Critical
Investigation.
Does rap music and artist like "Nines" create a
negative representation of black youth?
“Poverty can only be part of the explanation for this pattern.
While blacks are, by and large, poorer than whites, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis
are poorer still. There was no disorder in areas with large Asian populations,
including in London; CCTV pictures suggest there were few Asian looters.” this
critical investigion will analyse the effects rap artist have on the younger
generation and the reason rap artist have become role models to the younger
generation. In order to analyse this correctly, there will be a main text. The
main text is a rapper from the Church Road estate (Wilsden) called Nines. Nines
is a black rapper who raps about being a “gangster.” although he doesn't refer
to himself as one, I can infer, from his lyrics and content, he is an alleged
one. He raps about money drugs and women. I will be analysing two of his song
lyrics and videos, in order to show the effects his lyrics and videos may have.
Also, in order to back up these points, there will be a use of statistics and
other reasons that black youth may be represented badly. Things like the London
riots, amount of black people in prison and gun and knife crime stats may also
allow me to show the many reasons black people are represented negatively.
My
primary texts are two songs from Nines called Money on my mind and Aj'd out.
These songs are also moving image text. Money on my mind was videoed by SBTV,
Jamal Edward's company. The themes of this song are money drugs and girls. This
is the typical theme of most rap songs right now. The themes are shown
throughout the video, as well as the lyrics. There is a lot of objectification
of women in this one track. It is shown through the various quotes. “Them hoes use to diss when we always bruk” the use
of the word “hoes” shows how Nines feels about women and how he treats them.
This may show the audience and people who listen to his music that women are
inhumane as they are called a word that connotes disgust. "I hit that bitch onetime." There is again a
sense of condemnation of women, causing young boys to do the same as Nines. “If
her body looks dead, I'll just probably get head.” Lastly, he now conveys
exactly what he does to women here. He also glorifies sexual activities with no
feeling, without showing the consequences, leaving younger people, more
vulnerable to pregnancies, sexually transmitted disease and heartbreak. He also
glorifies selling illegal drugs, making it seem like a “cool” thing to do,
which in turn, causes younger people to aspire to do the same thing. “Even
though I'm a star I'm out here selling coke.” This part of the song shows the
audience he is not ashamed to say he does things like that, and also nullifies
the audience to crime and things like this as he has openly said this. The next
quote optimises my point on effect of this music on the younger generation.
"Then I taught him how to whip crack" He has taught a younger kid on
the block to make and sell drugs. This obviously makes the younger kids to want
to do this also. Another one of my texts is a song called “Aj'd out” again a
song from Nines. The content and lyrics are similar to Money on my mind,
showing us there is not just one track from Nines that gives black youth a
negative representation. A quote I have picked out from this song says, “If I
count my stack I finish a day later.” This quote suggests he has a lot of
money, which is a theme in most rap videos, which can cause youth, who listen
to rap music to be controlled by money, causing them to maybe do illegal things.
Another quote from that song is “Niggas say I move hot because I make tools
pop.”
This quote implies he doesn't think twice about shooting someone.
This shows the audience that he believes shooting and violence is not a big
thing. This again may cause youth to get caught up in gang violence, which in
turn gives them a negative representation of black youth in the long run.
I think rappers reinforce the stereotypes of black youth openly
admitting the things they do. Also, as a result of the publicity rappers get,
what they say is taken as gospel from both the youth they are reaching out to,
and to other people who listen to rap music in order to get a stereotype. This
is because rappers are quite influential and are well known, this means they
are able to get their point and views across easier than a person who works in
the corporate world. This means, people who listen to music can be influenced
more by rappers and the lifestyle rappers portray. So if they portray a
negative lifestyle, youth will aspire to have that lifestyle, and other people
will believe this is the lifestyle that most or all black people have. This
point here can be backed up with a quote from Ndubuisi Nkem Okoronkwo which says
"Sportsmen and
musicians, particularly rap artists, are considered the most prevalent role
models amongst young black men and women...
