When hip-hop began it started as a voice for the youth of the Bronx, New York to tell the country what was happening to their neighborhoods. Today, hip-hop still talks about the issues of the poor neighborhoods but unfortunately the audience doesn’t always get that. The owners of these record labels only want to put out the songs that give men and women of color a negative image. The documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond the Beats and Rhymes, talks about the whole spectrum of hip-hop. The two things that stuck out to me about the documentary are the labels put on our men and women. With the women, they are sometimes treated as less than a person. Some videos have women walking around in nothing but bikinis shaking their behinds. They a get called such things as b***hes & hos. They are seen as things to have sex with and not to be respected. All the things that these women are called, they are still by these artists’ CDs and going to their concerts. Something that is really surprising is that women are called b***hes by other women more than men.

            Hip-hop personifies the idea of man that is already set by American media. These guys are portrayed to be the ideal of manhood for black and brown men. They are not to show any type of emotion or weakness. If you show any type of emotion or weakness you are consider a b***h a** n**ga, a p***y, or sometimes, gay. A man has to look like a thug with his pants hanging below his waste and their bodies covered in tattoos. The media doesn’t want to show that several of these artists have their college degree. The record labels don’t want to put out the songs that make the men think what they are doing with their lives. They only want to show black men killing each other and disrespecting women.

            There is more to hip-hop than men acting like thugs and women standing on a video shoot half naked. Hip-hop still tells a story that about the struggle of the black people.  http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/music/50cent/50_cent_11.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wallpaperbase.com/music-50cent.shtml&usg=__pf7wGltYNluYbwpBozyBQ20zvQY=&h=768&w=1024&sz=84&hl=en&start=0&sig2=5uSXY3PbYZfUtPAoeM66DA&zoom=1&tbnid=nw54Grd1B6VWxM:&tbnh=157&tbnw=208&ei=jbjdTJnSA4KBlAfkvvWZDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3D50%2Bcent%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4TSNA_enUS381US384%26biw%3D1345%26bih%3D493%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=618&vpy=243&dur=561&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=153&ty=115&oei=jbjdTJnSA4KBlAfkvvWZDQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=14&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blogs.smarter.com/blogs/guests/Candy%2520Girls.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blogs.smarter.com/fashion/2009/03/31/rock-candy-or-lets-put-a-ring-on-it/&usg=__Ep43QJu1AZKQZGngRppT85BB8PI=&h=343&w=374&sz=31&hl=en&start=0&sig2=pEzoGl4UsSwHlHvS2_zGkA&zoom=1&tbnid=woMS1Hc_cAHWaM:&tbnh=106&tbnw=109&ei=xLfdTNmsCsOBlAeXyejVDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhip-hop%2Bvideo%2Bgirls%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1T4TSNA_enUS381US384%26biw%3D1345%26bih%3D493%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C64&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=894&vpy=127&dur=515&hovh=215&hovw=234&tx=139&ty=85&oei=qrfdTJWWK8WAlAevycmWDQ&esq=10&page=1&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0&biw=1345&bih=493