EXPLORATORY ESSAY

EXPLORATORY ESSAY

Tricia Rose teaches Africana studies at Brown University. Her first book, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), revolutionized academic study of popular music. The essay reprinted here originally appeared as a chapter in Rose’s The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk about When We Talk about Hip Hop — and Why It Matters (2008), a book that examines both sides of ten controversial issues surrounding hip-hop music and culture.

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Reading the Genre

Question

1. Why, according to Rose, do critics blame hip-hop music for violence? How does she show that such concerns oversimplify cause and effect?

Question

2. Rose cites other scholars to both ground and extend her causal analysis. To what effect? Find examples of her use of secondary sources, and consider what the use of each of these sources allows Rose to do as a writer. (See Chapter 40, “Evaluating Sources”.)

Question

3. Find passages where it is obvious that Rose is carefully handling material that may be sensitive. How does she maintain her impartiality? How is she able to address readers across a range of perspectives? (See Chapter 33, “Inclusive and Culturally Sensitive Style”.)

Question

4. This essay examines multiple causes of “the destruction of black communities.” What are these causes? How does Rose use five separate causal analyses to argue that contributing factors have had a greater negative impact on urban life than hip-hop has? (See “Finding and developing materials” and “Creating a structure”.)

Question

5. In addition to discussing the causes of urban violence, Rose addresses the effects of interpreting hip-hop music out of context. What does she say those effects are? Why is it so important to understand the context surrounding this genre of music?

Question

6. WRITING: Rose offers Nas’s “Gangsta Tears” as an example of a hip-hop song that critiques violence instead of glorifying it. Using this song, or another example from your listening experience, write a short essay arguing that hip-hop music can have a beneficial effect. In your analysis, investigate the lyrics closely and consider the ways they might promote positive change.

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