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African American’s influence in music has been increasingly popular as time progresses. It first began to gain popularity in the late 1800s thorough the medium of Minstrel Shows in which white men would blacken their faces and perform music that was widely known as African American music. Much like the “rap” music of today, it isn’t exclusively enjoyed by Black Americans, it has become universal. Because of this, it is often debated that African Americans have allowed themselves to become stereotypes to appeal to the masses and the images are apparent in the music.

Back in the 1890’s the stereotypes present in music and minstrel shows were much more blatant than they are today. A good example being a song entitled “The Coon’s Trademark: A watermelon, razor, chicken, and a coon.” Written by Tom Logan, the song pokes fun at the typical foods eaten by Blacks, as well as the razor, which became a classic weapon of choice for them during this time. Africans in these times were portrayed as lazy, violent (likely to cut you with a razor), and somewhat clownish. The minstrel performers often dressed up in baggy goonish clothing and sported goofy expressions as they acted. Mediums popular in society at the time were often used in songs such as the popular novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which portrayed White plantation owners in a negative light and Africans has abused and mistreated. Many, many songs written during the time included phrases just mentioning the name Uncle Tom, which became a stereotypical name for a elderly African American. The novel was written by a white woman, so white society had created this nickname for the race. Another interesting trend is how often “Ethiopian” is used to describe an African American. There are over 68 songs and ballads including the term “Ethiopian”, such as “Come take a sail: a favorite Ethiopian Ballad” and “ Camptown Races: A new Ethiopian Song.” They say the term “Ethiopian” almost as if all African’s are known as being from Ethiopia originally, or that Ethiopian had become the term to describe all of those from Africa. Slang that was very popular at the time, such as “mammy” and “uncle tom” and misspelling of words to sound like the way an African American would pronounce it were common lyrics.

Today, slang as lyrics is still universally common in African American influenced music. “ Rap” is filled with such phrases such as “ Benjamins”, “ Nigga”, “ Crib”, “Ice”, and “ Word” which is slang terms supposedly used “right off the streets”. This is a crucial stereotype of music today. Most rap/ hip hop artists are suspected to have had a rocky upbringing, living in a ghetto in a major city, and know a thing or two about street survival. Most Americans have this image that Africans live in the slums, sell drugs, and are generally fatherless and tough. For this reason, many other races have fears of African American culture. It’s a trend these days for Rap artists to be incredibly proud of their roots and make claims to protect it. Lyrics like this from N.W.A show this trend: “ So when I’m in your neighborhood, you better duck Coz Ice Cube is crazy as F**k As I leave, believe I’m stompin but when I come back, boy, I’m comin straight outta Compton” This shows their pride in their neighborhood and the feelings that all others are not as tough and they can take them all. Also, notice the spellings of the words. Instead of simply adding a “g” to “comin” they leave it that way because that’s the way it sounds when they say it. This is similar to the way lyrics were written in the 1890s. Also, the same fear/notion that African’s had a violent nature still is a popular theme in music. Rappers try to look tough, and often include threats to other groups in their lyrics. Another trend in this type of music, as seen in the previous lyrics, is the extensive use of foul language, which serves to add to the tough image.

These “images” of African Americans over the time periods have their obvious differences but it seems as though most of these stereotypes were created by White Americans and in order to sell themselves, Africans conformed to this stereotype. Whether it be looking goofy and eating watermelon or dressing tough and using curse words, African American music has always had a sense of unreality to it. In the way that perhaps it isn’t so much their own as it is universal.