How Race and Ethnicity affected the music of Eminem
In this assignment i will be focusing on Rap music and how race and ethnicity affected the music of Eminem, both positively and negatively. I have chosen to research this topic as i found it very interesting, with many valid opinions and points of view to look into.
Rap music, also known as Hip Hop began in the 1970’s in the lower class areas of New York, also known as the ‘ghetto’, as a way for the public to voice their political frustration. Rap is based around a vocal style in which the lyrics are spoken against a musical backing, rather than sung. There are no specific requirements for the music used however early rappers would borrow different beats and rhythms from other genres of …show more content…
Under social conditions in which sustained frontal attacks on powerful groups are strategically unwise or successfully contained, oppressed people use language, dance, and music to mock those in power, express rage, and produce fantasies of subversion”.
This relates to the lower class areas and how people weren’t happy with their living conditions in comparison to other surrounding areas. With racism still being a daily occurrence at this time, the lower class were unable to make change and this led to them turning to art-forms to express their emotion, anger and struggle and this is when rap music gained its momentum, with it being first popular in the urban areas where the listeners could relate to the hardships of …show more content…
He was born in Missouri however with his mother not being able to maintain a consistent job for a large period of time, this resulted in them moving around from Missouri, Detroit and Michigan spending almost all of his childhood in public housing, “I would change schools two, three times a year”. He grew up in places consisting of predominantly black families and also found comfort in imitating the rebellious attitudes of the rep groups around such as N.W.A and Public Enemy. Huxley (2000, page 7) quotes Eminem describing his upbringing as “stereotypical, trailer park, white trash upbringing”. His race is a defining factor in his case because he broke the mould by emerging as a white rapper.
Eminem wasn’t the only white musician to achieve commercial success in rap music, others include ‘Vanilla Ice’ and ‘The Beastie Boys’.
Vanilla Ice also know has Robert Matthew Van Winkle and was born in
Dallas, Texas. With him coming from a middle class background and being white, he was not considered to be an authentic rap artist like Eminem and some also feel his attempt of a rap career as an intrusion on the genre itself. He was originally marketed as a white rapper with credibility as he claimed he had grown up in the rough areas of Miami however this then turned out to be a lie and he was then ostracised by some musicians and stripped of his
In this assignment i will be focusing on Rap music and how race and ethnicity affected the music of Eminem, both positively and negatively. I have chosen to research this topic as i found it very interesting, with many valid opinions and points of view to look into.
Rap music, also known as Hip Hop began in the 1970’s in the lower class areas of New York, also known as the ‘ghetto’, as a way for the public to voice their political frustration. Rap is based around a vocal style in which the lyrics are spoken against a musical backing, rather than sung. There are no specific requirements for the music used however early rappers would borrow different beats and rhythms from other genres of …show more content…
Under social conditions in which sustained frontal attacks on powerful groups are strategically unwise or successfully contained, oppressed people use language, dance, and music to mock those in power, express rage, and produce fantasies of subversion”.
This relates to the lower class areas and how people weren’t happy with their living conditions in comparison to other surrounding areas. With racism still being a daily occurrence at this time, the lower class were unable to make change and this led to them turning to art-forms to express their emotion, anger and struggle and this is when rap music gained its momentum, with it being first popular in the urban areas where the listeners could relate to the hardships of …show more content…
He was born in Missouri however with his mother not being able to maintain a consistent job for a large period of time, this resulted in them moving around from Missouri, Detroit and Michigan spending almost all of his childhood in public housing, “I would change schools two, three times a year”. He grew up in places consisting of predominantly black families and also found comfort in imitating the rebellious attitudes of the rep groups around such as N.W.A and Public Enemy. Huxley (2000, page 7) quotes Eminem describing his upbringing as “stereotypical, trailer park, white trash upbringing”. His race is a defining factor in his case because he broke the mould by emerging as a white rapper.
Eminem wasn’t the only white musician to achieve commercial success in rap music, others include ‘Vanilla Ice’ and ‘The Beastie Boys’.
Vanilla Ice also know has Robert Matthew Van Winkle and was born in
Dallas, Texas. With him coming from a middle class background and being white, he was not considered to be an authentic rap artist like Eminem and some also feel his attempt of a rap career as an intrusion on the genre itself. He was originally marketed as a white rapper with credibility as he claimed he had grown up in the rough areas of Miami however this then turned out to be a lie and he was then ostracised by some musicians and stripped of his