Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Alternatives to Machismo Hip Hop Culture
Since we've been discussing how rooted in the masculine identity hip hop can be, I started thinking about different groups within the genre that are, by appearance/content etc, diametrically opposed to what we could very well consider the universal hip hop stereotype to be.
Keeping in mind that the kind of hip hop we've been discussing in class is a specific type of highly commercial and mainstream music, there has to be room to acknowledge alternatives that challenge the physical, dangerous and highly sexualized imagery we're prone to see.
I initially thought of a fairly new group called the Cool Kids (http://www.myspace.com/gocoolkids) who exhibit the complete opposite - their songs tend to touch on obscure pop culture references and individuality rather than the ubiquitous mainstream trinity of money, women and crime.
I think this relates back to topics of hegemonic resistance, where the Cool Kids are part of a kind of resistance within a resistance in that hip hop itself can be considered a form of social resistance, yet a group like the Cool Kids can find reason to resist from within.
This kind of resistance from within also brings to mind guys like Kanye West who have openly spoken about - and defended - homosexuality. Within mainstream hip hop, the concept of homosexuality is incredibly taboo and any mention of it is in the form of an insult (remember how Eminem caught all that heat for his homophobic lyrical rants?). For Kanye West to go ahead and defend homosexuality is another interesting example of resisting the hegemonic force of hip hop, while hip hop itself is purportedly resisting hegemonic forces. Boo Yaa!
Keeping in mind that the kind of hip hop we've been discussing in class is a specific type of highly commercial and mainstream music, there has to be room to acknowledge alternatives that challenge the physical, dangerous and highly sexualized imagery we're prone to see.
I initially thought of a fairly new group called the Cool Kids (http://www.myspace.com/gocoolkids) who exhibit the complete opposite - their songs tend to touch on obscure pop culture references and individuality rather than the ubiquitous mainstream trinity of money, women and crime.
I think this relates back to topics of hegemonic resistance, where the Cool Kids are part of a kind of resistance within a resistance in that hip hop itself can be considered a form of social resistance, yet a group like the Cool Kids can find reason to resist from within.
This kind of resistance from within also brings to mind guys like Kanye West who have openly spoken about - and defended - homosexuality. Within mainstream hip hop, the concept of homosexuality is incredibly taboo and any mention of it is in the form of an insult (remember how Eminem caught all that heat for his homophobic lyrical rants?). For Kanye West to go ahead and defend homosexuality is another interesting example of resisting the hegemonic force of hip hop, while hip hop itself is purportedly resisting hegemonic forces. Boo Yaa!
# posted by 0 @ 12:55 PM 
