Violence: Cause or Effect

As you can see from my other post, violence is prevalent in the hip-hop community. But, is hip-hop the cause of this violence, or is the violent music and effect of what is going on in the “hood.” Hip-hop was known as the ghetto CNN in the past. Hip-hop was a media platform that allowed artist to create music about things that are relevant to them, about the places they live, it gives information like CNN about things CNN would never broadcast. Now we have sites like YouTube and WorldStarHipHop (self proclaimed ghetto CNN) to give us insight about what is going on in these urban areas, because it is still not put in major media circulation. Does hip-hop still serve this purpose?

Many people blame hip-hop for causing so much violence. That is not the case, hip-hop may cause violence on rare occasions and that is still a major problem. Hip-Hop INFLUENCES LOTS of violence, and then it is not handled appropriately. Individual responsibility is taken lightly now of days. I am not saying that the violence in hip-hop is good and does not need to leave nor am I saying the it does not have a bad influence on the youth, but what I am saying is that we cannot make hip-hop the sole factor for causing violence when it is one of many factors, and in my opinion a small factor in some cases.

Tony Anderson did a study similar to this while analyzing the effect of youtube on hip-hop. And after hearing his findings we find out that most of these rappers from the hood talk about violence because its what they know, its what they seen. They rap about drugs, not to promote them, but because they actually use or sold them.

The violence in music is a reflection of everyday life. Hip-hop is still the news for the “hood.”

Art of Negotiation

The first two videos I watched regarding negotiation were a YouTube video entitled “William Ury: Negotiation for Sustainable Agreements” and a video from Ted.com “William Ury: The walk from “no” to “yes.”” These two videos were very similar. In fact some of the things that he said were exactly the same. The first video is just a YouTube and it was very long and very boring. The Ted.com video he says the same things just leaves out certain details and his presentation is better. In the beginning of the YouTube video he introduces negotiation by talking about international conflict and different problems. In the Ted.com video he uses a funny anecdote about a family and a wise lady to introduce negotiations (just to give you a idea of the differences in the videos). In both videos he goes through differences between different groups of people and shows how they negotiate and solve different conflicts. Both videos are very informative and use concepts that were taught in the book “Getting to Yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in,” which he William Ury actually co-authored.

The last video I watch was another YouTube video called “How to Negotiate so Everyone Wins, Especially You!” An attorney who is also an expert negotiator who trained hundreds of people created this video. This video is actually a lecture that was done at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. This is also a long video but it is easy to watch. He begins with a funny story also that grabs the attention of the audience then once he grabs the attention of the audience he goes right into negotiation by introducing a game, which allows him to explain his concepts. He discusses a number of concepts in this video, but the main concept he discusses is trying to establish a win win or a mutual gain environment while negotiating.

I learned a lot from all of these videos. Some were easier to watch then others, but they all are beneficial and informative. Negotiating tactics can be used in everyday life and should be considered when ever a decision is being made. All of these things can be used in the entertainment business because you have to negotiate all of the time. You have to negotiate contracts and every person’s 

Emmett Till

People are really upset about a line that YMCMB’s front man Lil Wayne said on Future’s song “Karate Chop (Remix).”  On the song Lil Wayne says “Beat that pu**y up like Emmett Till.” For those of you who don’t know, Emmett Till was a young African American male who was brutally beaten and was shot by white males. He supposedly was flirting with a white woman. I’m pretty sure that what happened to Emmett Till was not the first occurrence of something like this happening, and not the last(especially back then in the segregated south). But Emmett Till was the face of these type of events and made people realize (black and white) that this needs to stop.

Lil Wayne always has some shocking lyrics in his song and I would not expect anyone to be surprised by anything that he says. I personally feel that there is a line that should not be crossed when creating music(especially lyrically), but on the other hand I feel that I see people crossing that line every day. If we go after Lil Wayne for this lyric, we would have to go after other artist as well. And this creates other problems such as censorship hindering the creative process.

The problem with this line is that someone from the family did not like the reference that Lil Wayne made about their loved one. That makes this a personal problem. And I honestly don’t understand what they would want other than a apology, which is well deserved.

In conclusion, I feel that the lyric was crossing the line, but I feel that there is nothing we can do about it but make it be known that it was a little too much.  Everybody is not going to like every line a rapper writes, so for people who feel disrespected this should be treated as one that they didn’t like and we should all be able to move on.

