Plagiarism and remixing are two different concepts as described by my group. We defined plagiarism as the blatent stealing of someone else’s work and trying to pass it off as your own for profit, whether it be money, fame, or a good grade, without any reference to the original author. Remixing on the other hand, is taking someone else’s idea and creating something new with it.
Chapter 8 deals with the cool issue of manhood, and how the image has somewhat changed over time. The first main point is about Mailer’s essay “The White Negro”, which shows that cool can inspire racism. The next main point is about the “angry black man,” which is supposedly evident in every African-American male, and this thought is reinforced by the media. Even record companies capitalize on the opportunity to make money by endorsing this “gangsta” look. Rice goes on to mention various hip-hop and gangst rap artists, such as Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, whom all fit the gangsta image. Even song lyrics are subject to cool, thery are at times graphic and offensive, but they all convey a message.
Chapter 8 Activity Pg. 78
The various names these artists have chosen to take on tells me that they are unhappy with they are portrayed with their real names. Eminem, for example has taken his name from his initials (Marshall Mathers), and chose to spell it as to differentiate himself from others in the music scene. Da Brat was previously known as Shawntae Harris, but chose her new moniker as her family claimed she was always a brat. Busta Rhymes didn’t even pick his name, instead it was bestowed upon him by Chuck D (from Public Enemy), because he reminded him of a football player named Buster. 50 Cent’s real name is Curtis Jackson, with such a normal name, you obviously can’t be a rapper. The meanings behind the names are obviously economical because they need a trendy name in order to sell their music. I would also consider their names attitude-based (i.e. Da Brat). When you look at their name, you infer a little bit about them, maybe that’s the appeal with changing their names.
In Chapter 9, Rice discuses the attitude of cool by looking again at the African-American standpoint of cool. Marlene Kim Connor states that black males have rituals, which include establishing a sense of manhood through image, altering english and creating new words, and the the framing of symbols of black expression. Many times, white culture tends to follow their trends and certain words are picked up and used as their own. Rice goes into much detail about the cool pose, the attitudes and postures that make up the images we understand as being cool. Rice later defines ethnography as the study and description of ethnic cultures so that we can understand a group from its own viewpoint. Based on these observations, theories about culture are created.
