A song called "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar hill Gang was the first rap song to go mainstream. There were rap songs before this (1979), but "Rapper's Delight" started the takeover. Many rappers today claim that song is the reason they rap. ... I think rap is popular and the reason it is a phenomenon is that it talks about it in its songs. ... For example the NBA has a lot of advertisements with rap songs in them and basketball is a very popular sport. ...

• Word Count: 834
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Certain songs or music genres are associated with various events in history. ... Songs would be sung secretly in codes, blind to field overseers but apparent to other slaves. ... Rap is not afraid to speak of what is really going on. ... Rap is also used as an identity source. Young people look to rap songs to find out what is hip and cool, and more importantly, what their friends think is hip and cool. ...

• Word Count: 502
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• Grade Level: High School

The FCC ruled that the song contained sexual references that were intended to shock a group of people (Boehlert, 2 para.). ... Not only did Elton, an openly bisexual man, celebrate Eminem's prohibited lyrics by singing in the rap star's controversial performance, but he also gave the hero a sympathetic hug on stage at the end of the song. ... The government cannot ban a song, but Wal-Mart can and frequently does. ... Violence in rap songs has also taken center stage and is getting their share of criticism and attempted censorship. ... Many other types of music artists use their...

• Word Count: 1463
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The song addresses the world's attitude towards the African American male, the effects of rap music, the group's belief in god, and ultimately the will to succeed and push themselves along the road of life. ... Both lyrics and songs imply that " all ya gotta do is/Push it along,"" or keep striving for success. ... Songs like "Pubic Enemy- where the focus is defending the women who are victims of sexual harassment were replaced with songs like "Hot 4 U- that makes it difficult for the listener to see women as anything other than a target for sexual abuse. ... The song ends with a t...

• Word Count: 1361
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Moreover, the rap song clearly states how the media is of great influence to the youth. ... If I were a sociologist, I will summarize the song into its main two key points. ... The song, Where is the Love is entirely different from any other rap song. Most rap songs of today portray sex and gun culture. ... It is clearly indicated in the song. ...

• Word Count: 636
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

These groups argue that the lyrics in many rap songs degrade women by calling them bitches, hoes, and tricks. ... Further proof that rap artists are selling an image and not real life is that many rap artists are happily married men with wives and children that they truly care about. ... Songs such as Bitchez [sic] ain't Shit and Bridget in which women are referred to as hoes do not really represent how Dr. Dre and many other rap artists feel about women. ... Rap music has no real influence on the image America has of women. ...

• Word Count: 634
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

He will perform the song with a Korean dancing group from his video. ... Then, I would like to invite one of the 4 Asian rappers from a documentary called 'Bad Rap', Awkwafina to perform her best hits such as 'My Vag' and 'Daydream'. Her rap She is quirky, funny, and she has a magnetic voice and great sense of beats. ... Her music is definitely American and her rapping is relaxed without any accents. ... 2 I think her great rapping and unique style can help audience see how 'Asians can not rap' or 'Asian-American music is not cool' is not ...

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• Has Bibliography

It is not only rap music trying to be censored it is in all types of music. ... Some radio stations announced they would not air songs with the word's "bitch" and "ho" to refer to women. ... A person or a child is going to hear them regardless of any song with profanity in them. ... I think a child has a better chance of hearing profanity in there own home or school then by hearing it in a song. ... You may remember when hard-core rapper Ice-T wrote the song cop killer. ...

• Word Count: 667
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In the 90's rap music was taking all the heat for music censorship. ... Now rap and hip-hip aren't the only type of music getting "picked on". Rock and heavy metal music are in the same boat as rap and hip-hop. ... In 1985 the parents of John McCullom sued Ozzy Osborne, claiming that his song "Suicide Solutions" caused their son to commit suicide. The judge in this case decided that overt lyrics are protected speech and that the evidence was insufficient to connect the song with the death of their child. ...

• Word Count: 680
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

These songs were called "folk songs," and although they were in English they still contains some African terms in them. ... Around the 1750s, slaves began to regularly, sing songs during work. ... In the late 1800s, enslavers want to covert slave to Christians and replace work songs and folk songs, with evangelical hymns This failed, but the negro spiritual was born; which were folk songs as "composition[s] performed with religious expression." ... Later, with work songs, they misinterpret several of the songs as revolt threats and eventually there were massive bans on certain types of songs....

• Word Count: 4223
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

A suburbanite's nightmare. This was the Bronx. Adversity can lead to futility, or spawn creativity. As history has always shown, society's oppressed adapt, and make the best out of the worst situations. MCing, Grafitti, D-Jaying, and B-boying, were all created in the Bronx. All of these art forms wo...

• Word Count: 4679
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: High School

Even though strong profanity in song lyrics can be traced as far back as the 1960s, it first became a major controversy in the 1980s, with the introduction of rap and heavy metal music. ... For example, rapper Ice-T made quite a stir in 1992 with his song "Cop Killer." In the late 90s, shock rocker Marilyn Manson created controversy with song lyrics that were said to promote suicide. Rapper Eminem continues to attract controversy with his homophobic, anti-woman lyrics that often promote homicide. ... However, with the emergence of hate speech in song lyrics, many liberals have taken the pr...

