In class, we had the special honors of having two guest speakers to come to in and give a short seminar on how Hip-Hop relates to the language we use today. Throughout the duration of the class, we discussed how modern Hip-Hop has changed over the years and how it compares to the “Golden Era” of Hip-Hop to which people refer to as the mid to late ’90s of music. Collectively as a class majority agreed upon that the lyrics and messages of modern day Hip-Hop have become extremely demeaning and degrading to women, as well as promoting the use of drugs in all of their videos. Students in the class have mentioned that the lyrics in the “Golden Era” were more conscious and brought real-life issues to the table. As to modern day, rappers are barely understood in their music and mainly use sound effects within their music which we call ad-libs. We eventually see everyone’s view on Hip-Hop and how it has the power to affect the children of today. In the class discussion, one of the speakers made a valid point on how trying to understand the language rappers use in their music today can be compared to Shakespearian language while in middle school. I thought that was an interesting comparison to make only because both are technically considered a language, but what makes one more important than the other to teach in school curriculums? I just simply found her point of view in music very fascinating and it definitely gave me a new outlook on how language is used across various platforms.