Is Hip Hop Dead?

Hip Hop and Rap music started in the 1970’s in the Bronx with people reading their poetry over a beat. In the 1980’s, hip hop music was about their struggles, the changes they want to make and sending a message to their fans. The 1990’s started gangster rap which rappers talk about drugs, violence, money, sex and calling women offensive names like bitch and ho. A lot of the new hip hop artist have no talent and are just a commercialized act.

The song “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash started the conscious hip hop movement in 1982 that focused on social issues. Themes of conscious hip hop include religion, aversion to violence, culture, the economy, or simple depictions the struggles of ordinary people. The band Run DMC and the Beastie Boys started New School Hip Hop which is characterized in form by drum machine-led minimalism, with influences from rock music. These artists were rapping, and socio-political commentary, both delivered in an aggressive, self-assertive style.

The hip hop music you hear today is influence by the gangsta rap which started in the late 1980’s and the 1990’s. Gangsta rap is about violence youth black males face in the inner city, drugs, money and sex. Many songs were about their hatred towards the police like N.W.A’s song F**K The Police. These artist also offend women by calling them bitches and ho’s which we read about in our text. Gangsta rap caused much controversy and the rappers defended themselves by saying they are telling about their struggles in the hood. The strange thing is that they continued to rap about the same thing while they were living in a mansion in a gated community.

Today the rappers like to talk about all of the money they have and the cars they spend it on. They also like to rap about bitches and ho are doing sexual acts to them, slinging drugs and shooting up gangs. The music videos are degrading to women by promoting them as sex objects. Because this is a common thing we see in the media today, the younger generation will think it is okay to act like rappers or the women in the music videos. I think this is why hip hop music gets a bad reputation. A lot of the rappers today have no talent; they are commercialized for their act like using auto tune (T-Pain) or saying Yeah, What, Okay (Lil Jon). There are still a handful of artist which is trying to bring back the roots of hip hop like Common and Nas. Even though I was not in born the 1980’s, I am still a fan of classic rap music because of their talent and what they were fighting for. I do not want to hear songs about how many escalades a rapper have and all the drugs they do.

Huggies Diapers Are Supposed To Prevent Messes, Not Created Them

Huggies diapers newest add has caused major controversies with stay at home dads. The commercial puts the diapers to the test, to prove that Huggies diapers and wipes can handle anything: Dads. This single commercial has made thousands of stay at home dads angry. One ad featured men ignoring their kids’ full diapers to watch sports. The dads think the ad depicts fathers caring for infants are clueless and lazy. In response, they started petitions and Facebook groups arguing that the ad is offensive to stay at home dads. Huggies claimed that this commercial was not attended to offend dads but to celebrate fatherhood. With the support of thousands of stay at home dads over the country, the dads and Huggies “hugged it out” and redid the ad.

The new commercial has the same theme but not offending the fathers. The new test is can the diapers hold up during after a feeding, a nap and alone with dad without any leaks. Unfortunately I could not find the original ad online but I did find the new ad.

Stay at home dads are becoming more popular in today’s generation, there are even shows about it like Up All Night. There are many ads that can be considered offensive to women. For example, a beer commercial that shows a male fantasy of two women fighting over the type of beer, while ripping each other clothes off in a fountain then falling in mud. Women are not fighting to get this commercial banned like the fathers did for the Huggies ad. Do you think the fathers over reacted to the commercial?

Plastic Surgery: The New Drug

Millions of people are unhappy about their appearance or they want to look perfect so they decide to get plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is not cheap; a nose job cost close to four thousand dollars and your insurance does not cover it. Body dimorphic disorder (bdd) is a mental illness where the person is concerned with their body image. Half of the people who habdd is addicted to plastic surgery and wants to make their body perfect.

Plastic surgery is a big deal for today celebrities. They want to look perfect for the camera and their fans, so they will spend thousands of dollars to make them look perfect. Heidi Montag was a very pretty women but she wanted to look better. She had over ten procedures done which includes breast implants, face lift, liposuction and many more. Heidi Montag was once a stunning celebrity but fell off with her excessive plastic surgery. Plastic surgery isn’t just for young women, its popular for older women to make them appear younger. Joan Rivers had a face lift, brow lift, check implants, Botox and many more procedures. Joan Rivers response to her extensive plastic surgeries was “Plastic surgery has everything to do with how a person feels about him or herself. There is no such thing as too much.” After multiple surgeries to her face, it now looks inhuman.

Plastic surgery isn’t just for women; it’s also popular for men. The most popular procedure for men is face lifts. Men also get Botox, liposuction, nose jobs and even calf implants, which make their calves, appear more muscular. Many male celebrities went under the knife to make them look perfect. Michael Jackson had an addiction to plastic surgery, ten nose reconstruction surgeries. There was a rumor that his nose fell off during a concert.

A few people even got plastic surgery to make them resemble an animal. Lizard man has spent over $250,000 to make him appear as a lizard. More than 650 hours of tattooing and Teflon horns sub dermally implanted above each of my eyes to form horned ridges. Four of his teeth have been filed into sharp fangs and his tongue has been bifurcated.

Why can’t people be happy at the way they look? The media has changed society’s views on plastic surgery. Before it was taboo and only done by celebrities, but now the middle class are spending thousands of dollars to get Botox or face lift to appear younger and because their favorite actress had it done. Many people who get plastic surgery will not stop after the first procedure, they will get many more. They will not stop until they look perfect or out of money.

Male and Female Representation In Video Games

In class we talked about how women are represented in video games. When you see a women in a video game, they are likely have large breast and a small waist. The games with a hot female main character are marketed to men. Does the video game industry market video games with muscular male characters to women who make up 42% of gamers? Nope, they market them to males who are looking to blow up cars and shoot enemies in the game. The males in video games are very similar to males in action movies, tall and very very muscular. Not all male video game characters are represented as over muscular, but a large portion are.

Women in video games are there for male sex appeal, even if they are the main character. The creators of the video game also add "jiggle physics" to females with large breast. Lara Croft is one of the characters. She has many masculine traits like shooting guns, and fighting enemies. Lara Croft has been redesigned to make her less sexualized. There is even a Lara Croft movie played by the beautiful Angelina Jolie. In the game Grand Theft Auto, the main player can have sex with a prostitute and then kill her to get their money back. This is a big issue with GTA because it promotes violence against women.

Males often do not worry about looks compare to females, but they do worry about their muscles. Most men would like to be fit and have some muscles. Most of the males who play video games are nothing like the characters on video games. The characters on video games are over muscular who are similar to the males in action movies. Usually the muscular characters are shooting the enemies and blowing objects up. Even if the character is not over muscular, they have some muscle definition. Muscular video games characters are not just in shooting games; in many fighting video games, the male characters are muscular never skinny.

Next time you play a video game, look to see how the characters are represented and do they resemble an average person.