papers on rap music

Rap Music and the Empowerment of Today’s Youth: Evidence in Everyday Music Listening, Music Therapy, and Commercial Rap Music

• Published: 16 November 2012
• Volume 30 , pages 139–167, ( 2013 )

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• Raphael Travis Jr. 1  

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Pioneers of various elements of Hip-Hop culture have been empowered through the ability to voice their reality and find a meaningful identity alongside others who found purpose and function in embracing Hip-Hop culture (Chang, Can’t stop won’t stop: A history of the hip-hop generation, 2005 ). This empowerment persists in various reinventions of the culture within the United States and worldwide. The present study examines whether evidence exists in research to support the value of esteem, resilience, growth, community and change as empowering dimensions outlined in the individual and community empowerment framework. Research questions ask: (1) Does youth self-expression in rap music created within music therapy sessions reflect framework dimensions? (2) Does content in commercially recognizable rap music reflect framework dimensions? (3) How well does the framework align with a model of empowerment-based positive youth development? First, data collected to examine the validity of the framework were reviewed. Next, two peer-reviewed research studies published after articulation of the original framework, were examined to investigate commonality between themes and framework dimensions. One study was in a music therapy context and another explored themes in commercial Hip-Hop recordings. Original framework data supports theorizing that rap music content actually comprises developmental narratives (Travis and Deepak, 2011 ; Travis and Bowman, 2012 ). Data in the present study further suggest that these developmental narratives are relevant for Hip-Hop in every day music engagement, in therapeutic self-expression, and within commercially available musical content. Framework dimensions also aligned with a conceptual model of positive youth development that allows specification of intervention pathways and empirically testable outcomes for Hip-Hop integrated change strategies. Results suggest that rap music is a discourse in lifespan development. Rap music’s developmental narratives may be used by practitioners, parents and researchers. The narratives exist within a framework and model that (a) provides a template for better understanding these narratives and (b) positions this understanding for use as a tool to promote and research positive change strategies for individuals and the communities that they value.

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Travis, R. Rap Music and the Empowerment of Today’s Youth: Evidence in Everyday Music Listening, Music Therapy, and Commercial Rap Music. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 30 , 139–167 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-012-0285-x

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Published : 16 November 2012

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27 Rap Music and Rap Audiences Revisited: How Race Matters in the Perception of Rap Music

Travis L. Dixon is Communication Alumni Professorial Scholar and Associate Professor of Communication Studies and African American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

• Published: 06 January 2015
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This current paper offers a review of some of the early rap studies and discusses some of the more recent rap investigations that have been dominated by negative effects investigations. It argues that the suspicion of negative effects and stereotyping of African Americans have driven support for censorship of this musical genre. Although psychologists and lay critics have focused on the potential negative effects of rap music, the current chapter provides evidence that the effects are not all negative and that rap music audiences may use their culture and “agency” to empower themselves.

Research on rap music has turned from a lack of attention to an alarmist examination of the genre. In the 1980s rap music was seldom studied by scholars in the academic community ( Dixon and Linz 1997 ). Today rap has increasingly been considered a troubling form of musical expression related to a number of negative psychological outcomes ( Barongan and Hall 1995 ; Johnson et al. 1995a , 1995b ; Johnson et al. 2000 ; McLeod et al. 1997 ). These perceptions have often led to censorship efforts ( Dixon and Linz 1997 ). Although it is clear that rap and other forms of music do periodically contain misogynist and violent themes ( Jones 1997 ; Smith 2005 ), research has not thoroughly addressed how rap music audiences respond to these themes. Furthermore, rap research has not fully identified which factors may moderate or mediate the negative effects associated with exposure to the music.

In the current paper, I first detail how both lay critics and social scientists have suggested that censorship might be the best course of action for the music. Afterwards, I report on a program of research designed to examine the themes contained in rap music and investigate the effects of exposure to rap with special attention given to the nature and composition of rap music audiences. Few studies have investigated whether rap musicians and fans can exercise adequate control over the rap product that is distributed, and this program of research was designed to do just that. Before I describe this program of research, however, I offer a review of some of the early studies of rap. Afterwards, I discuss some of the more recent rap investigations that have been dominated by research on negative effects and then describe how concerns about the genre have led to censorship efforts.

