Hip-hop Under Fire

     Hip-hop is often under fire for influencing people in the wrong ways, such as those that degrading women and focusing on money, cars, and clothes, rather than the mind. It is entertaining to see people debate on the topic, when both are true. Hip-Hop has many influences on the mind, no matter which way it goes, but it's rare that the media focuses on the positive.

Hip-hop and Psychology

     Any type of music that one would listen to will influence the audience in some way. Some people, such as myself, listen to music because of their mood, whether they want to change it or want to hear something to relate to it. Some people listen to music because they enjoy the lyrics; some because they enjoy the actual music behind the words. There are different types of songs, and probably a song in each genre for any topic that one can think of.

     According to Donnetrice Allison, hip-hop helps individuals to create an identity or find an identity for themselves within their culture. The different levels of "black identity development" are the pre-encounter stage, the encounter stage, the immersion-emersion stage, and the internalization stage. These stages are set to indicate how ones views themselves within their culture, and could possibly cross cultures. The pre-encounter stage is where one sees the dominant group as a role model, they are who they want to become. The encounter stage is where one faces racism and can no longer be in doubt about it. The immersion-emersion stage is where one realizes who they are and tries to surround themselves with said "blackness", and the internalization stage is where one becomes comfortable with themselves.

     A lot of rap music or hip-hop plays on the pre-encounter stage. Many artists such as Young Thug and Fetty Wap rap about getting money and doing whatever they want. My preference is that of J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, who both have met the internalization stage. Kendrick Lamar, particularly, writes about what he sees and has been through, whether that have something to do with his life as a child in Compton, or his life as an adult-aged black man in America, watching stories like that of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Sandra Bland.

You can read more about the method and psychology behind Kendrick Lamar's music here.

You can read more about Allison's hip-hop and psychology here.

Hip-hop and Creative Identity
   
     There are many different styles of hip-hop. There is neo-soul, rhythm and blues, rap (which splits into many different types, as well), and so much more. It is very easy to say that hip-hop allows for creative identity. As mentioned above, Kendrick Lamar raps very consciously, Young Thug raps about money, drugs, cars, and clothes, and then there are those like Common and Erykah Badu that rap about feelings, about activism, but on a more soulful level. A lot of the rap that many people my age now call bubblegum rap is industry influenced, which points toward the point that hip-hop can be bad, but there are still those that focus on writing for the better. Bubblegum rap is the rap that focuses on the things that are not important, or should not be seen as important when there are bigger things to think about.

     There are people that listen to the bubblegum rap because they enjoy it. You can read more about how it came about here. This is the music that the people influence because they like to move to it. This is the industry-influenced music.

     J. Cole would rather use his music to tell things the way they are. He likes to talk, now, about how he had this dream to reach the level that he's at, and how he doesn't feel like it completed him as he thought it would. There is an interview where he goes into depth with Angie Martinez about different things that he thinks about in life that transfer over to his music. He also did a song on David Letterman where he spoke out on what it's like to be where he's at seeing the things he sees. He uses his verses to create a picture for people, whether it be a song about how people get nice things by robbing others, or even a song about his experiences as a teenager with no sexual experience. His creative identity is so immense that he's become my favorite rapper.

All in all, hip-hop isn't all bad, though that's what media seems to focus on.