Download The music world is infiltrated with powerful lyrics to defeat the enemy

The music world is infiltrated with powerful lyrics to defeat the enemy, the other
M.C. The bottom line is to win the rap battle, with the most smooth, eloquent, blunt an
powerful punch lines. These punch lines are intended to describe the person in the
situation by basing their description on the psychical appearance of another rapper. Yet,
if you listen closely to the lyrical expressions, you can relate and explore these forms of
self enhancement in your daily interaction with people. Especially in situations where a
person needs to defend themselves, their ego that is. When there is a threat to your
identity, you battle that threat with powerful punch lines to reduce a negative image
others can create of you. The battle world of rap is not out of context when we say, all
individuals posses a rapper inside of them ready to battle any one out, in defense of their
identity. Can this self-enhancement we see in the music world of battle rapping translate
to our daily lives as a way to boost our self concept or are we promoting prejudice and
discrimination intentionally? Are these battles in the music world a metaphor for how
groups of people, stand out and defeat one another by butchering the self concept of
others by using one’s prejudice attitudes. A slick and hidden way the music world among
us helps us see how other avenues around us tap under the surface to expose the truth:
individual’s prejudice attitudes are used to bolster their self-esteem by negatively
inflicting stereotypes to others. In the battle world its called having slick rhymes, in our
real life this process is called the Ego Defense Function.
What are these threat that individuals expose themselves to that triggers them to
get suited up for battle? These threats manifest in many situations especially negative
situations where words are exchanges before the blows. In altercations, verbal fights,
disagreements, and arguments. When individuals become vulnerable for attack from
another person, they become prepared with stereotypes to attack the other personremoving the threat. As Daniel, from Oakland expresses about an altercation with a
stranger earlier in the day “ when I get into it I will put a brother down, straight up…just
make fun of his dumb- stupid -retarded self” . He explains the “battle” he undergoes
when interacting with a threat. In other words, he makes himself look good, by putting
down the other individual.
We all in one way or another express the Ego Defense Function to eliminate a
threat to our identity. All rappers do it and so do we. What is this you might ask? This is
when people use comparisons with an “out group” you may use to compare yourself
with, and use those difference to define who you are- therefore bolster your own self
esteem. Just as the rapper does, he wins the battle by comparing his qualities as better
than the opponents. The Ego Defense Function serves a great purpose in the psychology
of individuals. For example it creates group solidarity, establishes an identity, maintains
the belief of belonging and normalcy. It also creates a social function and a social identity
by establishing particular set character guidelines to follow. When you feel weak and
venerable you seek ways to make ourselves regain power and remove those awkward
feelings by bolstering your self esteem and self image. This phenomenon “stems from
peoples need to see themselves in a positive light” (135). A rewarding state that can
easily be obtained by seeing others negatively.
The Ego Defense Function’s foundation begins with what you think, your
attitudes that is to a particular group of people that then narrows down to a single
individual you maybe interacting with. Your attitudes whether implicit or explicit
contributes toward the out-group stereotyping but also to your particular in-group value
in terms of power, social position and image. Since attitudes have three components the
cognitive, affective, and behavior they can give you a better insight into understanding
the key to your behavior and own thoughts. The cognitive aspect possessed preconceived
stereotypes that are held closely together by your group mentality that is taken as
personal and private, when in all reality it is a larger ideology of your in-group being
borrowed. This part helps you to come up with the punch lines ready for delivery. The
affective component is the emotional response in this case to the particular threat that
helps predict or sharpen the behavior and cognitive part of the attitude. Here, you set the
emotion or tone that will intensive your deliver of stereotypes. Lastly, the behavior, the
Ego Defense Function- you intentionally use stereotypes to help ward off a threat to your
self image. Therefore acting prejudice towards that particular individual and the group
they may be a part of. In a conversation with a coworker, about his attitudes of white
people, he added “ there trashy, abusers, ignorant and always passing the buck, with no
culture individuals” I asked “what about African Americans: “your people” he
responded “Aww man, we the shit, we are all about family, we got heart, rich in culture
and history, these Jews ain’t got shit on us” Here we see how the Ego Defense Function
stems from deep attitudes, that to the in-group- my coworker, the ego defense is positive
because it reassure his identity and positively rewards him. Compared to the opponentthe white people seen in a stereotypical lens leading towards prejudice
“When a person is confronted with negative information about themselves they
generally find this information treating and are motivated reduce the treat” (144).In other
words during an argument, you are motivated to win, overcome the situation and then
exaggerate to your friends how ridiculous the other individuals was to even come up to
you looking for a fight. My coworker Dee, shares her moment of hostility at a club “man
at the club this bimbo girl comes up to me talking about how I stole her man on the dance
floor…she was running her mouth calling me names” here the name calling is the threat
to Dee’s identity. She continues “ I turned right quick and was like listen little girl, you
ain’t nothing but a hoe, with your hoe-ass booty shorts, and gap tooth, are you sure you
are a girl cus you don’t got not titis or ass, and your hair is nappy as fuck” For Dee the
threat was dismissed as soon as she activated the intention to get back at the other girl
with some commentary of her own. The motivation to not back down, intentionally
activates stereotypes tapping into your categorizations of people. This quick activation of
stereotypes, also activated a person’s flyer flight system, psychological creating a body
response to the threat but also stereotype activation by the need to get quick information“generalized knowledge” which is extracted from their categorization. In other words
your resources when you respond to a threat is to grab from a bag of stereotypes-our
battle weaponry about the group a particular individual is a part of. Days later I brought
back that conversation and asked her what if it was a Latina girl instead of a black girl,
she replied “ I’ll do the same thing just tell that beaner to go back home to Jose who is
waiting for his tortillas” A persons attitudes to a particular group or individual will
determines what stereotypes a person needs to activated to reduce the threats that will
make them look bad. This activation of stereotypes bring the rapper out to battle, the
psychology of a threat to who you are or to your beliefs quickly establishes a pattern
where these “treats to self esteem facilitates the activation of stereotypes” (144) as the
solution to the problem. However the real problem is deliberately stereotyping people to
make yourself different. A person then literally define the Self, themselves through
prejudice towards other.
Reflection time! How many times have you let the battle rapper within us escape?
Is this a natural part of yourselves? It seems that when in battle your psychology of power
kicks in and the mindset of being the winner of the game. You receive at times an intense
feelings of achievement and a “natural high” ,yet you fail to recognize the “opponents”
damage. All that seems to matter at the end is coming out on top, and be the best.
Individuals seek pleasure, in situations that are threatening to their image, but also when
they are not in situations that are treating. For example “googling” or “you tubing” your
shows juiciest clips, that kick ass and usually express clearly a prime example of the Ego
Defense Function. Stereotypes seem to infiltrate individuals as a novelty but also a
reality. In situations like these it leads me to believe that we truly seek ways to express
our prejudice attitudes through engaging in scenarios where people criticize and evaluate
the physical appearance of individuals to create superiority. Depending what stereotypes
individuals use, it revels your technique in the way you address your attitudes, categories
and your conformability level with individuals, and how easily you can recall prejudice
attitudes to make yourselves establish a barrier between “you and I and we and them”.
Our lives are nestled in stereotypes, it is up to use whether we use them or not.
Although there is no real solution to the issue, you can change your ways of handling the
issue by judging and battling with the inside structure of a person, not base it on physical
appearance. Yet, why is it then that these avenues of stereotyping are so appealing, is it
because self-enchantment sells, along with stereotypes? If so, lets not be sellouts and
understand that there is no need to distingue difference among people-then can we get
ride of a need to satisfy our prejudice ego.