A Widening Interest in Rap

Although rap music was born in the 1970s, most critics and scholars acknowledge that it became a significant musical force in the 1980s ( Powell 1991 ; Rose 1991 ). Rap was almost immediately criticized for its “street” message and origins ( Binder 1993 ). At the same time it was hailed for its commercial success ( Stephens 1991 ). Early on, most media scholars simply ignored rap. Quantitative scholars specializing in media effects were especially quiet during this era, even though many such scholars had claimed in other contexts that the examination of music as mass communication was important ( Dixon and Linz 1997 ).

Most communication scholars did not change course and begin to study rap music until the early 1990s. Much of this new research focused on the cultural roots of rap music ( Binder 1993 ; Kuwahara 1992 ; Pressley 1992 ; Rose 1991 , 1994 ). These scholars made two interesting observations. First, they claimed that rap music was a form of cultural expression. Second, they stated that understanding rap was rooted in understanding the cultural underpinnings of the music.

Blaming the Messenger: Research on Misogynist and Violent Rap Themes

Starting sometime around the mid-1990s, media effects scholars and critics ceased to be primarily concerned with the cultural aspects of rap. Instead, they turned their attention to the impact of rap music on audience members. This scholarship focused on misogynist and violent lyrics in rap.

Effects of Exposure to Violent Rap Lyrics

There is a long history of research on the effects of violent television on behavior. Media effects researchers have documented that violent television has a number of psychological effects on viewers. These include desensitization to actual acts of violence, learning aggressive behaviors, and increased fear of victimization ( Harris 1999 ; Huessman and Miller 1994 ). These media effects scholars quickly applied this theorizing to rap music. After all, rap music had been accused by critics for some time of containing excessively violent themes ( Lynxwiler and Gay 2000 ; Armstrong 1993 ).

These studies revealed several interesting trends. The strongest findings suggested that violent themes in rap music can prime other violent thoughts ( Harris 1999 ; Hansen 1995 ). Johnson et al. ( 1995a , 1995b ) tested whether such a priming process would lead rap music to encourage black teens to engage in violent behavior and drug selling. They found that teens exposed to violent rap music expressed greater acceptance of the use of violence and reported that they would likely engage in violence in the future. In addition, black teens exposed to rap videos were more likely to support the illegal acquisition of wealth.

Other studies have suggested that rap music has become so associated with violence that exposure to rap alone conjures images of aggressive behavior. For example, Ballard et al. (1999) found that antisocial rap lyrics were less likely to inspire prosocial behaviors than antisocial country or pop lyrics. They concluded that the media might link rap fans with a lack of adaptive behavior. Another study by Rubin et al. (2001) found that rap listeners showed more aggression and distrust of authority than non-rap listeners.

Rap music and Misogyny

In addition to the contention that violent themes in rap increase aggressive behavior and attitudes, many effects scholars and critics have also claimed that rap music perpetuates misogyny. In fact many scholars note that some rap lyrics attempt to objectify, devalue, or subjugate African American women through insulting and subordinating words such as “bitch” and “ho” ( Henderson 1996 ; Pinn 1996 ; Watts 1997 ; Powell 1991 ; Rose 1994 ). Some of these scholars have suggested that black women have historically been convenient targets on which black men release their aggression (Pinn 1996 , 1999 ). Content analyses have provided some support for the notion that much of the most popular rap music appears to contain objectionable lyrics ( Ballard et al. 1999 ).

Rap researchers have gone beyond identifying the misogynist themes and have investigated whether this type of music may lead to a number of negative psychological outcomes. For example, Gan et al. (1997) found that exposure to rap laden with sexual imagery fostered distinctly unfavorable evaluations of black women. Barongan and Hall (1995) discovered that misogynous music facilitates sexually aggressive behavior. In addition, a study by Johnson et al. ( 1995a , 1995b ) revealed that women who viewed rap videos of women in sexually subordinate roles showed greater acceptance of violence than those who were not exposed to such videos. A study by Wester et al. (1997) also uncovered that even men unfamiliar with rap music culture who are briefly exposed to sexually violent rap music become more likely to believe that men and women have adversarial relationships.

