Gangsta Rap

    What is gangster rap? Some call it music that is made purely for bragging about how much money they got and how violent they can be. Gangster rap originated from South Central California. It used to be that there were more friendly type of music like the Fresh Prince’s album, which was released in 1988, and quickly became a big hit. But it was on this summer that rap would change forever. Niggaz With Attitude or N.W.A released their album entitled Straight Outta Compton and quickly became controversial because of songs like “Fuck tha Police” and “Straight Outta Compton” which promoted violence in their music and “contained more explicit language and incendiary subject matter than every previous hip hop record combined, and it contained nothing like a didactic ‘message’’(History).

            Gangster Rap can tell a story about what a rapper has supposedly done before coming to rap. But there is a case in Newport, Va in which detectives are using Antwain Steward rap in which he states “But nobody saw when I [expletive] smoked him, roped him, sharpened up the shank then I poked him…” as a confession to killing two teenagers (Manly). Prosecutors are trying to prove that Steward did kill the two teenagers because he brags about it in his song. This is just one example of many rappers that promote gun violence. Chief Keef is another rapper that raps about killing people and smoking weed and not caring for police authority

            Now in this couple of years we still gangster rap changing and rappers are starting to rap about how much money they get buy robbing and selling weed. They also start rapping about how much women they can get. This is a problem because according to Ronald Roach, and author at Diverse Education, he states that  “study revealed that Black adolescents are becoming sexually active at ages younger than other youth and are suffering from HIV/AIDS at a rate higher than other groups.”

Works Cited

“Gangsta Rap Hits the Mainstream with the Release of N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton” History, A&E Television Networks N.D Web 04 April 2014

Manly, Lorne. "Legal Debate on Using Boastful Rap Lyrics as a Smoking Gun." The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 April 2014

Roach, Ronald. "Decoding Hip-Hop's Cultural Impact." Diverse: Issues In Higher Education. Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, 22 Apr. 2004. Web. 04 April 2014

"Serpico"

A great movie that I have seen recently is Serpico. Serpico was directed by Sidney Lumet and starred the famous Al Pacino in 1973 (“Serpico”). The movie is pretty old. It was filmed in different parts of New York City like Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx, but for some reason they didn’t film in Staten Island.

Serpico is a true story which is about a former NYPD officer named Frank Serpico and the corruption of his fellow officers and the entire department in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Serpico was born in Brooklyn, 1936, and became an officer in 1959 (“Frank Serpico”).  F. Serpico was a good man and a real New Yorker. He refused to take bribes from criminals and corrupt officers. He blew the whistle when he couldn’t stand to see the blood money circulating through his department.

Al Pacino played this role to the key. One of his best roles throughout his career. The director Sidney Lumet did a great job expressing how New York City society was during the 60’s and 70’s. New York City is beautiful but it has had it’s dark days. This particular era was one of them. Most of the police force was corrupt and there was a lot of gang activity. Cocaine and heroine was also prominent during these times. You can get a pretty good feeling of what it was like watching the film. Let’s not forget the infamous Son of Sam. That also had a movie based on it.

If you haven’t seen Serpico, I’d advise you to grab some popcorn and soda pop, and go on a trip down memory lane. It would be a good chance to reflect on the past or if you are too young, you might learn something.

Work cited

“Serpico”, IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc. 1990-2014. Web. 29 March 2014

“Frank Serpico”, Bio. A+E Networks. 2014. Web. 29 March 2014

Social Networks Diminishing Privacy

Privacy plays a huge role in social networks. Many users feel like their personal data is safe on social networking sites because they have set high levels of security settings. According to Jung, social networks encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Although some social networks allow people to control who can view their posts, some people forget they have control over their posts or they have difficulty controlling their posts.

         Privacy is a huge problem for young people. Young people are too open and public with personal information on social networks. Most of these young people don’t read the website’s privacy policies and may be unaware that their information is at risk of disclosure to third parties like advertisers. When a user is too open with personal information, it can affect their opportunities with employment and recruitment to their dream college. Employers and college admission recruiters review the candidate’s Facebook profile or twitter before hiring or accepting the candidate. Chances are if the employers or college admission recruiters find something negative on the candidate’s profile, they won’t offer the candidate an opportunity.

The problems privacy brings on social networks pushes people to think twice before they post something online. Once something is published, it's there forever, whether or not they delete it. People incidentally use social networks as an outlet to say what’s on their mind and post pictures of everything they do. With this outlet, people fail to realize that their private and personal lives are now public. Users should consider adjusting their privacy settings. Users can also consider changing the account name to their first and middle name, so they can protect themselves.

