WorldStarHipHop is the
most popular website on the Internet for hip-hop and urban culture. This
website is full of music, blogs, fights, and content that some might consider
to be pornographic. Sex, drugs, money, and guns are reoccurring themes on this
website. Each post on the website is in
video form, so it gives you something to look at to keep your attention. Friends
of mine call it “current events for the hood,” which I found funny because, according
to Worldstar’s wiki page,
the creator of the site says that it is “CNN of the hood.” This website is very
entertaining. The website also contains content that is informational. There
might be presidential debate footage on there to get young people to vote.
There are motivational videos on the site. Success stories are also common on
the site. WorldStarHipHop has also been a huge marketing tool for the entertainment
industry. It also helps the fans keep up
with what is going in the lives of celebrities (similar to the tabloids). The
entertainment industry post music videos (some of which are too graphic to show
on television), video blogs, concerts, interviews and other types of
promotional information to the site and due to the amount of traffic it is very
beneficial for the artist. I am from Detroit and one of our local rap groups named,
“Doughboyz Cashout,” have lots of
videos posted on this website. When I go
out of town, or meet people from out of town they ask me about them. The first question I ask is how did you hear
about them, their answer usually is from WorldStarHipHop.
The down side of the website is that it also exploits
African Americans. It makes every African American male look like a “thug,”
every female look promiscuous, and it makes every African American person look
“ghetto.” There is an abundance of ignorant videos that are there for
entertainment purposes, but they make the African American culture look bad. For these reasons, a website called Abovetopsecret.com
wants the site to be banned. They portrait the bad stereotypes and degrade
African American people. Lots of people
feel that it does not degrade them that it is just entertainment. With that
being said, WorldStarHipHop is the “one stop
shop” for urban entertainment on the Internet.
