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Don`t Blame Hip Hop
Added: (Mon May 05 2008)
DON `T BLAME HIP HOP New Single Release
Leon Newton (BMI) pro songwriter of country and pop music has teamed up with R& B singer Joshua Smith both of Jackson, Mississippi to produce the hip hop song DON`T BLAME HIP HOP. The press release asserts that some media critics are biased toward hip hop and rap artists; because, the industry seems to exclude many young artists who are talented, socially responsible and not involved in violence. Media outlets portray hip hop and rap artists (for the most part) as youths who were once part of the gangs and drug life from poor inner city rapping their way out of the slums. While others advance the concept that they do not deserve their fame and fortune because they did not earn them by the traditional means.
The media has focused disproportionate attention on hip hop and rap artists for their
negative lyrics and videos and present these artists as representing the totality of hip hop and rap culture. Hip hop is and always was an art form that may or may not reflect the culture of those artists lives. Hip hop fans must keep in mind once Hard Rock was considered the devil’s music that made the youth do evil things. The public should understand this is youth music because those who listen and buy are young. Hip hop is marketed to and based on the youth, and as long as the youth like and buy hip hop it will survive in the market place. When Disco stopped being popular its era ended. Is there a genuine debate on the merits of raps and hip hop’s impact on our communities? Some people enter the debate who never really cared about hip hop and rap as long as it stayed in the inner city and did not impact their children or communities in the suburbs.
Why do young women listen to, dance to, rap to and buy hip hop if hip hop projects negative images of them and puts them down? Many women do not see themselves as the images in the video neither do they think the artists are talking about them because there is a personal detachment. In America sex sells cars to videos why should this product be any different? When the media and public talk about hip hop as a bad music pretending to be an art form with its negative images on our youth their discussion never centers around the good these young people have done and are doing in their communities. Professor Harold Dorsey suggests that it is time for communities to demand that hip hop and rap artist be more socially responsible to world communities in their music.
What about the national and international causes the hip hop artists support with their money.
Hip hop artist have created an art form that has opened doors for many video directors, music publishers, film makers, young record producers, and artists. The artists also invested in sport teams, participate in national voters registration drives, foundations helping those in need and created many other jobs in the music industry. We should be encouraging and guiding these young men and women, not placing our energy into putting them down. The titled song can be downloaded from www.itunes.com and ring tones www.phonesherpa.com/leonnewt. The songwriter’s country and pop music can be heard at www.cdbaby.com/cd/leonnewton e-mail songwriter Leon Newton : leonnewt@aol.com