• Word Count: 958
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Groups like Run-DMC, MC Hammer, and LL Cool J were among the earlier pioneers of Rap. ... In response to the controversy risen by Rap, KRS frontman Chuck D once memorably described rap music as "black people's CNN" - the only medium in which black voices could tell the truth in a white-dominated country". ... Modern artists like 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and Eminem have not only revolutionized Rap, by creating Hip-Hop (a mix of rap and R&B), but have also symbolized and broken standards for American's freedom of speech. ... Rock and Roll and Rap gave birth to another innovative and profound...

• Word Count: 958
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Within the rap arena no subject goes untouched. ... Rap lyrics frequently reference breaking out, getting out (Perry, 2004). ... Often Rappers take on the role of an icon or revolutionary historical figure in the black community (Kobin and Tyson, 2006). ... A deeper examination of rap lyrics alludes to this positive racial socialization Dr. ... Rap music should be considered as a necessary tool to reach this particular subculture in America. ...

• Word Count: 1971
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Music now in days especially RAP is censured very strictly because of their lyrics, and by what their lyrics can promote. Its true rap artists now in days use a great deal of obscenities, violence and foul language in their lyrics that can create censorship. Many adults think that by having this kind of lyrics in their songs they can promote violence or hatred to other individuals. ... Movies can sometimes be censured equally as lyrics from songs because they promote ideas of violence, sex and drugs among other things. ...

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Being used as a powerful voice in America, there were messages being delivered through songs that dwelled on uplifting the African American race and addressing problems that were against blacks as well. ... Then I would go to school or go outside to hang out with my friends to debate who was a better rapper and why. ... This is due to most rappers of today that forgot about the positive message that is supposed to be delivered in the songs that started hip-hop culture in the first place. ...

• Word Count: 665
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

They would take turns 'calling out' in song, to which the other laborers would 'respond' in unison. ... They would also use these songs to communicate information about escaping, because the slave owners could not understand the "slaves' language". ... Muddy Waters said it best with his song, "The Blues Had A Baby, And They Named It Rock and Roll". ... So heavily that some Blues artists have even successfully sued in court, and won damages for songs they have written that were unfairly made into Rock and Roll songs without their knowledge or permission. ... Blues and...

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Following the Civil War, Southerners are forbidden from publicly singing pro-Confederate songs. ... During this decade, many lyrics of popular songs are forced to be changed. ... Also during this decade, many songs are completely banned from the radio, due to certain themes. ... "While some rap songs might be considered offensive by one group of people, they are reflections of reality to another (qtd. in D"Angelo 2). ... When introducing a song during a performance, he would refer to the hidden message. ...

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• Has Bibliography

Eminem, a highly respected white rapper, grew up in poverty in a black community. ... However, his successes were not only based off his skills as a rapper, but credit his success to his race and to his record label's intended audience: the white consumer. ... This turns rappers and those who are true to the original culture of Hip-hop from prophets to profits. ... For example, in the documentary "Blacking Up: Hip Hop's remix of race and identity", rapper Vanilla Ice reveals that everything about his career was staged in order to become marketable towards the mainstream a...

• Word Count: 2033
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

People who disagree with a message in a song either reject it and never let it touch their CD player again or create a twisted definition of the song that fits their beliefs, which no one can dispute. ... All children attributed the theme of the song to pride in the USA, the singer's birthplace. ... The professors asked a group of high school students to identify the lyrical themes of their favorite songs. Of the 662 songs the students listed, the students said that only 46 of them were about sex, violence, or Satanism. ... The correlation between rap and gang activity or heavy metal a...

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Whether it's Lil Wayne reciting the Blood's rally cry "suwoop" on a hit song, Snoop Dogg's adamant proclamation of his Crips affiliation, or Sons of Anarchy's glorification of the Biker ethos, Television executives, rappers, and Hip-Hop music in general have made enormous sums of money glorifying the gang way of life by painting it as a theology on par with any religion. ... Around that time there was a huge resurgence in gang popularity in mainstream rap culture due to big artists like Lil' Wayne and The Game promoting their Blood gang affiliation. Johns...

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• Has Bibliography

This form of singing was so named because it was a gospel or good new song with which it was possible to invite people to God. ... Among the subgenres, we have the Traditional Gospel, Reggae Gospel and Rap Gospel, etc (Collins 2000: 23-25). ... In the next travel across the United States and Europe, the group performed songs from plantations of the pre-abolitionist era. ... In recent years, this barrier has been broken by many and it is common for artists of one, interpreting songs from the other. ... Black Gospel It consists of a spiritual song with African rhythms. ...

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• Has Bibliography

Macklemore, a famous rapper, sings "I might not be the same, but that's not important. No freedom till we're equal; [that's] right I support it" in his song "Same Love" dedicated to his gay uncle. (Haggerty) Lady Gaga, another famous singer and bisexual herself, also had many songs devoted to gay pride and regularly expresses her support homosexuality. ... You will now find many television shows with homosexual parents, and or teens, as well as many songs being sung about the homosexual community. ...

• Word Count: 1034
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Is a rap group portraying real life in the ghetto, or a heavy-metal band singing about suicide, protected as a singer's "artistic expression"? Or do these songs really influence society, becoming a cause of violence and hate instead of merely an expression of them? ...

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Bridging the Generation Gap Between Teens in the "60s and Teens in the "90s Throughout history many generations have been named after something that describes them in every way. The decade from 1960 to 1970 is definitely one of those eras and it became known as the Counter Culture Era (The Hippie Ge...

• Word Count: 965
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School