James McBride's Hip Hop Identity

Hip Hop Planet Response

            James McBride originally did not enjoy rap music all, when he first heard it he said it sounded like the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. He did not fully understand the talent and creativity to produce hip hop music and that it was a form of art. James was close minded to this newly founded musical art form and he didn’t bother listening to it for another 26 years even after college. He would later regret this and he wrote that, “In doing so, I missed the most important cultural event in my lifetime.” McBride is correct when he says that he missed out. A new form of music was originating and beginning to grow and he turned a blind eye to it all. Hip Hop originated from South Bronx and Harlem. A few thousand people gathered together and listened to artists such a Kool DJ Herc and Grand Wizard Theodore and the projects were alight with the party music. The radio stations slowly began to play that music in 1979. James realizes that Hip Hop is becoming a widely accepted form of art and that it can compare to the folk songs and dances from African American tribes, which is also art. He came to embrace this form of music despite how much he tried to ignore it. Some Hip Hop James does not prefer but he realizes that it is a culture that he grew up around and got to know for many years as it surrounded him and grew in popularity. The comparison to our national anthem containing bombs bursting in air and Hip Hop containing a lot of violence also revealed to him that not all music should be judged.  One may dislike the United States’ national anthem but that does not stop all the citizens in this country from singing it and playing the song. Hip-Hop shaped James McBride’s identity because it made him more open minded about a different form of music. He realized the amount of effort and years of work it took for an originally slavery based song and dance form to be accepted worldwide as what the generations listen to today.