Hip-hop Gangsta in South Auckland.

With the last lecture focusing on Hip-hop, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the effects of Hip-hop upon urban Polynesian populations within New Zealand. In particular, the role hip-hop videos have played in encouraging gang culture among young Polynesians of today. Hip-hop videos receive large viewings within New Zealand media, especially on television with the Juice Music channel. The introduction of MTV as well as the Internet sensation of YouTube has also added to this music-video sensation. The Hip-hop video category of ‘gangsta-rap’ in particular has had a large impact upon young urban Polynesian populations. Many of these ‘gangsta-rap’ videos glorify gang culture, which includes drug trafficking, murder, theft, prison and representing females as ‘loose groupies’ or prostitutes. In short, gangsta-rap videos depict crimes of all kinds and glorify such a lifestyle. Such music videos do not only depict gangsta-rap in their lyrics, but depict more so within the visual aesthetic. With extreme close-up shots of rolls of cash, guns, dogs, as well as large crowds usually displaying tattoos and poses of the ‘gangsta’, the depiction of gangsta-rap is very visual. Such media texts that glorify the gang lifestyle, in essence promote gang lifestyle. Many young Polynesians have turned to gangsta-culture as can be attested by the rising levels of youth stabbings as well as a rising gang-culture among young Polynesians. I am not saying that gangsta-rap music videos are solely responsible for gang-culture in New Zealand. However, these music videos do play a large part in enforcing hip-hop culture in New Zealand, as well as gang culture. Even other notions such as fashion are affected by these music videos. Young Polynesians buying large NY puffer jackets, or ‘bling’ saying 50cent, or a L.A. Lakers cap are just as absurd as people who believe their suburbs are like the Bronx. Such people seem to love likening their own struggle in life to that of gangsters in American urban slums, though the contrast between the two is not similar at all. Furthermore, New Zealand media also support such ideologies, by enforcing notions of ‘South Auckland’ as being a rough, crime-ridden area. An example was a few years ago when a documentary that aired on TV3 about David Tua, reported that during his upbringing he had ‘survived the streets of Mangere’ in South Auckland. Local television shows such as ‘The Market’ have also added to this gangster ideology by portraying Otara markets are a battleground for rival cultures and gangs as well as a drug centre. People who have never truly experienced South Auckland life largely fabricate all these ideas. Such representations of Polynesian urban populations have therefore added to notions of the Polynesian urban gangster.
Now for those of you who love gangsta-rap videos, there is the point that gangsta-rap can be seen as representing the struggle of African-American as well as non-white minorities in harsh places such as the Bronx. These communities in all reality deal with a real gang-cultural lifestyle. However when these music videos are viewed by young Polynesians who are part of a global audience and who believe their lives are mirrored by such media texts, it creates a gangsta-mindset.