source: youtube
Music videos are a way for artist to express their thoughts on life, and many artists tell about what they see on a day to day basis. The music video “Kush” by Dr. Dre seems to be a harsh point of view on life; especially when this video seems to be the representation of an entire race. I feel that the video seems to give a stereotype that all black males are aggressive and people who do drugs. I think this is a stereotype, because all of the artists in this video are black, and they are acting aggressively while talking about doing a drug. These types of videos are a bad influence on the next generation, because this is the media that children tend to listen too.
The lyrics in this video suggest that doing drugs and acting irresponsibly is something normal for African Americans, but the fact is that it isn’t. The line “Go ahead ask him B#$%% ’bout how I be smokin’ out, party all night, oh yeah, it’s goin’ down” is an example of how the lyrics of the song give a bad stereotype of African Americans. These lyrics illustrate all people of that race being partiers and drug dealers, but the reality is that they all aren’t. This music video’s lyrics send subliminal messages to children that it is normal to do weed, when it isn’t. This bad stereotype is something that needs to be excluded from rap videos.
Also this rap video gives the stereotype that all African Americans are hyper masculine, because they take up a lot of space. In Devor’s readings it is explained that people who take up a lot of physical space are considered to be more masculine. In the video rapes like Snoop Dog wear large baggy clothing to achieve this illusion, and because of his close he seems to be more masculine than other in the video. This stereotype is completely false, because not all people of African American decent wear baggy clothing to be more masculine. One example is president Obama, because he is of the same race, but he never wears such articles of clothing.
The last stereotype that is portrayed by this video is that; all people of this race are criminals. Black people are seen smoking weed throughout this video, and this is a way to suppress the race from contributing to pop culture. Most people don’t understand that in the music industry Dr. Dre isn’t the one that chooses to make such videos and songs, but rather it is the executives of record labels. Omi says in his reading “The record industry is overwhelmingly segregated and discrimination is rampant. No other industry in America so openly classifies its operations on a racial basis”, which is proof that these types of videos are put out there to suppress the race from being able to get to the executive position. These stereotypes brainwash children into to thinking drugs is the only available path, and this in turn leads to those kids never achieving the necessary goals to become executive in major business. So in conclusion these types of videos need to be boycotted, because they pose false stereotypes, and do end up hurting the upcoming generation.
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