Proposal Reloaded

Working title

Is the violent, materialistic and sexist content in Chief Keef's music taking negative representations in the hip hop genre to new extremes and what impact does this have on audiences?

Angle

What impacts does the increasingly violent, materialistic and sexist Hip-Hop genre have on the audience? How and in what way does it affect them?

Hypothesis

Chief Keef’s music genre is making audiences increasingly violent, desensitizes and provokes them to violent and mimicking actions as portrayed through the artist himself.

MIGRAIN

Chief Keef is represented as a stereotypical ‘bad boy’, ‘thug’ or ‘gangster’ within his music as well as his videos, pictures and cover art. He portrays himself this was as he associated with that kind of crowd and this is due to where he was brought up in Chicago, Illinois. He refers to ‘O-Block’ where he is from along with some of his friends and includes it in many of his songs. He himself is a negative dominant teenage representation of someone of that area, showing it as a violent and rough area where you would need to be careful about who you look and where you take a step.

His attitude is seen as negative by the older generation, there are already stated views of how the elders seen teenagers, Chief Keef presents what they fear. For example when an old lady would see a group of boys who present themselves as people from the ‘hood’, an old lady or man would cross the streets to avoid the encounter due to fear of what they may say or do as a joke between themselves.

The major generic conventions within the chosen text, being rap artists revolve around a few key words that some or all are mentioned in one song. These key words are the main themes for rappers; these words are those that are associated with sex, alcohol, drugs, weapons, women, materialistic belongings, reputation and also how good they are about what they do. These key conventions are portrayed in a range of artists’ music dating back a couple of decades to the present, we commonly see these aspects of artists under this genre and it becomes their focal points.

From this genre of music, Hip Hop/Rap, the characters associated become alike, their image engraved to resemble other from that genre. This category of music focuses on the same conventions therefore the characters that rap within this type of music become generically determined by the audience. The portrayal of a rapper is a gangster associated person like Chief Keef along with others such as 50 Cent, CokeBoys and others.

This representation of Chief Keef is portrayed by himself, his record label and his fellow associates. A majority of representations are negative making it fair, however Medhurst says that stereotypes are short hand indications, a way to reflect a conventional image through small iconographic notes. Perkins says there’s some elements of truth behind stereotypes making it not as accurate as Chief Keef was brought up in the way he is portraying himself as his crimes support his lyrics and presentation to the world.

The music Chief Keef makes is addressed to the age range of 18 – 25 mainly. The users and gratification includes an audience that seeks entertainment and escapism; this is because they want to be amused and watch something interesting as well as watch something that includes things or a lifestyle they desire. Many people want to be rich and famous, have expensive cars, a nice house, drink and eat everything and anything they want. The ease of getting things is what people want, therefore watching his videos shows the viewers what kind of lifestyle they desire to have. The psychographics include aspires and mainstream people as they fall into the popular trend, a song of his could be recognised by the people that listen to popular music.

Social

The continuously improving digital media world has allowed people to stay up to date on particular artists, to comment and post about them and also to talk to others about them. This enables people to use social networking to keep up and to stay on the hot topic as the artists release new information, images, phrases or music to the audience. The copycat theory a way that the gounger generation would be influenced to idolise these ‘wannabe badmen’ due to the exceptional and easy looking lifestyle they portray. People may be influenced by his lyrics, actions or presentation and mould themselves to be more like them.

Historical

Chief Keef posted several YouTube videos while he was under house arrest for a weapon charger. He received a lot of attention which increased during the short time between the releases of several mixtapes for example ‘Bang’ and ‘I Don’t Like’, which became a local hit in Chicago getting the attention of Kanye West. A remix was soon then released featuring rappers such as Pusha T, Jadakiss and Big Sean.

Chief Keef was wanted by a number of labels asking him to sign onto their record including CTE World (Young Jeezy) however  he signed up with Interscope Records as they allowed him to have his own label called Glory Boyz which is now the CEO of, the deal was worth six million dollars.

Chief Keef released his studio album Finally Rich on December 18^th 2012 featuring 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, French Montana and Lil Reese.

In 2013 he released Hate Being Sober featuring 50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa, on November 16^th 2012 Chief Keef was a no-show for their music video shoot in Las Vegas.

On may 21^st 2013, Katy Perry tweeted he dislike for this song and Chief Keef replied in threats and insults to the singer, grabbing a lot of attention from both fan bases.

Complex named the song number 20 of the 50 best songs of 2012, Rapper Drake praised the song via Twitter saying he played it 130 times in 3 days and Chief Keef announced the single would be on Grand Theft Auto V.

