Kendrick Lamar’s single ’The Blacker the Berry’ deals with the themes segregation, stereotyping and hypocrisy. Furthermore his lyrics describe the tumult all black people face. Similar to Kendrick’s single “I”, he speaks to the individual mindset. Overall his lyrics brag about the stereotyped Afro-Americans. Within his first stanza Kendrick Lamar devours us right into the struggle faced by the Afro-Americans in the modern society and his own divided self. Kendrick’s lyrics are known for being interesting, sarcastic and dealing with the individual mindset and segregation, with a deeper target. “It’s such a shame they call me crazy. They say I’m suffering from schizophrenia or somethin’. But homie, you made me. Black don’t crack my nigga.” Here he insist that his mind is sound and not listening to his words would be a mistake, taking into account that “you” made him, here he references to America. Overall he blames the white American population of making him angry, sarcastic and purposeful, but what they call crazy or schizophrenic. …show more content…
You hate my people, your plane is to terminate my culture” Here he calls on his listeners to question their own feelings towards him, his culture and his people. In other words he again accuses or concludes the hate towards the stereotyped Afro-Americans, He as the narrator wants to show of black pride and shut down the stereotyped picture of an Afro-American which is well painted in the sentence “You’re fuckin’ evil I want you to recognize that I’m a proud monkey”. This pride is consistent with the theme of the song “The Blacker The Berry” which as the original phrase “the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice” (mentioned regularly in his lyrics) was a positive affirmation of blackness. But the memory of his past actions keeps on getting in the
What he was claiming was that African Americans slaves were born in the United States so they should be entitled to same American values given to the white Americans. He also goes ahead to bash the government for the attitudes towards his people and goes on to explain how he feels they are be exploited. His impact that he intended to have from this speech had been to bring freedom to African American’s by letting proper democratic ideals decide who is entitled to what rights. During the time of the speech he said black American’s should be ashamed to celebrate this holiday due to the misdeeds and unfair enforcement of these laws. His main take away from this was that the slavery going on in America was harmful and illegal because they violated the founding father principle rights. Throughout him speaking he goes on to undercut many powerful institutions in America that are simply letting slavery go on and not doing anything about it (Church). He is a very faithful man and believes looking back at his sentiments will ring home and show that he was inevitably correct in due time. In conclusion this ties to the ideas that African Americans should not have to celebrate this holiday until they feel like they are being equally treated under the same law are the white
The theme of lines 1-5 in, ¨Untitled 1¨ by Tupac Shakur is that African Americans have been oppressed, over many generations. He describes the world, ¨as a ghetto, that they cannot leave,¨ referring to ghettos such as
He points out that “When I dance”, I burse people to fight. Because black men are under the spotlight and things related to them attracts peoples’ attentions. Then he writes, “as I cross/ the street unlooking.” This shows the change in his attitude that he careless about causing another disruption. In this line, “I know all/ a movie needs/ is me/…”, he portrays himself causing troubles as most people presumed and wanting to be at the center of attention.
He refers to all the immigration groups in a judgmental way. He complains about the intelligence levels of the Italians, how dirty and deceitful the Jews are, and even the immaculate cleanliness of the Chinamen. Although he does possess quite a bit of bigotry that boarders on the line of prejudice when it comes to African Americans he recognizes that they are suffering from racism and he sympathizes with th...
Although an effort is made in connecting with the blacks, the idea behind it is not in understanding the blacks and their culture but rather is an exploitative one. It had an adverse impact on the black community by degrading their esteem and status in the community. For many years, the political process also had been influenced by the same ideas and had ignored the black population in the political process (Belk, 1990). America loves appropriating black culture — even when black people themselves, at times, don’t receive much love from America.
Accordingly, it means that contributing the industrial process with the black race helps the white race get profits from getting together; it is never harmful for them. Furthermore, he uses several tones to express his ideas effectively. Most of his tone is humble to make his white audience feel comfortable and pleasant. The general impressions that are used in the speech are greatly gentle and respectful. He doesn’t even mention so much of his race in order not to offend the white men. There is an alteration in his tone during the speech, which contains a bit of defensive expression in the middle of the speech. Nevertheless, he is generally respectful not to expose his real purpose of the black race. The speech does not seem to have any offense, even though he intimidates the white audiences in some points. He doesn’t want to reveal that he makes a threat or wants advanced steps of the black race. That is the reason he implies his opinions, non-superficially, by using humble tones, which is very wise to express the ideas that must be counted as unacceptable improvements for the blacks in the time
Kid cudi trying to argue about how difficult things are growing up with being Oppressed and growing up being black. Songs are one way of expressing feelings and emotion, many artist do this constantly in their music. To some it is why they make music. There are endless signs and verses that hint at many things such as problems, politics, living in racist era’s also places. I chose to focus on one main rapper and his music only.
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
Being locked up isn’t a fun or easy situation. But for Kodak Black, he really exfoliates his time being institutionalized. Being locked away for criminal activity, Black serves his sentence in Florida. Writing this rap, producing this rap, and preforming this rap must bring some great emotions to Black. As I listen, I can hear his feelings in his voice and this is very powerful. Emotions racing out of him, big feelings, soft tones, beats and vocals add to this powerful song. When you hear of Black you think; project baby, hard life, gang related, and self-made. The song I decided to write about is called “Institution”, and was written by Black while locked up. This song demonstrates how prison can affect a person, not only their life around
Impoverished people have long been exploited, but the ghettos of the United States have been transformed into hot spots in which people are manipulated, used, and treated for less than they are worth. Kendrick Lamar emphasizes this unfortunate truth, as well as the transitioning
He talks about them in the song, defining what they are and how they are viewed in society, which was important to know because of what society is today. He talks about how hard it is for those audiences to fit into society, with racial difference and some having more of an advantage over others. The song is all about struggles and how J Cole pushes through them to not show failure but rather strength by not crying. He sings this to let everyone know they aren’t the only ones feeling like this, like the world is falling apart. Thus, letting his audience have hope by ending his song with the quote “hold your head up
He says that to resist against racism we must come together. He says that in the song by saying, “We gotta make a change it’s time for us a people to start making some changes, let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live.” Tupac is trying to say that we must change the way we do everything to reunite the world by changing the way we eat, and the way we live. Tupac also says that African-Americans need to forgive each other and see each other as brothers instead of strangers. Tupac says that in the song by saying, “Learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers.”
Rap is about giving voice to a black community otherwise underrepresented, if not silent, in the mass media. It has always been and remains … directly connected to the streets from which it came. (144)
The Blacker the Berry was a single off of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly released in 2015. Lamar’s song begins each verse with a statement “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015” followed by harsh criticism of how the United States treats Black Americans. Kendrick finally reveals the repetition of being a hypocrite in the final line saying: “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street when gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me? Hypocrite!” The way that Kendrick contrasts the huge amount of issues that black people face from the rest of society with a single powerful line that shows how the black community also has a huge internal racism problem is how I wish the rest of the nation would view this
He identifies Africa as being his and is proud to be as dark as night, and as black as the depths of the heart of his country. Being proud of oneself, heritage and culture is clearly shown in this first stanza. The structure of this poem is not the traditional form of poetry, in that he begins with a first person statement then after an indentation, he elaborates on it almost like a list.