Hip Hop Culture Serves Big Influence on Montco

By Jordan Ly

BLUE BELL, PA--Eight out of nine students and a professor agreed that hip hop has changed and garnered a strong influence on campus. It is one of the youngest and most popular music of today’s genres. Students compelled in answering questions about the hip hop community and indicated strong interest in the topic because they loved music. They explained what the genre has brought and changed in the students that walk around campus today. They also all added their opinions of what they thought about the genre and how it’s impacted them and others. All of the students that took the survey agreed that hip hop now has changed for the worst and that old school hip hop is better. Some of the examples included how old school hip hop was more storytelling, like famous rapper the Notorious BIG talked about his rags to riches stories, instead of the new generation of hip hop rappers today. Robert Gambone, an avid fan of hip hop and a student from Montco says, “I believe hip hop has changed for the worst, the content has gotten worse, and rappers now like Big Sean just repeat and rely on catchy phrases, rather than substance.”

There is no secret that hip hop has changed, and each student explained the details of what changed in the music. They talked about how the interest of the artists now are more worried about the money than the substance, how the content today is about beats rather than lyrics and that it is more fan friendly. Brandon Amster is an aspiring musician and hip hop fan, who attends Montco says “Yes, I am a fan, the genre hasn’t changed for the better because the music is more about boasting and partying,” He also went on about how new school hip hop has become less truthful. Others also missed old school hip hop and how it was more authentic and gave you a “classic” feeling that no other music could give you. The professor and audio producer of this survey Morgan Betz states “The music was accepted by popular culture, by doing so the nature of the music changed.” He gave his reasons why he wasn’t a fan of current hip hop and that it was watered down.

The impact of hip hop culture and style on campus was agreed by the students that it had a strong take and influence on campus. Each student named their favorite artist and how they have changed over the years and what impact it had on them. They talked about the detailed traits on the impact, like the style of how they dress and the slang of how the campus students and they talk because they look up to these artists. An online survey that took down similar opinions and statistics called Hip-Hop Influence Survey Statistics at Survelum Public Data Bank says that most students get the influence on their behavior from hip hop and that it is somewhat a good influence, but mostly a bad one because of the way students are trying to “fit in with the crowd.” The hip hop genre and culture has undeniably changed, but students agree that the impact has not, showing how strong the influence of music can be throughout campus.