Censorship, Perceived Negative Effects, and Racial Stereotyping

Partly based on perceptions of rap’s violence and misogyny, critics began to assail rap music and other controversial forms of R&B during the 1990s. One of the primary incidents that led to this criticism included the 2 Live Crew, a rap group based out of Miami, Florida. In June of 1990, the album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by the 2 Live Crew was declared legally obscene by a federal court judge. This represented the first time that a musical recording was declared legally obscene by a federal jurist ( Dixon and Linz 1997 ). The judge used his own interpretation of the level of community tolerance without impaneling a jury.

The 2 Live Crew Story

The Broward County sheriff received a citizen’s complaint about the recording on January 1, 1990, from Jack Thompson, a conservative politician who had a vendetta against 2 Live Crew for supporting his rival in a local state race ( Campbell 1991 ). After listening to several of the songs on the album that were purchased from Hammond records, the sheriff transcribed the lyrics to some of the songs and presented them to a Broward county judge who said that there was probable cause that the record was obscene ( Campbell 1991 ; Clark 1990 ). With the judge’s ruling in hand, the sheriff proceeded to send written notices to record store owners informing them that selling the album could be a violation of obscenity law.

Almost immediately, most stores in the county stopped selling the record. 2 Live Crew brought civil suit against the sheriff for violating their civil rights on March 19, 1990. They claimed that the record was not obscene and that the sheriff’s action constituted a prior restraint of speech ( Campbell 1991 ; Clark 1990 ). On March 27, Sheriff Navarro filed a separate action to have the album declared obscene. On June 6, the federal judge in the civil suit ruled that the sheriff’s action did constitute a prior restraint and was illegal but that the record was indeed obscene. On June 10, the 2 Live Crew was arrested for performing their lyrics at an adults-only club. A jury of their peers later acquitted them of any wrongdoing ( Baker 1993 ; Campbell 1991 ).

Explaining Negative Reactions to Rap Music

In a previous study, my coauthor and I attempted to understand whether censorship of the 2 Live crew specifically and rap in general was rooted in ignorance of rap’s cultural roots. In addition, we sought to understand whether racial animus against blacks also drove those negative reactions ( Dixon and Linz 1997 ). In our study we uncovered evidence that a better understanding of rap music’s cultural elements and historical roots made listeners more tolerant of the genre and less likely to censor. Specifically, we found that cultural factors such as appreciation of linguistic exaggeration and African American humor were related to tolerance for controversial rap music. In addition, political attitudes regarding sexual freedom and beliefs about rap’s contribution to societal degradation were also predictive of tolerance for rap. We did not find direct evidence that racism, stereotyping, or racial animus contributed to reactions to rap. We concluded at the time that this might be a measurement problem.

Our suspicions regarding the limitations of our study regarding stereotyping were later confirmed by the results of another study conducted by Fried (1999) . She undertook two studies. In the first, she provided lyrics to participants where a photo of either a black or white artist was pictured. In the second study, she had participants read a violent lyrical passage that was described as a rap song, folk song, or country song. She found that participants wanted to censor and reduce the sales of the items when the passage was described as rap and the artist was pictured as black. This suggests that negativity toward rap is driven by a racialized perception of the genre. This racialized perception was confirmed by yet another study described below.

Rap has become deeply associated with aggressive behavior, misogyny, and blackness. McLeod et al. (1997) observed that controversy around rap is tied to the belief that these associations exist. In addition, these associations were seen as harmful to hypothetical consumers of the music. They found that the perception of potential harm from exposure to rap led to greater calls of censorship of the musical genre.

