Assignment 2 “I'm seeing nothing but my dreams comin' true, while I'm starin' at the world through my rear view.” The lyrics of this song repeat themselves constantly in my mind, although it was only the night before that I had come to discover this song. Of course, I had come across this song just as I came across most songs that I listen to; while I was surfing through YouTube, searching for new music that I could spend my time listening to throughout the days. Now, when I say “new” music, I don't mean music that has only recently been released; I mean songs that I have not yet heard, which are new to me. Most of the music I listen to, anyways, is from before I was even been born. I've always been captivated by old-school rap music, so it's …show more content…
You learn so much about a rapper, and all the hardships they had to overcome in their lives to get to where they are now, through their music. Hearing their stories, really makes me wonder that, if they can get through so many hardships, why can’t I? I use rap as motivation to achieve my goals in life, and as a stepping stone, where one day I want to be driving a million-dollar car and living in a mansion with tons of money because of my hard work, dedication and persistence. I know that in today’s society, people look down on rap due to the things that are spoken of in it and it is affecting kids. However, that applies to almost everything; somehow, somewhere someone always finds a way to find a flaw and exploit it and make it a bigger issue than it should be. I understand why people think it is wrong when rappers tell their audiences to go out and do drugs and other wrong things, however, a lot of artists have given rap a bad name, when it had really started out as a form of expression and a way to convey messages about the hardships people went through. Rap has changed remarkably from when Tupac was alive and now. There have been a plethora of rappers that have come and gone but some stuck around and produce music until this day. Additionally, rap back in the day was better than it is now because back then every song had a deeper message within it, whereas artists are mass-producing just to make money and putting less and
When listening to rap music we get to experience the environments that the MC lived through. Most MC’s use music as a way of coping with reality, their violent and hard life. In this way they find a kind of shelter in their songs even though these songs describe their life and how hard it is.
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
People from many generations may think that today’s music shows virtually nothing. This generations rap music mainly circles around how much money you receive from rapping, how much women you receive from rapping, and how much drugs you receive from rapping. There is rare few times where rap artist come out of this circle, to talk about real life experiences, issues within the world, and how this affects certain diversities. Baruti N. Kopano, an assistant professor of Mass Communications at Delaware State University, does a study on the rhetorical legacy of rap music. He starts off in this article how rap music to him is a legacy with rich history, “For rappers, ‘keepin it real’ means being
This article is titled “Rap music is harmful to African American communities” and is written by E. Faye Williams. Williams is a chairwoman of the National Congress of Black Women (NCBW). The national congress of black women is a non-profit organization dedicated to the educational, political, economic, and cultural development of African American women and their families. Williams’s article “Rap music is harmful to African American communities” makes her qualified and a credible source to be writing on this question: If rap music and other media is harming the African American community? In her article, she states her side of the argument of how rap music and media are indeed harming the African American community, using the context, and reasoning,
It was the first time I had ever been to a party. I had just graduated high school, and did not have nor ever did have any sort of interest in going to a party. One of my fellow classmates had invited me to her party on the night of graduation, and I decided why not? I was told growing up that I would never have contact with most of my classmates after graduation ever again, so I wanted to have one last fun moment with the graduating class of 2013. I arrived at my classmate’s house around nine, and immediately was overwhelmed by the makeshift dance floor in the backyard, the loud, unfamiliar music, and the disco lights. Growing up, I had never been introduced to rap music, so I did not enjoy it as much as my fellow classmates did. It did not take long for the party to get started. Boys and girls alike started to make their way to the makeshift dance floor, immediately dancing on one another. I was absolutely taken away as girls that I had known for four years bent over and began to press their backsides up against boys, grinding on the boys as if it were an everyday activity as degrading music blared out of the speakers, as if they were not aware of the actual lyrics of the song. I was not sure what made me feel sicker to my stomach: the way the girls moved their behinds in ways that I found impossible, which I later learned was called ‘twerking’, or the misogynistic rap music that my classmates danced to. I have not been to a party since then, and I do not think I ever will go to one again. It did not take me long to understand why my parents never let me listen to rap music before: it is this misogynistic, or a hatred towards women, type of music. Rap music clearly portrays women in several, negative ways, such as re...
Many people do not like rap music because they say that it is too violent or the people that are involved are just very violent. Many people say this because most people who rap or listen to rap music, grew up in the “Ghetto”. The “Ghetto” is a place no one wants to be because it is very violent, hearing gunshots and people screaming and fighting because of the situation they are in. The people in the ghetto are in a bad situation because...
