Need help with my thesis about Hip-Hop culture

[CRAFTY]

(Since my original thread in G-Spot wasn't getting a lot of feedback, it's indeed a better idea to post it here)

Alright, next year will be my last year at university so normally I have to start only then with preparing my thesis. But the wonderful people at my university came up with the brilliant idea of letting their students start with their thesis in the 2nd year already. Anyway, I chose the topic "The Evolution of Hip-Hop Culture" in which I'll discuss - surprisinginly, I know- the evolution of Hip-Hop culture, lol.
I decided to make a survey into the knowledge of Hip-Hop culture among 15/16/17 year olds. I've already prepared 10 questions, but I'm stuck at the moment. Would some of you guys be able to help me out with some more questions?

Here are my 10 current questions. The words between brackets are meant to be the 'multiple choice' answers.

1) Do you like listening to rap music? (yes/no)
2) Do you consider yourself a Hip-Hop fan? (yes/no)
3) How often do you listen to rap music? (every day/once a week/once to five times a week/once in a month)
4) Did you know that Hip-Hop is in fact a culture, and not just a genre of music? (yes/no)
5) Name the four elements of Hip-Hop culture
6) What makes Hip-Hop so interesting? (the culture, the music [beats], the lyrics, the attitude, the videos)
7) Where is the roots of Hip-Hop culture to be situated? (Los Angeles, Berlin, New York, Amsterdam, Paris)
8 ) Rap music from the U.S. is by far the most popular genre. Do you also listen to non-U.S. rap music? If yes, specifiy!
9) Videos from rappers are in constant rotation on channels such as MTV. What's so interesting about those videos? (the women, the cars, the jewelry, the way-of-life of those rappers, I just watch the video because I like the song)
10) Who's your favourite rapper? (Tupac, Eminem, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre)

--> I realize these questions are not on a high-level. I did that on purpose. My main goal is to show that the majority of those teenagers are influenced by the media and that they only like what they see on television. Feel free to add more/better questions or to adjust the questions mentioned above. Thanks!

You do NOT need to reply to those 10 questions, just tell me if they're good or not. Or you can also give suggestions on what I can do with my thesis about Hip-Hop culture. I'm planning to discuss the roots of Hip-Hop culture, its influence on modern society and the influence from the media on Hip-Hop culture. That's it so far. So please feel free to give suggestions...

[KURUPTION-81]

this may help u , it breaks down how an rappers contract works

http://community.allhiphop.com/showthread.php?t=238992

ARTISTS DON'T MAKE MONEY FROM RECORD DEALS
By, Wendy Day from Rap Coalition

Who is the incredible bonehead who said rappers make mad loot? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!! Because the fans expect their favorite artists to be crazy paid and livin' large, this puts an incredible amount of pressure on the artists to appear wealthy. And it's not just the fans; I can't tell you how many times I've been out with rappers along with people in the industry, and the industry slobs have expected the artists to pick up the dinner check. I've even seen people cop an attitude if the artist doesn't pay for everything. This is small minded and ignorant because the artist is ALWAYS the last to get paid. Everyone gets their cut first: the label, the manager (15%- 20% of all of the artist's entertainment income), the lawyer (by the hour or 5%-10% of the deal), the accountant (by the hour or 5% of all income), and, of course, the IRS (28% to 50% depending on the tax bracket).

Once an artist releases a record, the pressure is on to portray a successful image to fans, friends, families, and people around the way. People expect the artists to be well dressed, drive an expensive car, etc. Think about it. Don't you expect artists "to look like artists?" Would you admire Jay-Z as much if he drove a busted old 1990 Grand Am instead of that beautiful, brand new, top of the line Bentley?

Sadly, when an artist gets signed to a label deal, especially a rap artist, he or she receives somewhere between 8 and 13 points. What that means is 8% to 13% of the retail sales price, after the record label recoups the money it puts out (the advance, the sample clearances, the producer advances, usually half the cost of any videos, any cash outlays for the artists, etc.). The artist has to sell hella units to make any money back. Here's an example of a relatively fair record deal for a new rap artist with some clout in the industry and a terrific negotiating attorney:

ROYALTY RATE: 12%

We're going to assume that there are 3 artists in the group, and that they split everything equally. We're also going to assume that they produce their own tracks themselves.