Understanding the Rap Message and Rap Audience

Although several studies appear to document that rap music contains violent and misogynist themes and that these themes can have an impact on viewers, the vast majority of this research does not fully investigate the intricacies of the rap audience. Moreover, the calls for censorship seem premature and misinformed about the nature of media effects. In addition, the general content of rap music is a “moving target” with many iterations and various sub-genres and styles. In other words, the rap audience and the content of rap are extremely complex phenomena that require much more in-depth study. One of the deficiencies of prior rap research is its focus on white audience members or black adolescents exclusively. In addition, there are several complexities regarding the rap audience demographically and culturally that must be considered. After examining each of these below, I provide background on a program of research I have engaged in designed to address these problems.

Prior Work on the white Rap Audience

Almost all of the research regarding the effects of rap music have focused on whites ( Ballard et al. 1999 ; Barongan and Hall 1995 ; McLeod et al. 1997 ; Eveland and McLeod 1999 ; Fischoff 1999 ). A few studies have examined African Americans, but most of these have focused on African American teens (Johnson et al. 1995a , 1995b ; Johnson et al. 2000 ; Hakanen 1995 ). This is significant because there is some evidence to suggest that the rap audience itself is diverse and includes whites and blacks, teens and middle-aged adults ( Gladney 1995 ; Haines 1999 ; Rose 1994 ).

However, it is understandable why whites have received so much attention in prior research. First, whites purchase more rap music than African Americans. Second, whites have very little contact with blacks. As a result, they might use the content as a surrogate for contact with African Americans ( Haines 1999 ; Stephens 1991 ). Third, white rap consumption may influence rap music’s marketing and promotion patterns. For example, Haines (1999) has observed that the popularity of so-called gangsta rap coincided with an increase in white consumption of rap music. Some whites have even appropriated rap as an expression of rebellious resistance. A few critics have called whites who engage in such appropriation “culture vultures” ( Haines 1999 ; Stephens 1991 ). These three reasons suggest that it is important to understand white audience members’ reaction to the music. However, focusing too much on white audience members may limit our understanding of rap and its effects. We explore some of these issues below.

Blacks and Black Culture as Central to Rap Culture

The focus on white audience members draws attention away from the fact that rap music was created by the black community and continues to be associated with black culture ( Dixon and Linz 1997 ; Rose 1994 ). Below I argue that two issues are important with regard to the centrality of blacks within the culture of rap music. The first has to do with the extent to which African Americans are the central producers of the music. Second, it is important to examine the various constituencies that make up the black rap audience and consider how they might be engaged in deconstructing and/or consuming the messages of the songs.

As suggested earlier, African Americans play a unique role in the creation of rap. Most performers in rap music are black. This would suggest that they have a tremendous amount of influence over the music. However, there has been some contention over whether black performers have the ability to affect the content of their music. Some of this controversy is related to the issue of who controls the distribution of rap recordings. Some have framed this issue as a battle between independent labels (also known as “indies”) and major labels ( Gladney 1995 ). Some observers contend that the independent labels allow hip-hop artists to pursue alternative commercial venues in order to maintain authenticity. Either African Americans or whites who are trying to create a niche market typically run these labels. However, major labels encourage commercial gain that retards the development of valid cultural expression ( Gladney 1995 ).

The Complex Black Rap Audience

The rap audience itself has many different elements. One element that has been understudied is black women performers and audience members ( Conrad, Dixon, and Zhang, 2009 ; Zhang, Dixon, and Conrad, 2010 ). As suggested above, a number of studies suggest that some rap music contains misogynist themes and that such themes can have a negative psychological effect on rap consumers. However, we need to understand the extent to which black women performers and audience members use the music to challenge sexist assumptions regarding black women. For instance, bell hooks (1994) has suggested that black women are perpetually negotiating “the gaze” that relegates them to sexualized and subordinate positions in relation to men. Black women who find it disempowering often resist this gaze. Furthermore, some women have not only resisted this gaze but have created an alternative gaze by which they try to make onlookers see them in a new light.

