How does hip hop articulate black marginality in ways that are both Essay

How does hip hop articulate black marginality in ways that are both new to the contemporary city and consistent with African Ame - Essay Example To decode, audience members resort to values, norms and beliefs – root metaphors – tat they, the audience, and hold in order to make sense of the information communicated and their response is not only based on the intent of the communicator but also on the values in which the audience have also been socialised, (Hill, Simona, and Ramsaran, 2009, p. 17) The notion of bardic television is adapted and applied to the entire media hence the framing of the natural order of things in the world by providing a set of images so the audience members can locate themselves in the social stratification system. This is made so by providing justifications for the system of inequality, and by perpetuating images that reinforces the dominant culture/ideology while the exploration of the issues of race, class and gender is rooted in the historical development of the society. It considers the values and images that are important for the contemporary social stratification. Hiphop as well a s the media play a role in the reinforcement of these images that result in the perpetuation of the poser of the privileged. Many of the images that have been brought into the mainstream reinforce the old controlling images of minorities, women and the poor thus serving to perpetuate the system of domination and it fits well into the overall colour-blind ideology promoted to justify contemporary notions such as discrimination and inequality. In the 1980s, cultural and commercial forces united to forge an enduring place for hip hop within the African American popular culture as Tricia Rose (1994) argues that this point effectively as she observes that at the beginning of the urban hip hop, the rap stories continue to articulate the shifting terms of the black marginality in the contemporary American culture. On the one hand, some aspects of hip hop culture can challenge some marginalised ideologies such as racism and sexist stereotypes; however, those images sold by corporate America in hip hop culture increasingly reinforce many of the fundamental factors that further the entrenchment of marginality in America. The contradictory nature of the black male image that is brought into the mainstream culture by the highly commercialised hiphop culture challenges the system of traditions that were associated with racism, polite brutality and poverty while at the same time articulate the contemporary hegemonic values of the oversexed, violent black male. The very images that are now brought into the mainstream about black men can be traced to the ancient forged realities of the North American slavery periods. Black males are portrayed as violent, a threat to the society, and having an uncontrolled appetite for sex particularly with white women as the gangster and thug life perpetuated by the hip hop culture serves to portray those negative stereotypes of black males and despite the negative social impact, contemporary capitalism, with the use of the media, can market dimensions of thug life associated with the gear and mannerisms to suburban white youth for profit so that the youth can experience the other digitally. The performance of the rap artists becomes a vicarious and demonstrative event that captures supposed reality and reinforces