"It always happens, all the niggaz that change the world die, they don’t get to die like regular people, they die violently”.
How and why does the media construct negative stereotypes of young black males, especially in UK grime/rap music videos such as those produced by Joe Black, and should censorship be used to protect audiences?
Current research made by ‘youth music’ suggests that all young black males are forced to think like the quote above, this is due to their upbringing which is often seen as being a hard life. For these black males ‘rap’ a genre of music that has been present since the early 80’s and late 70’s it is seen as an escape route for a better quality of life. Typically rap music has been stigmatised with violence, drugs and sex: “The message all too often is crime pays, and pays in a very big way. The problem lies in the fact that the get rich quick and easy life style is far too alluring to young people especially in a society which promotes individualism and looking out for number one to begin with.” In the past there have been beliefs that rap music is the cause of the stereotypes set. If is the case this essay will try explain why this is apparent and are rappers living up to the stereotypes on purpose or if it just comes with the genre of music.
This essay will examine the stereotypes constructed by society on the influence of rap / grime music and will aim to answer whether music videos could be censored.
Grime music roots from rap music and is seen as a sub genre from rap music. Grime music was made in 2000 and originates from Bow, East London. Artists such as Wiley and Dizzie Rascal were amongst those that helped push the movement forward and give it more popularity with teens. However the government were less in tune with this genre of music and former Home Secretary David Blunkett said that rap lyrics are "appalling" . In addition to criticism that this genre has faced former minister Kim Howells made a statement in 2006 that Grime artists were helping to create a culture "where killing is almost a fashion accessory." Rap music was made long before grime music and originates from the USA in the early 1970's in New York. Rap music was slow to make it to mainstream and made a breakthrough in the 80's with musicians such as RUN DMC & Grandmaster Flash. “ For many years there were very few images of black British people on television, and those images which did exist were of blacks as ‘problems’ or as ‘victims’’ this has shows the dramatic turn in the music industry as now it is seen as blacks that are those best of in the television, however it is still the white middle class, middle aged man that they are working for that set of these stereotypes.
It could be argued that Loren Coleman’s theory on the copycat effect has a huge influence on teens and how they interpret the music, music is said to be one of the most powerful ways of getting a message across there seems to be a fear that the message being sent from this genre of music is seen as negative. This is evident when Peckham rapper Giggs was refused to be singed as trident were worried about what could happen is Giggs was getting support grime and rap music are seen to have a negative impact on society this is due to the content of the lyrics used by artist. Connoting that all rappers/ MC's are a part of that life style of drugs violence and sex. As for teenagers it has been seen to have a major effect of them the most as they look at now days for a role models and someone to look up to.
In the past Young black males were stereotypically seen as being trouble and from a difficult background with single mothers and many siblings therefore making it easy for them to relate to what these rappers are saying and making the young teens almost brainwashed into thinking what’s right and what’s wrong. There are studies that suggest black people stereotypically black people are believed to follow the 5 D’s which stand for “dumb, deprived, dangerous, deviant, and disturbed” Typical stereotypes of rap music is that it is seen to be as always having negative impact on young teens, typical codes and conventions of rap music is; violence, drugs and wealth. “Stereotyping is the social classification of individuals, groups of people and places by identifying some common characteristics and universally applying them in an oversimplified and generalised way such that the classification represents value judgments and assumptions about the individual, group or place concerned. ” According to many most if not all grime/ rap videos should be censored. Chanel AKA is a music channel on sky TV which In June 2005 was fined £18,000 by Ofcom for a number of offences such as explicit videos with content of drug use and violence this had a huge affect on the channel as they had to rebrand. This shows that there is some restriction on what can be aired.
There is fear that rap music and grime is ruining the society we are now living in this for the reason that the rap and grime music is seen to be brain washing young people into doing what they think fine when really it is seen to be morally incorrect. This leads to society having moral panics on young people. "It is not that the music is so bad; actually it is good, because its rhythm and cadence puts people in a convergence state of mind. In other words it puts them into theta state of mind and that is where it is easier to suggest a new thought or to brainwash in sleep state" The Government Issue ASBO’s for young teens that are seen to have a negative impact on the public. “Elsewhere in the Midlands it was not the volume of the music, but its offensive nature that saw an Asbo served on one middle-aged couple. After upsetting staff and parents at a nursery near their Worksop home they were banned from playing gangsta rap or swearing in front of children.” This quote from BBC on asbo’s shows that rap music could be the reason as to why people act in certain ways. YouTube is seen to be the main cause of the moral panics as it is somewhat of a showcase of unsigned rappers to relive their talent. “YouTube has received a great deal of attention from traditional media institutions, particularly the press. Indeed, it has provoked something of a moral panic, with tabloid headlines warning that the site is promoting, among other things, violence, bullying, racism, homophobia and ‘dangerous/ life threatening pranks and stunts.’” Theorist Stanley Cohen believes that “moral panic representations tend to focus on conflict and fighting between different youth groups (e.g. mods and rockers in the 1960’s, skinheads against ethnic minorities in the 1970’s and 80’s).” This is now what seems to be apparent in the Morden day with rap and grime music.
