Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Critique 2: Chapter 7


                I enjoyed reading chapter 7 of Tricia Rose’s The Hip-hop Wars as it swayed my opinion slightly on Rap’s relationship with sexism and women. I was very much in favor of freedom of expression (one of the issues tackled in the chapter) but reading the chapter has made me realize while rappers should be allowed to demean women, if this is how they wish to express themselves, it doesn’t mean they should or that it is ok. The chapter also made me realize that censoring indecent words doesn’t change the overall message that it sends youth; youth that admire rappers above all else. I disagreed slightly however, that rap can’t contain sexist lyrics as a way to show a true issue of sexism in our culture. While the chapter argues sexism should be tackled at the root by rap I believe this in part has happened through rap displaying how sexist our culture is. The problem really arises in that not enough rappers are socially conscious enough to make it clear to their fans that they can rap these lyrics and still have a great deal of respect for women.  This issue goes back to the disconnect between how rappers act in their personas and in reality. Tricia Rose has made me think a lot of social issues related to rap are cause by this difference in personalities.

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