Response 2: When the music stops…

When the music stops…

In the article “How Hip Hop Lost Its Way and Betrayed Its Fans” by Brent Staples, the author describes how modern Hip-Hop promotes the stereotype of an aggressive, violent and intolerant African American society by using examples of rappers involved in shooting incidents, how they provoke each other through albums filled with insidious insults, and how some white folks promote such nature in hopes of pecuniary fulfillment. He targets the African American audience as a whole, as he introduces the newspaper article with “African American teenagers…” and how they are affected by the ‘myths’ of the black community through rap songs. Through this piece of writing, the author seems to seek social reform by informing the minority of the harmful effects that this genre of music consists of, hoping that that the community would act to stop this atrocity. As a quite liberal and progressive author himself, one might say that Brent Staples may also be aiming for hip-hop enthusiasts, of whom promote the artist, who, in return, promote this type of behavior of delinquency; as Staples seems to try to define “beef”- a word most often used in the young rap and black teenage community, thus, broadening the age group of comprehension. The author also uses short and concise paragraphs to appeal more to an audience looking for a quick read, hence, Staples use of empathy rather than factual and gleaned information to get his point across. In opinion, I believe that Staples subjective opinion against the hip hop industry blinded him of where music actually comes from. As Hauptmann, a polish dramatist, once said: “Every music comes from the heart and should reach the heart again”. People make music to reflect what they’ve been through, what they’ve seen, or how they feel about something. The lyrics don’t just pop out of nowhere. The young African American audience are only deeply brought closer to this genre because they feel like they can relate, and not because they feel- as if a social norm- to become criminals or uneducated. One should focus on making amends towards the state of their minority and hopefully the artists will follow on through.

Well that's all folks!