The most notably similar portions in each of these songs centers around the ideas each rapper interweaves about religion. From the outset of “HUMBLE.” Lamar uses this to his advantage by posing in an empty cathedral while wearing papal gowns. Rather than using this a symbol of his rapping prowess, Lamar uses this imagery to focus more closely on the meaning behind his song. Juxtaposing it with footage of him sitting on a bed of money, Lamar presents a direct attack against a media devoid of morality. In essence, he purports that while he sees himself as a faithful follower of God’s word, rappers today must be braggadocios and obsessed with material wealth in order for people to listen to them. Another example of Lamar’s use of religious imagery …show more content…
Relying heavily on religious symbolism throughout the video, West puts forth the same message that society is too secular. Beginning with the first view of the seminal rapper, viewers are greeted by Kanye as he floats above a tunnel of fire coming from the depths of hell to engulf him. As Kanye raps the lyrics “God show me the way because the Devil tryna break me down,” the flames recede and a halo light fixture above Kanye’s head switches on, implying his connection to God. Later in the song though, the flames return when Kanye claims “you can rap about anything except for Jesus. That means guns, sex, lies, videotape but if I talk about God my record wont get played?” This demonstrates, much like Lamar, that West has problems with how society approaches faith. In the past labels have forced him not to rap about God, and he feels he has disrespected his faith, which is why the flames, or society, engulf him. Running out of time, and not caring how audiences will respond anymore, West does indeed rap about Jesus, but even he is afraid that it is too late. This passage leads to West’s last use of religious symbolism in the video. The Ku Klux Klan member, with his cross finished, plants it on a hill and lights it aflame for the world to see. The wind, presumably God, punishes him for his sin and tosses the cross down the mountain. Unphased and uncaring for his own life, the man carries the burning cross
one's spiritual life and even though we now have Christian rapper's, rap still seems to
In Adam Bradley’s “Rap poetry 101” he shows us how rap is more than just songs being sung, it is poetry; it is something that has an empowering ability to make the familiar unfamiliar.In this chapter Bradley creates a new viewpoint too rap. Bradley shows us how rap and poetry has become a very similar piece of art that should be further appreciated. In the chapter poetry 101 Bradley describes how rap is a form of public art, and how rappers have become our greatest public poets. The importance of rap as poetry is shown throughout Bradley's book as well as the evidence behind the reasons rap is poetry.
In the article written by Shamontiel Vaughan entitled "Why J. Cole's '2014 Forest Hills Drive' is best rap album of the year,” the author makes a great point about artist having meaning to their music. The meaning behind J. Cole’s music consist of how the lyrics are based on his past in the state of North Carolina. Shamontiel talked about how rhyme patterns are nothing without a meaning. She explains how artist are comfortable with meaningless flows with words that shows expression that match the rhythm, but their content has basically no meaning. Most Artists rap about a bunch of nothing with a passionate flow, that at some point rappers need to tap into the true meaning of Hip-Hop, which is having flow and a message. The only true reason why I fell in love with J. Cole as an artist, is because of the fact of where he was born and raised with the support of his community. Lastly his platinum albums were so great, and he is different from any other artist.
His analysis of the video and song seem more akin to a movie critic’s review of the next Quentin Tarantino film. He comments, “the video...is daring, provocative, traumatizing, cynical,... and to many, a work of genius.” This jarring examination seems relatively out of place for a song in the number one spot on the radio. One could attribute this simply to shock value, but Molanphy sees (or hears) something more when he acknowledges, “When you focus on [the] music, you gradually adjust to what initially makes it so jarring, particularly the lurch from the the sweet, acoustic Afrobeat intro to the droning, brooding chorus.” Incidentally, the song is much more than Gambino’s “cri de coeur” as Molanphy puts it, as it stands alone as a legitimate piece of hip-hop music. Paired with the video, the dark commentary does not seem so out of place when you recognize the history of rap music and its influences. He recognizes this best when he uses ethos to increase his
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 to take 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 to material possessions when he began to acquire wealth from his music career.
This shows that this is him and who he really is. People following his beliefs because he treated people equally and judged people equally. This is a big difference from him and other hip-hop artists.