Suggested retail list price (cassettes) $10.98
less 15% packaging deduction (usually 20%) =$ 9.33
gets paid on 85% of records sold ("free goods") =$7.93

So the artists' 12% is equal to about 96 cents per record sold. In most deals, the producer's 3% comes out of that 12%, but for the sake of brevity, in this example the group produced the whole album, buying no tracks from outside producers, which is rare.

Let's assume that they are a hit and their record goes Gold (although it is rare that a first record blows up like this). Let's also assume they were a priority at their record label and that their label understood exactly how to market them. So they went Gold, selling 500,000 units according to SoundScan (and due to the inaccuracies in SoundScan tracking at the rap retail level, 500,000 scanned probably means more like 600,000 actually sold).
GOLD RECORD = 500,000 units sold x $ .96 = $480,000. Looks like a nice chunk of loot, huh? Watch this. Now the label recoups what they've spent: independent promotion, 1/2 the video cost, some tour support, all those limo rides, all those out of town trips for the artist and their friends, etc.

$480,000
-$100,000 recoupable stuff (NOT advance)
--------
$380,000
-$ 70,000 advance (recording costs)
--------
$310,000

Still sounds OK? Watch... Now, half of the $380,000 stays "in reserve" (accounting for returned items from retail stores) for 2 to 4 years depending on the length specified in the recording contract. So the $70,000 advance is actually subtracted from $190,000 (the other $190,000 is in reserves for 2 years). Now, there's also the artist's manager, who is entitled to 20% of all of the entertainment income which would be 20% of $310,000, or $62,000. Remember, the artist is the last to get paid, so even the manager gets paid before the artist.

So the artists actually receive $19,333 each for their gold album, and in two years when the reserves are liquidated, IF they've recouped, they will each receive another $63,000. IF they've recouped. Guess who keeps track of all of this accounting? The label. Most contracts are "cross-collateralized," which means if the artist does not recoup on the first album, the money will be paid back out of the second album. Also, if the money is not recouped on the second album, repayment can come out of the "in reserve" funds from the first album, if the funds have not already been liquidated.

Even after the reserves are paid, each artist only actually made 50 cents per unit based on this example. The label made about $2.68 per unit. This example also doesn't include any additional production costs for an outside producer to come in and do a re-mix, and you know how often that happens.

So each artist in this group has received a total of about $82,000. After legal expenses and costs of new clothing to wear on stage while touring, etc, each artist has probably made a total of $75,000 before paying taxes (which the artist is responsible for-- remember Kool Moe Dee?). Let's look at the time line now. Let's assume the artists had no jobs when they started this. They spent 4 months putting their demo tape together and getting the tracks just right. They spent another 6 months to a year getting to know who all of the players are in the rap music industry and shopping their demo tape. After signing to a label, it took another 8 months to make an album and to get through all of the label's bureaucracy. When the first single dropped, the group went into promotion mode and traveled all over promoting the single at radio, retail, concerts, and publications. This was another six months. The record label decided to push three singles off the album so it was another year before they got back into the studio to make album number two. This scenario has been a total of 36 months. Each member of the group made $75,000 for a three year investment of time, which averages out to $25,000 per year. In corporate America, that works out to be $12 per hour (before taxes).

OK, so it's not totally hopeless. Since we're using the fantasy of a relatively fair deal, let's look at publishing from a relatively fair perspective. There are mechanical royalties and performance royalties to figure in. Mechanical royalties are the payments that Congress stipulates labels must pay based on copy right ownership and publishing ownership. These payments have nothing to do with recouping, but everything to do with who owns the publishing. Publishing is where the money is in the music business. Suge Knight claims to have started Death Row Records with the money he made from owning Vanilla Ice's publishing for one song: Ice Ice Baby. It may not be true, but it could be. Avatar Records (home of Black Xuede) is financed through the publishing that the CEO has purchased over the years. Although publishing can be quite cumbersome to understand (just when I think I get it, I read something else that makes me realize how little I know about the subject), but the most basic principle is that when an artist puts pen to paper, or makes a beat, the artist owns the publishing. It's that simple. Whoever creates the words or music owns those words or music. Where it gets confusing is all the different ways to get paid on publishing, all the ways to split publishing with other folks, and all the ways artists get screwed out of their publishing. In the 8 years I've been doing this, I have heard so many times, artists say that they don't care about losing a song or two because they can always make a ton more. That's stupidity. It's undervaluing one's ability. That's like saying it's OK to rob me of my cash, I can go to the ATM machine and get more money. Wrong!! It's never right to rob someone. The "I can make more" defense immediately goes out the window when the creator sees someone else make hundreds of thousands of dollars off a song. Every time!! So why not protect yourself in the door?

