2 NEW BOOK SOURCES

Ayazi-Hashjin, Sherry. Rap and Hip Hop: The Voice of a Generation. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 1999. Print. In this short book, Sherry Ayazi-Hashjin talks about the heritage, musical roots of hip hop. It also encompasses quotes from different rappers that depict the reality of rap, they agree that rap is only here because we have created it just like how we bring good and bad things in our lives, and it all depends on the way you think. But it’s better to embrace the positive side of rap over its negativity because even through its negativeness there’s a positive message behind it, well for most parts.

Alan Light. The Vibe History of Hip Hop. Three Rivers Press, 201 East 50^th Street, New York, New York 10022. This book talks about how hip hop is the only genre out there that allows us to talk about almost anything. In somewhat allows us to create poetry and sample it musically through beats of music. However after years of struggling to attain international attention, hip hop had now become a dominant force in contemporary American youth culture. It has brought so many positive influence across the country and around the globe from the way songs are recorded and produce, and how fashion clothes are designed and marketed, and also how it has strongly help bring people together to help get rid of the attitude towards race.

Gerrad O'Brien interview

Gerrard O’Brien/Lil G interview

What does this topic mean to you?

Personally, I’m a huge fan of rap as you can tell that’s what I do in my spare time. I see it a necessity where I can express myself.

How are you connected to this topic?

My favorite rapper is Lil Wayne who inspires me in my music.

Do you have first-hand experience with the topic?

Yes I rap and produce music on a daily basis, and my dream is to make it big, collaborate with many of the artists I play non-stop and perform my music for the world and so far I have many fans and friends that are supporting me and the albums that I’ve been releasing.

How long have you been connected with/affected by this topic?

Well I was born in a world of music. My family is greatly tuned in to music. My mother knows many songs and my father is part of the pioneer Hip-Hop group, The Sugar Hill Gang. Music is in my blood. Period.

Do you think this is a serious problem, or something that can be put off?

Honestly, I spit what I feel. I rap about having a good time, going through hard times and living life. Nothing I rap is about the negativity of the world rather how we can overcome negativity. But, Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

What are your thoughts on how to improve the problem?

Parents should be more aware of the type of music their kids are listening to as long as they are leaving under their roof. But after that people have their own choice to listen to what they want, you can’t really control what people want to hear. The more yu make it an issue in society that rap is negative; the more rebellious people get to find way to listen to those types of music.

What are your thoughts on the opposing views?

People are entitled in their own opinion. If they don’t like rap that’s their issue but to me I believe that the older generations are the ones degrading it. Making it seems like it’s a negative epidemic taking over the entertainment industry

Senior Project Outline Source #3

Specific Page Title or Article Title” Negative Influences of Rap & Hip Hop Music
Primary Contributor to the Website (if given) (author, editor, producer, etc) Joanna White-Oldham, ehow contributor
Title of the Entire Website (not www. )  ehow.com
Publisher or Sponsoring Organization of the website (if given) ehow
Date Page was Last Revised None given
Date You Read It February 3  2012
<URL address> (ALL of it) http://www.ehow.com/about_5418679_negative-rap-hip-hop-music.html

FIVE FACTS FROM THE SOURCE (Embedded): Joanna White-Oldman believes that hip-hop lyrics are imitated by most people from all races and are impending peoples judgment over how they should act and not do in society, “song lyrics can become embedded in the mind and can unconsciously motivate a listener's actions”.

Hip-Hop helped modified people from the way they dress, speak, and socialize however the upcoming of gansta rap illustrated a negative norm of those ways, “The emergence of "gangsta rap" in the 1980s marked the beginning of some disintegration of the positive images in hip-hop culture”.

Though some rappers retell their life story in a fluid lyrical way without derogatory words, gangster rap is filled with offensive word with no sense of retelling their life upbringing what so ever, “Many gangsta hip-hop artists justify their music by claiming they are only retelling the experiences of their lives on the streets. However, close analysis of the song lyrics often reveals a plethora of curse words and no substance”. The listeners then tend to idolize these types of rappers and imitate their behavior out in society, glorifying violence.

Joanna White-Oldman may glorify hip-hop as a negative norm throughout our society but everything has a positive side, “Many people believe that all hip-hop has the gangsta appeal that has such a destructive effect on youth. This is simply not true. There are hip-hop artist that perpetuate positive messages, artists like Mos Def and Common are hip-hop artists of substance with uplifting messages”.

The only ways Joanna White-Oldman believes that this type of music can be reduced in our society is that, “parents should take a firm stand against the production of this music by refusing to purchase it. A decrease in record sales may trigger an increase in responsibility on the part of the artists.

Senior Project Outline Source #2

“Specific Page Title or Article Title” 'Hip-Hop Is the Most Important Youth Culture on the Planet’
Primary Contributor to the Website (if given) (author, editor, producer, etc) Time inc. All Right Reserved
Title of the Entire Website (not www.) Time.com
Publisher or Sponsoring Organization of the website (if given) Time Entertainment
Date Page was Last Revised Friday, September, 2000
Date You Read It February 2 2012
<URL address> (ALL of it) http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,55624,00.html

Hip-Hop is an all rounded genre as quoted by Kevin Powell, who considered one of America’s most important voices in these early years of the 21st century, “And hip-hop is urban folk art, period. And that urban folk art is about the lives of a very unique group of people, of how they made something out of nothing, and how that nothing has come to define an entire era in many ways, be it our language, our fashion, our attitudes, our art, the way we make music, and the way we do and do not communicate across race, gender, geography, and cultures”.

