Deciding to take this class was a combination of curiosity and my lack of knowledge on hip hop as a genre and the culture that grew from and intertwined with the music. My friends and I share different tastes in music but enjoy sharing different songs and artists with one another as a means to spread our “musical horizons” if you will. During my time here at New Paltz, I’ve learned a lot from people simply by the types of music they listen to and discuss, one of whom is my roommate. She was the first person to play me the song C.R.E.A.M. by Wu-Tang Clan, and I Get Around by Tupac, and has continued to introduce me to various artists in hip hop and rap. The more artists she recommended the more I realized that it was really my first experience meeting a girl who was genuinely a fan of early hip hop artists, almost all of which were male. She broke a stereotype in my mind that hip hop was generally for a male and black audience. How could I have been so blind? All this time I had this idea that hip hop was something I didn’t fit into, something I couldn’t necessarily connect to and subsequently enjoy, then here I met someone who began to change my outlook, and unintentionally proved that such an audience was not so clear-cut. 

Our readings and discussions in this class have really broadened this understanding even further. For instance, I knew that hip hop draws attention to issues of racism, inequality, and sexism, but never really connected the underlying problems in urban areas, like social service cuts and the housing crisis’ in the South Bronx, to the creative and expressive outlets the youth created as a response. I’ve heard the various lyrics in hip hop that could be considered sexist and profane similar to the ways women are presented in rap videos, and unreasonably formed an opinion about all rap. It was unreasonable because sexism is prevalent across many genres, not just rap/hip hop, not to mention that not all hip hop and rap is the same. A realization solely responsible because of our assigned readings and in-class discussions. I’ve learned a lot from and about the history of hip hop and can’t wait to continue to expand my knowledge and musical horizons in hip hop!