The first allusion is when Mr. Travis talks about how when they get to the past that religious things and famous leaders don’t exists. Mr. Travis says, “Christ isn’t born yet. Moses has not gone to the mountains to talk with God. The pyramids are still in the
One of his most controversial songs came later in his career, it was titled “Jesus Walks,” many people didn’t want this song to be played but radios did it any way and so did MTV. There is one verse of the song that makes you appreciate his work:
Throughout the article, Kanye west, Chance the Rapper, and Kendrick Lamar are mentioned because these artists have incorporated prayers or use divine lyrics and Gospel examples into their songs. For example, In the beginning of the article, Sayles talks about the show Saturday Night Live, which that day the show was altered into a Sunday morning at a Baptist church because Kanye West was performing a song from his forthcoming album “The Life of Pablo”, which had special appearances of a gospel choir, R&B singer Kelly Price, Pastor Kirk Franklin, and Chance the Rapper. Kanye West starts singing a short phrase from the Prayer of St. Francis, which says “Deliver us serenity, Deliver us peace, Deliver us loving, We know we need it.”, which is a Christian prayer. Sayles mentioned Kayne West album “The Life of Pablo” is named in
As Kendrick entered the stage shackled to his black comrades with a soulful saxophone playing in the background, it is obvious that the imagery of imprisonment was a commentary on incarceration in America and its similarities with slavery. By amplifying this modern twist on slavery, Kendrick provokes American viewers to reflect on the struggles that black Americans still go through today. At the start of his performance he goes on to rap “I’m African-American — I’m African” as if he was correcting himself. This isn’t surprising as black identity is hard to establish in a country that implicitly detests you, but explicitly fetishizes your culture. Stuart Hall discusses this in his text when he states, “’the primitive is a modern problem, a crisis in cultural identity’…the modernist construction of primitivism, the fetishistic recognition and disavowal of the primitive difference” (Hall 125). There is no wonder why Kendrick, like many African-Americans, finds comfort in placing his identity with the mother land rather than his true country of origin. How can the black multitude stand in solidarity with a country who will continuously praise black culture but refuse to recognize the black struggle? Kendrick Lamar then conjures imagery of Africa, where he danced and rapped in front of a raging bonfire, one of the most powerful imagery included in his entire performance. One can interpret
In the 1967 prison film Cool Hand Luke, directed by Stuart Rosenberg, there are many examples of theological symbolism and religious themes. Most of the symbolism alludes to Jesus Christ, which is often utilized in film to add depth to the protagonist in the story. Such Christ figure symbolism can also be seen in films such as the 1999 hit The Matrix and the original Star Wars film (1977). Along with these visual suggestions, there are also thematic elements that underlie Cool Hand Luke which involve Biblical allusions and metaphysical questions.
In the first verse of his song, he questions what the cost of a dollar really means to us. He then proceeds to imply that the question to him is ridiculous but it gets him thinking about it, “How much a dollar really cost? The question is detrimental, paralyzin' my thoughts/Parasites in my stomach keep me with a gut feeling” (AZ Lyrics 1). In this particular situation it “costs” Lamar his place Heaven, which he would ultimately think has no price. Moreover, this rhetorical question analyzes the “esteem” for riches.
Hip Hop was, at its inception, a means for African Americans to tell their unaltered story. Towards the mid-’90s however, the genre began to be way more salse conscious than it ever was before. Artists, such as Nas for example, began to stray from their genuine and authentic selves to start making music about drugs, violence, and sex because that was what pushed their sales to the corporate level. This album was Lauryn Hill coming to re-educate the people in an attempt to bring them back to the root of Hip Hop. This poem focuses on many different themes, however this focuses on religion. In the poem Mystery of Iniquity the writer Lauryn Hill examines religion to illustrate racial discrimination, corrupting and crooked
“Burn up a basement full of demons” (Young the Giant) this lyric is in mention to hell. Hell is usually depicted by Christians as fire, pain, and suffering, and one can recognize that here in this example, in hell there is demons being engulfed by fire in the underworld. Another example would be the religion of the sun and the moon, a pagan religion. The sun in many religions has different ideas of what the sun is to be, but some may worship the sun god like Egyptian and Greek mythology. The moon does not have too many qualities in other religions ,such as the sun, but it is common to identify the moon worshipped in Egyptian and Greek mythology as well.
...truction, and the apocalyptic nature of the music video points to the religious undertones of the song.