Writing comes in many shapes, forms, and fashions. Most people have a common idea as to what writing is or what writing should be in a school setting. When asked most would automatically recall past papers done in middle school, high school, and college that were purely academia prompted by a specific topic. Since there are various ways to express knowledge through writing, why are musical forms, such as rap or hip hop, seen as unintelligale or even purely unacceptable by a wide majority? Especially from older generations? I would agree that if one could only write in rap or poems that their writing skills would not be well - rounded, even limiting to what ideas they could convey, eventhough rap or poems are becoming …show more content…
It is indeed a form of poetry. I conducted a poll on the social media site Twitter and posed the following question – "Are rap and hip hop lyrics unintelligable in your opinon?" Over a span of six hours 31 percent of my 780 followers chose "Yes" while 69 percent of my followers said "no" or "depends on the song". Now, not all my followers voted, and the range of age is drastic ranging from 14 all the way up to some people in their seventies. I could not find a clear indication on how which age group voted primarly for one answer or the other. However, this does prove that most of the younger generation does not find that rap or hip hop music is unintelligable depending on the song and in general. Given the statistic, would that indeed give rap music the same profoundness as an academic paper? Granted, rap music reaches more people than a scholarly paper. Most everyone listens to the radio in which they would hear a rap song dicussing political or racial views. The songs could make one think on it and challenege a new perspective. Academic papers do the same . I know from personal expericnce that various semiars and conferences I have spoken at that the material I spoke on made the entire audience think, and maybe even infulence a change of heart on some more conterversal matters. Why would we not allow rap to be used as a way of expressing the same ideas …show more content…
It is known that it would not get the same message across whether it had the same message or not. Academia papers create a content form that is more mature in the sense of language used. Whereas rap has language that is mature, but rather for mature audiences. Say there is a paper written on the daily life of ethnic minorities - as seen in "Writing For Their Lives: The Non-School Literacy of California 's Urban African American Youth” – the rap verses accurately describe the life those children see every single day (Sablo). What if those struggles were put into an academia type essay? Would the message still be as strong? Perhaps not – that is for the audience to decide. Frankly, I believe both are adequate ways to get a clear, concise message across to the audience but there would not be a well-rounded sense of material if we had to get the message across just through rap or just through writing academia. Although, through an academic paper more profound writing can be used with words that do not necessarily rhyme while the rap does not always use larger vernacular to get a message to the public. If the children had put those thoughts and feelings into an academic paper it would not have been as heart wrenching since the terminology used by the children would not be allowed in a school setting. The paper would have been one to pay close attention to though as the struggles would have been more subdued,