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Sociological theories of hip hop music
Sociological theories of hip hop music
Sociological theories of hip hop music
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Singer/Songwriter for this Era
He may just seem like another rapper to you but if you actually listen to his lyrics you can see he’s not like any rapper out there. His name is Kanye West and he was born in Chicago Illinois. He grew up in the “ghetto” and learned to appreciate life. He didn’t learn to really, truly appreciate life until October of 2002. Driving back to his hotel late one night after a recording session, the new-coming rap/hip-hop artist was involved in a devastating, near fatal car accident. The crash left him with a broken jaw in three places and an appreciation for life. Just weeks after being released from the hospital he recorded his first major hit, “Through the Wire,” with his mouth still wired shut. He records every song like its going to be his last song and that makes every song better than the last. He’s not only a rap artist but also a producer. He has been responsible for being behind songs like Jay-Z’s Izzo, Girls, Girls, Girls, The Takeover, and 03 Bonnie and Clyde.
“Through the Wire” was his first hit and it hit hard. With lyrics like:
I must got a angel/ Cuz look like death missed his ass/ Unbreakable/ What you thought they call me Mr. Glass/ I look back on my life like the ghost of Christmas past/ Toys R Us where I used to spend that Christmas cash/ And I still won't grow up/ I'm a grown ass kid/ So I should be like other stupid s**t that I did/ But I'm a champion/ So I turned tragedy to triumph/ Make music that's fire/ Spit my soul through the wires.
Read the lyrics and you’ll see why its so universal. If you listen to the “beats” and the rhythm you’ll really understand.
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:
To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even us crippers.../(Jesus walks with them!)/To the victims of welfare feel we living in hell here, hell yea.../(Jesus walks with them!)/Now hear ye hear ye wanna see thee more clearly/I know He hear me when my feet get weary/Cause we're the almost nearly
Every hip-hop/rap generation a lot new fresh upcoming aspiring rappers who wishes to go down in hip-hop culture as one of the greatest. Some of them are merely one hit wonders; others go on to silicify their mark in the Hip-Hop culture becoming great artists. In the year 2006 the hip-hop world was introduced to a future superstar by the named of Lupe Fiasco. Lupe Fiasco has become one of hip-hop fastest rising superstar ever since releasing his first album. Although many listeners find some of his music very controversial, yet Fiasco is one of the few artists whose music teaches people about current events that the world has turned the blind eye to, and Lupe lyrical trickster, story teller.
Reality melted around me as I poured through album reviews and rankings, seeing the amount of praise and reverence his work holds, I was blown away. I watched interviews from artists I’d been a fan of for years, claiming that Kanye was their inspiration. I read analysis pinpointing how each of his albums opened up new sub genres in hip hop, how he completely changed the stigmatism of the art, allowing for new creative freedom, opening the doors for artists like Drake, Tyler the Creator and Chance the Rapper just to name a few. He had been right under the surface all along. He paved the way for my generation of artists to walk on, and I had been blissfully ignorant, skipping along his path.
Both the early-exiters and college-goers share these environmental realities, often times living in unsafe neighborhoods, dealing with multiple relocations, cramped living conditions, and overworked parents. The spatial segregation that perpetuates these realities is executed on class lines, where predominantly immigrant neighborhoods generally have more poverty, and as a result have a higher-crime rate. Gonzales explains how this process is cyclical, poorer people have a higher propensity to resort to criminal activity, subsequently the crime rate is higher, this makes less wealthy people want to live in predominantly Latina/o communities, keeping property values low. If the K-12 education largely bases its funding off of property taxes, Latina/os are more likely to receive a subpar education - thus the masquerade of education as the “great equalizer” comes plummeting down, both the college-goers and the early-exiters are subject to systemic failures. Furthermore, the groups not only share similar economic/financial constraints but they both are partially paralyzed by a sense of paranoia, of fear about the consequences of their undocumented status and the status of their family
Raised as an only child, Dwayne Micheal Carter Jr or more commonly referred to as Lil Wayne, was born September 27th, 1982, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Carter’s mother was only 19 years old when he was first born. He was being raised by both his mother and father until his father abandoned them while Dwayne Jr. was only two years old. After being abandoned by his biological father, his mother was forced to take care of him on her own and survive in the crime infested community of Holly grove, New Orleans. Even though he divorced his mother and remarried, his father forced the two live with his own mother and came by to abuse Lil Wayne’s mother on a consistent basis.This situation went on for three years until Lil Wayne’s mother eventually remarried and relocated to a different part of town. Growing up he did very well in school. He was actually enrolled in his school’s gifted program at a point and received top grades. He got into music at a very young age and wrote his first rap song at the age of eight. Lil Wayne had the drive to be the best and successful at his craft since he first began. At the age of nine he was challenging others twice his age and older at rapping. He would consistently go to neighborhood parties or events to rap and most of the time he was better then whatever adult he was going against. As a testament to this, at the age of nine he start receiving attention from one of the two co-founders of his future label, Slim Williams. From Slim, he then received other co-founder, Bryan Williams, phone number and what he did with it after that was truly caught the Bryan’s attention. He continuously called the number over and over leaving rap songs on the voicemail of Williams until he agreed to meet him in person...
