Hip Hop In African American Culture

1913 Words8 Pages
Through the history of music, the genre of Hip-Hop has become one of the evergrowing music genres through its usage of rhyme and uplifting beats to attract people to something quite different than other genres. What is never told about hip-hop is the origin of the genre and how the African American community played a major role in making the genre into what it has become today. The history of Hip-Hop begins in the area of the Bronx in New York in the 1970’s where the genre of hip-hop began to flourish and for the African American community, the genre was a way to present the hardships and challenges that the African American community had faced in a Caucasian or “White” United States and through Hip-Hop, it helped carry an identity of the…show more content…
The prominent example of a successful white rapper in the history of Hip-Hop is Marshall Mathers, otherwise known by the stage name Eminem. Eminem through being White, was easily scruntinized in the hip-hop community even before he entered it but through his determination, he was able to get through the ways in which the hip-hop community had scrunized him. In terms of the “realness” of Eminem, Eminem had presented his realness to the other artists as he too faced the hard times, violence and poverty in his town of Detorit Michigan. However, through those struggles, he nutured his talent of hip-hop at young age and even maintained several connections to Black individuals who not only respected him for his attempt but also helped him get his way to the top. A high example of one who maintained his loyalty to Eminem is the famous African American artist and producer Dr. Dre who helped Eminem into becoming the most successful white hip-hop artist today. To his own accord, Eminem describes himself as someone who doe not want to be considered a white artist but be respected for being skilled to be given the chance to be a hip-hop artist. Despite the “realeness” that is demonstrated by Eminem, in songs like White America, Eminem has gone to full accord to mention that if it was not for his race, he would not have made as much of economic capital by being a hip-hop artist. In hindsight, this point alone helps to prove that despite Eminem presenting himself as one who does not want to be discriminated for being white in a African American hip-hop community, he has proven that through marketing of the character Eminem, that white hip-hop artists was able to not only appeal to a larger audience such as the White demographic but prove that Eminem
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