For the Media Share regarding Kelefa Sanneh’s “Gettin’ Paid”, I made this image:
Based on the reading, something that I took away was that with the emergence of primarily white audiences consuming hip-hop, rappers have started to deviate from the nitty-gritty lyricism of the 90’s and have opted to shell out music that instead caters to a variety of audiences, in the place of music that has primarily been targeted at African-American audiences or audiences that can relate to the lyrics that contain topics that range from poverty, to gang violence, and to the daily struggles of everyday living that was unique to the MCs of yesterday. This emergence of “corporate rap” opens up a lot of arguments that are both for and against the new direction of rap, but in my Media Share I wanted to illustrate how “modern” or “corporate” rap could be interpreted: In the wake of a new audience, rappers have started a new culture in rap that caters to the new audience in the interest of relevance, prominence and clout instead of focusing on bringing attention to the harsh realities and the truths that the ancestors of rap have intended.
