In 2001, rapper Immortal Technique released the track, Dance With The Devil, on the album Revolutionary Vol. 1, produce by 44 Caliber. Dance With The Devil tells the story of little William, AKA, Billy Jacobs, growing up in the hood and his quest for reputation. Hood life during the 80’s, 90’s, and early 00’s was tough. Most people couldn’t afford to live stable lives, so many reverted to gang violence and drug dealing to make’s ends meet. Reputation is everything in the hood. For Billy, he lost his “street-creds” when he snitched for a crime, forcing him to attempt to regain his reputation. In Billy Jacobs’ quest to gain reputation in the hood, he and his fellow members kidnap, brutally beat, gang-rape, and kill a women walking on the street. …show more content…
Even though the legitimacy of the story comes into question, the conditions of the hood produce adverse effects on the youth growing up there. Specifically, when he says, “[a] nigga never had a father and his mom was a fiend… [But,] she put the pipe down.” For many African American families, children grow up without fathers due to their high incarceration rate, with mother’s being drug addicts. For some, they are able to get off drugs, and are then forced to raise a family alone. As he raps, Immortal Technique describes the various influences that exist in the hood. He says, “[Billy’s] primary concern was making a million…being the illest hustler that the world ever seen…[Billy] used to fuck movie stars and sniff coke in his dreams,” as a result of the illusion of success that the big hustlers gave off around him, all by the age of thirteen. Kids in the hood grow up wanting to make millions, just like anyone else, but the influences that surround them and the immense poverty often convince them that crime is the only way to achieve their dreams. On this path, many youths are locked up and sent to juvenile detention centers, ruining their dreams, and perpetuating a continuous cycle of crime. But, Immortal Technique gives a warning when he says, “Ask a nigga doing life if he had another chance…But then again …show more content…
Regardless of the facts behind this statement, it serves a purpose. By him saying this, it means he too grew up in this environment and helped to perpetuate the cycle, simply by participating in it. Even, Immortal Techniques background plays a major role in this story. He too, grew up in the hood (Harlem) in the 80’s, where drug use, crime, and gangs were prevalent. During his youth he too was influenced by the same factors that influenced poor Billy. He turned to violence and crime, but was able to escape it through education and good influences. Immortal techniques message is clear: that the conditions of the hood perpetuate an endless cycle of violence and it is up to the people and the government to stop this cycle. Without the help of the governmental intervention to provide financial support and stability to inner cities, who knows when or how the violence will end? The warning is clear, “when the devil wants to dance with you, you better say never…Because the dance with the devil might last you
Over the past 60 years there has been a recent phenomenon in the development and rise of gangs and gang violence. This is exceptionally apparent in South Central Los Angeles where the Bloods and the Crips have taken control of the social structure and created a new type of counter culture. Poverty in this area is an enormous problem caused by a shear lack of jobs; but just because there is a lack of jobs doesn’t mean that there will be a lack of bills to pay, so sometimes selling drugs in order to keep a roof over your head seems like the most logical option. Crime often times flourishes in these regions because the inconvenient truth is; crime pays. Senator Tom Hayden stated “It’s been defined as a crime problem and a gang problem but it’s really an issue of no work and dysfunctional schools.” this statement is in fact true, but with an exception it is a more broad issue than just involving school, and lack of jobs but goes beyond into social structure as a whole and more specifically the judicial system, this can all be supported by three sociologists Chambliss, Anderson, and Durkheim.
Although Boyz n the Hood helps to resist the stereotypes of young black men, and shed light on the real, lived experiences and institutional oppression of black people and young black men in particular, the film also reinscribes a stereotypical narrative that all black people are impoverished and become incriminated in gang activity. Not all black people experience poverty and gang activity. One could see this film as perpetuating the single black experience as if all black people are exactly alike and have exactly the same
The book Devil in a Blue Dress is written by Walter Mosley. There are lots of devils who appear in the story. Albright, Mouse, Carter, Easy and Daphne are devils without any questions because actions like hustling, and killing people show that they aren’t good people. From the story, we may easily conclude all characters are devils, but we should always think about who makes them commit illegal actions. When they were children, none of them thought about doing any illegal jobs. All of them wanted to be good guys. The real devil is the one that led them against the law. Who is that devil? It is money. Money connects the entire story, and it makes poor people want to do illegal things to make easy money. On the other hand, it
Boyz N the Hood was a film created to convey an anti-gang message as well as to provide societal members an in-depth look at life in “the hood” so he or she can expand their culturally awareness of identifying societal issues (Stevenson, 1991). Upon the debut of “Boyz N the Hood” violence erupted at theaters across the nation, resulting in multiple shows pulling the film from scheduled showings to alleviate future violent behaviors (Stevenson, 1991). The film profoundly illustrates the realty of the events revealed within the storyline that frequently occur on a daily basis within every impoverish community; however, is overlooked by the individuals who are not directly involved and or affected (Leon-Guerrero, 2016) Children of lower socioeconomic status often are raised in ghetto neighborhoods where they often witness, crime, violence, gang activity, abuse, and drugs (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Ghetto communities envelop tumultuous cycles of violence and substance abuse creating a pervasive occurrence within the residents of the community. This is prevalent in lower developed communities that unfortunately many children and the youth populace indirectly inherit and sadly conform to, as there are no other means to an end for them (Leon-Guerrero,
Singleton begins the film by showing Tre, the protagonist, as a child. He is sent to live with his father, Furious, in “the hood” after acting out in school. There, he meets up with a group of friends and one day they journey to see a dead body. Singleton does this to show the children’s exposure to death at such a young age. It is not typical for a young child to see such things, so this symbolic gesture is effective at showing the viewer what kind of culture the children are being brought up in. Immediately after their encounter with the dead body the children are taunted by a group of gang members over a football. By setting this up immediately after the children’s encounter with death, Singleton has coupled gang violence and murder. This is an important to the cultural moment that Singleton is trying to encapsulate b...
