Media, Commodification and Hip-hop

This week's lecture and readings discuss Hip-hop's commodification in the media. How do you see Hip-hop's influence in popular media such as commericials, television, film and journalism (print media)? How is Hip-hop commodified by artists, corporations and/or the media? Think broadly about the different elements of Hip-hop. Do you see Hip-hop music and culture as a product that the media often disassociates from the artists that produce it? Why or why not? Where does the notion of "blackness" figure into this equation? Try to remember to give specific examples in your responses.

Gender and Sexuality in Hip-hop

This week's readings and lecture cover representations of masculinity and femininity in Hip-hop and the gender stereotypes that circulate in the music and culture. As you blog on key words GENDER and SEXUALITY, think about the ways MCs and the media manipulate some of the Hip-hop stereotypes we discussed last week (thug, wannabe, gold-digger, etc. Some questions that may aid you in developing your responses are as follows:
How are particular gender stereotypes disrupted by male and female MCs? How does Hip-hop circulate images of "normative" heterosexuality in Hip-hop? How are stereotypes used by the media to construct particular images of African Americans and other racial and ethnic groups who engage Hip-hop? How do these stereotypes of gender and sexuality associated with African Americans in Hip-hop translate across racial, ethnic and national lines?

Hip-hop's Urban Griots

MC's in Hip-hop music are storytellers. Whether MCs write their rhymes or improvise them on the spot, they become living archives of history that connect the past to the present. As you blog on the key words GRIOT and BATTLE, think about the ways that Hip-hop MCs use their storytelling to describe lived and imagined experiences. Soem prompts that may help you in developing blog entry may include but are not limited to the following questions: How can you link the MC process of story telling in the Battle to stylistic elements such as braggadocio (today called 'swagger'),'call and response,' and sampling? What historical connections do you see between the Griot and the MC? How does the battle in MCing relate to artistic expression in the other elements of Hip-hop?