Track 1: How Real Is This? Cyber Response
Post your response to the chapter here by Tuesday, August 26, 11:50 p.m.
Post your response to the chapter here by Tuesday, August 26, 11:50 p.m.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 4:51 PM
Thursday, August 21, 2008
About Me
- Name: Professor Wanda's Posse
- Location: College of Alameda, Alameda, CA, United States
I have a Master's Degree from the University of San Francisco in Writing, and an undergraduate degree from Holy Names College in Humanistic Studies. I write a weekly column for a local newspaper, San Francisco Bay View. I also have an Internet Radio Show: Wanda's Picks http://wwww.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks
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7 Comments:
The first chapter in this book is basically a conversation between Meta DuEwa Jones and Michael Eric Dyson; even though I felt it to be more like an interview. Dyson starts off on a rant about how people interpret culture, specifically black culture. The two than cover a few other topics, mainly the authenticity of hip-hop, the acceptance of hip-hop, and an extremely lengthy segment about pimps, hoes and the different approaches each sex is having in the hip hop art form.
Dyson starts talking about the authenticity of hip hop. At one point, he talks of the two different types of hip hop, the underground and the commercial. He states "The underground claims to be an authentic expression of a kind of hip hop that has not been emptied of its moral or aesthetic meaning by commercial dictates" (pg 7). Dyson than states that the commercial artists are corrupted by their white music executives who would rather have their artists talk about what's big in black culture than preach of justice to their audience.
The two also speak of the acceptance of hip hop by older black of previous generations. Dyson says that most people don't like the in your face tone that the music usually comes with. He says that most people believe that it promotes the 'ghetto' lifestyle; Dyson says that hip hops roots are in the ghetto and that while it may branch out over time it will always be centered around the hood, and the hood mentality. The large presence of misogyny in hip hop is eventually brought up. Dyson responds to it by saying that the reason for it is because of the black males sex drive, how "Black men want to dominate women according to their own sexual drive" (pg 21).
Right around page 25 Jones queries Dyson about the gender politics of hip hop. He uses the movie Hustle & Flow as an example; he also brings up how the protagonist in the movie is recording a demo tape in an era where CDs and MP3s reign supreme. Dyson says the movie doesn't accurately portray pimping. He says the pimp in the movie is more dependent on his hoes than they're dependent on him,he's lacking a nice car, is poor, is against beating his hoes, and actually listens to his hoes. Dyson also speaks of the reason the pimp in the movie is using a mixtape in favor of a CD or adigital media, because hip hop all started on tapes. the tape is like a link to the past, it shows the roots of the art and helps the artists remember wh they are.
These are, in my opinion, the most vital points that the two talked about through the first chapter. hell, the Hustle & Flow talk alone took up the last ten to twelve pages.
Glenn Williams
Track 1: “How real is this?”, a conversation between Meta DuEwa Jones and Michael Eric Dyson about Hip Hop. During the conversation, they talk about what people should do to understand Hip Hop or more specific, African American culture, and somewhat describes about life and the way people treat each other. Dyson helps Jones answer the questions that he wants to ask which are the questions that everyone wants to ask. Dyson shows Jones that not only African American can understand their culture, but the others can. However, they have to think about what they should do to understand it. Therefore, in order to understand Hip Hop, beside interest and research, everyone has to have a sense of where it is from and what it really is about.
Hip hop expresses the problem of racism. Dyson says that a lot of people go to jail but there are several different kinds of jails. White criminals go to different jail, non-white criminals go to different jails. Further more, there are people that go to jail not because of criminals like Martin L. King Jr. who stands up for the civil rights and ends up in jail. Other people seem not able to accept the fact that civil rights exist. So people are going to jail not only because they commit a crime but they dare to stand up for their people against the law which does not help them, especially non-white people.
Each generation has its unique type of music that denote life. Hip hop is a type of music that may be said to belong to the young generation because the old generations think that it is against the traditional cultural kind of music that they have used to express their lives.
Hip hop also describe about sexual life of some young African Americasn and women’s disadvantages. Some women are said to be played and never gets a call again. They are willing to give up themselves so nobody can help them about that. Women can stand up and fight for themselves if they are strong enough and do not be moved easily.
