Is Ace Hood the hardest Rapper in the South??

Do you think Ace Hood was the hardest rapper?? Around the early 2000’s one rapper that I think had a similar flow as Ace Hood was 50 Cent. 50 Cent is an east coast rapper in New York City that was the head artist from the music group “G-Unit”. Both 50 Cent and Ace Hood included their life story of growing up in the hood in their rap lyrics. One of 50 Cent’s famous songs was “In the Club”, “Many Men” and “I Get Money”. In these songs, 50 Cent rapped about making quick money, having women, and being the boss of New York. Similar to Ace Hood, both of these rappers talk the living in the fast life at a young age. Based upon the conditions that both of these rappers grew up in, they had no choice but to adjust their environment. The norm around that period was trying to get money by any means necessary to survive.

Ace hood is a rapper from the south of Florida that created music in the early 2000s. Although he is currently an independent rapper, he was signed under the music labor "We The Best Music Group" by DJ Khaled. There were various many rappers around that time, but Ace Hood was someone different. He spoke about is difficulty growing up through his lyrics. The flow of his lyrics comes off as strong and aggressive to his audience.

In Ace Hood's music video, "Hustle Hard" he displays his struggle as a black man living in the hood. He mentions in his lyrics when times are tough, men hustle on the street to care for their families, and women have to struggle to take care of their children with minimum income. In poor black communities, it is very easy to get caught up with drugs, sex, violence, are those are some of the things that usually happen. Additionally, young men are try to survive by associating themselves with gangs, drug dealers or try to avoid confrontation with the law enforcement. Young men want to get rich fast, which is when young men involve themselves with the wrong group.   

Some parts of his music video relates back to the dominant ideologies as part of American culture. In Ace Hood’s music video, he has a strong sense of manliness which represents machismo. Machismo is an assumption that virility, courage, strength, and entitlement to dominate. For example, in the beginning of his music video, Ace Hood is walking in from the background, walking to the audience to indicate that he wants all attention on him. In addition, his gestures and movement are very contentious. He has a white t-shirt on, showing off his muscles and his aggression. His movement throughout the video catches the audience attention.

Individualism is reflected throughout his music video. Individualism is the principle or habit or belief in independent thought or action. It is also the pursuit of an individual rather than an common or collective interests.  Individualism is when you make your own way of life. Ace Hood expresses this in his music video with the chorus saying “Hustle, Hustle, Hustle, Hard”. His belief is that if a man or woman “hustle hard” they will be successful in life. Other individuals may have their own way of being successful; going to college or to the military. Depending on where a person has grown up from, will have an impact on what their view is as being an “established individual”.

This is also similar to rags-to-riches ideology. This is the idea that it is possible to transcend the social class status of one’s birth. Based upon Ace Hood’s music video, if a man hustle’s hard, he will be able to be successful. He characterizes success as having a lot of money, driving expensive cars, and being around attractive women. Hustling requires being on the street “trapping”, selling drugs or doing anything to make money fast. Ace Hood grew up around this activity and he saw men have an successful life by “hustling or living a fast life”.

To conclude, the American Dream is the ideal life of success along with the idea that an individual can be successful if he or she works hard to accomplish their dreams. According to the video, being successful is having material things like cars, expensive clothing and jewelry. One can be successful, but material things are not the primary idea of “success”.

In my opinion, when this music video first came out, I was interested in it. I enjoyed listening to Ace Hood because his music lyrics caught my attention. Not only did he talk about his life story, he talked about his weakness and along with his struggles. He has grown to be a well-known rapper. He isn’t as popular as he was before, but he still makes music here and there. 

-Steven Edmond