We Finally Found HIP HOP

Hey Fellow Hip Hop Heads,

It's Team Hip Hop, and we just wrapped up our PR Methods class, and this means for the this will be our final post. We have decided that if any of us; Megan C., Dorian P., or even Natasha G. have a run in with hip hop we will be sure to update you. But we would really like that thank those who have been following us, and keeping up with how our fictitious events have been going. You have a been a tremendous help to us. We agree that your comments gave us a little more insight into the world of a hip hop lover. The questions that we asked you were to help us figure out what could and couldn't work for our projects, my (Megan) question about positive role models, help me choose other hip hop stars to be honored at the FAMU HIP HOP HONORS. Dorian used some of what you said about how women are represented in Hip Hop to add a little more to her speech that she wrote for Russell Simmons for the Book Signing and Listening Party.

Megan C.: What I learned through these postings that helped me with my project? The biggest thing was that you have to make sure that your target public are well represented in the things that you do. A lot of the people that commented on our blog were students them selves, and even though my fictitious event was to honor hip hop community members, I needed to make sure I was still trying to get the students of FAMU to attend the event to. So I listened to what you guys had to say regarding particular artist, and I made sure to included some of them.

Dorian P.: What I learned through these postings that helped me with my project? I am kind of on the same boat as Megan C., it was a real help to see what others thought about the portrayal of women in hip hop, so it made it easier to write both my backgrounder and my speech for Russell Simmons. I learned a lot about blogging, since this was my first time really doing it, I realized its not that easy to go into cyberspace a just post a blog and wait for feedback, we really had to go out and "publicize" our blog.

So our final question to you is a two part...

-Based on our previous entries do you think we have FOUND HIP HOP?

-If our events were real, would you attend?

If You Only Knew HIP HOP

Hey Fellow Hip Hop Heads,

Its Megan C., once again, unfortunately our teammate Natasha G. won't be with us anymore so you guys won't get to here about her amazing event. But we wish Natasha the best of luck on her newest journey. We are nearing the end of our class, and we are all excited to see how each of the events have turned out, so I am going to take this time to tell you what new developments have occurred with my event. Remember guys this is a fictitious event, so Diddy and Jay-Z won't be on campus soon.

So the FAMU Hip Hop Honors show is moving ahead full steam, and we are proud to announce that Russell Simmons and Def Jam are please to award 2 of the Institute's seniors with a chance to intern with them this summer. They have told us about another surprise, but we won't leak that one just yet.

We had a couple set backs, though the event was greatly supported by the FAMU administration, including President Ammons, a few of the professor slightly protested the honoring of any member of the hip hop community, because they felt they were all "thugs", "dead beat fathers", and "convicts." This wasn't something that I took lightly, I wanted everyone on FAMU's campus to be involved in this affair, and I needed the support of the entire faculty in order to have a good turn out. So I had to let them know what the purpose of this event was truly.

Here is the breakdown, yes its very true that many members of the hip hop community are not living the "role model" lifestyle, but its isn't up to us to decide exactly what it is that they should be doing in their own lives. We can only go off of what they have done and what they are doing, and no we aren't going to look past some of the deeds that some may have done, but we choose to award those who have done something in the community.

We have 4 awards:
-Community Involvement: which is given to the artist who has showcased concern for the neighborhood, that he/she may be from originally, or where they currently live.
-Children's Benefit: for the artist that has done amazing work for the children of the community, and has a strong belief in the power of education.
-FAMU Hip Hop Honors: which we already know is going to the wonderful RUSSELL SIMMONS for all of his work for education, children, and the community.
-FAMU Institute Honors: which is our surprise award given to a deserving Institute senior, who has excelled in their academic work, but still gives back to the community.

So in the end, the faculty did realize that the award show would be very beneficial to the university, and we finally in full support. AND THE PLANNING CONTINUES...

So here is the question I have for you this week...

Who do you think is a positive figure in the HIP HOP industry, and how do you feel about those (T.I, Trick Daddy, DMX, The Game) who seem to disregard the law on all levels?

WOMEN vs HIP HOP

Hello fellow Hip Hop Heads!

It's Dorian P.! Like my teammate Megan, I'm going to focus my post of my fictitious event for class as well because it is actually an issue that concerns me. My event is called, "Hip hop is Not Dead", which will be focused on hip hop mogul, Russell Simmons. FAMU's Hip Hop Institution has invited Russell Simmons to our school to promote his new book, My Life as a Hip Hop Mogul, and also to speak to the students about what hip hop means to him and how it is influenced him and been apart of his long journey to success.

As I was planning this event, i thought of a lot of interesting things I could do. On June 30, 2009, there will be a listening opportunity for aspiring hip hop artist at my event. Russell Simmons and a celebrity guest panel including P.Diddy and Jay-Z will listen, and choose a winner. The winner will be granted to prize of a meeting with Russell Simmons and DEF JAM recording company. FAMU's Hip Hop Institution will also be there to promote awareness of the new and up coming institution and to suggest enrollment.

As I was planning my event, my professor threw a curve ball at me. I was asked to prepare a backgrounder that would focus on a woman's concern of having this event on campus due to the negativity hip hop portrays in women. I instantly was interested in doing the research for this document because this is an issue that has been being dealt with for some quite time now.

When it comes to how women are portrayed in hip hop, the majority of people would say that hip hop belittles women, and portrays them in a disgusting and derogatory way. Most hip hop videos include women dancing around tow or three men with a bathing suit on or less. Lyrics in hip hop don't do women any justice either. Lyrics found in hip hop songs suggest women as "sluts" and people with low morals.

Women like Karrin Steffans (above)

During his speech, we asked Russell Simmons to address this issue and express his feelings on what he thinks of hip hop and women, and to give examples of how women are shed in a positive light in hip hop. I think that hip hop does embrace many positive women. I think that Queen Latifa, T-Boz of TLC and Kimora Lee Simmons are all positive hip hop figures who are women.

and women like Eryka Badu(above)

So, for this weeks question.......

How do you feel about the way women are portrayed in hip hop? Can you name some positive women in hip hop today?