My Hip Hop Culture

Growing up in a dominantly white neighborhood I was exposed to mostly hard rock and pop music. My father would play old hard rock albums on his cassette player whenever he would be driving. I favored listening to hard rock thinking it’s what men listen to, unlike the songs that pop stations would play. I did not pay attention to hip hop until junior high, where my exposure to it grew on a daily basis. As the years go by, I recognize hip hop as my genre of choice when listening to music. Not only did my appreciation grow for hip hop after hearing “Soul Food” by Logic, I came to see the culture he grew up in, the one he raps of, and the one considered to be black culture in a genre considered to be black, one that was almost the exact opposite …show more content…
Sports drew my attention along with inventing, while music was something I overlooked easily. My parents would listen to Arabic and Hindi music which I found annoying along with most pop music. I’m not trying to bash pop music, it just did not float my boat for the most part. Pop was considered girly in my dad’s eyes who would listen to hard rock music whenever he would drive anywhere. Looking up to my dad, who is a very masculine guy, I saw hard rock as a manly genre and accepted it as good music. My friends as well seemed to only know and care about pop and hard rock as those were popular genres in our suburban town. I still do like hard rock music but after listening to hip hop for some time it would be my second favorite …show more content…
Not only did my appreciation grow for hip hop after hearing “Soul Food” by Logic, I came to see the culture he grew up in, the one he raps of, and the one considered to be black culture in a genre considered to be black, one that was almost the exact opposite of my own. Listening to “Soul Food” allowed me to experience artists’ abilities to use wordplay and storytelling on a whole different level than before. However, it also distorted my view of what black culture and music is. At first I thought black culture and music was what gangster rappers had spoken of, but now I believe black music is one that incites the emotion of the listener, and has a story to tell while using wordplay to its advantage. Similarly, I believe black culture cannot be judged in general, but depending on the time and circumstances of the