Bill Brown at ASCAP breaks it down more simply than anyone I've ever heard. He compares publishing with real estate. When you make a song, you are the owner of that property: the landlord. Sometimes you sell off a piece of the land for money (but you NEVER give away your land, right??) and if someone else wants to use your property, or rent it, they have to pay you rent to use it. I love that analogy. It's so crystal clear!

A copyright is proof of ownership of a song, both lyrics and music. If there is a sample in the music, you are automatically giving up part of the song, at the whim of the person who owns the rights to the original song (not necessarily the original artist). In order to "clear the sample," you send your version of the song to the owner of the original composition or whomever owns the publishing (and to the owner of the master, meaning original record label or whomever now owns the master). Then you negotiate the price with those two owners. Some are set in stone and you get to either agree to their price or to remove the sample. On DJ DMD's last album (22: PA Worldwide on Elektra) he spent close to $100,000 in advances and fees due to the sampling on his album. It came out of his upfront monies (advance) and he bears the burden of paying for it all, even though Elektra released and owns the record. Proof of copyright is easy to obtain by registering your song with the copyright office in Washington DC. You call them (202.707.9100) and ask for an SR Form (sound recording). You fill out the form, listing all of the owners, and mail it back to them with a copy of the song (a cassette is good enough) along with the Copyright fee (around $25 or so). This way, if someone steals your song, or a piece of your song, you can sue them for taking it and for your legal fees. With the "poor man's copyright" (mailing your tape to yourself in a sealed envelope with your signature across the sealed flap, and then never opening it when it arrives back to you with a postmark proving the date), you can not sue for damages and it's more difficult to prove your case. The copy right fee may seem like a lot of money to some, but it's nothing compared to what a law suit would cost you.

Performance royalties are money that is paid for the performance of your song. The money is paid based on the percentage of ownership of the song. So if you own 100% of the song, you get the whole check. If you own just the music, which is half the song, then you get half the money. If you own the music with a sample in it that claims half the song, then you get a check for 25%. Ya follow? Performance Rights organizations consist of ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC (which is still quite small). They police the radio stations, clubs, concerts, etc (any place music is played or broadcast), all of whom pay a fee to play the music which the performance rights societies collect and split amongst their members based on the amount of times a record is played. Although the formulas change annually based on play, a Top 10 song played on commercial radio can earn a good chunk of change in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range.

There is another kind of royalty artists receive when their records sell: mechanical royalties. These are paid based upon a pre-set limit placed by Congress which increases automatically every two years. In 1998 and 1999 it was .0715 cents per song, but on January 1, 2000 it increased to .0765 per song. Record labels put caps on mechanical royalties (the slugs) at either 10 songs, 11 songs, or 12 songs, no matter how many songs actually appear on the record, and you get what you negotiate for. Also, there's a slimey little clause that restricts payment of mechanicals (because God knows labels don't make enough money as it is) to anywhere between 75% and 85%. This evil deed is called percentage of statutory rate. Here's the difference those few pennies make as it pertains to an artist's royalty check (I refuse to even consider illustrating the worst bullshit deals such as 10x at 75%) provided they own 100% of the song:

# songs stat mechanical 100,000 sold 250,000 sold 500,000 (Gold) 1,000,000 (Platinum)
11x 85% .6639 per album $66,390 $165,975 $331,950 $663,900
11x 100% .781 per album $78,100 $195,250 $390,500 $781,000

12x 85% .7242 per album $72,420 $181,050 $362,100 $724,200
12x 100% .852 per album $85,200 $426,000 $852,000 $1,704,000

10x 85% .6035 per album $60,350 $150,875 $301,750 $603,500

I based the above chart on the old 1998-1999 rate of .0715 per song, so I could use my friend Fiend as an example. His first album came out in April of 1998 when the stat rate set by Congress was at this rate.

