“Turn off that loud, ignorant rap music.”
This is a common expression used to sum up the perception of rap, hip-hop, and the hip-hop community.
The stereotypes in hip-hop form from the mainstream. Mainstream rap is loud, it is ignorant, and it is typically displeasing to the orthodox American. It is violent, misogynistic, and full of references to activities that culture has deemed bad.
Typical hip-hop artists are considered drug-dealing, law-breaking, party animals with a lack of intellect. They are considered violent, uneducated, and talentless. These are the stereotypes that surround hip-hop artists, and to an extent, hip-hop fans.
This is the music that the majority hears. This is the music that crafts the perception of hip-hop outside of the hip-hop community. This is the music that forms stereotypes. This is the music that, like it or not, represents hip-hop. But it does so poorly. Mainstream rap is considered among the worst niches of hip-hop among hip-hop heads. It doesn’t represent what hip-hop is about.
hiphopsociologyproject 