Hip Hop [...] By: Jared A Ball

Somethings that I understood is that Hip Hop like any form of media creates ideologies and world views. According to Ball, it is fraudulent and a constructed fabrication.In this case, directors, advertisor, stockholders among others are responsible for dissiminating conciousness they authorize and mass produce. Ball believes that Black America has been colonized. Hip Hop also helps keep them colonized and is a result from that colonization. He provides three examples of this.For example, Black people live in places like projects(these places are usually distinct, perform cheap labor and create raw materials such as Hip Hop. As a result we see violence, negative portrayal of women, and lack of creativity. For example, when someone signs a contract into a label, they can determine the content or direction of Hip Hop. But it is up to the CEO,administrators, commercial spokes people and etc, who determine what musics should be used. One example that was provided was Young Buck's song called Fuck Tha Police( I have posted the video below). They concluded that it would not be added to his album because of the violent content. According to Ball the administrators" keep people from stepping – intellectually or literally – beyond acceptable parameters. In this case these administrators become the intellectual equivalent of the guard at the gate telling you beyond this line you may not cross, that is, not without serious repercussion". Ball futher states that even though Hip Hop has been used to glofy the living condtions of those in poverty, little has been done to change it or the lives of Black America in general.

The first reading was a little difficult for me because of the way it was written. But I think I grasp what was being said and its main point.The second reading was pretty short and understandable. I don't know if anyone felt the same way as I did.

This reading can connect with one of our conceptual framework; media matters. These readings show that hip hop like any other form of media, is shaped. According to Ball, what is produced in Hip Hop is created because that is what people want to see. He provides examples of artist who we dont see because they speak more about the colonial status of Black America such as police brutality, impoverished schools among other things. Below I also attached a video by Dead Prez which is a song about Hop Hop. They express the need for change and how hip hop should be more than what it is today; such as what we see artist like Jay-Z, 50 cent or Lil Wayne producing. These are people that little boys in middle school and high school idolize and listen to. It shows that media matters because it teaches children things about what to wear, how to wear it, how to think, how to see the world among many other things.



"Together the ants will conquer the elephant"- Dead Prez


">">