"Things Just Ain't the Same": Hip-Hop's Reconstruction of the Gangster Rap Identity

Gangster rap, or hardcore rap, is generally considered a bomber genre of the bigger class of blame music, which itself is a subcategory of hip-hop. Gangster blame is differentiable from other blame music in that it do usage of mental images of urban life associated with law-breaking (Haugen, 2). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica definition of mobster rap, the top four mental images associated with the genre are violence, drugs, philistinism and sexual promiscuity.

Gangster Rappers as Defining the Hip-Hop Sociable Group
As the hip-hop motion have gained acknowledgment throughout the United States, it have established itself as one of the fastest growing societal groupings anywhere. In the late 1990s immediately following the homicides of both Tupac Shakur and Saint Christopher Wallace, two nationally known mobster rappers, a propaganda political campaign escalated against blame music and the hip-hop civilization (Slaughter). Although mobster blame only represented a little per centum of the hip-hop civilization at the time, all hip-hop and blame music was instantly stereotypic negatively as being “gangter-like”. Why? Well, this mobster version of hip-hop was the peak merchandising and most recognized word form of hip-hop music among the bulk class. And many critics have got determined that this is because United States is in love with sex, drugs and force (Whaley).

Hip-Hop’s Rejection of Inferior Sociable Group Status
Henri Tajfel, a societal psychologist who developed a theory of inter-group dealings and societal change, reasons that members of a societal grouping deemed inferior by a bulk class can either accept or reject their inferior place in society. If a grouping declines to accept its inferior place in society as just, it will try as a grouping to change things (Coates, 8-9). A big figure of hip-hop people have got got used their musical words to reject the inferior societal position placed upon them by the bulk class.

The Reconstruction of the Gangster Identity
I have establish that hip-hop people utilize lyrics, both musical and poetic, to redefine the negatives features given to their civilization by the bulk class, and in the process, retrace the mobster identity. By examining these hip-hop and mobster blame words as text, I will demo ways in which the words effort to retrace the stereotypic mobster blame personal identity by examining different positions of violence, drugs, philistinism and sexual promiscuity. In the end, one be givens to wonder: Who exactly are the existent gangsters?

Violence
That the hip-hop civilization stands for gangster-like violence is perhaps the greatest moot claim amongst hip-hop artists. In order to confute this claim, many hip-hop people have got pointed to the force that bes within the bulk societal group, and how it takes to force all over the world. Inch “Violence”, Two Political Action Committee shows his belief that military unit was prevailing long before mobster blame existed:

I told mutton fighting back, onslaught on society
If this is violence, then violent's what I gotta be
If you look into you'll happen out where it's comin’ from
Look through our history, America's the violent one

Here, the poet points to American society as “the violent one” and that he have to be violent inch order to “fight back.”

In “Who Knew”, Eminem showed a similar point of view by expressing his belief that force is a common happening in American society, yet not challenged in genres outside of the urban environment:

So who's bringin’ the guns in this country?
I couldn't mouse a plastic pellet gun through customs duty over in London
And last week, I seen a Schwarzaneggar movie
Where he's shootin’ all kinds of these bad cats with an Uzi

Here, the poet inquiries the being of force in a state that lets pieces and violent movies.

In “Casualties of War”, Rakim faults the United States government, specifically its Head of State, as the grouping causing the force in society with their war-like ways:

I'ma acquire back to New House Of York in 1 piece
But I'm bent in the sand that is hot as the metropolis streets
Sky visible lights up like pyrotechnics unsighted me
Bullets, whistlin’ over my caput remind me...
President Shrub said attack
Flashback to Nam, I might not do it back

In this text, the poet mentions to our country’s determination to travel to warfare as an illustration of the force that bes amongst the bulk societal class.