The dollar figure above represents monies due an artist (regardless of recoupment) per album based on ownership of 100% of publishing. So for example, Fiend who is signed to No Limit, provided he owns 100% of his publishing (I can dream can't I?), if his deal gives him 11x rate at 85% (I hate it but it won't kill me) then on his first album, There's One In Every Family, which came out 4/28/98 and sold 565,977 SoundScan units, No Limit would have paid him (hopefully) $378,369.77. If No Limit owns half of Fiend's publishing, he would receive $189,184.88 provided he wrote all of his own songs (which he did, except the verses by other artists who appeared which lowers the ownership percentage and dollar amount) and provided he made all of his own beats (which he did not; he features outside producers on this album like Beats By The Pound).

So there you have it, the real deal on how much money an artist makes. You can subtract out now another 28% to 50% of all income, including show money, (depending on the artist's tax bracket which is determined by how much income was made within any given calendar year) for the IRS who get paid quarterly (hopefully) by the artist's accountant. If the average artist releases a record every two years, then this income must last twice as long... I think about this every time I see my favorite artists flossing in their music videos drinking champagne or every time I see them drive by in a brand new Benz...

RAPONOMICS
by, Wendy Day from Rap Coalition

Rap is feeding upon itself and runs the risk of being destroyed economically. If it is not profitable for major labels to put out rap records, they will move along to other genres of music to exploit. Although independent labels appear to be closer to the streets, and therefore closer to understanding why and how records sell, it’s the money, connections, and power of the majors that help expand the rap music genre beyond its current marketplace. If the major labels move on to an area of music that they view as more profitable, such as Latin music or gospel, the reach of rap music will shrink as popular culture is blitzed less and less by rap music on the radio, in stores, and as part of everyday life. To someone, like myself, who is a strong proponent of independence in rap (supporting the “do for self” mentality of artists putting out their own records and owning their own destiny and careers), who also does a fair share of negotiations with larger labels for artists in the rap marketplace, the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” aspect of this is apparent. If enough money isn’t secured up front in a deal to make an album and support the artist financially for a year or two, and additional money to compensate (by hiring outside companies) for areas where the label is weak, the artist runs the risk of going broke prior to ever seeing an album in the marketplace. On the other hand, if this money is obtained up front, the artist goes further into debt (advances are paid back out of sales before an artist ever sees a royalty) and it takes longer for the label to make back its money before the artist gets a royalty check, if the artist ever sees a royalty. There are even labels that are famous for not paying any royalties, in which case deals have to be negotiated for huge up front funds knowing that there will be no back end royalties. Protecting the artist or not protecting the artist both becomes problematic here.

Major labels supply traditional distribution, and have done so for years. This makes them quite proficient at it since they’ve had years to work out the kinks. They also have staffs of thousands of employees who are assigned specific tasks in the record company pipeline. They are often financially solvent conglomerates able to wait out even the slowest paying customers. Due to the large number of artists the label has within any one genre of music, the financial aspects of support to radio, retail, and video outlets become more cost effective (it becomes cheaper to financially support a rap radio station in New York, for example, if there are fifteen artists who will receive radio play). It’s no secret that a major label has the opportunity to build fame for an artist more readily than a small independent label. But because they are bigger with more employees (meaning certainly more bureaucracy), they are unable to respond immediately to the needs of the consumers or sudden shifts in trends-- and they really suck at being able to spot new and up coming trends. They are often unable to adapt to a changing climate; for example, there are still many major labels who refuse to work street records on the streets, still dumping tons of money into radio play unsuccessfully because that’s all they know, not understanding the difference between the audience for a Master P record and the audience for a Will Smith record. Yet often, due to the size of a major label, and backing by major corporations with shareholders, they can afford to spend more money to build an artist’s career. And although, money isn’t everything, it helps build artists’ careers through exposure, which leads to sales, and therefore increases the reach of the entire rap genre. It was with the backing of major labels that artists were able to secure television appearances, their own TV shows, soundtracks, film deals, etc, which strengthened the rap genre as a whole. The popularity of rap music in pop culture led to McDonalds and Coca Cola commercials featuring rap music. It led to Barney rapping in a Fruity Pebbles breakfast cereal commercial. It led to people’s grandparents recognizing the name “Puffy” and hearing on the nightly news that he has befriended Donald Trump. This increased exposure leads to even more endorsements, larger publishing deals, and a plethora of opportunities for the artists and rap music. These are some of the things that make rap profitable and lead to rappers actually making money instead of going the route of the old R&B artists and dying broke.

