Hip Hop Reader, CRS 360 Final Project 1 | Page 3

Letter from the Editor

hen did you fall in love with hip-hop? In the last 30 years, the world has seen a huge shift in the way we look at music, television, film, and fashion, and one specific genre is to blame. In what was, and can arguably still be considered a racially divided nation, the birth of hip-hop derived from African-American emcees in the inner city who at first struggled quite a bit to make it to the mainstream. What was considered at one point as “black music” was brought into the forefront and can be seen today as a huge aspect of American culture. The likes of Run DMC, Beastie Boys, and LL Cool J helped to propel hip-hop music to what is today and paved a way for artists still coming up. With this project, I wanted to emulate iconic magazines rooted in hip-hop entertainment like Vibe, The Source, and XXL while discussing the ways hip-hop has impacted the culture and how perceptions have changed over time. I based this project on the documentary recently aired on VH1, entitled The Tanning of America, adapted from a book by the same name, and written by music executive Steve Stoute. The new documentary debuted in March in four different segments and “examines hip-hop's growth from the beginning up until present day, with plenty of relevant interviews, including Dr. Dre, Diddy, Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin and others.” Overall, the consumption of hip-hop has changed the ways generations see and relate to one another and the impact has made such a presence and continues to generate perceptions, both negative and positive, of what people think hip-hop has become and more specifically how it affects youth. I hope with this magazine you get a better understanding of where hip-hop came from, what’s currently happening, and where it’s going.

Taylor Smith

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