International Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop a creation of the Western world, the U.S. to be more specific, has originally expanded throughout the rest of the world by spreading messages that many audiences in developing nations can relate to. As we mentioned this week, it is acknowledge that hip-hop has developed and many argue that it has lost its mother roots; therefore, hip-hop is not to be considered real hip-hop anymore but that has managed to create a category on its own. The new trend noticed in this revolutionized hip-hop is not only that it has adopted a pop undertone but it has also approached a series of repetitive criticism amongst artists to criticize each other through their songs. The trend seems to be who bashes the harshest and who does it in the most clever way; thanks to the capitalist interest that exist among producers who have figure out what sells, besides beats, bashing one another has become a part of making successful records. This bashing happens in many different ways and as we see how each each artist in their culture goes about it, we noticed that the original way of delivery has not changed. It is worth to argue whether hip-hop is dead or not, but a bigger issue is how much it has developed to fit our generation as it has moved along to fit a world that has also revolutionized into a post-modern world. Besides the arguments artist make about the struggles they had to go through, they tend to compare themselves to genre legends to attract more fans as well as setting themselves in history by comparing themselves to great ones that have already made history. This comparison not only happens within the genre but with music legends in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4

The video above features an English artist (dan le sac vs. scroobius pip) that when categorized falls under the hip-hop genre; however they have put their own spin by adding beats that are not categorized as hip-hop. In their song "Thou Shalt Always Kill" they approach counter-hegemonic ideas through their lyrics, which is a characteristic easily recognized of hip-hop. This genre of music mostly composed of counter-hegemonic ideas allows for hip-hop to be very international as it seems that there is at least one person in every area of the world that wants to rebel against the hegemony established. This artist does not speak of personal struggles or clubbing and girls as american hip-hop aritist do, a common factor amongst international hip-hop aritist is that they seem to speak more of global issues or emphasize ignorance regarding taste. When listening to some of the issues dan le sac speaks about in the song above, a questioned is raised regarding America and its music, is not that hip-hop is dead, the argument is that hip-hop is giving their fans what they want; and the problem is that Americans fans are more fixated into having a good time and as analysed in other fields of study, Americans are very particular about foreign news and it is questioned how much they care about what is outside the American bubble. So when caucasian people are criticized for their race and entering a world (hip-hop) that they supposedly do not belong in or can't make good hip-hop because of their race, only goes to show the racism that surrounds this genre of music; because these caucasian artist aren't singing about dealing drugs, getting shot, smoking weed and going to clubs to meet girls, does not make them any less hip-hop aritist. Sure many American artist have fallen into the mainstream world but that only comes along with the greedyness of americans and always wanting more, in this case, more money. I admire Dan Le Sac, although he does approach a very common way for delievering his music, he raps about a reality that fits most people, but at the same time there is plenty of diversity, and that is what hip-hop is, reality and diversity.