Work Cited

Beres, Damon. Reader's Digest. N.d. April 4, 2014. From http://www.rd.com/slideshows/negative-effects-of-social-media/

Gentrifiaction In New York City

                My first source is from the National Housing Institute, this is a good source for my topic because it talks about the people that get displaced during the gentrification process. It describes how gentrification can help the neighborhoods on the inside but the people who can no longer afford to live there have a hard time leaving those areas and finding suitable homes for their price budget. My second source is, "Is Gentrification All Bad?"  This is a good source to use because it would be used to show both side of the story. This shows that there are some benefits to gentrification, and that the places being built are sometimes built on land that was just an empty lot or abandoned building. My third source is from Humanity in Action. It talks about the gentrification in Harlem and what is happening to the residents there. It discusses the problems with changing a place like Harlem which has many historic roots that would be changed completely by the end of the gentrification process. We have a certain image of Harlem now, and we have the old nostalgic image of Harlem in its glory days like during the Harlem renaissance. The transformation would leave Harlem commercialized with less small shops and more chains that would leave Harlem looking more like Manhattan than anything else.

Works cited

Gørrild Marie, Obialo Sharon, Venema Nienke. "Gentrification and Displacement in Harlem: How the Harlem Community Lost Its Voice en Route to Progress" Humanity in Action. Humanity In Action Inc.ND.Web. April 1, 2014

Davidson Justin. "Is Gentrification All Bad?" New York Magazine.

New York Media LLC. Feb 2, 2014 Web. April 1, 2014

Newman Kathe, Wyly Elvin "Gentrification and Resistance in New York City" National Housing Institute. National Housing Institute. July/August 2005. Web March 30, 2014

Before Time

There was this large piece of land about 840 acres located in the center of Manhattan. There had been about 1,600 people who had been living here, from 59^th to 110^th street. There were schools churches farms and others. There was this big idea to make a park. This park would be a place where ordinary New Yorkers gather and play. The final stages of the park construction began in 1863. Frederick Law Olmsted came up with the landscape of the park his vision he had was something like the Paris Park he waned New York to have a park that would also make history.

 

 

journal Information with reliable sources

My four sources for the journal are as follow: nyc.gov/bikes share, new yorktimes.com, Wall Street journal.com and daily news.com.

NYC.GOV is the official website of New York City government. Generally it is the Major office and all the entities that are related in running the city’ affairs.  NYC.GOV is one of the main sources of providing accurate and reliable information about the city. With the nyc.gov website, we can find all kind of information regarding business, education, transportation, health, social services, civic services, so and so.

The second source, New York Times is a well-known newspaper not only in the United States but also around the world.  The newspaper was founded in 1851. When I was visiting the New York Times home page, they were” 193 countries with visitors in the last 25 minutes” according to the New York Times. The New York Times has a global reputation.

The third source is the Wall Street Journal.  The journal was founded in 1889 by Dow Jones.  The Wall Street Journal similar to the New York Times is also a global newspaper. The journal is highly regarded not only in the United States but also around the world.

The fourth source is the Daily News. According to Joe Pompeo who covers media for Capital New York” Three New York-based dailies are among the five most read –read papers in the United States. These newspapers are the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Daily News. The Daily News finished fourth behind the Times” (Pampeo). I think those three newspapers held these ranks because of the objectivity, the responsibility and the accuracy they provided on the news they reported.

                                                                               Work cited

Joe Pompeo,”Three New York –based dailies are among the five most- read newspapers in the United States, according to a report released this morning from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the leading auditor of magazine and newspaper audiences”, capitalnewyork.com. November 1, 2011.  Capitalnewyork web, April 3, 2014.

Capitalism

A movie that I enjoyed watching is called Paid in Full.  Paid in Full is a movie that came out in the year 2002; but it reflects a time in Harlem in which the crack epidemic began to affect the community.  The main characters of this movie are named Mitch, Ace Boogie and Rico and they loosely revolve around the lives of 3 notorious Harlem “gangsters”; Rich Porter, Alpo and Azie.  According to a documentary found on youtube.com called “The Alpo Story”; Rich Porter, Alpo and Azie were three of main drug traffickers in New York City during the 1980’s.  In this movie, Ace Boogie (Azie) is a young adult who lives a regular life but once he sees what the drug life can bring and the fast money he can make he begins to revolve his life around it.  Mitch (Rich Porter) is his best friend, also former drug dealer and when Mitch comes out of incarceration he brings Rico (Alpo) along with him and basically they begin their drug empire that Ace Boogie started up.  As the movie goes along you can begin to notice the rising tension between the partners in terms of who had the most direct contact with the main drug lord and who was actually receiving the most profit.  Eventually Rico betrays Mitch by killing him because he felt as if Mitch wasn’t being honest and letting Rico earn as much money as he could.  Ace boogie finds himself on the bad side of a home invasion conducted by his sisters boyfriend because of jealousy.

The reason I choose this movie although it is not one of the most famous movies about New York City, it does represent what still goes on in New York City urban communities and the overall mindset of what New York City represents.  I observed how at that time people did not really understand nor care about what effects drugs would do to the community.  As long as profit was involved everything was a fair game.  That reflects the capitalist nation that we all live in and become accustom too.  The more money you have, the more power and respect you get from your peers.  Some young kids in the urban community do not have the good idols to look up to.  Instead they look up to drug dealers back then now our community look up to these rap stars and ultimately that is what they equate to success.

Work Cited

Stars, Street. "The Alpo Story (Full Documentary)." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Aug. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.