Spring Break
Simply Put: Hip-Hop Good Music
Greg Pivarnite
Issue date: 11/9/05 Section: Commentary
Style has also affected this notion that white kids are turning black. All generations have their own style. Why is it that if a kid dresses in a FUBU sweatshirt he is all of a sudden stigmatized as he wants to be black where as if someone in the 1970s dressed in bell-bottoms and platform shoes it was just considered a fad? Bell-bottoms and platform shoes were just as much a product of the disco culture as baggy pants and backward hats are a product of the hip-hop culture.
Even with all the stereotypes and racist points of view, which have deemed hip-hop culture as something of a malignant tumor spreading through white America, the idea of all white kids becoming "wiggers" is still an old wives tale. It seems that people who try to push their theories have forgotten to do the simplest thing and just look around them. Of course it seems hip-hop culture is pervading all aspects of society - due to exploitation and marketing schemes by record companies. And of course there are going to be some white kids who wear FUBU and G-Unit sneakers, but those people are the exception rather than the norm. All one has to do is walk around campus to see the normal attire for most people isn't the stereotypical hip attire. And even if it was, why should there be something wrong with it?
I am white, most of my friends are white and we all listen to hip hop music, but we all wear clothes that fit. When we ask for each other's opinion on whether or not a song is worth listening to the issue never comes up of whether or not it is too black, but rather of what quality it is, the same type of reasoning applied to any other genre of music. I bet you would be hard-pressed to find a person on this campus who does not have at least one rap song they like. If hip hop wasn't good music it would have failed long ago. I don't listen to Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas and even Eminem because I want to be black. I listen to it because I enjoy the music.
Some of the subjects in their songs I would never claim to understand. I would never know what it's like to grow up poor or sell drugs, but this is what these guys rap about because it is their life experiences. Does it mean I can't appreciate a well-made song, with a good beat and intelligently-crafted lyrics because I am white or can't dance? Besides, my parents listen to Elton John and I don't accuse them of being gay.
Even with all the stereotypes and racist points of view, which have deemed hip-hop culture as something of a malignant tumor spreading through white America, the idea of all white kids becoming "wiggers" is still an old wives tale. It seems that people who try to push their theories have forgotten to do the simplest thing and just look around them. Of course it seems hip-hop culture is pervading all aspects of society - due to exploitation and marketing schemes by record companies. And of course there are going to be some white kids who wear FUBU and G-Unit sneakers, but those people are the exception rather than the norm. All one has to do is walk around campus to see the normal attire for most people isn't the stereotypical hip attire. And even if it was, why should there be something wrong with it?
I am white, most of my friends are white and we all listen to hip hop music, but we all wear clothes that fit. When we ask for each other's opinion on whether or not a song is worth listening to the issue never comes up of whether or not it is too black, but rather of what quality it is, the same type of reasoning applied to any other genre of music. I bet you would be hard-pressed to find a person on this campus who does not have at least one rap song they like. If hip hop wasn't good music it would have failed long ago. I don't listen to Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas and even Eminem because I want to be black. I listen to it because I enjoy the music.
Some of the subjects in their songs I would never claim to understand. I would never know what it's like to grow up poor or sell drugs, but this is what these guys rap about because it is their life experiences. Does it mean I can't appreciate a well-made song, with a good beat and intelligently-crafted lyrics because I am white or can't dance? Besides, my parents listen to Elton John and I don't accuse them of being gay.