be subjected to negative views of society, but rather the positive side of life. Hip-hop has a negative effect on today's youth and something must be done about it.

What is hip-hop? Webster defines hip-hop as, "a subculture especially of inner-city youths whose amusements include rap music, graffiti, and break dancing," (542). While the World Book defines rap music as, ."..a form of popular music that is generally spoken or chanted at a fast pace rather than sung. Rap music is performed over musical accompaniment that emphasizes rhythm rather than melody. Often rap music consists of short segments of earlier recorded music combined in new patterns," (141).

Both definitions, however valid, do not fully describe what hip-hop means to the people who listen to it, its fans. One fan calls hip-hop, "The expression of the relationship between urban youth and their environment. The art of the streets." ("Hip-Hop" 2). Hip-hop has a very deep meaning to the youth that listens to it, and thus carries a tremendous responsibility as well.

To start understanding hip-hop, one must first understand the history of it. Hip-hop originated in the early 1970s through a mixture of spoken word and jazz drumming and instrumentations. The art of "tagging" also began around the 1970s. Vic, a New York City mail courier, set a goal for himself to visit every subway and ride every bus...