Compare and contrast the relationship of the detective to his or her community in Devil in a Blue Dress and Corollary In Walter Mosley’s “devil in a blue dress”, there is a clear cut distinction between the white and black man, this distinction is portrayed as something that is somewhat negative and looks at the situation from the eyes of a black man named Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins and how he is changed from a simple day to day laborer into an effective detective.
In the movie “Boyz in the Hood” director John Singleton, paints a clear image of the problems that happen very often in the African American communities. The movie deals with issues such as: the importance of a father in a young man’s life, the ongoing violence of black on black crime, and how black people are put in situations where they are put to fail and not succeed in life.
In one of the chapters, ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’ the author reveals how blacks in America use the music to express their anger and commitment to emerge as great people in an unfair community. Most songs are written to educate the society on the negative effects of racism. They encourage the society to love one another and embrace unity. The human nature is founded through a social platform where philosophers claim that people were created to love one another and live with peace and unity. Through this book, it is clear that the blacks in the hip-hop generation are money minded. However, this is expected in a world where the economy is tough. The author claims that the youth are the people who are majorly affected by racism. Many of them have been arrested for pity mistakes which are magnified in the courts due to the impression that the society has on the black people. They engage in dirty activities like drug dealings that that put them on the wrong side of the
Devil in a Blue Dress introduces the reader to Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, the protagonist and narrator of the story. It is 1948, and he is a young black veteran of World War II who has moved to Los Angeles after growing up in a tough neighborhood in
Boyz in the Hood is a statement of how urban youth have been passed a legacy of tragic indifference, and the writer has shown that it is an almost inescapable fate for those born into racism and poverty to repeat the patterns they wish to escape. The movie’s characters are clear representations of how the system fails young black youth in the United States, and the difference one mentor can make for these kids. During segregation young black children became targets for white brutality. This movie reflects what the European mentality and what it has done to the African American culture.
In Dancing in the Dark, Morris Dickstein shares his perceptive study about the 1930s. He presents his ideas by using famous works and focusing on the culture. He looks at how those who faced the Depression and those who ran away from it, have a lot in common. This paper will review the era as well as Dickstein’s main arguments, and will evaluate his quality of writing and observe any areas of weakness within his research.
The movie “Save The Last Dance” directed by Thomas Carter, is a story about a white female named Sara, who moved to south Chicago to live with her dad after her mom had died in a tragic car accident during Sara’s audition for Julliard, school of dance. Sara doesn’t get accepted into Julliard and starts school in south Chicago which is located on the rougher side of town. At this new school, Sara meets Chenille and Chenille’s brother Derek, who are both African-American. Chenille and Derek take Sara to a club which is completely out of her element because this club centers their dancing around hip hop and Sara only has experience in ballet and contemporary dance. Derek agrees to give Sara lessons on how to dance hip-hop. While teaching her
The film Notorious starts with scene in La, California, this is where most African American artist start their career at example NWA, where Biggie is about to be killed. Before the shooting occurs, the film flashes back to Biggie 's childhood. When Biggie was a child, he lived it by being obsessed with money and fine jewelry. In order to achieve, such money he ends up selling drugs. He continues to sells drugs, and when he hears his girlfriend, Jan Jackson, was pregnant he takes drug dealing to a new level. Later in the movie he faced jail time because he was caught selling drugs. He continues to sell drugs but started to rap, this is when his career
The underworld as depicted in A Rage in Harlem has largely to do with the
Devil on the Cross is a novel written by Ngugi Wa Thiongo in attempt to talk to all Kenyans battling neo-colonialism. Being politically independent, but economically dependent on other countries has evidently had a huge toll on Kenya and its citizens. Kenya is a land where nothing is free. Foreigners had made their way into occupying the land and have used it as a mean of profit for them and a few citizens in Kenya. Through the use of six different characters, Devil on the Cross manages to depict the struggles experienced within the cities of Kenya. The characters of Wariinga, Robin Mwaura, Wangari, Muturi, Gatuiria, and the man in the dark glasses show different experiences of Kenya’s neo-colonialism occurrences.