Both songs, “A Tale of 2 Citiez” and “All Falls Down,” describe shortcuts to perceived success. They describe scenarios of young adults trying to obtain what they think success is by obtaining material possessions from taking shortcuts. Even with those descriptions of shortcuts people take, they do not promote the idea of achieving success through the shortcuts of obtaining material possessions to try to show others that they are successful since they both express regret and negative attributes related to those actions. Throughout both songs, the artists J. Cole and Kanye West describe shortcuts that the younger generation of people would take to try and obtain the illusion of success. “A Tale of 2 Cities” by J. Cole describes a scenario
It starts by describing a young woman in college, stating, “she has no idea what she’s doing in college, the major she majored in don’t make no money, she won’t drop out, her parents will look at her funny (West).” By doing this the song establishes that this woman wants success but she doesn’t know how to obtain it since she was basically pushed into pursuing a career in college that she was unsure of in order to obtain success. The song furthers the story of the woman when she states that she gives up and goes on to say that her tuition money is enough to buy a few pairs of new shoes. The desire for success and frustration of not being able to achieve it, is what essentially leads the woman of taking this shortcut of dropping out of school to acquire material possessions in the “now” instead of the slower more standard route of finishing her education and finding success through that. Kanye West then describes in the song his addiction of material possessions when he began to acquire wealth from his music career. He says in the song “Man I’m so self-conscious, that’s why you always see my with one of my watches,” showing that he took the route of obtaining material possessions as soon as he acquired money to try and show others his success (West). He furthers this point by stating “then I spent 400 bucks on this, just to be like, you ain’t up on this,” showing it wasn’t just one instance, but a constant reoccurrence of showing off his material possessions to constantly try and present himself to others as
For example, Tupac commences his rap song by referring to poverty in the first few verses in his song as he states, “I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself/ Is life worth living should I blast myself? / I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black/ My stomach hurts so I’m looking for a purse to snatch,” (Shukar l. 2-4). In these verses Tupac indicates that many African Americans live in poverty and they are not given many opportunities to do well for themselves. Changes to better their situation seem unobtainable and he portrays the voice of impoverished groups as he questions his purpose in life. He contemplates whether or not he should continue living. This verse also indicates that people with very little opportunity must deviate from the norms which society has placed on them, meaning that because they have no opportunity they must resort to stealing in order to avoid
J Cole begins to point out how hard he had to work to get where he is. For 11 winters straight he took on New York’s climate (lns. 51) and while climbing the ladder of success, he rose the standards “…so high that you gotta get Obama to fore the air force to find it” (lns. 53). This hyperbole is not only a form of bragging, but by including the metaphor of the ladder to success, he lets his audience know that he is not trying to be just another famous rapper. He is trying to be so good that he changes the standards of what people consider to be a successful
“Kanye Ran onto the stage saying, ‘I'm sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!’” (Top 10 Outrageous Kanye West Moments), says Kanye West at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards after Taylor Swift had just won “Best Female Video.” People that are like this have typically not always been this way. They were probably raised as a polite and respectful person before they were exposed to fame and fortune, and other “celebrities,” making them feel like they are the only people on the planet. Causing them to do things like that. Although, Kanye West is an amazing musician based on his 14 Grammy Awards and multiple albums going “Double-Platinum” (Manheim, James M., and Carol Brennan). He fell victim to fame and fortune, and turned into an arrogant and overconfident person making him more popular and praised among media. But looked down upon by everyday people. Kanye Omari West, born on June 8th, 1977, is a world famous rapper who, like all other celebrities, started out like a nice person who made nice music for nice families to listen to. West was a confident and competitive person even as a child, “He was determined even then to get out of his crib and be free, even if he split his head in the process—and he did. He has fought ever since to do exactly what he wanted to do—no matter what,” says Donda West, his mother in her book, Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar. By the time West was ten, he was already creating his own raps, and according to the people around him, he was pretty good at it even at that young of an age. (Manheim, James M., and Carol Brennan) West was not too interested in school as he grew up, but he was able to get by because of his talent. If he dropped out of one ...