In “The Watcher”, Dr. Dre redefines the negative feature of force by pointing to the police force force as the beginning of violence, and therefore, referring to them as “gangster-like”:

Things just ain't the same for gangstas
Cops is apprehensive to set people in handcuffs
They wanna hang us, see us dead or enslave us
Keep us at bay in the same place we raised in
Then they inquire why we move so outrageous
Run around stressed out and draw out gauges
Cause everytime you allow the animate being out cages
It's dangerous, to people World Health Organization look like strangers

Here, the poet impeaches the bulk class of keeping them “trapped in the same place we raised in” and that the perceived force is only owed to the introduction of “people who look like strangers.”

These are illustrations of how hip-hop people redefine the mental image of force by showing how it bes or was created within the bulk societal group.

Drugs
Another common moot stereotype of hip-hop artists is their usage and statistical distribution of illegal drugs. In efforts to redefine this negative characteristic, many hip-hop people have got pointed at the bulk societal grouping as the facilitator of drug abuse.

In “Justify My Thug”, Jay-Z talks directly to members of government, raising inquiries about who have made the handiness and usage of these doses possible:

Mr. President, there's drugs inch our residence
State me what you desire me to do, come up interruption breadstuff with us
Mr. Governor, I curse there's a screen up
Every other corner there's a spirits shop - what is up?

In this example, the poet inquires as to why there is a spirits shop in “every other corner” of his community.

In “I Desire to Talk to You”, Nas utilizes the same attack to dispute the impression of drug statistical statistical statistical distribution by asking his representatives what they would make in his situation:

Why y'all made it so hard, damn
People gotta travel make their ain job
Mr. Mayo,r conceive of if this was your backyard
Mr. Governo,r conceive of if it was your children that starved
Imagine your children gotta catapult cleft to survive

Here, the poet claims that the distribution of drugs is not only an consequence of the poorness that bes in his environment, but also a agency of survival.

In “Manifesto”, Talib Kweli actually impeaches the authorities of being the organic structure which lets drugs into the country:

Like the C.I.A. be bringin’ in cleft coke bailin’ out of planes
With the Saint George Shrub connections, I force Reflection
Like I'm sellin’ izm, like a trader buildin’ the system
Supply and the demand it's all capitalism
People don't sell cleft cause they like to see blacks smoke
People sell cleft cause they broke

In this example, the poet impeaches the C.I.A. of flying drugs into the country, and again repeats the point that it is a agency of endurance owed to the “supply and demand” of a rugged individualist society.

In “Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangster”, the Geto Boys fully redefine the negative feature of drug distribution by accusing the President of being a drug dealer, and therefore, a gangster:

And now, a word from the President!
Damn it experiences good to be a gangsta
Getting’ voted into the White Person House
Everything lookin’ good to the people of the world
But the Maffia household is my boss
So every now and then I owe a favour gettin' down
Like lettin' a large drug cargo through
And direct 'em to the mediocre community
So we can flop you cognize who

These illustrations demo how hip-hop artists redefine the mental image of being drug traders and users by again pointing to the bulk class as the Godhead of the drug job in this country.

Materialism
Hip-hop music is also seen by the bulk class as a genre dominated by materialism. Again, people point back to the bulk class in an effort to redefine this negative characteristic.

In “Respiration”, Black Star points to all the wealthiness surrounding urban areas, and how it absorbs the less class in materialism, making them desire parts of that wealth:

Where soldiers of fortune is paid to merchandise hot stock tips
For profits, thirsty felons take pockets
Hard brass knucks on the 2nd hands of workin’ class watches
Skyscrapers is colossus, the cost of living
Is preposterous, stay alive, you play Oregon die, no options

Here, the poet negotiation about assorted mercenary facets of the bulk class, and how the less class must “play or die” to “stay alive.”

In “All Waterfall Down”, Kanye Occident actually faults this philistinism on American society:

It looks we life the American dream
But the people highest up got the last ego esteem
The prettiest people make the ugliest things
For the route to wealthiness and diamond rings

In this example, the poet faults the “American dream” for materialism, saying it do people to “do the ugliest things” for “riches and diamond rings.”