On May 8^th 2013, Gucci Mane announced that Chief Keef would be the newest member of 1017 Brick Squad Records. On 18^th August 2013, the rappers 18^th birthday, he released his mixtape Bang Part 2.

Chief Keef has a number of incidents:

January 27^th 2011

Chief Keef was arrested on charges of heroine manufacture and distribution, he served time on house arrest.

December 2011

He was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm on a police officer and unlawful use of a weapon along with misdemeanour charge for resisting arrest. He was held in the cook county juvenile detention centre until he was sentenced to home confinement.

September 5^th 2012

Investigation for a possible connection in the shooting of Lil JoJo as Chief Keef twitted a mocking comment on twitter which he argued was a result of a hacker. The mother of Lil JoJo was convinced Chief Keef has someone hired to kill her son.

January 16^th 2013

Taken into custody after a juvenile court judge decided a video of him firing a semiautomatic rifle at a New York gun range was a violation of probation. On March 14, 2013, Keef was released from a juvenile detention centre after serving the 60 days for violating his probation.

Keef was sued by Washington, D.C.based, Promotion Company Team Major for $75,000 for a missed show as he was supposed to perform at the O2 Arena in London on December 29, 2012 but never showed.

On May 20, 2013

Chief Keef was arrested in an hotel in DeKalb County, in Atlanta, for supposedly smoking marijuana in public and for disorderly conduct. He was released later in the day. Eight days later, Keef was arrested for driving 110 mph in a 55 mph zone in his hometown Chicago, and also for driving with an unlawful amount of passengers. He returned to court on June 17, and pled guilty to speeding. He was ordered to pay a $531 fine, serve 18 months of probation, complete 60 hours of community service and undergo random drug tests

Economical

Chief Keef usually uses himself and his fellow associate to be in the video, usually topless, bopping to the beat, smoking drinking and doing hand gestures. The costs of their music videos have no creativity or anything extra to it therefore they would be considerably low in comparison to other genre music videos like Lady Gaga Applause which uses a lot of creativity and scenery per shot.

Political

Censorship restricts him from using firearms in his videos so he uses hand gesture of a gun sign to the camera. MTV and VEVO have heavily edited a number of his music videos to remove references of drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism or advertising. This includes taking out swear words such as ‘shit’, ‘nigga’ and ‘bitch’ resulting his song ‘I don’t like’ to have a number of gaps as the chorus include them as the main words.

Issues/Debates

Representation and stereotyping
This genre of music portrays the rapper character as one that is dangerous and intimidating as well as relaxed and luxurious. For example Chief Keef says he doesn’t like people that are a certain way and refers to shooting people and has been arrested for pulling a gun out on an officer. In his videos he glorifies his money, clothes, cars while drinking and smoking as he bops to the beat of the song. He has his videos with his friends showing he has a lot of people behind him that would do a lot for him, respect and loyalty in his gang. This representation of Chief Keef is portrayed by himself, his record label and his fellow associates. A majority of representations are negative making it fair, however Medhurst says that stereotypes are short hand indications, a way to reflect a conventional image through small iconographic notes. Perkins says there’s some elements of truth behind stereotypes making it not as accurate as Chief Keef was brought up in the way he is portraying himself as his crimes support his lyrics and presentation to the world.

Regulation and censorship

Censorship restricts him from using firearms in his videos so he uses hand gesture of a gun sign to the camera. MTV and VEVO have heavily edited a number of his music videos to remove references of drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism or advertising. This includes taking out swear words such as ‘shit’, ‘nigga’ and ‘bitch’ resulting his song ‘I don’t like’ to have a number of gaps as the chorus include them as the main words. His videos air on TV after pre-watershed and advertising in his videos are blurred to censor it.

Media Technology and the Digital Revolution

Videos, images, phrase once released can never be completely taken down completely. Tweets, Instagram photos and Videos at shooting ranges have gotten Chief Keef a lot of attention, a ban on his Instagram account, attention from the media and his Instagram account being banned are a few consequences.

Media Effects

The copycat theory a way that the younger generation would be influenced to idolise these ‘wannabe badmen’ due to the exceptional and easy looking lifestyle they portray. People may be influenced by his lyrics, actions or presentation and mould themselves to be more like them. Chief Keef speaks about how he treats women, how he would kill people and other things that could influence listeners to view the rapped-about topic in the songs.