The song is set around Chief keef being on the phone and talking to a woman, he refers to the woman on the song as a bitch, hoe, and thottie. The word thottie is derived from the word thot, which is an acronym for “that hoe over there”. The song states “You wanna Glo up, baby, Keef got you/You's a gold bottle, these hoes pink Moscato/Baby I'm the owner, you can be my castle”. This line right here compares the woman to other women by saying she is a better bottle of liquor than other women and calls her his property when he says you can be my castle. Then he goes on to say in the song “ Baby cause I like you/Only reason I text you and why I Skype you/I just wanna fuck on you, I don't wanna wife you/But you gotta brush your teeth and do what I say though/(Hello?)/Bitch can you hear me?/Keep your pussy in park, no 360... I don't wanna smell you/Cause I'ma cut/you off, quicker than I met you/I'ma swipe your name up off my schedule/And if smoke this blunt, girl, I'm gon' forget you”. The lyrics basically says the women is just there for his sexual pressure and he does not plan on making her more than that; he also tells the women that he has to be the one in control if she wants to continue this relationship; then he tells her, he will completely stop communicating/seeing her, if she does not do what he wants her to do and she can be
He may just seem like another rapper to you but if you actually listen to his lyrics you can see he’s not like any rapper out there. His name is Kanye West and he was born in Chicago Illinois. He grew up in the “ghetto” and learned to appreciate life. He didn’t learn to really, truly appreciate life until October of 2002. Driving back to his hotel late one night after a recording session, the new-coming rap/hip-hop artist was involved in a devastating, near fatal car accident. The crash left him with a broken jaw in three places and an appreciation for life. Just weeks after being released from the hospital he recorded his first major hit, “Through the Wire,” with his mouth still wired shut. He records every song like its going to be his last song and that makes every song better than the last. He’s not only a rap artist but also a producer. He has been responsible for being behind songs like Jay-Z’s Izzo, Girls, Girls, Girls, The Takeover, and 03 Bonnie and Clyde.
“While the rich kids is drivin ' Benz ,I 'm still tryin ' to hold on to my survivin ' friends.” In this quote Tupac had his audience take a second to image a rick kid driving in the hood with a Benz while a poor African Amirian boy is struggling to keep his friends. Tupac uses his lyrics to help paint a picture though his lyrics of the life of a black person which brings us to Imagery. The use of imagery in this song is amazing. Without even watching the music video and just listening to the song I could easily image everything that Tupac was trying to explain. This is what makes Tupac the best rapper still till this day! Another use of imagery is when he said “Dying inside, but outside you 're looking fearless, While tears, is rollin ' down your cheeks”. By this quote we as the audience should realize that there is more to this song that Tupac is trying to explain. In this quote I feel as though he was explaining that as African Americans more so black women tend to always wear this smile on our face no matter the situation when we know something in us is dying or is just not right. For some reason us black women have a habit of hiding our true feeling and situations. Last was the use of symbols which ties in with imagery. “They got money for wars, but can 't feed the poor”. What was Tupac really trying to say? This quote symbolize so much about America as a whole, and how as a nation we spend so much of our money on weapons for warfare but yet there are little kids who go days and weeks without no food. Is that fair? This quote symbolized pain and loss of hope because they (poor people) will never see a happy day. As they say we have to have the poor to have the
The quote " .. hip-hop is successful because the music is “infectious” and because it allows people to express themselves.."(Walker). From this quote we can analyze it and say that the rap is an art form that allows oneself to express their feeling about the world or express their own feelings, etc. We can than connect the film to this quote to the film Notorious, for example the rivalry between Biggie Smalls and Tupac. We notice that they use rap in order to express how they feel about each through a rap battle, and from the quote by the author Carolee Walker, these two rappers use their rapping skills to show how they feel towards one another. This theme reoccurs throughout every rappers career, whether its dissing one another through a song or its expressing how they feel about a certain someone
Knowing the purpose of the Hip-Hop culture was to be the new improved of the civil rights movement is devastating. Jay Z and Kanye West are not looked at as being a Martin Luther King Jr. or a Malcolm X but they are still idealized as being the best. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X fought for our rights where Mr. Jay and Kanye only fighting for album sales. There is a difference between what Hip-Hop supposes to be and what Hip-Hop turned out to be. The black youth is seeing Hip-Hop as being a culture where nothing is important, but wealth and not realizing the crisis they are in. Taking a break and looking back in history, the youth will notice, “denial of education played an important part in the legalized status of Blacks as inferior and immoral” (Burris 2011, 4).
