Response to James McBride's Hip Hop Planet

Luis Rojas

ENGW1100

Professor Young

Monday, September 1

In my opinion, James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet dragged on a bit much because by the end of practically every paragraph he kept stating the same thing, the fact that he missed out on possibly the most important cultural event in his lifetime. I’m more than sure that he could have made that point without having to write more than six paragraphs about it. Originally, James McBride was embarrassed that he had to cope with what the people in his culture were listening to. He lived with a bad interpretation of what hip hop was for twenty six years. James McBride’s character in Hip Hop Planet describes how throughout the years, he had to learn how to enjoy hip hop because he understood that it was important in his culture. 

James McBride’s character changes when his daughter comes in with a guy saying that she’s getting married to him. He changes because he understand that he was once a young “knucklehead” too & that he had his own music & styles, so who was he to judge who his daughter wanted to marry. Like he stated at the end of the first paragraph, it was no longer his world. He didn’t understand how important the music was until twenty six years after he had been attempting very hard to avoid it day to day. He also understood that the music gave them an identity for the same reason that throughout the songs they performed, the repeatedly used the word “i”.