Ok, I was scanning the radio channels, and stopped to listen to political arguments, it was either C-Span radio or NPR.
They talked about if it's a legitimate argument to compare Imus's resent controversial street lingo to the street rap.
The proponents arguing for hip and hop (haha), say that their reference to "ho" is talking about "hos".
I understand the need for art, esp. when it comes to acting and music, both kind of art can allow us to see our-self without bruising the ego.
If people from the outside see rap and hip-hop, they may think "wow, this is an insult to women, etc." But, the entire purpose is to parrot the entire going-ons of black inner city struggle in order to let the world know the issues that they are having. In doing this, it becomes a two edged sword. On one side, those in the outside are becoming more influenced into that lifestyle, and on the other, the ones on the inside are thinking "this is how we do it" or "those are my peeps", and are feeling empowered and their behavior reinforced.
Sometimes, parroting a person works well, if that person is reflective and objective. However, when they don't value reflection and objectivity, acting or "art" either influences the behavior or it reinforces it.
So, depending on the group thinks mentality, art does imitate life.
I finally understand the argument that art does imitate life, I thought it was life that influenced art, but like with all things, it depends on the mentality of the person or group/culture (the reinforced thinking).
I agree with your thoughts on art, but I think hip hop, at least the mainstream of it, could be considered outside of this now.
I would agree that "real" rap music does come from this, and rapper like Immortal Technique and such exemplify what I would consider the art form. However, commercial hip hop is almost systematically stripped down of its artistic qualities until it fits a very tight mold of what is "marketable" which for some reason contains ridiculous and, in my opinion, unnecessary amounts of "****** this" or "hoe that".
I would say that art is more of a projection of life, a way of releasing the pressures of life in a way which others can relate to. This is in no way exclusive to rap culture though, every artist does this in some way, for instance works of literature etc.
I do not think that art can be a heavy influence on ones life, there's many more influences to take into account such as genes, social background, wealth etc. To pin the blame solely on artwork would be ludicrous.
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"All morons hate it when you call them a moron." - Holden Caulfield
Yes, but the core argument in those supporting hip-hop language (as apposed to Imus's statement) are arguing that they have the moral high ground b/c they actually MEAN the word "ho" and it's the act of parroting the behavior that is somehow therapeutic.
My argument is that if projection is without reflection and objectivity, it will become the art of influence.
(if you are in school, and your English teacher has you argue this case of duality, you can use this argument and sound very intelligent, you have my permission to use anything I say that makes sense and is actually right).
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Last edited by Czarina_Czarina on Apr 15th, 2007 at 10:12 PM
In all fairness, I think FistofTheNorth has earned his "White People Are Evil; no it's not racist because it's true" forum... he's been at it far longer than this clown.
Unfortunately he'd never follow, he enjoys making threads in the GDF and then turning them personal. You don't think he gleefully feed like a parasite for weeks on end when he made the "I was called a... WAA WAA WAAAAA!" thread?
I haven't seen anything you've said yet that would be regarded as right. A lot of what you've said would get me suspended for racism. Plus, I do A level English and I can never, ever see this argument coming up in the syllabus.
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"All morons hate it when you call them a moron." - Holden Caulfield
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Art Imitating Life?
Apr 15th, 2007 09:33 PM