Kevin Powell also states that Hip-Hop came from an era of rebelliousness and where intended to target white mostly who later accepted that genre in their society, “You can't talk about American music without talking about Black people and Black musical forms. And you cannot discuss Black music without taking it account its edginess (think of bluesman Robert Johnson, bebop innovator Charlie Parker, rocker Little Richard, soul man Otis Redding, et al.), its rebelliousness (anyone from Big Mama Thornton to Jimi Hendrix) and the fact that edginess and rebelliousness ultimately appeals to white young people as much as it does to Black young people. That and "white music" suffering slumps from time to time made the white embrace of hip-hop inevitable

Hip-Hop arisen from rappers that come from difficult times, they use rap as a mean to express their pain and let the world know that anyone can make a difference and if anyone could, they would make a positive difference in the world but that aint easy it requires patience and motivation as quoted by Kevin Powell, “Hip-hop, in spite of being a billion-dollar business, is still the blues of the working poor. And I can say this because this is the world I come from; the working poor are just basically trying to survive from day to day. I find it very classist for people to raise the issue about positive versus negative hip-hop because the same people who raise that issue don't usually discuss the death-baiting conditions which most hip-hoppers come out of”.

Kevin Powell also states that Hip-Hop tend to give listeners a perspective of the rappers life struggle, “Hip-hop's roots are not Jamaican, nor Puerto Rican, nor African American, but African. It's part of the continuum of African art forms — in some traditional African societies, for example, we find the "griot," who is the storyteller or oral historian.

The point  Kevin Powell is trying to make is, “that no matter where we were enslaved in the Western Hemisphere, be it Jamaica, Brazil or South Carolina, we as Black people held on to modes of speech, dance movements, and attitudes (what some call "cool") that formed the foundation for hip-hop's emergence in an African-American context”.

Senior Project Online Source

“Specific Page Title or Article Title” Experts debate hip-hop's influence on American culture, youth, for better or for worse
Primary Contributor to the Website (if given) (author, editor, producer, etc) Copyright Brigham Young University
Title of the Entire Website (not www.) newsnet
Publisher or Sponsoring Organization of the website (if given)
Date Page was Last Revised Ex: 10 September 2010
Date You Read It Ex: 30 January 2012
<URL address> (ALL of it) http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/55516

The article cites Salome Thomas El, a principle of an elementary and middle school in inner city Philadelphia who said that, “A lot of young people listen to their [rappers’] lyrics and take their word as law,” while being interviewed on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News about the issue of rap and its effects on children.

Thomas El believes that those that come from a bad past look towards music as a sanctuary for peace because it helps them relive the past and plan a better future by trying, “live what they learn and learn what they live”. Many of these children come from broken homes and are trying to find peace out in the open world.

I can relate to Thomas El quote when he said, “A lot of times he [the rapper] becomes the teacher. He becomes the role model to these young people.” When a depressing mood kicks in I have a set of artist that I know who can lyrically speak to me throught my pain and hopefully increase my self-esteem.

Thought many might not accept what these rappers are putting in kids ears in today’s society, some are trying to send out positive message said Salome Thomas El, “At a certain level we need to listen to what these folks [rap artists] are saying because they are in a sense telling us perhaps what’s wrong in society or they may be telling us what’s good in society,” he said. “So, in a sense, I think it’s all important”.

He also said the innovation involved in rap is “fantastic.” He also said the use of a turntable as an instrument by scratching it and the adoption of the new dance styles mixed with the old styles is “phenomenal."Meaning this style of expressing yourself has been the most popular in today’s youth and it doesn’t seem that it’s going tom fade anytime soon.

*NEW* Senior Project Proposal

Senior Project Proposal

Name: Mamadou Bah

Proposed Topic with Essential Question: How the Evolution of Hip-hop has influenced American culture.

Rationale for Choice: Because the lyrical aspect of hip-hop which is rap is taken by the listeners as law, thus the rapper becomes the listener’s role model through tough times.

What about this topic appeals to you? Why did you choose it?

The lyrical aspect of hip hop which is rapping greatly appeals to my self-esteem. The reason I chose this topic because I can greatly relate to hip-hop.

What do you already know about this subject?

I know that today rap is the most popular genre today’s and it’s the ingredient for hip hop which is everything from dance to fashion of music. It is an artistic form of music that let people expresses them in a positive way. And children are more impacted to it than adults. A lot of young people listen to their [rappers’] lyrics and take their word as law and these rappers become their role models throughout their lives.

What are you hoping to learn about the subject?

I’m hoping to learn how these lyrics from rap influence American youth both positively and negatively.

What are you most interested in regarding the topic?

What message are these rappers trying to plant in American youth ears?

                                                                                                                                            

What potential risks or challenges do you foresee for your project?

That there might be negative content that these rappers are speaking in American youth ears.

Senior Project Proposal Sheet

Name: Mamadou Bah

Proposed Topic with Essential Questions: I believe soccer should be more implemented in American society in comparison with foreign contries.

What about this topic appeals to you? Why did you choose it?
Soccer is a sport I've been in love with since I was a child. I've alwats dreamed playing for big clubs but apparently major clubs can only be found in Europe or South America. I chose it to show how much of a competitive sport it is next to Basketball and Football.

What do you already know about this project?
I know Soccer is an international sport that is known and loved world wide. But America is the only nation holding back it's popularity cause they simply find it "boring' to watch in comparison with American Football and Basketball.

What are you hoping to learn about this subject?
I'm hoping to learn why American people aren't that much involved in Soccer as the world is.

What are you most intrested in regarding this subject?
I'm intrested in showing the class during my presentation of how soccer is not just a game of kickball but involves tactics and techniques. But most importatntly I want to show why it isn't such a "boring" sport.

What potential risk or challenge do you forsee for your project?
i'm afraid that most of the class won't take my message i'll be trying to point out seriously. Meaning that the most dominant sport such as Basketball and Football will always prevail over soccer in America.