1. Task 5 Research into similar music magazines on which you could base your magazine. Map out possible ideas for your music magazine including names, possible musical genres and ideas for articles. Task 6 Choose a musical genre/genres to feature in your magazine. List the names of bands/artists that are part of this genre, a brief history of the genre and the type of imagery associated with it.

2. Hip-Hop Magazines Most of my example magazine covers are from ‘VIBE’ magazine- which is a magazine suited for hip-hop/R&B artists who are mainly of Afro-Caribbean decent, although there is no criteria. My music genre will be ‘ Underground hip-hop’ which is not in the mainstream and therefore my artists do not appear on these magazine covers. Therefore, I have used the nearest genre to it, and got covers of mainstream rappers/artists in the hip-hop scene to use as bases for my magazine ideas.

3. Female Portrayal in mainstream hip-hop magazines: The images shown on the left display the way in which I would like females in my magazine to be portrayed. Although these 4 images are all from ‘VIBE’ magazine; through my research, I have come across many ways that women have been presented in magazines and have therefore concluded that if I were to use female images in my magazine, I would prefer to adopt the style from the left instead of the right. The images portrayed on the right are very sexualised and play on the mainstream hip-hop stereotype of women being ‘sex objects’ and possessions of gangsters (men). I don’t like that portrayal as it belittles women. Whereas the picture of Aaliyah on the left, is an example of a different presentation of women in hip-hop, where a very talented young singer is displayed as being very classy; therefore this is the portrayal I am likely to adopt as it is much preferable to my genre.

9. Examples of Mainstream rappers and Underground rappers Ms Dynamite Lowkey Shadia Logic Akala Immortal Technique T.I Lil Wayne Rick Ross

12. Political roles Akala Lowkey Underground Rappers are often very pro-active against war, corruption (eg. Rich over poor) and are sometimes seen criticising the government for certain policies etc Many of these rappers are extremely intelligent individuals and hence fight to reserve the image and purpose of hip-hop (it is not the language of fools): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kx1EyBTobo ‘ Three incredible minds gather at the British Library to discuss the current state of hip-hop and it's misguided use by the youth of today. They underline the various struggles in making music as an independent artist and deliver great wisdom for the new movement’