Since 1995, there have been around 500 rap records released each year except for 1999 where the numbers doubled (1995 saw 469 releases; 1996 saw 482 releases; 1997 saw 497 releases; 1998 saw 477 releases; and 1999 saw 997 releases). Yet only such a small percentage of those releases sell at Gold or Platinum level (500,000 plus, and 1,000,000 plus, respectively). In 1998, there were 477 rap records released. Of this amount, only 12 went platinum and only 14 went Gold. That’s a tiny 5% of all of the rap records released--very ugly odds. In fact, only 57 sold above 250,000 units. In 1999, there were 997 records released and only 51 sold more than 250,000 units. Of those 51 releases, 11 were releases that sold above 1 million units (Platinum) and 20 releases that sold above 500,000 units (Gold). And yet those 31 Gold and Platinum records, out of 997 releases, accounted for 63% of the rap sales volume in 1999. If the “average” rap record costs $1,000,000 to create, market, and promote (and I could argue that this figure is low, but it’s the average figure Craig Kallman, President of Atlantic Records gave me), then just to break even a label must sell 123,000 records. As I look at the records over the past two years that have gone platinum, I see artists with budgets of far more than one million dollars. So for the basis of this analysis, the figure of 250,000 records sold was chosen. Hopefully at this point an artist begins to see some royalties (royalties are paid after an artist pays back all of the recoupable expenses such as recording costs, half the video costs, half of the independent promotion costs, etc). If the artist makes money and the label makes money, then everyone should be happy.

As of December 31, 1999, rap releases have jumped from 477 in 1998, to 997in 1999. The majors released a few less records than last year (majors released 203 rap records in 1998, and 199 in 1999). But they made less money in sales than they did last year by selling about 3 million units less (in 1999, 91% of all rap sales dollars went to a major label, even though they only released 20% of the titles; and in 1998, 91% went to the majors as they released 43% of the titles). We better hope this trend upswings. Most people understand that rappers don’t make money from their record deals, which leaves touring, appearances on other artists’ records, and endorsements as the only way for an artist to really earn income. Due to the negative connotation of “violence” at rap shows and the expense of insuring rap tours, touring has become relegated to the more commercial rap acts or rap acts who can perform on R&B tours. Shows are becoming less and less frequent in rap. By appearing on too many other artists’ records, an artist runs the risk of over exposing himself (or herself). There was a time in early 1999 when Big Pun was slated to appear on 25 different songs, and more recently Cash Money appears to be placing their artists on songs with everyone in an attempt for other labels to cash in on the Cash Money phenomenon while Cash Money increases their coffers. Aside from diluting the artist through over exposure, appearances on other records can also be problematic because legally the record label can take that appearance money and put it towards recouping the artist--in almost all cases, the label owns the right to the artist’s performance (even on other artists’ records). This leaves one last way for artists to earn income outside of the record deal: endorsements. And the only way for endorsements to be plentiful is to have rap, as a genre, reach a mass cross section of popular culture-- and that means the masses who are actually perceived to spend money. Companies will only utilize rap artists and rap music to sell products as long as the main stream buying public reacts to it. And if the mainstream buying public reacts more positively to Ricky Martin, the Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, and Brittany Spears, then that is who marketers will employ to hawk their goods, instead of rap artists.

So the question remains, how do we keep rap from self-destructing economically? We need to be certain that the artists make money, but we also need to be certain it is profitable for record labels to release rap records, especially the ones that are able to influence and affect popular culture. And they are often their own worst enemies in terms of selling units and working projects properly to begin with. After making a list of all rap artists that have sold above 250,000 units per year since 1993, it is apparent that we in rap music (hip hop is the culture; rap is the musical form) must find a solution to this problem or all rap will go back underground, serving a very small portion of the marketplace, making it very difficult for artists to squeeze out a living doing what they love most: making music.

