Gang violence was ruled as what is known as the Bronx, New York. Many youth felt this was the only way of life and the only choice they were given to survive. The youth then turned to the gangs and referred to their actions as a way of life. Which in turn lead to many young lives lost between the African American culture and the Latino culture. With fire in their lungs and pain in their hearts Hip Hop and Rap was born. Many called it their way out of the burning hell on earth. More than 60 years ago African Americans and Latinos turned spoken word and poetry in what is now called Rap. They used is as a way to express themselves when no one wanted to hear what they had to say on a daily basis. In the 60s Rap and Hip Hop was a way many African American men expressed their thoughts without ending up behind bars or beaten to death. Once Rap became mainstream many listeners let go of the beat and listened to the message behind the beat, they started to focus on the lyrics. While being freed from slavery, African American were still slaves to the abuse and being mistreated in American and many didn’t have a fire behind the anger to make a stand. Rap lyrics that held a strong uplifting message gave many people those flames to stand and fight for their rights.
In an article I recently read that Rap is linguistics major’s dream while also being their worst nightmare. I didn’t read on to see why the writer stated that because I held my own beliefs as to why this may be true. While rap lyrics hold so much meaning to those listeners it can also be confusing to those who do not agree with the rapper’s lyrics. Within rap there is also many dialects and registers. When listening to a local rapper it can be much easier to understand what he says when he uses a semantic change, while listeners from a different region may not understand what the rapper is trying to say. There is