Author Topic: Need help with my thesis about Hip-Hop culture (Read 122 times)

CRAFTY · « **on:** April 12, 2006, 08:24:56 AM »

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...

Black_Smoke · « **Reply #1 on:** April 12, 2006, 11:47:03 AM »

Maybe u should post it in outbound or westside connection sections, prolly get more replies, ill try and answer them later on tonight when i got more time peace

Wessia4LiaNia Chieee Chieee · « **Reply #2 on:** April 12, 2006, 12:13:04 PM »

If you want to get in the light the manipulation of media on hip hop culture you started well, I did a similar thing for my college last year(1st semester) and they loved it. But if you really want to get deep into that you can start with Afrika Bambaataa's words about the reasons he made Hip Hop a culture. Then made the constrast between oldschool and commercial stuff...you can even compare Doggystyle with R 'n G, you can speak about the good vibe that Hip Hop used to bring, about the graffiti tags that later become an art (and Hip Hop is a sincretism), about the rotation on radios of songs with strongly politically content and then about the ban of MTV for Wise Intelligent video... You can speak about the artist that are getting pimped in this industry, victims of record labels and that they are dictated to play this and that. Then (like i wanted to do) you can compare hip hop lyrics like..Rakim- The Mistery(Who's God) vs 50 Cent-P.I.M.P, 2Pac-Baby don't cry, Keep Ya head up VS Ying Yang Twins-Wait, don't forget to add some real shit from Immortal Technique and Common. And then you will presente with arguments why rappers like this are forced to keep it "underground", why the culture isn't moving in a right direction right now, show how the media controls music-videos directors and "force" most of them to relate to flossin',bitchaz,grillz, cars...And the most important fact speak about...like you already did the questions (they good) to show how most of the youngstaz don't know shit about the culture, and they follow media lies creating a false image about Hip Hop culture, and also in the same time by "raising" themseves "wrong" about Hip Hop they will have the others thinking wrong about Hip Hop (dunno if u understand what i mean..)
Oh...if you want to do all that, better leave away a lotta gangsta rappers from your essay...it's obvious why.

http://deepnpain.blogspot.com/2005/11/everybody-loves-hip-hop.html that's what i did on my college...

G if you want you can pm me and we'll work toghether on this, cause i'm gonna do the same thesis in a while...
1 Luv

CRAFTY · « **Reply #3 on:** April 13, 2006, 05:13:06 AM »

^^^^Hey thanks a lot for those suggestions. I never thought about actually comparing lyrics...good idea! And yeah, I'd like to work together. Meaning: we can both work individually but we can send our essays to eachother via e-mail and exchange ideas/suggestions/tips/etc...that would be cool. I'll only be able to start working on my thesis late June/early July though, is that a problem?

To the others: you do NOT need to reply to those 10 questions, just tell me if you think they're good or not.

PLANT · « **Reply #4 on:** April 13, 2006, 05:24:03 AM »

I think you have some good questions there.....Remember that the average person is not on the "hiphop" level of someone on DubCC........so yea, those are good questions there...........good luck w your thesis man