Music is seen to have a hypodermic needle affect. This is because of the effect it has on people for example if rap star k koke was to rap about how crime pays it will lead to young teens that listen to this genre of music thinking the same, This is evident K Koke music video ‘I’m Ready’, K Koke is seen to be promoting drug dealing ‘Got me dealing ‘snow’ to try get dough’ this means that he is selling drugs to get money, this can be seen as the type of message that has put rap music in a negative shade to the press and public, hence why there is such a fear on this genre of music and weather what is being represented is seen as negative. “The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. The bullet theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". With similarly emotive imagery the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message.”
‘Drugs, sex and violence sells’ this quote is something that is evident in all if not most rap/ music, this shows that there is a link between what the youths watch is how they act. "Violent music may possibly make a path for violence, but it does not and cannot cause violence. Violent music can only stir emotions in a person, and if that person commits a crime, then it is that person's own fault. For the song did not go into the street and rob a person or shoot a person opening a door." This quote could have the argument of saying that what teenagers listen to cannot have an effect on how they are or conduct themselves. Rappers are seen to be the ones to blame for the way they conduct themselves and for instance the MOBO’s which is one of the most watch music awards ‘reggae stars Beenie Man and Elephant Man were banned from attending The Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBOs) because they refused to apologise for homophobic lyrics in some of their tracks’ rappers such as beanie man are seen to be what to some is thought to be the cause of homophobic behaviour leading to people having moral panics and the thought that attacks can occur due to their state of mind.
Rappers such as Joe black seem to be living up to the stereotype given to him of being thuggish and an outlaw. This is for the reason that he has the image of being the ‘bad boy’ of UK rap. As a former convict it can be said that Joe black is thought to be glamorising his past to the youths of today he has been heavily criticise for making that lifestyle something appealing. Joe Black is glamorising his past to make money some would believe that this is a negative message as society, however this can be seen as being a positive thing to rap about as it could be argued that the more rappers talk about their past and their old lifestyle it could have an effect of society in a way that young teens would be put off the knife and gun crime lifestyle. Joe black was criticised for releasing a song called ‘Not Guilty’ in this song Joe Black talks about his time in prison, his views on the police and life in general inside prison, Joe Black talks about what most ordinary people try to avoid and see as a extremely bad thing, he was criticised by other rappers in the UK Rap scene as making life in prison and being a crock a normal thing that people want to hear about. When being interviewed by Paul Morley Giggs also stated that “ yeh it might be negative but it’s just everyday life to me and everyone else, so it’s not really negative it’s just what’s really happening, it might be negative it’s a negative situation but I’m just talking about what I see.” Most interviews are shaped and driven by the interviewer as s/he is asking all the questions and more or less has a idea of what the answer is for example Giggs could have been asked about his child hood or what he loves doing the most, however it is always questions like why do you send these types of messages in your music “Every news story is influenced by the attitudes and background of its interviewers, writers, photographers and editors" .
“So wouldn't it be better if Operation Trident invited Giggs to do an anti-gun concert? Or signed him up to tell people not to shoot each other? Right now, I can't think of a better spokesman against gun crime than somebody like Giggs, because kids are listening to him. Rather than shutting down his concerts, Operation Trident should sponsor them. They'd probably be able to pull in a few overdue-warrants as well on the way, I imagine.” Ofcom are seen to be the Regulation & Censorship body for music videos. “Censorship is the practise, exercised by elite groups in authority, of monitoring and controlling media content by removing, suppressing or classifying elements deemed offensive or subversive for moral political, economical, social or religious reasons”
The problem with censoring music from rappers is that some would argue that it takes away the ‘freedom of speech’ that everyone would expect. This would therefore lead to the rappers looking for alternatives of making money leading to more moral panics affiliated with young black males. On the other hand if music videos produced by those such as Joe black and Giggs was fully censored and taken of TV this would lead to the target audience or the fans accessing there music through new forms of media technology. This could suggest that no matter how hard censoring body’s try to censor Rap music there will always be a demand of this genre of music meaning that no matter what it will always be a part of youth culture of today. Music is accessible very easily therefore if there was a governing body censoring music they would not be able to censor it completely as there will always be a way of viewing it.
In summation my inclination towards this argument is varied. This is for the reason that if rap music was censored it would take away what to some would be a huge part of how this genre of music is made and were it comes from. However some may argue that it should be censored to protect audiences from being exposed to this impropriate behaviour. On a personal level I believe that rap music should not be censored in order to protect the audience as it is up to them what they watch it for and as watching it they would already be aware of the content of the type of music it is.
Word count 2,062
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Moving image
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