Is Hip-Hop Just Entertainment?

Written by The Rap Up. Posted in Gumbo

Published on July 11, 2009 with 10 Comments">10 Comments

I’m watching this entire meeting via Youtube right now, but this one stuck out to me because I was surprised to see that cop-out being used. AllHipHop.com CEO, Chuck Creekmur (in the red v-neck sweater vest) attempts to correct this statement, but doesn’t really go as far as he could have.

Hip-hop is not just entertainment in my opinion. If you say that, then you give a green light for artists to never have to care about what they say. For some people, this actually means something. For some people, hip-hop is a culture and this music should be the flagship that represents it.

At the end of the day, hip hop is us both celebrating and also marketing our culture. Why wouldn’t we want it to be a true, full, honest, and simultaneously uplifting picture of our people.

TRU

The Rap Up

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  • Pat

    Amen. There is some effed behavior being glamourized by hip hop. Most people in their 20′s or 30′s can differentiate between real life and fictional storytelling, but the young kids listening to it take it as instructions on how to act. If hip hop is just entertainment, it needs to stop being promoted as reality, because kids get stuck with a warped and dangerous perception of reality that jeopardizes their future potential.

  • Pat

    Amen. There is some effed behavior being glamourized by hip hop. Most people in their 20′s or 30′s can differentiate between real life and fictional storytelling, but the young kids listening to it take it as instructions on how to act. If hip hop is just entertainment, it needs to stop being promoted as reality, because kids get stuck with a warped and dangerous perception of reality that jeopardizes their future potential.

  • Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur

    I just happened to stumble over this while checking the site out. FYI, I didn’t want to get all Chuck D in that and completely counter my friend Rick Edwards, but I definitely think rappers are role models to kids in particular and also some infantile adults.There is no policing factor in Hip-Hop anymore and nobody holds anybody accountable or they are branded a hater. artists are not compelled to be socially responsible in any way now. Thanks.

  • Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur

    I just happened to stumble over this while checking the site out. FYI, I didn’t want to get all Chuck D in that and completely counter my friend Rick Edwards, but I definitely think rappers are role models to kids in particular and also some infantile adults.There is no policing factor in Hip-Hop anymore and nobody holds anybody accountable or they are branded a hater. artists are not compelled to be socially responsible in any way now. Thanks.

  • moneda

    “Hip-Hop is just entertainment” is such a simplistic view. Mostly because when it’s said it’s referencing only the music. There are other facets to this culture that couldn’t be packaged, marketed and sold and so they’ve been overshadowed and damn-near forgotten; but they’re still out there, influencing people and helping to spread the kind of message our music needs to help spread. As long as we keep celebrating the careers of those “artists” who really don’t give a damn about the culture of Hip-Hop, though, the message will stay obscured.

  • moneda

    “Hip-Hop is just entertainment” is such a simplistic view. Mostly because when it’s said it’s referencing only the music. There are other facets to this culture that couldn’t be packaged, marketed and sold and so they’ve been overshadowed and damn-near forgotten; but they’re still out there, influencing people and helping to spread the kind of message our music needs to help spread. As long as we keep celebrating the careers of those “artists” who really don’t give a damn about the culture of Hip-Hop, though, the message will stay obscured.

  • http://my.rawkus.com/xn/detail/u_3do8pki9yd06o CathrynMarie

    Chuck Creekmur for President :)

  • http://my.rawkus.com/xn/detail/u_3do8pki9yd06o CathrynMarie

    Chuck Creekmur for President :)

  • J to the AAP

    Like any cultural expression that’s been aroud this long HipHop can be anything from a blatant cash-grab to sincere introspective art and everything in between. If you take any form of art seriously you should be able to criticize it. Saying HipHop is ‘just entertainment’ is disrespectful to any artist that has ever poured his soul into his beats and/or rhymes. It’s as idiotic as stating paintings are ‘just entertainment’, or movies, or literature, or any other medium or genre of music.

  • J to the AAP

    Like any cultural expression that’s been aroud this long HipHop can be anything from a blatant cash-grab to sincere introspective art and everything in between. If you take any form of art seriously you should be able to criticize it. Saying HipHop is ‘just entertainment’ is disrespectful to any artist that has ever poured his soul into his beats and/or rhymes. It’s as idiotic as stating paintings are ‘just entertainment’, or movies, or literature, or any other medium or genre of music.

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