Theories

Gender and ethnicity

In this genre, there are hardly any recognised female rappers for the past few years. Males are the generic rapper in this genre, placing women on the side or behind in their videos, there to be looked at opposed to contributing to the song. Males are seen as dominant and powerful with a woman on his arm or h

Audience Theories

The users and gratification includes an audience that seeks entertainment and escapism; this is because they want to be amused and watch something interesting as well as watch something that includes things or a lifestyle they desire.

Critical Investigation Proposal

How has Tyler, The Creator, made an alternative sound in hip hop music more acceptable over years?

Tyler, the Creator is an American rapper and founder of alternative hip hop group “Odd Future”. At the age of 23 he has 3 albums of his own; Bastard, Goblin and Wolf. He has also featured and produced on records with other artists such as The Game, Lil Wayne, Mac Miller and many more.
Tyler, the Creator makes Hip-Hop/Rap music. He often mimics the generic themes of rap in his own music like mocking other rappers that talk about typical things like money, women and power. Generally in Hip-Hop music  artists like to glorify things they find amusing however Tyler, the Creator mainly speaks about family problems and how he feels towards his friends which is an alternative approach of lyricism. I think that the general hip hop audience would not have initially regarded Tyler as a proper rap artist thus he is also regarded as a maker of alternative hip hop.

I believe that Tyler, the Creator is making it more acceptable in hip hop culture that an alternative sound is also acceptable.

I think that that in the future it is also likely that more alternative sounds will emerge as rappers like Tyler have given them hop that other sounds are also appreciated.

Migrain

Media Representations

Tyler, the Creator in my opinion may be regarded as a rebel as he choses to do things his way, he has an absurd way of saying things in his music which may disturb some audiences. However when spoken to in interviews he seems to be ore relaxed and not as serious as some of the content in his lyrics may seem. Therefore the representation of Tyler, the Creator is not very accurate.

Media Languages and Forms

His music tells us a lot about his early upbringing and how his mother raised him as a single parent. There are often references associated with his father, certain quotes from songs like “Bastard” express the amount of hatred he has towards his father. His facial expression varies a lot depending on the kinds of emotion being created in the song. There is also a contrast between the clothes he wears in regard to the way he carries himself; he often will wear colorful clothes even when rapping about depression. He will also swear a lot in an absurd way, this may disturb certain audiences as they may not be used to something this abrupt. He also directs his own music videos in which he wishes to convey a message of some sort. In his most famous video “Yonkers” he ate a live cockroach in order to gain attention of other audiences.

Narrative

A music video named “She” starts of with a still image of  a 'GOBLIN' logo. This may tell us that the artists represent a brand called goblin or could even connote that the viewer is about to watch something scary. The video then starts with a close up shot of a road sign saying 'nil bog' which is 'goblin' backwards, now indicating the video does represent a brand. There is also diegetic sound as we can hear cars go past. In the same scene the camera zooms to the right hand side of the road showing a long shot of three men gambling, one of the men starts to sing, indicating he is one of the artists in the song (Frank Ocean). The scene then changes to a close shot of the man rolling dice and holding money in his hand that makes it clear he is gambling. The scene then changes to a woman moving into a house, and we can see the that the three men are looking at them. This gives us a indication that the song is about this woman. The scene then changes to a close up of her face and she is smiling at Frank Ocean meaning that she is happy to be moving in near him, or suggesting that they may have had a previous relationship of some sort. The girl is then escorted into the house by an elder man. The scene then changes to a shot of the artist and the woman in bed however he pushes her to the side and looks out the window and we can now tell that time has passed because it is now dark. He also sees this man in a balaclava and therefore rings the police describing that he has seen some kind of goblin. there is a slide scene that shows a policeman listening to him on the phone. The next scenes show that the girl is angry because the man is not with her now and she even seems to be angry with her dad, she lies down in her room alone with the door shut meaning that she needs her own time. She eventually falls asleep and the man seen at the window with the balaclava has appeared and is now also rapping indicating he is the other artist (Tyler The Creator). He then reveals his face raps the song to this woman even though she is sleeping and cannot hear him, while doing this he also smells some of her clothes and tells her to meet him by the lake by writing the message on her window. He has probably avoided waking her up because she would freak out and cause an uproar within the household. The next scene is a 180 degree pan that shows Tyler running out the house, so fast that he trips to a wall where frank is sitting down near some flowers observing what is happening. The scene then changes to a daytime of a shot of Tyler riding his bike really fast with some of his friends behind him, this switches to a shot of the woman riding her bike calmly with her friends, indicating they are both going to the lake. The scene then changes to both of them at the lake until the music stops and tyler realises it is a dream. Tyler and his friends get arrested which could be a result of Frank calling the police earlier. The scene next shows Tyler in the police car eventually being brought to the neighbourhood he was stalking this woman. The police men get into a brawl with an elder man that could be the woman's dad, This is a distraction so tyler starts to speak to the woman and now she looks unimpressed until he compliments her, there is nothing else to say and they are both smiling and Tyler is looking at the camera. The video finishes by zooming out into a television frame making out that all of this was a short film. We can then see the same woman watching this on her sofa. The camera then slowly zooms out to show Tyler again in his balaclava looking down at her. Throughout the video the lighting was tinted slightly blue in the daytime to give us a feeling of gloom. whereas other shots were mostly at night or inside with very dim lighting.