Rap music videos may allow some female artists to find alternative ways to present themselves ( Roberts 1994 ). For example, Roberts (1994) observed that rap artist Queen Latifah draws upon African musical and cultural tradition to critique sexism and racism in her music. McLean (1997) observed, for instance, that African American and Latina females actively used rap music to construct sexual expression that did not subordinate them to men.

Overall, this section has suggested several things. First, whites have received a tremendous amount of attention by those studying the impact of rap music. Second, rap themes are complex and influenced by various market forces along with black culture. Third, the rap audience itself is complex. Black women represent one aspect of this audience that must receive more attention in future work. Particularly important is the issue of how black women contend with sexism and objectification.

Advancing a Research Program on Rap Music and Rap Audiences

In this section I outline a research program designed to address some of the shortfalls of past research. Specifically, a two-pronged research program needs to be undertaken that utilizes a number of methods. First, content analyses will track both rap music themes and outlets.

Second, all facets of the rap audience, with special attention directed toward women, will be investigated.

Understanding Rap Themes

As mentioned above, rap music contains a number of themes. Several studies have been conducted on rap music’s effects, but only a small number of studies have actually studied rap’s themes, and most of them are dated. In order to address this concern, my research team and I conducted a large-scale content analysis of rap music videos. A comprehensive analysis that examines both positive and negative themes occurring in rap music is rare. Some previous research suggests that there are several negative themes that dominate rap. These themes include sex, violence, materialism, and misogyny.

Research has also found several positive messages as well including expression of culture, community unity, political awareness, and disaffection toward mainstream society. Up to this point, however, there has been much disagreement about the frequency with which these themes air. No analysis has considered that both of these themes may be occurring at the same time. Our research team undertook a study designed to extend this research by looking for both positive and negative messages in current rap music ( Conrad et al. 2009 ). In addition, three more issues were the focus of the content analysis work.

First, rap music is often linked to black male identity, which may lead to an increase in themes of sexism and misogyny for women (hooks 1992). This suggests that there are important gender issues to consider in an examination of rap music. Second, unlike in other music genres, the majority of rap artists are black ( Kubrin 2005 ). Black individuals often face issues of colorism in media whereby individuals with lighter skin may be given advantages over those with darker skin ( Kurbrin 2005 ; Dixon and Maddox 2005 ; Oliver et al. 2004 ). However, the effect of Afrocentric features and skin-tone on the success of individuals in rap music has never been analyzed. Third, we examined the body image of women portrayed in rap music videos. Previous content analyses of body images have generally focused on mainstream media where the majority of female models are white ( Fouts and Burggraf 2000 ; Silverstein et al. 1986 ; Wiseman et al. 1990 ). However, little is known about the nature of body images presented in the media geared toward black audiences. The purpose of these studies is to address this gap in the literature by examining the female body images in rap music videos.

We undertook this analysis by having four independent coders analyze the annual countdowns of the cable outlets for music videos (BET, MTV, and VH1) in a rigorous content analysis. Our coders were diverse, and we held ourselves to high standards of assessing reliability and validity. The results of this study have implications for better understanding the images in rap music videos. First, the analysis of controversial themes found that current rap music videos have emphasized themes of materialism and misogyny. Second, men and women perpetuate these themes differently. While male characters are significantly more likely to perpetuate a variety of themes, female characters only perpetuate themes of objectification. Third, the results of this study show that females in rap music videos are more likely than males to have Eurocentric features. Furthermore, thin female characters in the videos were prevalent and overrepresented compared to the real population. Moreover, when the music videos were high in themes of materialism, love , or sex , women were more likely to have smaller body sizes. In contrast, when the videos were high in themes of political awareness women were more likely to have larger body sizes. We used the above findings from the content analysis to begin to explore the potential effects of this content on viewers. However, we resisted focusing on white viewers. Instead, we examined the reactions of black viewers, specifically black women, to assess whether cultural perspectives influenced rap perceptions.

