Nuthin But a G Thang Baby

Hip hop in its self isn’t just a type of music; it’s a culture, a way of life if you will. When I was a kid I would shit talk on rap music like I actually had valid opinions…I didn’t.              First off, rap music and hip-hop are not one in the same. Hip-hop stemmed from the deindustrialization of the late 70’s. No money in the projects, kids found ways to have fun and even though they didn’t know it at the time, they started a revolution. The Puerto Ricans and black inner city youth of the South Bronx and Harlem gave way to a new wave of art, creation and controversy.  My reality dictates that rap music is synonymous with uber masculine personalities and some sort of “I gotta prove myself” mentality. And when I was young, I picked up on these underlying themes, and it turned me off. It made me feel uneasy… Somehow, even when I was a kid in 6th grade with my Rage against the Machine backpack patch, I understood the difference between for profit entertainment and art. I always searched out the art within music.  I’ve been called a hipster and been asked why I can’t just stop complaining about the incessant loop of music played on the radio. I’ve always found my life lessons through music…through hip-hop.  I had this idea that rap and this abstract view of what I thought hip-hop was, was the reality. I gave it a good ol once over, thought I was an exemplary critic on the art of rap music. I was 12… and my reference point was the blinged-out thugs on MTV, rocking gold chains, surrounded by a flock of scantly-clad, tits with heads. There was no respect. None.              Women are objects that dance on the laps of rap-gods. They are property to be oogled and fondled. Even back in the early nineties, before women outwardly exposed themselves on TV, women were objectified. Remember Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s hit, “Nuthin’ but a G thang?” That poor girl. You know which one I’m talking about, the one who walks right into being sprayed with shaken up malt liquor. Whne i was young, rap music presonified the objectification of women and glamorized drug use... so not cool. When I realized it could encompass so much more, I was changed, like literally...as a person.