Hip Hop is a way to talk about life or in other word, it’s represent the samples of lives. Each kind of person has different way to live but they all share the same kind; they are all human. No matter what skin color they are, what they do or where they are, they have to understand life to help each other. In order to do that, they have to understand themselves first. If they understand themselves, they would know what they really want. Education is a way to help themselves. If they go to school and get knowledge, they are open minded; they can do better than what they have done. They can live better and be a different people from who they used to be. People have to open their heart and mind to not only accept Hip Hop as a truly kind of music, but accept each other in order to live better.
Quyen Do
In the intro which was narrated by JAy-Z himself, is giving us a background on Michael Eric Dyson. He explains that Dyson came up in the mean streets of Detroit and that he was not blessed with silver spoons in his mouth. He wants to make it clear that what Dyson is talking about he has actually lived it.
Dyson also speaks on hip- hop not being a color or a race that hip-hop is American and that all people partake in hip-hop. Hip-hop does not have a color.
Dyson also points out that the lyrics that are being said did not come from imagination it came from how people are truly living and the real things that they are seeing in the mean streets.
Dyson also makes a very good point by saying that it does not matter where we were raised that we all can turn out to be something great if we want to. In the intro it states that Dyson came up from the bottom and did not let that stop him from getting to the top. You can succeed no matter what the odds are against you.
In the first chapter it was basically an interview between him and Meta DuEwa Jones. Jones wanted Dysons opinion and views on hip-hop as a whole.
The whole first chapter was really deep and some of it kind of went straight over my head. Michael Eric Dyson is a really deep individual and I had to keep the dictionary on hand.
He kept on expressing the point of the authenticity and the legitimate. Those words were used frequently throughout the whole first chapter.
It was not until the middle of the chapter that i started to understand where he was coming from. Stating that the Black male mindset has been so conditioned that it is hard to tell what the truth is anymore when they are laying down tracks.
I reallt liked the point that he made on pg. 11 that people views of hip-hop is "That if you aint poor and black you aint authentic in what you are truly rapping about." Like he said alot of people are trying to get the hell out of the ghetto not romanticize the ghetto. I can feel him on that level. The ghetto is not somewhere you want to be forever.
Dyson really gives his props to Tupac because Tupac actually lived the through the things that he rapped about. Tupac really had a message to get across in his music i feel.
Dyson also touches on the point of the prison situation where a black male feels like he has to be locked up in order to find his true identity (not)!! That is so full of crap to me. There are alot of good black men in jail that just have been given a bad break. I like how he touched on the feeling of some black males that view jail as just 3 hots and a cot. Somewhere warm for them to lay there head so that they can be off the streets. That is a ridiculous mentality to me.
Black males need to stop tearing each other down and start to unite to build each other up. Dyson uses the word domicide. That is perfect because they are ruining their identification of themselves just to become a number in the prison system. That is not what God has for them. There is so much more to life than just being another statistic.
I don't agree with dyson when he states on page 21 that there is just isn't much room for independent women in rap music and hip-hop culture. Alot of women have laid tracks down and damn good tracks and have gotten their points across without degrading themselves. Queen Latifah and MC
Lyte are two of my favorites. The Queen most definitely laid it down.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but Dyson is a strong black male with his own personal views on hip-hop some i agree with and some not. He really makes you think after you have read the chapter. Just make sure that you keep your dictionary handy at all times.
Caprice Eddington
Blaine Webber
Michael Eric Dyson, a much respected and well known African American role model working with young African Americans with hard life, like he had when he was a kid. He is trying to have them find religion and education to help deal with their hardships and to lead them on a positive path so they don’t end up in jail or even worse dead. In the first chapter of his book “Know What I Mean”, he is having a sit down conversation with Meta DuEwa Jones. They talk in depth about many important and controversial topics. Two main points they talk about that I will go into detail about are authenticity in hip hop and the views of the pimp.
Many rappers try to relate with the struggle and the life in the hood, even if they are not from there. That causes many questions of these rappers “authenticity” and if they are really from the hood. Many people believe that if you are not from the hood you should not talk about it as if you were. I parochially agree with this statement. If you are well educated on the subject and have done plenty of research you can talk or rap about what you know. However, there is nothing you can read or study that will give you the same inside as if you actually lived it. Like Dyson said on page 7, “It was about representing the authentic character of black people as noble and edifying and enlightened- versus the streets that expressed the “basest” element of African American culture”, it is a big debate in the hip hop culture.