He said “the CEO’s tell him that they can 't invest in his ideas, because he 's not a true fashion designer, that he 's a rapper” like he didn’t have any experience in the fashion world. Then he tries to explain that he 's not a true musician either, he doesn 't know how to play the piano. Kanye is an artists, he went back to school and graduate from an art college. I can relate to that in a way, because the past few years I been playing football, and actually came here to play. The summer before arriving to Guilford I had stopped playing football because I felt like there 's more to life than just football. I soon began to take in interest in cars along with fashion. My family tried to marginalize me by telling me that I don 't need to worry about anything else just to play football, like I didn 't know anything about cars or fashion. Little did they know, I took an Auto Tech class in high school, so I know the basics of auto
“G.O.M.D” which stands for (Get Off My Dick), is really for the people that always be getting on his nerves in Hollywood and “No Role Modelz” is him having the feeling the only females that are are out there are reality tv girls or strippers. He then tells the story of him meeting a girl but she got a kid in the song “Hello” and him not really feeling that because he can barely take care of himself. The last two songs are kind of a combination of motivation and thanks for what he has become with “Apparently” and “Love Yourz”. The first song is him thanking his mama for always believing in him. And “Love Yourz” is a song that makes you want to count your blessings and be thankful for the people in your
The first time a listener listens to this song, one could argue the any deeper meaning is drowned out by the corney and simple message that exists on the surface of the song. Most examples of these messages can be found at the end of each verse, the first example of this is found when the singer states, “... I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart.” As one could see, this line makes it quite obvious that “Free Fallin’” is all about the process of breaking up with someone. Another example of a line that backs this up is found when the singer states, “And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows. All the good girls are home with broken hearts... “ Again, the message of the song doesn’t change or grow as a piece, rather; the progression of the song pauses and the song begins to
Rap music has given me personally something to look up to. Not a role model but hope of continuing my dreams because rappers successfully made it. “For what’s money without happiness, or hard times without the people you love” is from a song called “Love Yourz” by J. Cole. He clearly understands how there is “beauty in the struggle and ugliness in the success” because he’s lived that life. Other songs such as “2Face” or “The Autograph” were instantly relatable to me because he has been through several struggles from the beginning of his childhood. Cole’s father left when he was six leaving his mother and younger brother alone. Cole became “the man of the house” but becoming a rapper is not as easy as it seems. Cole’s messages in these two songs are relative because I too, have had several issues with my mother and father creating a sense of lonesome. Hearing music like Coles helped me overcome my
This song implies that individual’s are violating the norms and values of society. They start the song with a verse that expresses this concern. “What’s wrong with the world, mama/ People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas…” (lines 1-2). This makes one aware of the disobedience of values that are held in the family. Values are “standard[s] of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes.” (Newman, 32) Another verse in this song that illustrates how society is defying norms and values is when they sing: “People killin', people dyin'/ Children hurt and you hear them cryin/ Can you practice what you preach/ And would you turn the other cheek…” (lines 50-53). These lines utter that society has failed to act in a sane and coherent way that society once viewed as correct. The actions affirm that individuals are not living up to society’s norms. Norms are similar to “rules of conduct” and suggest how an individual “should” act. (Newman, 34) In the song they question the acts that would be taken that violate certain norms. Another example of the infringement of society’s norms and values is expressed when the s...
For many of us, one of the most accurate and effective ways to express the feelings that really matter to us is through music. We don’t only grow to attached to songs that are catchy, but also those with lyrics that we can relate to. It is not uncommon to feel like sometimes, artists can convey the way we feel better than we could ourselves. The storybook-like lines you read at the start of this page are a collection of lyrics
They then write a song in an attempt to become famous. Many people are not capable of achieving self-actualization or some people may only achieve it to a certain degree. According to Maslow when the base of the pyramid’s needs is met one can then focus their attention on becoming self-actualized. Self-actualized people have nine characteristics they have peak experiences, they possess self-acceptance and a democratic world view, they are realistic, they tend to be problem centered, they tend to be very independent, they enjoy solitude and privacy, they have a philosophical sense of humor, they are spontaneous, and they fully enjoy the journey, not just the destination (Cherry, 2017). They also have a very logical and rational point of