The findings from this
study show African-Caribbean youths tend to aspire to emulate sportsmen and
musicians, who many consider to be negative role models.”
This quote shows that musicians and sportsmen are looked up to. This could be
bad for two reasons; firstly, musicians and sportsmen are two careers which only
1 in millions succeed from. This means that a lot of youth may put their eggs
in one basket as they will put all their time and effort into something
virtually impossible and lack a back-up plan. This means if they don't make it
to be a rapper or sportsman, they have no other options. This may result in
crime or just being at home, claiming benefits.
The second thing is that
there is a lack of role models because there is a lack of fathers in households
now. The quote “The Commons Committee, which is investigating young black
people and the criminal justice system, was told 57% of black Caribbean
children grew up in lone parent households, compared with 25% of white children”(BBC,
2006). This shows that musicians and sportsmen may be role models to black
youth by default as they lack a male role in their lives causing them to form a
so called “bond” with the most successful male they know. Which is normally a
man whom is well known, or on television.
My historical texts are
two different groups, The Specials and N.W.A. The Specials are a
group who produce Ska punk music. They are an a-typical group who are
lyric conscience. A song which I believe shows the difference in music lyrics
and content over the years. This is is conveyed in through the quote “The political and economic
parallels between Britain in 2011 and 1981 may be self-evident, but musical
reactions to today's tempestuous times are conspicuous by their scarcity.”
There were riots in both 2011 and 1981, but the approach by songwriters differed,
as songs may have had more meaning, in the 1980s than they do now. Also,
because The Specials reached out to a lot of races, genders and ages, they
needed to express their views in a peaceful and calm way but with rap music
there is less need to do that because it is the norm and it is okay to speak
your mind without the use of filters. The Specials were around at about the
same time as N.W.A, and you can see the rap group from Compton Los Angeles, had
a song called “Fuck the police” the song had near enough the same meaning,
about the government and people in power, but the lyrics were completely
different. For instance in Ghost Town it says “Why must the youth fight against themselves? Government
leaving the youth on the shelf This place, is coming like a ghost town No job
to be found in this country” Just from reading the lyrics, you can see the intelligence of The
Specials, due to the use of a question mark. Also, even though they are having
a little rant about the government, and people in higher power, they still
blame their own people, showing a bit more of an objective view than N.W.A as
the lyrics “Fuck the police comin
straight from the underground A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown” The use of a profanity
already shows the aggressive tone used, again showing the difference in genres
but not time.
In my
opinion, I think this shows that rap music is more aggressive and youth who
listen to it may base their views and opinions on certain topics depending on
who said it.
In order to get a
more objective view of the representation of black people, issues and debates
that give views for and against should be looked at. The issues and debates
shown in this investigation are both stereotypes and moral panics. In regards
to stereotypes, The dominant representation of black youth is that they are
criminals and are also good for nothing. This is showed by the title of the
Daily Mail. It says “Black men 'to blame for most violent
city crime.'” As the
title is for quite a mainstream newspaper, large amount of audiences will
believe that without looking elsewhere, or for maybe alternative views on the
same situation. However, using Medhurst’s theory of some stereotypes being true
and a shorthand, there is an argument that black people may do things or act a
certain way in order to receive that type of labelling from the media and
people. The quote "It found that 67 per cent of those caught by police for
gun crimes were black.
