Hyphy Music & Pop-Culture - Sample Argumentative Persuasive Essay

This sample essay was written for a college freshman English class. The paper uses an argumentative style to convince the reader that Hyphy music, a type of rap, is detrimental to teenagers. This pop culture paper examines the origins of the music and the reckless behavior it has inspired, from taking drugs to "ghost-riding." This assignment earned a high grade for its creative introduction, use of supporting evidence, and overall persuasive style. It would be a useful reference for someone who wants to write about a pop culture or hip hop essay.

Teens Going Hyphy a Dumb Idea

At a popular club, teenagers bump and grind against each other to thumping rap music. As the music overpowers them, the teens chant "get stupid" and "go dumb" over and over. If this scene is disturbing, then be worried: "Hyphy" music seeks to replicate its message of "going dumb" across the country, and the nation's teenagers are listening. By taking this music seriously, teens will only further their reputation for reckless behavior and possibly jeopardize their own futures.

"Hyphy" refers to a genre of rap music that has established its own culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. The word itself is slang for hyperactive, and fans "get hyphy" by letting loose and letting go of inhibition. Though rapper Keak da Sneak first used it in 1998, the term only gained prominence in 2004 when rap artists The Federation and E-40 collaborated on a song titled Hyphy. The song reestablished the Bay Area rap scene's popularity, which had faded in recent years. E-40's album My Ghetto Report Card further brought hyphy music to the public eye when it hit the Top 5 in the Billboard charts. As the music gained coverage, more people were exposed to hyphy's culture, which espoused "getting stupid" and partying without care. Songs such as E-40's Tell Me When to Go became anthems for the "Hyphy Movement," the collective group of rappers and their fans who want to spread the music and its lifestyle across America.

Despite its fans' insistence, hyphy music is not appropriate outside the urban setting. The music reflects its origins from the streets of Bay Area cities like Oakland and Richmond, where crime is part of everyday life. Most of hyphy's culture - "going dumb" and not caring about society's influence - appears like a response to the pervasive violence of its home cities. With gangs and drug dealers roaming the inner city, teenagers turn to successful rap artists as a way to get beyond their problems. Rappers often describe the hardships of living an urban lifestyle, and their fans appreciate the fact that someone can understand their situation. In the heart of Richmond, where violence is pervasive, "getting stupid" seems like a welcome alternative to getting shot. But the Hyphy Movement wants to expand its influence, meaning that Caucasian suburbanites are now "getting dumb" to the music, without understanding its significance. Most of these new fans were not raised in a city where homeless people walked the streets and twelve year olds dispatched cocaine. To them, hyphy's message is more about excessive partying than surviving a night in the hood.

Teenagers are notorious for being fickle, but hyphy music has been resilient because its message is a perfect excuse for teens to "get stupid" without consequences. Teens redefine the word to fit their mood; in addition to meaning hyperactive, hyphy can range from "eccentric" to "irrational" and just plain crazy. Because hyphy celebrates spontaneity, teens can invoke the word in any context. Now, anything from getting drunk at a party to reckless driving can be accepted as "getting hyphy." In addition, teens incorporate slang employed by rappers such as E-40 to justify their reckless behavior. An article in USA Today reveals that hyphy's followers don't just show off, do car tricks or take drugs - they "flambost," "ghost ride the whip" or take "thizz." These slang terms legitimize reckless behavior like taking certain drugs, especially ecstasy. While the article notes that "thizzing" is "not condoned by many hyphy followers" this seems an afterthought to the many hyphy believers who listen to E-40 proclaim that people "flambost" their "thizz face." While this lingo may seem benign, hyphy condones reckless behavior as being "cool," a status too many teenagers try to achieve.

Since "flambosting" or showing off, is essential in hyphy culture, members of the Hyphy Movement will take unnecessary risks just to "go stupid." Many of these tactics involve using cars and performing the tricks shown in hyphy music videos. Such tricks involve "gas break dippin'" which is driving while rapidly shifting between the gas and break, causing the car to bounce up and down, causing sparks. Even more popular is "ghost riding the whip," in which a driver walks or dances alongside a moving car while passengers leave its doors open. The practice seems silly, but the number of ghost riding videos on the Internet underscores the fact that teens take hyphy literally. Some teens have attempted the technique at dangerous speeds, in certain cases crashing their cars. Ghost riding and rapidly spinning a car in circles or "donuts" are the staple of sideshows, large street gatherings that involve car tricks. Unfortunately, sideshows have a reputation for violence and destruction. An ABC news article points out that even though sideshows "have reportedly resulted in eight deaths," participants seem apathetic. Since ghost riding is about getting stupid, it was "started not to see people succeed, but to see people fail," said Jonathan Lovecchio a teen ghost rider interviewed in the ABC report. "They want to see people run into trees, run over their foot." Even more telling, Lovecchio admitted that, "we would have never done this without the song that we were playing" and "if you don't play that song, you are not a ghost rider." The song refers to E-40's Tell Me When to Go, where the rapper repeatedly tells his audience to ghost ride and gas break dip.

Hyphy's supporters claim that the music is just a mood setter and doesn't lead to reckless behavior. If a person is smart, they will control themselves. It is true that hyphy is not the only music that espouses reckless behavior. For instance, mainstream hip-hop often talks about picking up loose women and rock music espouses free love and taking mind-bending drugs. These popular genres have legions of fans, many of which listen to the music for enjoyment. But hyphy music is marketed as a genre where "going dumb" to the music is more important than listening to the music itself. As the USA Today article notes, E-40's song Tell Me When to Go "highlights the local kids' typical, spontaneous frenzied wilding" with its refrain of "Tell me where to go ... Go dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb." Controlling one's behavior is the opposite of hyphy, which is all about not having limits or inhibitions - to do otherwise would be the antithesis of the Hyphy Movement.

What hyphy does reveal is how prone teenagers are to messages in music. For instance, "Emo", a subgenre of hardcore punk music is very similar to hyphy in the way its teenage fans embrace the music. Fans will imitate how emo bands are dressed, often resulting in male teens wearing eyeliner and sporting greasy hair and tight pants. Emo music often features depressing lyrics, which can have an effect on the listener. In extreme circumstances fans have even cut themselves or attempt suicide. While emo has its critics, it still has many fans that continue to lead a lifestyle dictated to them by the music. Members of the Hyphy Movement have the same problem - hyphy is not just music, it is a way of life.

Hyphy music will pose problems for the country if it becomes more than just a passing trend. As people get older, they tend to stick with the music they listened to in their youth. In this case, as the current generation ages, hyphy music could soon be heard on "oldies" radio stations. Teens that grew up listening to the hyphy message and taking it seriously could end up "going stupid" as adults as well. There's an idea: An entire generation that doesn't think about consequences or responsibility, preferring to "get stupid" rather than run a business or the country. Despite this, hyphy's leaders seem rather unconcerned. USA Today interviewed E-40, the self-proclaimed "Ambassador of Hyphy," who told the paper that he "hung on like a hubcap in the fast lane along with a few other rappers, and now it's time again. We had a 10-year drought and they went to other regions and were bypassing us like the surgery out here." E-40 is excited not because kids are celebrating hyphy, but because the Bay Area is becoming a rap hot spot again, allowing him and other rappers to profit from its success. The Hyphy Movement is nothing more than a marketing scheme - if teens were able to see that, then perhaps this movement will finally fizzle out before too much harm is done.

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