Historical Text and Research

NWA - Straight Outta Compton

This rap video is from 1988. The comparison between a video like this and those of Odd future are largely different. The conventional and historic rap music videos like this by NWA demonstrates and encourages violence and negative stereotypes that are not as strong in todays media. The video shows rebellious nature by those performing as the performers look serious and the main content is opposing themselves against the police, by doing this they are giving a negative connotation to the area they are proud to be representing... Compton, LA.

The negative stereotypes are emphasised by the use of lyricism, in which the performers express their hatred of the police by swearing and cursing. The name of the band also emphasises their rebellious nature as they are called Niggaz wit Attitudes.

Comparing this to an alternative rap music video like those of Tyler The creator we can see how the rap genre has evolved and other forms of rap music can still be accepted as these modern groups are also successful. In todays hip-hop there has been a rejection of some of the conventions that were one day making it seem like a negative genre. The rejections are those that of street videos and rapping about such raw content.

Music like that of Odd Future is more personal where rappers are talking about various other subjects rather than representing certain areas and being gangsters. the content of todays hip-hop is much more diverse than when the genre was still establishing itself. The music videos are not as serious as hardcore street videos and they are now produced on sets where the music video can be altered with
effects.

The clothes worn by NWA seem to be simple and plain sweatshirts that do not make them look like celebrities at all however an artist like Tyler, The Creator would wear colourful clothes including high socks and shorts as he enjoys skateboarding also. A rapper in this attire would have been heavily rejected by traditional rappers as this would make them look feminine and would not support the conventions of the genre.