Among those proceeded against for
street crimes, including muggings, assault with intent to rob and snatching
property, 54 per cent were black males.[4]" Shows that the
fear and the panic of the media and other people have may be valid. There are a
few statistics that may validate the representation of black youth, one of
which is “The black community suffers other, older and perhaps related
problems, too. Black children are disproportionately likely to be excluded from
school, and black adults to go to prison (see chart). African-Caribbean males
are a special worry. African-Caribbean boys do much worse in school than
African-Caribbean girls or African boys. The most recent available analysis of
GCSE results by race and sex, which was done in 2009, shows that 56% of
African-Caribbean boys got five A-C grades at GCSE, compared with 65% of
African boys and 70% of African-Caribbean girls (for all pupils, the figure was
74%).[5]” This stat shows the lack of education black youth
have, which may lead them to crime. Also, there are many athletes and rappers
who have little education, which may be seen as cool and a desirable trait to
have. LeBron James didn’t go to college, but relied on his sporting ability to
get him through and is now the nest basketball player at this moment. Kayne West
dropped out of college and is now one of the best rappers in the world. Those
two are both quite proud of what they have achieved as LeBron is famous for not
going to college. Also Kayne West has an album called “College dropout”
implying he is not ashamed that he didn’t go to college.
My
additional research is a one-on-one interview with a rapper called Giggs. Giggs
is from South London and is arguably the creator of mainstream ‘Trap Rap.’ In
his interview with The Guardian newspaper, he says a few things that may cause
us to understand the reason rappers like him or Nines exists and whether it’s
for glorification or not. “We can't hide away from our history of gritty youth
culture” This quote from Giggs shows that he doesn’t mind showing people about
drugs guns and crime because it was his life and he is not ashamed of doing so.
Also, another quote from the interview “It sounds like you’re making it up or bragging[6].”
This quote shows he understands the dominant representation of rap music being
platform to brag but he knows they are just giving a visual representation of
their life. The next three quotes tell us that he doesn’t care about what
people think of his music because what he says in his lyrics are all true.
“They’re scared of that world being true.[7]”
Because other people are doing so well in life, some people don’t want to look
at poverty in the streets, but they would prefer to scape goat them and condemn
them. “I’m going to talk about what I am going to talk about[8]”
This shows that
regardless of whether people like his music or not, he will still rap about the
same things because those things are the things that mean a lot to him as he
has went through that in his life. “That’s not the life I am living”
He’s not going to
change is lyrics to nice fun things because his life isn’t nice or fun. This
shows he raps about how he feels and relevance of his lyrics.
Bibliography
Works Consulted
Music videos
Nines. Money on my Mind
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzvzxytPUzg]
Nines. Aj’d out
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OBP14hduZc]
Web
DuRant R H. (1997). Tobacco
and alcohol use behaviours portrayed in music videos: a content analysis. [http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.87.7.1131]
Okoronkwo NN. (2008). The phenomena of Black youth crime and how
black youths are portrayed in the united kingdom
[http://www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Ndubuisi%20-%20Phenomena%20of%20Black%20Youth%20Crime%20and%20Media%20Reporting.pdf]
Rosiak L. (2012). Fathers disappear from households across
America.
[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/25/fathers-disappear-from-households-across-america/?page=all]
Rucki A (2011) Ghost Town: The song that defined an era
turns 30
[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/ghost-town-the-song-that-defined-an-era-turns-30-2306003.html]
Works Cited
Web
Western B (2002): The Impact of Incarceration on Wage Mobility and
Inequality. American Sociological Review, Vol. 67, pp. 526-546
[http://scholar.harvard.edu/brucewestern/files/western_asr.pdf]
Wingwood, G M. (2003). Prospective Study of Exposure to Rap Music
Videos and African American Female Adolescents’ Health [http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.93.3.437]
Johnson. J D. (1995). Differential gender effects of exposure to
rap music on African American adolescents' acceptance of teen dating violence
[http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01544683#page-2]
Brown, J D. (2006)Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in
Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents'
Sexual Behaviour
[http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/117/4/1018.short]
BBC News 2003 (No name).
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/2635959.stm]
Books
Ferguson, R. (1998). Representing "race": Ideology,
identity, and the media. London: Arnold.
Gauntlett, D. (2002). Media, gender, and identity: An
introduction. London: Routledge.
Lacey, N. (1998). Image and representation: Key concepts in media
studies. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Malik, S. (2002). Representing black Britain a history of black
and Asian images on British television. London: SAGE Publications.
Perry, I. (2004). Prophets of the hood: Politics and poetics in
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