Music can be reflection of our life experience. Each genre of music invokes different emotions and reactions in it's listeners. Rap has become a very popular genre in today's society. Is today “Gangster rap” and rappers exploiting society, introducing drugs and instigating violence? In the mid-1980s Gangster rap came to be portray images of violence, guns, gangs, drugs, and sexism. By the 1990s rap music became a major part of the industry and topped the charts. As people begin to operate different things; different music was engendered and that contributed to the variety of music that we have today. This is one of the many things that makes America different but is astringently under looked by everyone. There are many types of different raps
Music is one of the most powerful and influential language which to many people in
...atching MTV music shows or any music channel on television. As we continue to watch these programs, we will then notice that almost all the rap and hip-hop artists being shown are African-Americans. It is the particular lifestyle, and behaviour that is connected to what particular artists chose to vocalize about. This usually can harm the image of African-Americans due to the fact that many artists aid in the misconceptions of their particular race such as the example provided with 50 Cent’s song entitled P.I.M.P. These lyrics and song titles simply reinforce the negative image some individuals may have of both Caucasian’s and people of colour. Rap and hip-hop is one of the most intimate, personal, legitimate and important art form. Instead of perpetuating injustice, and prejudice artists should be addressing these different issues in a different matter.
Hip-Hop/Rap is one of the biggest growing genres of today. From its early stages in the 1970’s to today’s pop culture, it has grown quite a lot. Unfortunately, it has developed a terrible reputation of drugs, violence, abuse, and gangs. When people associate Hip-Hop with things it is usually a negative image that comes to the person’s mind. Which is sad, Hip-Hop/Rap has a great artistic quality to them that gets so easily overlooked. There is true poetry and emotion behind these lyrics and beats, but not everyone is willing to sit down and listen to it. They quickly judge this music genre and the immediately dislike it without giving it a second thought. Rappers pour their emotions and their souls into their songs and it really speaks to people who would stop and listen to them. Hip-Hop/Rap has evolved over time. From the early stages of Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and others to today’s rap stars like Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. Each decades style is different but each style is still good. What really made Rap huge was the Sugarhill Gang’s own song called “Rapper’s Delight” the entire song is around 15 minutes long with just three emcee’s rapping, Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank, and Master G. An emcee is another word for a rapper. Most emcees are the head of whatever event is being taken place, kind of like people that do skits in a talent show to introduce the next act. Hip-Hop/Rap today is filled with emcees and rappers. Today we find a more complex and more diverse style than what we would find back in the 70’s. There are different styles to different rappers. Each one unique in its own way and it makes that rapper stand out compared to everybody else. Also, another thing today that is different from the past is the flow of a rapp...
Hip Hop has always been putting attention to the early origins, perhaps it has to deal with the fact of adolescents embracing older music. If you take a look in the past, you would see the genre of hip hop progressing into this great invention rappers have been taking a new light on. The old school song I chose is (1) “South Bronx” by Boogie Down Productions because it espouses the connection of all the elements of hip hop. Hip Hop is the art form that has made people express themselves, which is why I will be introducing to my mixtape that covers the cultural attention of hip hop.
Rap has been around since 1973, when Kool DJ Herc introduced this new mash of jazz, soul, gospel, and reggae. This culture has been focused around African Americans, and since has served as a voice for the underrepresented, that is spreading violence, alcohol, and drugs. In this genre the most popular and successful boast about who has murdered more foes as breezily as other artists sing about love. Rap music tells stories of drugs, violence, and alcohol. The youth of America is constantly exposed to this kind of music, and our teenagers are being desensitized to the effects of these stories.
In the eyes of the general public, all of Hip-Hop is usually categorized in the same way. Labeled as the poison of the Black community because nowadays, most Hip-Hop lyrics all sound the same generic way always talking about money, women, cars, drugs, or some type of beef that all these rappers sooner or later continuously have with one another. But what this new generation doesn’t know about are the positive and creative flows that were spit not so long ago in the 80’s and 90’s. Rappers back in the day like Tupac and Ice Cube both had times when they had to show off their thug sides but they both had reasons or a call-to-arms for that, and indeed were in tune with that era’s problems as well as the society where they were raised. Moreover, even though some new school songs actually look promising, old school songs are still always great classics that anybody in this day and age will most certainly vibe to.
Have you ever wondered what was making that horrible racket coming from a teen’s car. The odds are that it would be some type of rap song, yet the beat was too loud for you to hear the lyrics. Based off what the mass knows about rap music, you were lucky to not hear the lyrics right, wrong. Rap lyrics have many senses of great poetry and life lessons that should be heard. At least some of rap songs relate to struggles, deaths they have suffered, or even respect of women that many do not believe that rappers would ever do. Rap music is becoming increasingly meaningful for not only adults but for older youth as well to comprehend about respect and an improved understanding of life with struggles and oppressions.
People are surrounded by music every day of their lives. They hear it in their homes, on the radio on their way to work; some people have even caught themselves humming the tune of their favorite song to themselves. But how many people actually listen and not just hear the music they are listening to? Teens in particular don’t realize the message behind the music they are quoting the lyrics to, or the effect it has on them. In today’s culture where rap music has become increasingly popular, many teens aren’t realizing what they are listening to. A lot of teens would argue that the music they listen to has no effect on them, but they are wrong. Rap music, especially, has had a major impact on teenagers in today’s society.