Asian Fro

“Tudo sobre black music.” This is Portuguese for “Everything on Black Music” and the website is realhiphop.com.br. The picture shows an Asian man sitting on the bench with the ads fro behind him, giving the illusion he has a fro. There is a white woman in the picture as well paying no attention to the fro illusion. The ad is depicting the man having a fro as something natural, that neither the woman nor man are paying any attention to. This adds to the humor of the ad.

This also plays into the Diaspora article discussed in class this week. This ad shows how hip-hop music has been connected across different continents. With hip-hop being a social movement, it is locally based and territorially defined. All diverse countries in the world have different issues, but through hip-hop can bond. With hip-hop becoming diasporic, by spreading out over the world, it is able to reach many of these different territories. In the article, according to Jazzie B, songs were more than music, they were knowledge, and music was a religion. This shows that each region’s music holds the knowledge of their own territory’s struggles. By spreading this music it allows other territory’s to gain knowledge of a certain territory’s struggles, as well as, RELATE to another territory’s struggles. If there are similar struggles occurring, by uniting and gaining exposure to these struggles then a fight against them can occur politically.

In the article discussing postcolonial media theory, assuming that everyone has access to electronic communication is an untrue blanket statement. If the idea is that through electronic communication we will be able to facilitate global peace because everyone has access to the same information, which assumes that EVERYONE has access to this information. Also, defining that it would work for everyone does not work because each individual, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, etc, is going to interpret the information he/she receives in a personalized way. This is shown in the ad in a way because the woman, does not have a fro, is not interested in going to the site, or interested that the Asian man has a fro.

At this point in time, music through cheap radios is more affordable than the Internet, which requires expensive computers and Internet connection. Diasporic hip-hop spreads a message of struggle, while the Internet reaches fewer people.