There are12 labels (out of 39) who appear on the following chart with artists selling above 250,000 units consistently. These labels seem to get it, for the most part, and if their artists are getting paid, well then it’s victory!

LABELS WITH CONSISTENT SALES ABOVE 250,000 UNITS
based on sales volume according to SoundScan (add 000)
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 TOTALS
Def Jam 4319 1736 2877 2037 3922 17364 5154 37409
Columbia 2874 1703 1138 7949 7344 1582 2653 25243
Death Row 9432 1635 10476 2234 297 338 24412
No Limit 1019 6032 11150 4135 22336
Interscope 2703 544 811 4355 9827 18240

Bad Boy 2530 11948 690 2676 17844
Jive 3138 553 1428 3402 3328 2188 884 14921
Relativity 5709 1716 1961 1790 514 11690
Universal 1319 1056 810 8378 11563
Elektra 773 1396 2705 3124 2832 10830

Priority 1782 791 2730 1554 1663 1652 286 10458
Loud 1601 1503 1203 2280 1785 1023 9395


This chart is based on figures obtained from SoundScan as of 12/31/99 and is based on total sales within a calendar year. The chart does not take into consideration the amount of money spent on promoting the artist or how many rap records each label released in a given year (it is only taking into consideration sales volume for the releases that sell above 250,000 units each year). All releases are based solely on rap and do not include any R&B releases. This chart also separates No Limit and Priority even though Priority staff is responsible for promotion, sales, and distribution of No Limit, because No Limit is separate in the A&R, marketing, and publicity capacities for all No Limit artists. It also separates Death Row and Interscope, but not RocAFella and Def Jam, or RuffHouse and Columbia, even though their respective staffs helped work some of the projects.

[SGV]

Those questions are basic, but some of them aren't really touching on the Culture. You could've asked about B-Boying, Graffing, Turntablism, etc. You could've also asked about their style of dress.

[Traumatized]

You should ask something about the influence on someone's life, for example how often someone has bought certain clothes because they were worn in a music video.

[big mat]

im 21

1) yes
2) yes
3) every day
4) yes
5) break dancing, graffiti, emceeing, djing
6) the past culture was cool 1980-1996, but the present culture is artificial and won't survive to hip hop music. I would the music is hot
7) the roots is in the bronx and jamaica, but i would say that many cities influenced the hip hop, new york, paris, marseille, los angeles, atlanta, houston, san francisco.
canadian rap (both french and english), french rap from france, mexican rap
9) i dont watch videos anymore, but i use to
10) my favorite rapper is 2pac

[Eihtball]

5) Name the four elements of Hip-Hop culture

5) break dancing, graffiti, emceeing, djing

Both y'all forgot about the fifth element...beatboxing.

[big mat]

and the sixth element, me 

[suckaa free]

1) Do you like listening to rap music? (yes/no)
2) Do you consider yourself a Hip-Hop fan? (yes/no)
3) How often do you listen to rap music? (every day/once a week/once to five times a week/once in a month)
4) Did you know that Hip-Hop is in fact a culture, and not just a genre of music? (yes/no)
5) Name the four elements of Hip-Hop culture
6) What makes Hip-Hop so interesting? (the culture, the music [beats], the lyrics, the attitude, the videos)
7) Where is the roots of Hip-Hop culture to be situated? (Los Angeles, Berlin, New York, Amsterdam, Paris)
8 ) Rap music from the U.S. is by far the most popular genre. Do you also listen to non-U.S. rap music? If yes, specifiy!
9) Videos from rappers are in constant rotation on channels such as MTV. What's so interesting about those videos? (the women, the cars, the jewelry, the way-of-life of those rappers, I just watch the video because I like the song)
10) Who's your favourite rapper? (Tupac, Eminem, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre)

1)yes

2)no

3)everyday

4)yes

5)money, sex, social stature, being able to do what you couldnt do before.

6)how it has evolved into such trash.  we still do have consitant artists that stay with there roots, but since 2pac died, hip-hop went with him.

