unit4: March 2014

My Critical Investigation

“This highly stylised, energetic music movement took its inspiration from diverse black American cultural forms to create an idiosyncratic, inventive – and sometimes controversial – music style.” [1]

How do hip-hop artists such as Chief Keef represent violence, sex and drugs through their music and what is the effect on their audience?

Rap culture has change and has been heavily manipulated over the years in order to entertain the audience as years go on. Rap music videos are a media genre that is attracting considerable attention [[2]], old school rap and modern day are arguably binary opposites and do not in any way serve the same purpose. Today’s rap is of violence whereas old school rap was seen in a more positive light for a number of reasons. In old school rap it was not seen as cool to be involved in a drug scene and many songs from the 80’s era were dedicated to slandering the drug use taking place; even going as far as saying on records “If you smoke caine you a stupid motherfucker!” [[3]]. Chief Keef is a modern day rap artists who is from Chicago, Illinois – a city which in “2012 saw a drastic uptick in the number of shootings and murders across the city” [[4]].

It is arguable that Chief Keef has had one of the biggest influences on modern day rap music and the meaningless messages being passed through it and continues to spread his message of violence, sex and drugs throughout the industry; being involved in over 8 mix tape projects and over 100 songs in the past year. Chief Keef has become the face of rap music and has ultimately defaced the very genre which was once against the things it portrays now. So Chief Keef is a prime example as to how hip hop and rap music have changed over the years in terms of the messages being delivered, in the past it was not seen as cool to be using drugs but now in modern day rap music it is seen as the norm. “Nothing to gain but killing your brain” [[5]] was once the message being sent in rap and hip hop music however it has taken a dramatic turn for the worst and has become extremely defamatory towards women, glorifying violence, sex and drugs. Many people have taken to the blogs to critique Chief Keef’s music in a number of ways, many seeing that Chief Keef is merely “a product of his environment” [[6]] and describing him as “a little crazy gangster” [[7]].

In the media today we see a number of representations, a lot of Chief Keefs’ music are considered to be negative and violent, which therefore re-enforces the negative stereotype that black males are violent and dangerous. This strongly links to Alvarado’s theory (1987) on racial representations of black males stating that they are four things: Exotic, dangerous, humorous and pitied. This is considered to be a very negative representation of black males however Chief Keef presents all of the four aspects in his rap videos. For example his song “Love no thotties” presented strong aspects of humour as well as the dangers he can pose to society; waving loaded guns in the air whilst driving. Additionally fellow rapper and Chief Keef’s inspiration – ‘Waka Flocka’ took pity on the 18 year old Chief Keef and stated “you can’t blame a kid... everybody aint grow up in Chicago in the murder capital...” [[8]].

This is one of many representations of black men present in the music industry alone. Within the music industry it can be seen through videos that there is a strong presence of drugs and so this is another example of some of the stereotypes surrounding black people; that they are drug users and since chief keef has been known to take drugs this links to perkins theory that stereotypes contain some element of truth. “Violence in Chicago is not a new occurrence and neither is the imagery of violence portrayed in hip-hop” [[9]]. Chief Keef’s music contains all types of different things including violence but not limited to; drugs are also shown, which can have a very negative impact on the audiences watching especially those of a younger age. One of Chief Keef’s primary audience would have to be males with a socio-economic classification of E, aged between 13- 19, at this age the males are still young and are easily influenced. And so Chief Keef’s music can ultimately have a negative effect as the drug use that he glorifies in his music will appeal to a younger audience whore may aspire to be like him; additionally some bloggers “urge radio stations to stop playing his music because of the negative effect he has on the city’s youth” [[10]] indicating that Chief Keef and his music are somewhat a stature of negativity within the city.. The bobo doll experiment is one that suggests that children can mimic what they see in the media which is one way in which Chief Keef’s music has a negative effect on the audience as his younger audience may copy the actions he does. Medhursts theory applies to chief keef as he can be seen as a stereotype and therefore a short hand in the media that everyone is able to identify easily.

