Bamboozled

I think hip hop is the closest thing to modern minstrel showsl. In the past minstrel shows were performed by Black people; they, ironically, insulted black people. It made Black people look silly and stereotypically lazy, loud, and abnoxious. Much of today’s hip hop music is just like past minstrel shows. The things that are sung and done in hip hop music don’t necessarily make black people look good. Some examples are hip hop songs that talk about drug dealing and “booty shaking”. These videos only confirm such stereotypes like Black people are violent and have no morals. This, of course, is no way near the case, but sometimes the entertainment industry makes it so.

For me to say all hip hop is like this would be wrong. There are hip hop, or music by Black people, that aren’t satirical. The people who produce these songs are the modern day Dubois. They aim to elevate the Black name in our society. To the musicians like Common, Mos Def, Talib Kwali, John Legend, Anthony Hammilton, Alisha Keys etc, I commend their efforts.