Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation

Greetings, Class Community.

We have been viewing Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation.


How did viewing this documentary affirm, change, or complicate what you know or understand about African American Culture in the 1980s-1990s?

How did viewing this documentary affirm, change, or complicate what you know or understand about the intersections of Hip Hop Culture and African Americans?

How did viewing this documentary affirm, change, or complicate what you know or understand about the intersections of the prison industrial complex, public fear, and African Americans? Is there a connection to earlier notions of public fear?

If your opinions are supported by evidence from our text book or outside resources, please notify us.  Cite the source or post the link.

11 comments:

  1. I have always known that people would sell their items for a lower price but i thought this was a myth. The video reassured me that this wasn't a myth and that people who may have a car valued at $20,000 would sell it for $100 just to get the drug. Listening to the music from the 80's and 90's now i fully understand why it was based on drugs especially crack cocaine because the artist wanted the listeners to know that it was real and also to let others there are some who can relate. The media did a poor job of getting the public eye to know about this drug it only portrayed all blacks who lived in low income housing to either use the drug or sell it. The media instilled fear in other communities by having them think all blacks are on crack cocaine and can possibly rob them so they can get the drugs.

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  2. I really enjoy these kind of documentaries because us a chance to actually learn and see major shifts in our culture. Hip-hop in general plays a major role in the African American community but more importantly the messages that hip-hop used to carry for those who were actually expereincing the things rappers would be talking about. I feel that now a days the rappers or artist who actually have something to say about issues we face are underated while those who rap about nothing are praised. Seeing this video again was just more of a confirmation of what I had already learned and I feel that the portrayal of media to make African Americans the target of being a problem absolutely causes fear within our communities and how we are policed by society.

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  3. This documentary both changed and affirmed what I knew about the intersections of Hip Hop Culture and African Americans. Just the other day I was talking with some friends about how music reflects the times in which we are going through. I was explaining to them the message that Bob Marley got across in his music and his ideals which reflected what was going on in Jamaica at the time. It saddens me that now we don't have music like other than maybe J. Cole's recent song about Mike Brown called Be Free. I found it interesting while watching the documentary that a whole new style of music an lifestyle emerged from the crack culture. The documentary shed light on race relations at this time as well, in the sense that the face of this drug was African Americans--which in the film we learned just as many white people were doing it. But since black people were involved with this drug it gave the drug a whole new level of danger.

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  4. Viewing the documentary has pretty much confirmed what I had already know before viewing the documentary. I however did not realize how bad this nation was when it came to this crack. One thing that stood out to me that I did not know was that drug was so influential to crack/drug dealers who basically sponsored hip hop artists who were trying to make it through back in the 80s and 90s.

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  5. A lot of the information in the documentary was not new to me but it is still shocking to see. The crack epidemic was huge and it is easy to tell because of how many people that it effected. It is interesting to me to see how something that started smaller turned into a culture and a way of life. The police brutality that ensued and the way the media wanted to spin the situation onto the black culture alone is sad. Police brutality is always shocking and disgusting to me no matter how many times I see it. As far as hip hop culture, I've always recognized it as being intertwined with African Americans. I enjoy hip hop (old and new) so I'm pretty familiar with the history but watching the documentary it did show me just how much current hip hop has separated from the roots that started it. Although there are still genuine hip hop artists that stay true to the genre, there are many others that I feel are thrown into the category simply because they are black (some whites, too) and they rap which doesn't necessarily mean they are hip hop. Since they are popular and making catchy songs they are looked at as the face of hip hop which misrepresents the culture of how hip hop started and what it stood/stands for.

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  6. I watched this documentary on VH1 maybe 2 years ago I cant remember when it first aired on television BUT I know I didn't really care nor understand it until our discussion in class. I kinda stepped back and thought how something like a drug could influence the very nature of Our hip hop generation as we know it today. It made sense though watching it because I always did wonder how Hip hop got funded due to it being something FOR black people at the time. As we know with the African American culture and history it isn't odd to wonder where they money came from because as a whole Blacks are struggling and trying to play catch up with other races.

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  7. When I first watched this documentary a few years back I was vey passive about it mainly because I couldn't relate and at the time it didn't seem like such a big deal to me. In re-watching this documentary in class it is crazy to me to see just how a drug that wasn't necessarily meant for us became the culprit of not only an entire generation but a lifestyle and the basis of Hip-Hop.

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  8. I can remember watching part of this documentary a few years back and at that time didnt really understand but after our discussion in class on thursday I can now comprehend and understand the documentary. Its crazy to think a drug has been the influence to what we listen to when you hear the genre hip hop and rap. A question that sits in my mind is how did the struggling of African Americans finally catch up to other races as far as economy goes just by some guys rapping.

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  9. I listen to hip-hop/rap on the radio everyday, and it was interesting to find out that the origin of this music genre was influenced by a drug like crack cocaine. When I listen to the music, I don't think twice to think of what was the stimulus for this music.

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  10. I really did enjoy watching this film in class as it exposed me to one of the most significant changes in current black culture and the way that it has affected us still today. It was interesting to learn just how much the influence of crack had on the culture on hip-hop.

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  11. By growing up in a African American community where the sell and abuse of drugs was prevalent, I was not shocked at the things I saw in the video. However, it was interesting to see how the use of drugs, influenced Hip-Hop and Rap. Because era covered in the documentary was before my time, I questioned my parents on what life was like during the 70's and 80's. They informed that everything seen in documentary was in fact true and not exaggerated. They also talked to me about how they didn't discover anything about crack rock until they moved from Mississippi to Chicago, and saw the movie New Jack City.

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