RCL 9 – TED Script

My paradigm shift paper is about the change in rap, since it’s peak in popularity in the 1980s to modern rap.

Rap music has always been a reflection of its time and the community its come from. In the 1980s, there were injustices that the rappers of the time, like Public Enemy or NWA, made the subject of their lyrics. They spread the private struggles of the black community and used their platform as artist like a megaphone and made it not just a racial issue but a societal one. Today’s rap music comes from a different place, where hyper-masculinity is sold to boys when they are young, girls are faced with objectification in the media, and socioeconomic status determines an individual’s place in society. That’s why in my paper, I want to discuss how rap music is societal-based reflection rather than a community-based one, and that the solution to this is with the consumers of hip hop, the youth.

I am speaking in response to the prominence of rap music that speaks on personal and material gain instead of making proper use of their platform and accessibility to young people. My audience is the American youth, the consumers of modern day artists and inheritors of America’s future. My delivery can be informal since I’m addressing people the same age as me and informative since not everyone is familiar with the history of rap and the role it plays within the African American community’s struggles. Some parts of my explanation may require visual aids.

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