When researching into Chief Keef I was able to find a number of different dominant stereotypes in today’s media in regards to black males, analysing in depth the iconography in Chief Keef’s music I saw that their were a number of guns and many videos such as “my lil ni*gas” contained a group of over 20 black males which could connote a gang thus re-enforcing the common stereotype that all black males belong to a gang and also linking to Perkins theory that stereotypes contain some element of truth. Chief Keef has been no stranger to guns and in 2011 was sentenced to home confinement for pointing a loaded firearm at police officers [[11]]. The lyrics present in his music are also sexist towards women and speak about women as objects rather than human which is just one way in which Chief Keef negatively represents women in his music. The abbreviation “THOT” (that hoe over there) is one commonly found in Chief Keef’s music and is seen as derogatory towards women and could in fact have a number of effects on the audience for example younger male audiences may hear this and start to use the term themselves thinking it is acceptable. This is yet again a dominant stereotype present in the media today that men are above women in many aspects and this is re-enforced strongly by Chief Keef.

“Throughout time there have been a number of panics over a variety of issues, ranging from crime and the activities of youth, to drugs and sexual freedom” [[12]]. Moral panic can be put into focus by the use of stereotypes repeatedly being used, as previously discussed modern day hip-hop has a number of stereotypes that are common in society today; many of which are negative. Chief Keef’s music can ultimately create moral panic in a number of ways, firstly through violence. When people see the image of Chief Keef they see a black male with dreadlocks posing with a loaded gun which anchors with the stereotype that black males are all violent and dangerous so when the people see his imposed figure they feel as though the idea of brutality that Chief Keef represents is becoming the norm thus creating moral panic. However Chief Keef has been involved in a number of anti-violence campaigns [[13]] which has drawn a lot of criticism with comments such as “who thought this was a good idea?” [[14]].

The concept of moral panic revolves around the idea that a certain (usually small) minority pose a threat to society. Chief Keef is part of a growing minority of males from Chicago that are part of the gun violence, with 433 murders in the year 2011 [[15]] the city is one that is considered to be a “murder capital” [[16]]. This links to Chief Keef as his music on numerous occasions has glorified the use of guns and murder for example in his music video ‘ight doe’ [[17]] the rapper is seen swinging a 30. Calibre pistol which creates moral panic, in addition to this it has a negative effect on the younger audience who aspire to be like the 18 year old rapper as they will think what they see is cool and therefore could pose threat to society if many children adopt the lifestyle Chief Keef lives. However the moral panic that young audiences may adopt what they see has been around for a very long time, dating back to the mid 1980’s with the releases of song such as “Fuck tha police” [[18]] by N.W.A which “...portrayed images of gangs, guns, violence, and sexism” [[19]] similar to Chief Keef.

Moving on from moral panic it could actually be argued censorship is equally as troubling as the music being produced from rap artists nowadays. Many examples from Chief Keefs music shows poor censorship which would arguably have an affect on many of the audiences who are able to view the music such as the younger audiences as they will become influenced and aspire to become the somewhat negative image of Chief Keef. Unfortunately it is easier for these younger audiences to have access to this music due to video sharing sites such as YouTube as they don’t have such strict regulations. Radio stations are unable to play some of Chief Keefs’ music due to the explicit language that can be found in some of his songs for example his hit single ‘I Don’t Like’ was not played by a number of radio stations and was too explicit for some radio stations to play; “We cant play that on the radio its dirty!” [[20]]. Despite the censorship and the radio stations that did not play the song, the single became a hit sensation and managed to accumulate over 30 million views on YouTube.

Radio stations do contribute to the success of the song as some did “clean up” the song by getting rid of the inappropriate content however some felt as though “censorship is making it really difficult to figure out what it is exactly that Chief Keef doesn’t like” [[21]] and ultimately the song is not the same without the full lyricism. This clearly has an effect on the audience as it means that with the poor censorship going on in the music industry that they are exposed to all the inappropriate content that is out there which can have a negative impact on the audience. However on the other hand some feel that it is not up to censorship in radio and T.V to decide how young audiences act but instead feel as though “how your child responds to these negative forces is entirely up to how they are raised” [[22]].

