Hip-hop: Listen and be the judge

• Main Author: Singh, Ishan
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Music
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lien_research/175; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lien_research/article/1175/viewcontent/Social_Space_The_Arts_Issue_Part_1_66_69.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

I was 14 when I found out I was no good at singing. Coincidentally, at this same age I decided to try my luck at rapping. It was all a bit out of left field—I was trying to make a kind of music I would’ve been reprimanded for even listening to. Hip-hop is notoriously embedded with negative connotations. Personally, I find it a bit comical when people believe that writing poetry is fine; however, as soon as you put those poems over a beat, you’re thought of as someone who could be materialistic, misogynistic, in a gang, or who abuses illegal substances. Through this commentary, I hope to offer an insight into how hip-hop culture has uplifted me through my teenaged years (I turn 18 by the time this is published), and why it continues to empower and inspire me as a creative individual.