Next, the views of pimps in the hip hop culture are also talked about my Dyson and Jones. Some people view this “profession” as an escape hatch for the economically degraded working-class man. On page 26 Dyson says,” Pimping is the plantation in motion. The pimp is at once master and overseer, wielding control over the subordinate body of the ho,” which is completely true. The women in this industry are just used as tools for the pimps to get money. No matter how you justify yourself with pimping, it is a terrible thing and very degrading for women and should not be looked at positively in any way.
Jones and Dyson went into great depths on many important and not usually talked about areas of the hip hop culture. Two main points made were about the division in the authenticity of the rapper and pimps. Both cause great debates in the hip hop community. Dyson is very educated and has very good ideas on all the items talked about in this chapter.
Curtis
We have all seen the music video with a girl shaking her butt, or a so called "thug" riding down the block in a new caddy with a grill in his mouth. Is this a accurate depiction of what goes on in the ghetto or is this just to sell records.
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson brings up many valid points , one being the depiction of the hood in hip hop today, do you have to be from the ghetto to be able to understand it?. Many rappers make lot's of money off of writing songs on a topic they know nothing about because what you see in music today is not a proper depiction of the ghetto, if that is the case then Dr.Dyson has plenty of knowledge, he grew up in Detroit to a poor family, but saw that education was the right way to go and the left the hood and became a great success but many others go down the wrong path that leads to incarseration or worse death. In today society most of the only images people in the ghetto see are those of rappers and they hear them rap of dealing drugs and "pimping ho's" and naturally that is what they do because that is the only thing they know instead of focusing on education to leave the struggle. This in turn leads to prison, where to be honest a lot of kids strive to go because it builds street cred and at that point that is all they have to offer so they intimidate people until they get power, that happens all the time. Another main point is the exploitation of women in the hip hop community, they are looked at as only sex objects. girls see music videos with girls shaking there butts and think "that's how i get famouor rich" instead of thinking that is degrading and i will become a success by getting an education, this is why women like Missy Elliot and Lauryn Hill should be congratulated for becoming a success without showing skin but instead showing there skills. There is a simple remedy for what ails the african american community and it is called a Role Model kids in the hood need to see people learning and getting educated to become a success, it can be someone famous but it doesn't have it can be a sibling or a peer and as soon as that happens we will be well on our way to eradicate poverty, but only you can help yourself.
Is what you hear and see real? It can if you want it to be, if you want to sell drugs or shake your butt in music video you can but if you decide you want to leave poverty and get educated you can do that aswell, and it will be much more rewarding.
In the book, “How Real Is This?” is a conversation between Melta DuEwa Jones and Michael Eric Dyson with the topic of Hip Hop. They start off by talking about how people outside of the race of black culture view hip hop. Dyson explains many topics like the authentic of hip hop, the division between ghettocentric and bourgeois expression, realism, and even pimp & hoes. Dyson helps Jones to understand the African American culture by answering all his questions. Dyson says that when people outside the race study the culture does not exactly mean that they actually understand the meaning of hip hop, in fact, it is usually interpreted through life experiences. Dyson explains the ghetto centric and bourgeois Negro expression that there is a “class division between those who are willing to “ride or die.”” He says that there were two different type of character in the nineteenth century, the noble and enlightened versus the streets of African American culture. Dyson talks about their elders that music could have been negatively judged and that they are not authentic at all. It is hard to understand the African American culture, especially the fact that it is not my own culture. Therefore, I do agree with Dyson saying that you do not really know anything just because you study the culture, in order for you to actually understand everything, you would have had to experience it. Dyson also talks about pimps and hoes and how the pimps try to seize control of the females. He mentions Hustle & Flow and that pimps are poorer than his hoes. It seems to me that it is feminist and even with the pimp-ho relationship which makes things sound worse that the men always have the power over women. With the overpowering of men, Dyson explains that women do not really come out on top with women “women are giving and surrendering, but also taking back and reclaiming power.” Female singers like Lauryn Hill give great songs that contains real life problems between males and females that should be taken seriously. Dyson is very intelligent and has a lot of knowledge, the conversation he has between Jones about Hip hop is important. People should actually listen to the song and read the lyrics because the songs usually have great meaning to them.
Sorry, the essay above is from me.
Ester Lamborn
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