Introduction: Em-Bubbly

Ever since I was in the third grade I knew I wanted to be an artist. Starting with drawing and broadening into painting, photography, poetry, graphic design and even fashion. I will attempt any art form once but as I have grown they have become more of a hobby then something I actually want to pursue as a profession. I signed up for this class not knowing much about hip-hop; except that it is an art form. I still believe hip-hop is poetry and art, with the beats, lyrics and movement coming together into one master piece. Today however I feel like a lot of main stream hip-hop has created a negative attitude towards the music and culture all together. I’m hoping this class will help re-connect me with the deeper meaning of hip-hop and its roots. 

I grew up in Tacoma, WA which was a city known for its ghetto’s. I was first introduced to hip-hop at a young age. I remember G-unit and Nas being all the rage with my friends in elementary school around the fifth grade. I never really felt out of place as my school was racially diverse, but I was the minority there. It wasn’t until middle school that I really got a look at where I lived. My parents moved me into a private school (as much as I fought them), telling me this was for the best as they wanted me to get an education. This was a whole new world to me. My class only had one black student and she was considered an outcast just because she had a different way of expressing herself through music and dance, something I actually understood. Hip-hop culture soon faded from my life all together as I went to a majority white private high school. Main stream hip-hop songs that played on the radio often but not always carrying a derogatory message, became all I knew. My friends I kept in touch with at the public high school made me realize this as they exchanged songs and talked of artists I did not know. The music they played had so much more meaning in the lyrics, it brought me back to the hip-hop I heard when I was younger and the racial diversity and reality of where I lived. 

Originally hip-hop was an art to me and I loved the personal messages of life, struggles, death, and even love. Somewhere between middle school and high school though I got sucked into the hype of the main stream songs on the radio and it lost a lot of meaning. I even stopped listening to it for about two year because I got tired of the repeated sex, drugs, and money messages. Hip-hop is poetry and the songs I love the most are those that come with a meaning; on the surface but also deeper in the song. I believe you can’t take this music for face value and I am hoping this class will help me find that understanding again and re-introduce me to the hip-hop music I once loved while teaching me new things about it and even the mainstream hip-hop.