Question

Quotes from the article Black Noice book.

1) EXPLAIN THE MEANING BEHIND THE THREE QUOTES

2) WHICH OF THE THREE DO YOU LIKE MORE AND WHY?

1- “rap music must be understood as one cultural element within a larger social movement known as hip hop”

2- “sells the tradition short”

3- " Rap Music is, in many ways, a hidden transcript. Among other things, it uses cloaked speech and disguised cultural codes to comment on and challenge aspects of current power inequalities."

CONTEXT ON QUOTE #1:

When hip-hop music became popular in the early '70s, most people responded only to the music (Sims, 1993, p. E3). More recently, the term "hip-hop" describes a culture, superficially characterized by performers with droopy pants, hats to the back, laceless sneakers, hoods, and loud radios. "Hip-hop [is] an African-American and Afro-Caribbean youth culture composed of graffiti, break dancing and rap music" (Rose, 1994, p. 2). As Garofalo (1990) points out, "rap music must be understood as one cultural element within a larger social movement known as hip-hop." It's a culture born out of a mixture of cultures with its own language. - page 25

CONTEXT ON QUOTE #2:

Hip hop’s liberator, visionary, and politically progressive elements are deeply linked to those regressive elements that willis believes “sells the tradition short.” This aspect of hip hop’s contradictions is not unique to postmodernity, it is a central aspect of popular expression and popular thought. In other words, cultural forms contain cultural ideas and ways of thinking that are already a part of social life.

Answer 1

1.

• 1.The speaker stress on the importance of understanding the cultural factors behind hip-hop to understand the rap music, as according to the speaker both rap music and hip-hop have unique intertwined cultural factors and that rap music is a part of hip-hop culture.
• 2."Sells the tradition short" not to value the tradition as it deserves, or the values of traditions have not given that importance as deserved.
• 3.In this quote the author expresses that rap music objects and stand against the inequalities of the society and social system in a concealed manner through it's lyrics or wordings.

2.

The third quote express the real meaning of rap music, as it present rap music as an instrument to express the inequalities prevalent in the society. It gives importance to the style and manner that rap music use to express and take stand against the inequalities.