Hip Hop and 'Keeping it Real'

When people are up in the club or at a party dancing and jamming away to a Hip Hop song with a hot beat, the last thing on their minds are the lyrics to the song. I don’t think one really pays attention to the lyrics at that moment because they are so hyped up into the song. Yes latest Hip Hop songs have if I may say so my self the hottest beats so one cant help but dance. This is what Nabeel mean when he said in the lecture that we can get so emersed into the beat that we forget about the lyrics. But when the following day comes and we hear the song on the radio or the television and pay attention to the lyrics they don’t seem as appealing because we find some degrading to women.

Hip Hop has enormously changed from the days rapping about freedom, violence and the hatred towards black people to money, bling, women, sex and drugs. Even though there are still some true “keeping it real” rappers out there as Spike Lee says, many have converted into this new life style and its here to stay because people love it. The more we buy their albums or download their songs, go to their concerts, we are supporting what they rap about.
(Video shown in class) King Kapisi ‘keeps it real’ because he raps about his roots-, who he is, where he comes from, raps about his Samoan culture and is proud of it. He doesn’t bring in issues that are not apart of his culture and this is what Spike Lee means when he refers to ‘keeping it real’.