U.S. hip-hop film sparks debate on masculinity

Updated: 2007-02-22 17:00

Another scene shows wannabe rap stars in the street outside a hip-hop summit in New York vying with each other to produce the most insulting and demeaning rhymes.

ADDICTION

As hip-hop has turned into a blockbuster industry with sales soaring among whites, pressure has increased on black artists to produce music on sex and violence, according to artists such as Chuck D interviewed in the movie.

At the same time students said there was little debate about the content of the music or videos, ironic in a medium that flourishes on wordplay.

Students from black colleges at a screening in the Florida state capital Tallahassee last week said the documentary was an eye-opener.

"I had never thought about how black males were being dragged down by the degradation of black female sexuality in hip-hop," said Ashley Matthews, 20, of Hampton University in Virginia.

Matthews said she had watched rap videos on the Black Entertainment Television (BET) channel nearly every day since she was 12 but had recently overcome what she described as a "near-addiction."

"BET is very entertaining. That's the reason why you don't think anything is wrong with it," she said.

Ronald Clark, 20, said the influence of hip-hop videos was evident on campus at Hampton, a private college, where male students felt under pressure to behave like thugs.

"We are destroying ourselves socially and these guys (in the music industry) are cashing checks and only a small percentage of my generation is understanding what's going on," Clark said.

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