In “Los Angeles Times”, Xzibit also faults this philistinism on the bulk class, claiming that is what the young person are taught coming up in urban environments:

Welcome to L.A.
Where you can see the whole metropolis burning
Cause the bulls got Uzis and the traders maintain serving
And your children ain't learning it, except this
Sexual Activity powerfulness and wealth, bury everything else

Here, the poet shows his belief that certain facets of materialism, including “power and wealth” are taught to children through happenings in society.

These are illustrations how hip-hop artists redefine the negative feature of being mercenary by showing illustrations of how this philistinism is prevailing in the bulk class, and often created within that class.

Sex
And the concluding debated stereotype of the hip-hop societal class is that they are sexually promiscuous, often leading to disrespectful treatment towards women. The poets also effort to redefine this stereotype by blaming the core of the job on society.

In “Pussy Galore”, the Roots claim that the country’s compulsion with sexual activity is pushed by sexually-driven marketing campaigns:

Lookin' out the limousine window up at the billboards
200 miles, she was the lone thing I saw
Promotin' everything, from the spirits to the nicotine
Cell phones, anti-histamines, poulet wings
You gotta show a small tegument to acquire them listening
For existent yo, the world is a sexual activity machine

In this example, the poet retells a personal experience in which helium saw sexual activity ads as “promotin’ everything.” And in order to “get them listening”, he claims, “you gotta show a small skin.”

In “Get By”, Talib Kweli faults this sexual compulsion on what we see on television:

The telecasting got us reachin’ for stars
Not the 1s between Venus and Mars,
The 1s that be readin’ for parts
Some people acquire breast sweetenings and phallus enlargers

Here, the poet shows his belief that telecasting makes a misconception of what people should be sexually, and that lends to the promiscuousness that is being blamed on the hip-hop movement.

Hip-hop artists have got used their words and poesy to act upon the rejection and Reconstruction of the mobster personal identity that plagues their societal class. This is accomplished through the redefining of negative features assigned by the bulk class. In most cases, these redefinitions include pointing to the bulk class as the existent holders of these negative characteristics. The redefining of these “gangster-like” mental images through hip-hop words assists to retrace the mobster personal identity by questioning “gangster-like” behaviours and which societal class actually have these behaviors. So the inquiry presented is: Who exactly are the gangsters?

Works Cited / Discography
2 Pac. 2Pacalypse Now. Swing Records, 1991.
Black Star. Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star. Rawkus Records, 1998.
Coates, Jennifer. Women, Work Force and Language. Longman Publishing, New York: 1993.
Dr. Dre. The Chronic 2001. Interscope Records, 1999.
Eminem. The E. G. Marshall Mathers LP. Interscope Records, 2000.
Geto Boys. Uncut Cannabis LP. Interscope Records, 1999.
Haugen, Jason. “‘Unladylike Divas’: Language, Gender and Female Gangster Rappers.” Popular Music and Society: December, 2003.
John Jay Z. The Black Album. Def Jam, 2003.
Kanye West. College Dropout. Roc-A-Fella Records, 2004.
Nas. I Am. Sony Records, 1999.
Rakim. Don’t Perspiration the Technique. MCA Records, 1992.
Rawkus Records. Lyricist Sofa Volume 1. Precedence Records, 1999.
Slaughter, Peter. “Attack on Blame Music.” Barutiwa Weekly News. June 14, 1997.
Talib Kweli & disk jockey Hi-Tek. Train of Thought. Rawkus Records, 2000.
Talib Kweli. Quality. Rawkus Records, 2003.
The Roots. Phrenology. MCA Records, 2002.
Whaley, Angela. “Hip Hop is Not for Sale.” Centennial State State University’s Talking Back: Volume 3, Issue 1.
Xzibit. 40 Days and 40 Nights. Loud Records, 1998.