7)California. Los Angeles brought NWA who is the biggest innovator of hip-hop.  Too $hort led The Bay Area and was the first artist to incorporate pimp game into his lyrics.  he was actually a star before NWA surfaced.  Too $hort doesn't get enough credit in relation to how rap evolved from New York's part ryms, to California's street ryms.  Which now a dayz, street ryms is prodiminitly used by everyone from the entire US.

Reggea- Bob Marley and UB-40

9)the videos portrays how the rapper wants you to think how they are living.  again, Social Stature.

10)Favorite rapper:        2pac
    Favorite  lyricst:         MC Ren
    Favorite artist:           Dr. Dre
Most underrated rapper: Too $hort   
Best up&coming rapper:  Chamillionaire/The Game


Hope all this shit helps mang...if you have any more questions i will gladly take a look.

[CRAFTY]

@ KURUPTION-81: thanks a lot for that article. I think I'll be able to use it!

Those questions are basic, but some of them aren't really touching on the Culture. You could've asked about B-Boying, Graffing, Turntablism, etc. You could've also asked about their style of dress.

Yeah, but this survey won't be directed to Hip-Hop fans only. There will also be teeny-boppers, rock fans and techno fans who will answer my survey. So there's really no point in asking such specific questions about Hip-Hop culture when I know that they're not interested in it. You know?

You should ask something about the influence on someone's life, for example how often someone has bought certain clothes because they were worn in a music video.

Indeed! That's a good suggestion. Thanks a lot.

Both y'all forgot about the fifth element...beatboxing.

Well, yeah I know. Actually I'm still hesitating if I should include this element in my thesis or not. Some say there are 4 elements of HIp-Hop, others claim there are 5 (including beatboxing). It IS indeed part of Hip-Hop culture...hmmmmm. So yeah, perhaps I'd better include it. Thanks for the tip!

Any other suggestions on my questions or tips on where I can find nice articles?

[Leggy Hendrix]

5) Name the four elements of Hip-Hop culture

5)money, sex, social stature, being able to do what you couldnt do before.

you have got to be kidding me...

[CRAFTY]

Up!

['EclipZe]

1) yes
2) hell yeah
3) every day
4) yes
5) Breakdance, MC's, DJ's & Graffiti
6) The lyrics
7) LA brought hiphop on the map.
8 ) Yes, Dutch hiphop like Extince, Opgezwolle, Negativ & Sometimes French hiphop
9) i like girls so, girls.
10) DJ Quik & Nas are my favourites

[CRAFTY]

You do NOT need to reply to those 10 questions, just tell me if they're good or not. Or you can also give suggestions on what I can do with my thesis about Hip-Hop culture. I'm planning to discuss the roots of Hip-Hop culture, its influence on modern society and the influence from the media on Hip-Hop culture. That's it so far. So please feel free to give suggestions...

[T-Dogg]

Mofos not reading the full post again...

The ones you got now are alright, but you need more. And question number 10 is useless, it's too narrow as a multiple choice. I'd change it into a written answer.

You have to consider that maybe in that demographic there are some true hip-hop heads. Therefore you must also have questions that are more specific and deal with more "high level" issues of hip-hop. Plus, if you intend to show that that demographic has shallow hip-hop knowledge, you must have questions that show they really don't know much about the hip-hop outside the pop charts. If you have only that kinds of questions you have now, then the questionnaire is faulty, because there is no other result possible than that teenagers have shallow hip-hop knowledge.

You are right to have an expected result, but you must conduct an objective survey where other results than the one you are expecting to get are possible. And even if the final result is something totally different than what you expected, don't worry - that's not a mistake.

The important thing here is that you can't guide the results to a specific direction by conducting non-objective research.
Intention to show that teens only know the hip-hop that's on TV - good. Conducting a survey where no other result is possible - bad.

I hope I explained my view obscurely and complex enough, ha ha.

That's a cool topic for a thesis. Props for that, and good luck with the work.

[Matty]

whats up i wrote about hip-hop for my final year dissertation of my media arts ba and i aint no chump so gimme a pm and i can direct you/send you links to some good sources of information on how hip-hop has been theorised.

peace,

matt.