Hip hop is one of the most popular music genres that were first developed in USA, especially by African Americans in the 1970s. It is a music genre that has four main components that include rapping, break-dancing, scratching, and graffiti writing. Hip hop emerged due to the gaining popularity of block parties in 1970s in the New York City, particularly young African-Americans who were living in the Bronx. It is, therefore a music genre that describes and defines generation and its attitude, and it is a sub-culture found among many African American youth ( Zhang, 2015) . I am one of the people who love listening to hope music because I find it cool, entertaining and educating. Unlike other music genres that are mainly based on entertainment, a person is more likely to learn a lot of things by listening to hip hop music.
I love listening to hip hop because it teaches me a lot of things about life when I compare it to other music. Contrary to other music, hip hop covers wide variety of topics such as love, hate, hardship, need for change, and pride ( Zhang, 2015) . I learn a lot about other group of people face in different parts of the world. Specifically, by listening to hip hop music, I learn about the hardship and experience African Americans went through and is still facing in USA. Many of hip hop artists are African Americans, and I learn a lot about their life and culture through listening to their songs. One can learn about racial or ethnic discrimination by listening to hip hop songs. Besides, through listening to hip hop, I am able to learn about social issues such as unfaithfulness in relationships, drug consumption among young people, and criminal activities taking place in various cities in the country and beyond. Hence, to me hip hop is mainly an educative music genre that teaches the world about challenges young people go through in life.
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For instance, “Changes” by 2Pac is one of the greatest hip hop songs that I like listening to because it teaches me a lot of things. The main themes that are contained in the song are discrimination of black people by law enforcement officers in USA, fight against drugs, poverty among black people, and racism in the US society (Adaso, 2017). At the same time, it clearly expresses the difficulties faced by black people living in ghettos in various cities in the US. The song summarizes the challenges faced by African-American young people living in USA, especially the poor. By listening to the music, I can learn about difficulties that minority group go through in various parts of the world, especially racially diverse countries like USA. It educates me about life of disadvantaged, vulnerable, and marginalized people in US society. The song is not only aimed at entertaining the target audience, but to inform and educate the world about life of African Americans in USA. It is one of the best hip hop songs that illustrate the educative nature of the music genre.
The song has made me to put a lot of things into perspective. 2Pac expresses the environment in which people from minor ethnic and racial groups live. It does not only make me think about the US society, but also the world as a whole, especially with regard to economic disparity between the rich and the poor in various parts of the world (Emdin, 2014). At the same time, it makes recognize and appreciate the importance of respecting human rights and dignity and championing for equality in the society. Even though absolute equality cannot be obtained in the society, people and governments should at least strive to encourage equal treatment of people regardless of their socio-economic status in the community and the country. There are other many hip hop songs like “Changes” that I find educative while at the same time entertaining.
At the same time, I like the way hip hop music is created. Unlike other music genres, I believe that hip hop songs focuses more on the technicality of the lyrics. Even though hip hops songs do no focus more on vocal, the lyrics in hip hop songs are well-structured and their verses and excellent. It is also a pleasure listening to Hip hope music. I never get bored when I tune in to hip hop songs, especially when I am travelling. In addition, I am always attracted to how pop artists are passionate about their songs, especially when they are on stage. Their songs prove that I love what they are doing and they are ready to do what it takes to improving them, even if it means collaborating with other artists. A number of hip hop artists collaborate and work together to produce excellent job ( Cundiff, 2013) . I rarely watch hip hop songs that are produced by a single artist. I believe it is the collaboration and the spirit of team work that make their songs amazing.
I must say that initially I was never a fan of hip hop song until one day I got bored in the traffic jam and started listening to the music genre. Even though I was not a fun of hip hop, I had a list of hip hop songs in my phone that I had never listened to. That day I decide to at least listen before deleting them in the playlist. However, I was amazed of what I heard from various hip hop songs listened to. What attracted me in the songs are the challenges and difficulties that were expressed in the songs. I never realized that there were some people living in horrible conditions in developed and industrialized countries like USA. I always imagined that all citizens in USA were living in favorable condition until I listened to what became one of my bets hip hop songs, “Changes. This attracted me to the songs and I decided to pay attention to all of them. Interestingly, the majority of the songs I had in the playlist were about struggle by various groups of people in different parts of the world. I then decided to listen to more of hip hop songs to learn more about the world. I became fun of hip hop songs from that day.
In conclusion, even though hip hop songs are associated with African American people are not loved by many people; they are the best music that persons should listen to, especially when they want to learn about different people and culture in the world. I have a learned a lot of things since I started listening to hip hop. At the same time, I am now more informed bout cultural diversity due to hip hop. Hip hop still remains one of my best music genres because of its educative nature.
References
Adaso, H. (2017). The History of Hip-Hop: 1925 to Now. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-hip-hop-1925-to-now-2857353
Cundiff, G. (2013). The influence of rap and hip-hop music: An analysis on audience perceptions of misogynistic lyrics. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications , 4 (1).
Emdin, C. (2014, January 13). 5 Reasons why you should be listening to International Hip- Hop. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-emdin/5-reasons-why- you-should-_4_b_4591122.html
Zhang, Z. (2015). Analysis of Popularity of Hip-Hop Culture Among Chinese Young People. Cross-Cultural Communication , 11 (6), 111-116.
