Kendrick Lamar Proves There’s More to Hip Hop than Sex and Drugs
Hip hop traces back to the 1970s when DJ Kool Herc pioneered the breakbeat revolution. The music genre has since evolved immensely and has a number of factors that gave rise to its current popularity, albeit not all positive. According to Storify.com, hip hop ignited as teens and young adults led the Universal Zulu Nation peace movement to reduce gang violence in NYC, but today it’s slated as a method to promote controversial issues such as sexism, violence, and drug use.
For those that aren’t versed in hip hop or rap, it’s possible they perceive the culture in a negative light, though it’s important to know that there’s much more to the world of hip hop than weed, gangs, and intercourse. Sex and drugs often find themselves intertwined as revealed by a survey conducted by Adam & Eve, in which 79 percent of participants who drink alcohol or take drugs before copulation responded positively to the experience. With an audience heavily influenced by alcohol, drugs and sex, rappers are giving them exactly want they want as they produce songs about weed culture and curvaceous women. Notably, there are a myriad of artists out there that remind us that there’s a greater depth to rap than what you’d normally hear on the radio or watch on YouTube, one in particular being Kendrick Lamar.
While Snoop Dogg and Redman are recording tracks based on their adventures with marijuana, the young Compton rapper strives to be a role model of sorts by sharing with listeners that anything is possible, despite whatever socioeconomic woes they’ve been dealt with. Even though he has a history of smoking weed, he shared in an interview with Hip Hop DX in 2012 that it was never about dependency and that it’s all the past, as he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t use it as a crutch in his career like some others are.
His latest album To Pimp a Butterfly is a politically charged modern masterpiece, a thorough lyrical compilation of his transition from hardship to fame critically acclaimed across various media outlets, with a near perfect score on MetaCritic. Before the album release in March, Lamar had already been publicizing that his new songs which he describes as “honest, fearful and unapologetic” would be “taught in college courses someday.”
It might be hard to believe that an album can teach us so much about race relations, provoke thought and activism in racial equality, but Lamar makes it possible by using it as a platform to divulge his academically and historically informed opinions on culturalism and structuralism within his society and black culture as a whole. Though some have criticized his latest work as he suggests that racial inequality is also perpetuated by African American society as well. Whether you agree with this assertion or not, every single one of his tracks play in integral role in explaining that race relations are far more complex than the culturalist/structuralist argument, and that hip hop is more profound than what first meets the eye.
At the end of each year all of us have things we can and should reflect upon. We assess all that has happened and make promises to build upon successes, shed bad habits and bad energy and create better tomorrows..
It showed in the form of Serena Williams and Gabby Douglass taking Gold Medals in the London Olympics and dealing with horrific negative feedback because of how they danced or wore their hair..The disrespect that gymnastic champ Gabby Douglass endured over her hair was outlandish, but she handled it with class and dignity and kept it moving. Her 90 million dollar endorsement deal from Wheaties was also nice..
Album of the Year… It was a toss up between Nas‘ ‘Life is Good‘, Kendrick Lamar ‘Good Kid Maad City‘ Killer Mike ‘RAP Music‘ Public Enemy ‘Most of My Heroes Don’t Appear on No Stamps‘ and Brother Ali ‘Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color‘
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Bay Area rapper Too Short got into some hot water in 2012 when he was complimented by rap star 2 Chainz who called him a father figure.. Short took that compliment to another level at the urging of XXL editor Vanessa Satten by penning what was supposed to be a satirical advice column for kids. His advice included telling little boys how to take it to the hole and force sex upon ‘little girls’.. needless to say this caused a lot of outrage..
“Woke up this morning and got hit w/ this foolishness from the bottle thrower named Drake.. He’s just told the Jewish press he’s the ‘first person to successfully rap and sing’ I was ike WTF? This is why Hip Hop history should be required b4 putting out a record.. Can we start with Angie Stone of Sequence.. she raps and sings better.. Maybe Drake forgot 8x Grammy winner Lauryn Hill? Cee-Lo, Mos Def, hell Black Thought kills it in both genres? Did dude forget Queen Latifah, Force MDs, Devin the Dude? Hell, Teena Marie, Blondie and Tom Tom Club blow Drake out the water doing both.. First time I heard singing and rapping was in 78-79 when GMF and the Furious 4 came to Bx Science and harmonized routines.. Later I heard Crash Crew and of course we had Cold Crush who killed it everytime on the singing/ rap tip y’all remember this from back in the days?? 
In this era of Hip-Hop, where the Hip-Hop blogosphere is brimming with articles about the shit that