Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2009 in the subject English - History of Literature, Eras, grade: 2,3, University of Freiburg (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: In the past three decades hip hop has developed from an underground movement in one of New York City's poorest boroughs, the Bronx, to a worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry. Nowadays one could not imagine chart shows, discos or house-parties without rap music. According to Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., rap music, which belongs under the cultural umbrella called hip hop, "is virtually everywhere: television, radio, film, magazines, art galleries, and in 'underground' culture" This work aims to examine the reasons for hip hop's international success, the dangers of it, and the motivations rappers had and still have to pursue their art. It is yet to be answered if the success of this form of art has been a blessing or a curse for its performers and their audience, the so-called hip hop generation.

In the past three decades hip hop has developed from an underground movement in one of New York City's poorest boroughs, the Bronx, to a worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry. Nowadays one could not imagine chart shows, discos or house-parties without rap music. According to Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., rap music, which belongs under the cultural umbrella called hip hop, 'is virtually everywhere: television, radio, film, magazines, art galleries, and in 'underground' culture'. In this work Karl Kovacs will examine the reasons for hip hop's international success, the dangers of it, and the motivations rappers had and still have to pursue their art. It is yet to be answered if the success of this form of art has been a blessing or a curse for its performers and their audience, the so-called hip hop generation.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Freiburg, course: The Rise of the Entertainment Industry, language: English, abstract: The Hip Hop culture between grassroots and commercialzation. Can rap music bring about social and political change for African Americans or is it merely entertainment?

In the past three decades hip hop has developed from an underground movement in one of New York City’s poorest boroughs, the Bronx, to a worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry. Nowadays one could not imagine chart shows, discos or house-parties without rap music. According to Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., rap music, which belongs under the cultural umbrella called hip hop, ‘is virtually everywhere: television, radio, film, magazines, art galleries, and in ‘underground’ culture’. In this work Karl Kovacs will examine the reasons for hip hop’s international success, the dangers of it, and the motivations rappers had and still have to pursue their art. It is yet to be answered if the success of this form of art has been a blessing or a curse for its performers and their audience, the so-called hip hop generation.

The contributors in Expanding and Restricting the Erotic offer a multidisciplinary perspective on the ways in which what is considered acceptable within the realm of the erotic has altered over time to the current situation where the erotic is being both expanded and restricted.

Over the course of the twentieth century, African Americans in New Orleans helped define the genres of jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, and funk. In recent decades, younger generations of New Orleanians have created a rich and dynamic local rap scene, which has revolved around a dance-oriented style called "bounce." Hip-hop has been the latest conduit for a "New Orleans sound" that lies at the heart of many of the city's best-known contributions to earlier popular music genres. Bounce, while globally connected and constantly evolving, reflects an enduring cultural continuity that reaches back and builds on the city's rich musical and cultural traditions. In this book, the popular music scholar and filmmaker Matt Miller explores the ways in which participants in New Orleans's hip-hop scene have collectively established, contested, and revised a distinctive style of rap that exists at the intersection of deeply rooted vernacular music traditions and the modern, globalized economy of commercial popular music. Like other forms of grassroots expressive culture in the city, New Orleans rap is a site of intense aesthetic and economic competition that reflects the creativity and resilience of the city's poor and working-class African Americans.

Can't Stop Won't Stop is a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created. Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the Esperanto of youth rebellion and a generation-defining movement. In a post-civil rights era defined by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop crystallized a multiracial, polycultural generation's worldview, and transformed American politics and culture. But that epic story has never been told with this kind of breadth, insight, and style. Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop's forebears, founders, and mavericks, including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can't Stop Won't Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation's rise from the ashes of the 60's into the new millennium.