Brown Sugar

“When did you first fall in love with hip-hop.” That’s a famous quote from the movie Brown Sugar. The movie Brown Sugar is interesting because it shows the life of two individuals who fell with Hip-Hop, but it uses parallelism, because they fell in love with each other. The two people who fell in love with Hip-Hop, were not even artist, they took a different route in making a career while showing their love for Hip-Hop music. So the line “when did you first fall in love with hip-hop,” is a loaded statement. It could mean the actual music, it could mean the lifestyle, it could mean a person (that you associate with hip-hop), etc.. The concept is relative. But, the main point in the movie is that lots of people are not in love with hip-hop, they lack the passion that is so greatly needed.

Every new artist should be asked the question when did they fall in love with Hip-Hop. There answer will tell us a lot about their passion for the concept of Hip-Hop. When I hear answers to this question, I want to hear heart-felt stories. Feelings being conveyed. If an artist gives a general answer it takes away from there credibility and it takes away from their music.

In the music industry today there are to many watered down artist who lack passion, and they use gimmicks to become famous. To me, that is not Hip-Hip. What big business fail to realize is that the reason Hip-Hop is dead is because of the way it is marketed. There is a lot of quality, passionate music that is not being marketed because companies don’t see the gimmick, or the catchiness in a song so they are afraid that it wont sell. But, quality will sell, it sells now without the proper marketing so, with the proper backing it will sell even more.

Even in life the hip hop community is water down, we need to find our “perfect verse over a tight beat.”

TED.com

If you have not checked out TED.com you should because it is a great website. TED allows people to share their thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc whit the entire world through videos. These videos create what is called “Crowd Accelerated Innovation.” Crowd Accelerated Innovation is a great tool in driving the advancement of any idea or concept. The idea behind it is that the more knowledge and exposure someone has to a idea, the more people can expand on that idea and make it better.

While looking at this site I came across a video that was entitled “Do What You Love (no excuses).” This video really caught my attention because we often see people working a job simply for a paycheck and they have no passion for it. Gary Vaynerchuk tells us his life story in a very interesting way. He tells us how he walked away from millions of dollars to do something that he loves to do. Although, he tells a very interesting story and the video is very entertaining, the most important thing to take away from this video is his message. His message is, instead of finding a job that you hate to make money, find a way to make something you love doing to make money. Watching his video makes me think of a old saying “if you are good at something don’t do it for free.” That is a loaded statement which says that people will pay for quality, so if you have a passion for something, anything, perfect your craft and the money will come. That is the same thing that Gary states in his video.

My company, Curtis Digital Media, can benefit from a video of this nature. Although Gary Vaynerchuk is a good speaker, he is very relatable and he gives a positive message to other. When relaying this message he seems as like a friend, or a peer. This gives off the impression that anyone can do it. Which Curtis Digital Media we do the exact same thing with our projects. Not only will all of our projects be fun and entertaining, they will also pack a message as Gary Vaynerchuk did in his video.

This video is also great because it is a good confidence builder. He states that it wont be easy, but if you have “Customers, Light, and Desire,” you will be successful. He explains that you need to get rid of doubts, which is easier said than done, but it has to be done so you can give your 100%. Check out Gary’s Video (http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_vaynerchuk_do_what_you_love_no_excuses.html).

RIAA

The Recording Institute Association of America (RIAA) is a professional organization that works with artist and record labels in the music industry. RIAA is a huge organization, they account for the creation, manufacture, and/or distribution of about 85% of all music sold in the United States. The RIAA does research on the shipment and purchasing of music, they also research the current industry trends. With this research the RIAA has develop a formula for calculating sales and labeling them. Most albums and/or artist are either rated gold, platinum, or diamond based on the number of units sold. This has became the industry standard in the United States. The RIAA also gathers information in a by watermarking, and the digital data exchange. Along with the different certifications that the RIAA gives on albums, they also try to control music by censorship. They put labels on albums that warns parents about explicit content.

The RIAA also “works to protect the intellectual property and the First Amendment rights of artist, record labels, researchers,.......” This is a big deal now of days. There is a lot of piracy(stealing music) going on and the music industry is not the power house that it used to be (it is definitely still a power house). The RIAA tries to control this by working directly with the government to develop polices and procedures to deter people from stealing music. The RIAA also work with record labels on copy writes and licensing. 

The RIAA has been a good for the music industry. They help with regulation and allow for advancement. The RIAA gathers information that is beneficial for the consumer as well as t people working in the industry. This organization is a big catalyst for developing industry standards and working with them can help any record label go from good to great.