Follow Up Questions From Thursday's Class

Follow up notes from Thursday's Hip Hop/Race and Gender Discussions

These are the main topics we focused on in class- important things to keep in mind and maybe good prompts for blog posts!

• Do hip hop artists have to assert their status through more pop culture relevant lyrics before making conscious rap?
  
• Systematic racism as more damaging to the culture than sexism
  
• Female rappers/ females in general have to "do it better than men" in order to be successful/ recognized
  
• Can violence be attributed to the glorification in rap/hip hop at all?
  
• Who is the "mainstream" that we are talking about?- we classified it as suburban youth/ all youth/ top 40 esque radio
  
• Is the image of the rapper as "hard" or hyper masculine declining as hip hop merges with other genres?
  
• What is the importance of honesty/"street cred" in hip hop- ie rapper from suburbia rapping about "the hood"?
  
• Is the music/culture of hip hop damaging to the African American race/ those involved- Is it patronizing/useless to discuss this from an outside perspective?