Billionaire Rhetorical Analysis

The media plays a big role in forming people's’ values, whether it is a picture, tweet or music. These values are depicted through messages such as lyrics, like in Travie McCoy’s music video, for his song, “Billionaire.” Travie McCoy’s hit song, which features another artist Bruno Mars, was released in the year of 2010. The music video for “Billionaire,” was produced to show the different purposes of the music video and captures these purposes by using rhetorical appeals: pathos and logos.
There are many purposes for Travie McCoy’s song and music video to “Billionaire,” but there are two main purposes that highlight media. One of the purposes of this music video is to show McCoy’s audience and viewers what he would do if he was

a billionaire. Travie McCoy sings, “ Give away a few Mercedes,” and “grant somebody their last wish,” in his song. This shows that he would not be greedy with his money and give to others. This highlights media because many singers and rappers nowadays sing about getting money and spending it on partying, drugs, nice cars, high brands for themselves and do not sing about giving to help other people. The second purpose is to show and make people aware of social problems that are going on. In the middle of the song, Travie McCoy raps, “I’d probably visit where Katrina hit and damn sure do a lot more than FEMA did,” and goes on singing “we in a recession.” These lyrics tell McCoy’s viewers that there is still damage and reconstruction to be done in Louisiana, where Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 and that the U.S. was in a recession that year from 2007, which caused many people to lose their jobs. These two purposes play a role in media because Travie McCoy is telling and explaining to his viewers that people should be more giving and know what is going on in the world.
Rhetorical appeal is used in Travie McCoy’s music video “Billionaire,” specifically pathos.

Pathos is seen throughout the entire music video.is used to play with the listeners or viewers emotions. There are many scenes in the music video where McCoy gives back to those in help. There is a scene where a young guy is sitting at a curb next to the beach and Travie pulls up next to him in a car and gets out of his car then throws the guy his keys. This is a big gesture and makes the viewers of this video feel like Travie is a kind and giving man. This gesture goes with the purpose of this music video, which is giving to others. In the middle of the video, a guy is seen putting headphones on Travie on the sidewalk, next to the beach. As Travie is listening, he asks the guy if that is him who he is listening too and hands the guy some money to buy his mixtape. This is an example of pathos because Travie McCoy helps the guy by giving him some money, which helps that guy get his name out to other people and the money that was given to him, could go to any expenses to help him move forward with his music career. This particular scene visually makes Travie McCoy’s audience feel awed and like he did a good deed towards another person. This shows that even the smallest things in life

count.
Another form of rhetorical appeal that is seen in the music video “Billionaire,” is logos. Logos is “the use of reasoning and evidence,” (Clark 13). One of the ways Travie McCoy inputs logos towards his music video is by targeting his audience to a younger crowd. Throughout the music video, the general age of the people that are seen is around nineteen to twenty-three years. Skaters, artists, rappers, and many other young group of people are in the video to help him with his target towards a young audience. This kind of logos works with media because the main target for the media is young people, because they listen to what is going on in the media, are on social media sites, and are the next generation. Lastly, another example of logos that can be seen in “Billionaire,” is the party at the end of the music video. The beach party that is shown towards the end of the music video shows and emphasis that everyone is in this together, talking about mainly about young teens and young adults, and that they are one big community. In this scene, Travie is seen giving drinks out to people. In a way, this shows his viewers that he is with them and that he knows the struggle that young adults go through to get where they want to be in life.
In conclusion, the media is a strong influence in people's lives and Travie McCoy shows the different purposes of his music video for his hit song, Billionaire.” by using rhetorical appeals. The purposes of this music video was shown in a positive way throughout the video and many artists should sing and produce their music videos in a more positive way like Travis McCoy did for his video.