Talk:Hip hop culture/Archive 1

Latest comment: 16 years ago by Fawnice in topic Assessment comment

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A few questions: is the (Toop 60) meant to be a reference to David Toop's The rap attack: American jive to New York hip hop (London: Pluto, 1984), or to Rap attack 2: African rap to global hip hop (London; New York: Serpent's Tail, 1994)? Also, the entry also has two places where it says "(see " followed by an end parenthesis, with no work cited. The Toop books are supposed to be good reading; I'd be interested to see the other references too.



it refers to the lattes. the Toop book(s) are / is good, however, it's very New-York-centric. still, probably the best introduction to hip hop.


I'm curious to hear what you think of laymen's definitions of rap and hip hop, at least in college towns in the southeast U.S.: the students have it now that "rap" is when it's done for money, and "hip hop" is when it's done for art. Certainly a less scientific definition, and one that would arguably divide A Tribe Called Quest's discography into genres according to its release date. They do keep the sense that "hip hop" refers to the culture too; I guess the "art/commerce" distinction comes from that meaning of hip hop.


oh yeah, i think KRS One also uses this definition. I think what it shows is that there are rappers who aren't really part of hip hop culture, and insofar it is a useful definition. But on the other hand, it doesn't say anything about the music and it is rather - well - negative and evaluating, so for - well - musicologists and journalists (I may be one of the latter breed) it is not a very useful definition. Basically, this definition means that a) commercial rap (ie, 'the kind of rap we don't like') is not hip hop whereas the kind of rap that 'we like' is hip hop...

Assessment comment

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I've read a few of the articles here, and although we all have our own opinions on "hip hop", well here's mine. I'm a mother of a 24 y.o. son, so I've had the pleasure of growing up along with my son in the world of "hip hop", and "rap". I understand what your saying about why does it seem most rap is about violence, sex, rape, bling, and whatever else you can throw up in there. But, remember this...we've all been through our own pop-culture world. Unfortunately, I have the rememberance of "disco"...gag me. Oh and how about country music...what about that, you have "country singers" "wannabe's" trying to be like some sort of "rock star" instead of actual country. And, what do they sing about, how their girlfriends, wives, husbands, etc left them for someone else, how they lost their job, or got arrested, or shot someone and killed them. Give me a break people; the only difference between that and rap is that rappers are using a different language to tell their story by.

Instead of wishing this era of music would end, why not try to understand it. Listen to the lyrics no matter how vulgar and see what the artist is trying to say. Music is a means of expression, just as a painting, or a poem. Yes, we may at times get frustrated that you have to go to the next block to hear someone talking on the phone because the guy next door (or gal) decides to wash their car or whatever and has their music banging too loudly to even carry on a conversation. Heck, I say get out there and start jammin' and dancin' to that funky beat. At age 50; cranks up her box and jams to Nelly!

Fawnice (talk) 12:11, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Fawnice

Last edited at 12:11, 18 April 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 20:30, 3 May 2016 (UTC)