The Negative Effects of Hip-Hop on African-Americans

Clyde E. Butler III

ENGL 2000 - Section: 045

Rhetorical Analysis

M. Viguerie

Final Draft

Hip-hop is an artistic form of African-American music that originated in the Bronx, but quickly spread to other parts of New York and ultimately across the world. When hip-hop first became prominent it had strong, positive influences on African-American culture from fashion to art. Over the years, these influences has shown promise to literally depreciate the potential of African-Americans. In the article, “How Hip-Hop Destroys the Potential of Black Youth” by Jeffrey Hicks, a member of the National Advisory Council of the Black Leadership Network, he explains how the current subliminal messages within the culture of hip-hop is negatively affecting African-Americans. He writes this article to enlighten the African-American community on this concerning situation with intentions on motivating them to succeed, so that they may thrive and prosper in the future. In the article, he describes how hip-hop has evolved over the years from being an outlet for African-Americans to harmoniously articulate their sub-conscience thoughts and daily tribulations into this commercialize vehicle to demoralize the African-American society; concurrently, glorifying the ugly reality of the lower class (“ghetto”). This functions in a way to prevent them from upward progression in society. The evolution of hip-hop is wrongfully corrupting the promising potential of the African-American community by psychologically manipulating certain aspects of their lifestyle: behavior, language, style, and sexual attitude.

The article was written on July 9, 2014 and contains social relevance regarding the continual delinquency of African-Americans because of the persistent defiance of social etiquette. The diction and tone of this article suggests that it would interest a contemporary, urban audience. Jeffrey Hicks is a creditable source because he previously participated in one of the numerous projects...