First of all, I would like to apologize for being even huskier and very nasal today. The other big difference you probably noticed is the background music. In my show, I tend to use light Jazz and obviously, this is an entirely different type of music, and you will know why I've chosen this specific type of music very soon.
In the past few days, whether we wanted it or not, we seem to see a lot of negative news about one Chinese rapper. That has prompted a huge debate about the music genre itself -- Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a music genre “嘻哈”.Rap would be “说唱”. So the key word for today's episode would be Hip Hop and Rap.
Before you turn it off and say I don't like this type of music. Now remember this is not a music show. I personally have neither positive nor negative feeling towards this type of music. What I find very interesting is the cultural associations and background of this music genre, which you might find interesting as well. So let's get started.
Hip Hop is a subculture and art movement developed in the Bronx in New York city during the late 1970s. It is a subculture是亚文化，一般独立于主流文化之外；An art movement是一种艺术运动或者艺术流派。It originated in the Bronx in New York city. Hip Hop is rooted in the African American community. You see the word "black" as well, but the more formal way of calling them would be African American. When you talk about Hip Hop, one word you tend to see is the word "inner-city". "Inner-city" seems to be a very easy word to understand. Inner means inside, so inner-city seems to mean inside the city. For Chinese, inside the city would be the place that you have lots of businesses. Think of Beijing, to live in the inner-city, let's say to live within the third ring road, you probably need to have a lot of money; but in the American context inner-city means something else. Usually, the term "inner-city" is used to refer to lower income residential districts. For instance, you have "inner-city children", "inner-city schools". The opposite would probably be suburbs. Now you probably read somewhere before, America's middle class usually live in the suburbs. The other words you probably see when you are talking about Hip Hop culture is the word ghetto. Originally, this word refers to a specific region in the city of Venice. 如果你去查的话，很多时候会查到贫民区的意思，但其实最早的含义是在威尼斯一个犹太人的聚集区叫Jewish Ghetto. Now the word ghetto is used to refer to the residential area for ethnic groups (城市里的少数族裔聚集区). It hints lower income, and this is exactly the background for the type of music Hip Hop and Rap. Some of you might ask: What is the difference between Hip Hop and Rap?Actually, Rap is part of the Hip Hop genre. Usually, when people think of Hip Hop, they think of the following elements.
First of all, you have rapping(someone calls it MC说唱乐)This is rapping. The other would be break-dancing(霹雳舞), DJing(DJ的打碟和混音), beat-boxing(节奏口技)and this is a very interesting genre with people imitating the sound of musical instruments. And then there is graffiti--writing and painting things on the walls in public area. 涂鸦——Graffiti. So rapping, break-dancing, DJing, beat-boxing and graffiti. These are all key elements of the Hip Hop culture.
In the development of Hip Hop music, there are different stages. In the beginning, there was old-school Hip Hop. Now this is a very interesting expression. Old-school usually means old-fashioned in the very beginning.（老派的嘻哈）We can also use the word old-school to talk about things that are traditional or things from the past, for instance you can say: Those shoes are so old-school; or you can use it to talk about a person, "He is a very old-school teacher"--He is a very traditional teacher--He behaves in a traditional way. Now back to the word Rap. Things for people who don't really know Rap. Probably it doesn't sound like music to you, because it sounds just like someone talking. They are not singing to it. The definition of Rap is a musical form that incorporates rhyme, rhythmic speech and street vernacular. The three elements of rap--rhyme（押韵）, rhythmic speech（有节奏的说话）and street vernacular (街头的词汇）. Of course, there are so many different types, different styles of Rap; one of the most controversial types is called Gangsta Rap 匪帮说唱。Gangsta is a variation of the word gangster. Gangsta Rap is very controversial because it contains a lot of very progressive contents. They talk about sex, violence, racial conflicts, weapons, which makes it very controversial and progressive. Rap, as a music genre, seems to begin in popularity in China. There are even talent shows for rappers. Actually one of the most fascinating skills for a rapper is their ability to freestyle. You probably have seen this a lot lately, free style.For rappers, freestyle means they can make up lyrics as they go alone. This usually happens when two rappers or more rappers get together and they are having a Rap Battle. They are battling with their own Rap, they both with freestyle Rap and see who gets the upper hand. Another word that comes from Hip Hop and Rap which is very popular nowadays in the Internet language in China--diss. Some of you probably have seen it, and are probably wondering what it means. "Diss" means to disrespect or disparage.Essentially, in freestyle battle, you are trying to insult the other person, you are trying to talk them down. Suitable translation would be“互撕”--to diss someone. So next time when you see the word diss, you know what it means. Although many may think the music genre Hip Hop or Rap are mostly about violence, about sex, or about cursing, about dirty words. It's a way for African Americans in a disadvantaged position to have a voice. And if you check out the top rap songs, you will find that many of them are not focusing on foul language.
So in the end to share with you one of the top 50 rap songs of all time by legendary rapper--2pac. 在90年代的一个hit single, 一个热门单曲--Keep Ya Head Up. Ya here means "your". He wrote the song to commemorate an African American girl who has been shot. In this song, he is showing his care for the women and the children who live in the ghetto. But one thing to note is when you are listening to a rap song, it's better not to learn the language because the grammar and the words they use, they use it against the grammar rules intentionally. This is intentional, so I wouldn't recommend using rap song to learn English.

Little somethin' for my godson Elijah
And a little girl named Corinne
Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
I say the darker the flesh then, the deeper the roots
I give a holler to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares, if don't nobody else care
And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot
When you come around the block, brothas clown a lot
But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up
Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up
And when he tells you you ain't nuttin', don't believe him
And if he can't learn to love you, you should leave him
'cause sista you don't need him
And I ain't tryin' to gas ya up, I just call em how I see'em
You know what makes me unhappy, (what's that)
When brothas make babies
And leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't, we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one!
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies,
But keep your head up
(Keep ya head up) Oooh, child things are gonna get easier
(Keep ya head up) Oooh, child things'll get brighter
(Keep ya head up) Oooh, child things are gonna get easier
(Keep ya head up) Oooh, child things'll get brighter
Because of the limited time of the show, I cannot really play the whole song and in the end, I would like to remind you again I'm not here to promote or to criticize any type of the music but rather to share with you some of the interesting cultural rules that prompted such music. And also keep you updated with the discussions that are going on. If you like my show, please don't forget to follow and subscribe and don't hesitate to share my program with your friends.

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