Understanding the Rap Audience

We believe that more studies should be done on black audience members to understand (1) what impact rap music has on them and (2) what kinds of meanings they take away from the music. For instance, we need to understand how the audience actively critiques the music rather than just how they are affected by the music. In order to accomplish this, my research team and I undertook two surveys. One of them was designed to assess black audience members’ perceptions of misogyny and Afrocentricity within rap and to measure whether their self-concept was influenced by rap music consumption ( Dixon et al. 2009 ). The second survey examined the responses of black women to determine whether rap music consumption influenced their perceptions of body image ( Zhang et al. 2009 ). I report on the major findings below.

We asked approximately 140 black college students on a predominately white campus to respond to an online survey. The survey questions addressed three important constructs concerning the relationship between black audience members and rap content: collective self-esteem, misogynistic images, and the perpetuation of Eurocentric features in rap videos. First, we found that the collective self-esteem of African American audience members was positively related to their consumption of rap music. Second, viewing more misogynistic videos appears to be related to a decreased belief that rap music degrades women. Third, for black consumers who have stronger Afrocentric features, viewing videos with Afrocentric rather than Eurocentric standards of beauty is related to increased identification with the video. These findings tell us in some respects that priming operates below consciousness for certain perceptions such as misogyny. At the same time, rap audiences use the music for their own purposes, to increase their self-concept and to identify with rap music characters that share their skin-tone.

In our complementary survey we asked over one hundred black females to take part in a survey that assessed the relationship between body image and rap consumption. Findings from previous studies have suggested a weaker association between media exposure and negative body image among black women than among white women. However, the complexity of this association remains less clear, particularly because most studies have examined only mainstream media. The present study extends the literature by exploring the relationship between exposure to thin ideals in black-oriented programming (in this case, rap music videos) and young black women’s body image perceptions, specifically addressing the moderating role of ethnic identity.

No significant relationships were found between exposure to rap music videos and body image. In other words, the amount of exposure to rap videos laden with images of predominantly black, thin women was not directly related to how black women perceived their own body images. Instead, the influence of exposure was shaped by black female viewers’ level of identification with their culture. Specifically, for black women with stronger ethnic identity, viewing rap videos that idealize thinness seemed to promote healthier body images; while for black women with weaker ethnic identity, viewing these same videos appeared to correlate with poorer body images. The implication of this study is that ethnic identity is an important moderator of negative effects of rap music for African American women.

Although we are still in the infancy of rap music research, we are beginning to make progress on many fronts, both in terms of investigating rap content and in terms of understanding effects. As new media technology begins to transform the ways in which we receive rap content, this literature review provides a useful understanding of the content and consequences of digesting the music. Moreover, what we do know is that censorship of the genre appears to be an overreaction to the actual content and effects of the music. Specifically, there are four things we can take from this program of research.

First, controversial themes persist in the music but the music itself continues to undergo change, especially with the advent of new technology. Violence has subsided while misogyny has risen as a theme. Moreover, independent artists now can use the Internet to distribute less popular “positive” themes, though they are not a substantial part of the popular rap genre. Our team has turned our focus to the impact of Internet distribution on the production and reception of rap music themes.

Second, the research program has established that rap music can definitely have negative effects on people’s thoughts and potential actions. Specifically, controversial rap themes can encourage an acceptance of misogyny and violence. Although a few researchers have advanced the notion that the impact of “negative” themes may differ by race, we know that negative themes can influence both black and white audience members.

Third, although there is the potential for negative themes to influence members of different racial groups, the effects of rap music may differ by cultural experience. In other words, racial identification was a strong moderator of effects of potentially harmful themes. Those with a greater racial awareness rejected Eurocentric images including thin-body ideals. So although some rap themes can negatively influence black audiences, the story is more complicated because audiences are smarter than we give them credit for.

Fourth, it appears that the way forward goes through the path of media literacy and empowerment instead of censorship. Those who can proficiently critique the production of rap and the controversial themes contained in the music become the most able to resist the potentially negative effects of rap consumption. Those most concerned about these potential negative effects need to focus on providing education and support for alternate rap platforms so that audiences can better empower and equip themselves in the twenty-first century.

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MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF RAP MUSIC: THE VILIFICATION OF HIP HOP CULTURE

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