Hip Hop has been tainted. Back in the day you had artists who expressed themselves and what was going on around them in a positive and uplifting way. It was poetry. Unfortunately the media bottled it up, marketed it and now ppl can just throw together a track and fill it up with nonsense. There's nothing wrong with true hip hop. Every genre of music has its ups and downs. Unfortunately with hip hop, it gets picked on moreso than others due to the fact that it was young african americans uniting in a time where white America was trying to keep us down.

This is hip hop and the way it should be portrayed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84uWGVAcKR4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W9kcxdPPjk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WebILJKDms8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vHGmfU-Y-I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQQbj9vmaI8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a468KFhbhXQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrkZ7pRWFH4

lol Civilized men don't wear polo shirts and jeans. Civilized men who like shirts and jeans wear polo shirts and jeans.

Fashion evolves and changes every decade. There's nothing wrong with wearing a hoodie, or having a chain with lots of diamonds, etc. in it. There was once upon a time where if a guy wasn't wearing a shirt and a tie when he picked up a girl to take her out, he wasn't a decent young man.

Now I will say however that there is definitely a time and a place for everything. Going to work with flashy jewelry and your pants hanging below the waste is unacceptable. Expression is fine, but self expression as an individual has to have it's boundaries. Especially when you are in an enviornment where you may be seen as a person representing a company, group, organization, etc.

It's not really a hip hop thing. It's just a thing. There are people who don't listen to hip hop that dress a certain way just because it's what's in style.

"Rockers" often wear there clothes below the waste, pierce anything that can be pierced, tattoo there bodies wherever they don't have a piercing and color their hair in all types of colors. They're almost exactly like the hip hop kids. Though as long as there's nothing offensive viewed on their clothing and such, then no harm done.

"Country" guys like to sport open shirts with tight fitting jeans with open shirts and cowboy hats. Spurs on their boots.

"Goth kids" well....you know what they look like. Dead ppl =p

It's just really a matter of knowing where the boundaries are and how respectful your language is towards those whom you may speak to. While it's fine to not really agree with a particular trend, style, etc. It doesn't mean that it isn't civilized. It just means that it doesn't fit in YOUR particular area of civilization. Or if it does, maybe you don't fit in there =p

lol Well considering that hip hop and rap and those people who started/continue the trend sell clothes, jewelry, makeup, perfume, shoes, cars, alcohol, cigarettes, movies, drink beverages, food, insurance and so much more. I'd definitely say that you are highly mistaken:p

Well, successful like a priest who sells his religion to a mass of disadvantaged people whose lives suck and are desperate for an identity.

Oh, and I believe that some top video games are sold by them.

Most of the more popular artists from the hip hop/rock genre continously donate to charities and humanitarian organizations. One rapper (Nas also considered one of the greatest hip hop lyricists of all time) was nominated for a nobel prize.

There's a "Rock the Vote" movement going on right now where rock bands are doing free shows in order to get young people to vote.

Rap Artist and CEO of Def Jam Entertainment Jay Z has just recently done a humanitarian tour to bring awareness to troubles in Africa. Kanye West, another hip hop artist made awareness of the blood diamond situation in Sierra Leone public with his grammy award winning song "Diamonds are Forever"

Then on top of that, how often are people with disadvantaged lives able to find inspiration and strength through music? Probably a million of them ( a lot more but that's a modest number)

weeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzyyy LOL

here we go again justin...hip-hop is simply a type of music

i'll also assume you hate metal rock too? those damn bikers X( going around bashing everyone up...
if you don't hate them, you're just a hypocrite

and we've had this argument before, i respect your opinion that "Civilized men don't wear hoodies or bags or chains. In the most casual dress, they wear polo shirts and jeans."
sure it's your opinion, but one that is certainly not shared by me, i'm a firm believer of treating everyone the same...

another thing, you can't judge a music genre by the clothes worn by the singer/rapper, that's simply stupid
however if you would like to judge a artist by his music or his lyrics, GO AHEAD - i find that to be fair
but this is the thing, you can't say all hip-hop music is how one atrist portrays it to be, for example 50 cent, doesn't even in the slightest sense represent good hip-hop music in my opinion and my standard
there are artists i like, some i dont

> Gladiator wrote:

> here we go again justin...hip-hop is simply a type of music

oh, if only it was..

I think the question would be Justinian's definition of "success."

What is success?  Achieving what you want to achieve.  Simple as that.  If I fail at becoming what you want me to become, I have not failed.  But if I fail at what I want to become, only then have I truly failed.

So... then the question becomes: what do these people want?  Granted, the argument could be made that they originally wanted to join the business world, but failed and were brought into the world of hip hop.  But if that's the case, why do other people who follow these people go straight into the hip hop industry, with that as their goal?

Justinian, your definition of "success" and what is "barbaric" would exclude a good amount of people from possible success in the world, and that's only if I consider people's only goal as work-related.

Some examples you preclude: Any sports figure, any actor/actress, pretty much any person in the arts, people in medical or science fields...   The list goes on.  And I'm not even including people who don't care about their work, but want a good life outside work.  The only successful people would be business executives, lawyers, and politicians.

Quite simply, you've created a construct of what is and what is not "civilized," "success," and "barbaric."  However, there's no way to prove one standard correct and one standard incorrect, creating a broad spectrum of people who fall in and out of place in your analysis.

> A10 wrote:

Hip-hop is a style independant of morality. You shouldn't judge people based on their style, You should judge them based on how big of an asshole they are

Just to give you some room though . . .
You can however say: If all Media influences people, And this type of media has a high number of jerks, then there's a high likelyhood of adherents of this media type to have been influenced into also being jerks.
__________________________________________________________-

I think that is where justinian is coming from.  To say, the vast majority of people you see act out listen to this type of hip hop or rap, therefore, this type of music must have some influence on that group, is an accurate assumption to make.  I have grown to hate and completely loath all of those types of music simply because of the audience that listens to it.  (not to mention it sucks sweaty monkey balls)

however, I long for a revival of sorts in this genre to bring the base back to its humbler beginnings.  when it could be argued as a viable art form or venue of expression.  Now its nothing more than a huge money making tool taking advantage of its mindless scum of consumers and infleuncing them to be nothing more than vagabonds.

LOL justin you're getting flamed by everyone, not just me this time

Good "hip hop"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdHhE_9omr8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLrDJ7FojfY