Masculinity and Hip Hop

        Hip hop started out as an artistic release for African American youth. A way to tell their stories and experiences to the masses. Over the years the music and culture surrounding the industry has become Increasingly  hyper-masculine and hyper-aggressive. What many young men are told about masculinity is that you need to be powerful, you need to be in control and that you need to have the respect of your peers. Many poor African Americans and Hispanic Americans do not feel like they can obtain power in the world by traditional means. So they use the next best thing violence, so then violence and weapons become the symbol of what it is to be a man.

That violence is taken out on one another, on women and homosexuals, all to obtain the status of man.  In my eyes I feel like people pick on hip hop because it is an easy target, Hip hop can be extremely blunt. Many people blame hip hop for setbacks of minority youth. But I think that modern day hip hop is just the symptom of the underlying problem within our society. A problem that starts with discrimination of minorities. Which causes anger and that anger is taken out on women and homosexuals.