Genre

Tyler, the Creator makes Hip-Hop/Rap music. He often mimics the generic themes of rap in his own music like mocking other rappers that talk about typical things like money, women and power. Generally in Hip-Hop music  artists like to glorify things they find amusing however Tyler, the Creator mainly speaks about family problems and how he feels towards his friends which is an alternative approach of lyricism. I think that the general hip hop audience would not have initially regarded Tyler as a proper rap artist thus he is also regarded as a maker of alternative hip hop.

Media Instituitions

Tyler was first signed to XL recordings and they were responsible for the release of his first album called Goblin. He also signed a joint venture deal for his own label called Odd Future with RED distribution and Sony Music Entertainment. His latest album released on his own label sold more than 90,000 records in the first week of sales. The albums were released digitally through iTunes. They were also made available in retail stores such as HMV. There is also music that has been released under the Odd Future label that can be available for free download via the odd future website.

Media Audiences

I think that the psychographic groups of explorers would definitely be interested with this type of text as it is the alternative version of the original type of music. The music and culture that odd future possess is also in collaboration with a street skateboard brand called Supreme which is also a niche market that would also attract the same audience. The demographics would vary depending on consumers personal taste however it is likely that the groups of c1,c2d and e would be interested. I think that males and females would equally be interested in this kind of text.

Issues and debates

Talking about the offensive lyrics and anti feminist behaviour that people may perceive of him, this article talks about how people may and may not be offended. Some people say that his music is made for laughs and is not meant to be taken seriously by anyone whereas a feminist group in Australia take the opposite approach and start protesting outside one of the venues he was going to perform at. The show still went on and the group claim that it taught Tyler nothing.

A woman who claims she was verbally abused on stage by an American rapper in Sydney on Thursday evening has reported the incident to police. Talitha Stone, a 24-year-old blogger and campaigner, says she felt “petrified” following “terrifying and disturbing” abuse which she says was levelled at her by US rapper Tyler, the Creator. My opinion on this is that a woman who doesnt know anything about Tyler was just at the festival and felt that his absurd behaviour was offensive when in actual fact he treats everything like a joke and nothing is to be taken seriously.

Tyler The creator has started a riot at his concert. At most concerts where Tyler or Odd future have taken the stage they often are known for their insane crowds and inflicting moshpits in the audience. However this is also not his first time for getting into trouble as he has previously also inflicted riots at carnivals and shows. Maybe he might be banned from performing in a few years time? But as for yet he still remains an eccentric performer that claims the audience love the experience. 

Theories

Gender and ethnicity

Rappers are more likely to be black than any other ethnicity and the fact that Tyler is black could be one of the reasons why this type of music may have been accepted opposed to a white person. If Tyler was white then it is possible that the representation of him and his perception by the public may have been different. He is also a male which means that it is likely that he will be more appreciated than a woman in the hip hop industry.

Audience Theories

I think that the psychographic groups of explorers would definitely be interested with this type of text as it is the alternative version of the original type of music. The demographics would vary depending on consumers personal taste however it is likely that the groups of c1,c2d and e would be interested. I think that males and females would equally be interested in this kind of text. It is also unusual for a rappers fans to be dominantly Caucasian people however this is the case for Tyler, The creator.

Semiotics

In various videos and media texts relating to Tyler, the creator, he has been seen by promoting satanism. His speech about such topics is not subliminal at all. It is very absurd and made apparent to the audience. Some people may have come up with conspiracy theories however Tyler has said that all gestures are said without any meaning behind them.

Moral Panic

Tyler has caused issues in the past which may have created a moral panic, For example when he started a riot at a concert. The audience could stereotype him on the fact that he is a black person related to rap music; this will mean people will reinforce the stereotype that black people are dangerous and are not social people. This may result in people not wanting to go to rap concerts as they may be scared of the outcome.





TV documentary 

Loiter Squad
Punkd