Despite Chief Keef now being a strong figure within the rap industry there are a number of stereotypes surrounding Chief Keef in regards to his ethnicity, gender, age, etc. However he tends to re-enforce the stereotypes around him rather than subverting from them. Chief Keef possesses many of the attributes that are associated with the minority he comes from in Chicago which would be violent, aggressive and scary which links to Alvarado’s theory of racial representations of black males being Many stereotypes that can be seen in the media are consistently negative and this is usually for entertainment purposes [[23]]. In the music video “3hunna” by Chief Keef you can see the rapper at the age of 15 in possession of firearms with a group of people. This is one stereotype that was then applied to Chief Keef that due to his ethnicity he is part of a gang however being seen in the video with so many people does not help to subvert from the stereotype.

However Chief Keef and the stereotypes surrounding him have been brought to the spotlight via twitter, twitter not only targets Chief Keef and the stereotypes surrounding him but now comments about his fans “fuelled by stereotypes about class and poverty” [[24]] and so ultimately now his music is having a stronger affect on the audience as they are become part of the stereotype of poverty and class that Chief Keef faces.

A number of theories can be linked to Chief Keef and the music he creates which ultimately helps to decide whether these representations of Chief Keef are accurate or false or have been created for the media in order to fit a certain agenda [[25]]. One theory that links to Chief Keef would be the copycat theory [[26]], this theory simply suggest that audiences will copy what they see and Chief Keef himself could be an example of this theory.

And so ultimately Chief keef represents drugs, sex and violence in an extremely negative way. Whilst targeting such a large demographic his music provides audiences a sense of escapism (Kats & blumlers theory of uses and gratification) from their lives and listens to his music. In the media today some audiences may feel his music is something they are able to relate to especially with the medias constant re-enforcement of what chief keef raps about – ‘violence, sex and guns’.

[1] National Film Theatre, ‘National Film Theatre June 2005’, BFI, June 2005, Pg.16

[2] Gina, M, ‘A Prospective Study of Exposure to Rap Music Videos and African American Female Adolescents’’ Health, March 2003, Pg.437

[3] NWA , ‘NWA – Dopeman’, 1998

[4] GSP, ‘Chief Keef and Chicago, Illinois’ Murder Rate: The Glorification of Youth Violence’, Pg.1

[5] Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, ‘Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel - White Lines’, 1994

[6] Griffin, T, ‘Wild Shit Sells (Chief Keef’s Fame), 2012, http://blackexcellencex.wordpress.com/tag/gbe-gang/

[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rplnVtnko

[8] http://hollowverse.com/chief-keef/, ‘The Religion and Political Views of Chief Keef’, 2013

[9] Griffin, T, ‘Wild Shit Sells (Chief Keef’s Fame), 2012, http://blackexcellencex.wordpress.com/tag/gbe-gang/

[10] http://hollowverse.com/chief-keef/, ‘The Religion and Political Views of Chief Keef’, 2013

[11] Konkol, M, http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130114/chicago/cops-shot-at-chief-keef-2011-after-teen-rapper-pointed-gun-police-say, ‘Police Shot at Chief Keef After Rapper Pointed Gun at Them, Cops Say’, January 2013

[12] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/lcs9603.html

[13] http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2013/03/chief-keefs-participation-in-online-anti-violence-campaign-stirs-controversy/

[14] http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/27/17485146-anti-violence-campaign-draws-criticism-for-rapper-chief-keef-photo~

[15] http://scottdeblois.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/the-real-facts-of-the-chicago-murder-rates/

[16] http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/19/fbi-chicago-officially-america-murder-capital/

[17] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLWDM2uZr60&list=RDABw_Phi-kPU

[18] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51t1OsPSdBc

[19] http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/negative.htm

[20] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAGD4oZJ-cE

[21] http://www.aux.tv/2013/04/5-hilarious-radio-edits-of-songs-that-make-them-unlistenable/

[22] http://for-the-masses.com/wordpress/parents-dont-let-chief-keef-raise-your-kids-he-supports-murder

[23] http://pages.uoregon.edu/dmerskin/theories.htm