His upbringing is one of an average american citizen. Being raised by his mother Donda West was a English professor lead to him living an average life. His parents divorced when he was very young. Showing interests in the ars at a very young age is something that kept promise. He took under the wing of DJ No I,D at the young age of 15, here is where he learned how to sample and mix beats.Kanye Graduated High School with decent grades and was off to Chicago State University.. He began dropped out of College at the age of 20 to focus on his music as opposed to what he was majoring which was English. He made it big by producing a majority of the songs on rapper Jay Z’s “The Blueprint”. He was still looked down upon as only a producer and not a artist. This was because he came from an a middle class upbringing. The Industry did not see him to fit in with Gangster Rap during that time period. While making his first debut album he Kanye West fell asleep behind the wheel and got into a serious car crash on which he almost died.Kanye West still worked on the album in the hospital, requesting a drum machine to be brought to the hospital. Here he recorded his his single on his First album “Through the Wire” rapping with his mouth wired shut from surgery, From his Debut album “The College Dropout” Kanye West changed the innovated the style of Hip-Hop. As stated before Gangster rap wasn't the only thing
He said “the CEO’s tell him that they can 't invest in his ideas, because he 's not a true fashion designer, that he 's a rapper” like he didn’t have any experience in the fashion world. Then he tries to explain that he 's not a true musician either, he doesn 't know how to play the piano. Kanye is an artists, he went back to school and graduate from an art college. I can relate to that in a way, because the past few years I been playing football, and actually came here to play. The summer before arriving to Guilford I had stopped playing football because I felt like there 's more to life than just football. I soon began to take in interest in cars along with fashion. My family tried to marginalize me by telling me that I don 't need to worry about anything else just to play football, like I didn 't know anything about cars or fashion. Little did they know, I took an Auto Tech class in high school, so I know the basics of auto
Before beginning my research, I was very curious about the causes of homonegativity and how they translate into certain effects. Being that I have close friends and family members who have struggled with both internalized homonegativity and societal prejudices, I thought the subject was important to bring attention to. I did not predict how significant the effects of homophobia are on homosexuals, especially living in the most progressive era in U.S. history. Thus, homonegativity is a subject that needs to be taught based on the mental and physical wellbeing of those in the LGBTQ
A social problem, according to Thomas Sullivan (2012), is “when an influential group defines it as threating its values, when the condition affects a large number of people, and when it can be remedied by collective action”. Homophobia is indeed a social problem because negative stereotypes are prohibiting gay males and lesbians from living an equal, free life like their heterosexual counterparts. Whether the homophobic acts are minor or major, all homosexuals are discriminated, ostracized, beaten, or murdered every day. Further discussion of how homophobic stereotypes affect homosexuals, who is considered to be homophobic, and potential solutions to stop homophobia will be described below through peer reviewed literature.
Servant Leadership, found in Chapter Ten of the text Leadership: Theory and Practice, is a paradoxical approach to leadership. It begins with the innate desire to serve first, and then lead through servant hood. Servant Leadership, originating in the early 1970s, is similar to the skills and styles approach, focusing on leadership from the leader’s viewpoint and his behavior under the leadership. Under this style of leadership, the leaders are considerate of the followers needs, empathizing with and having compassion for the followers. A servant leader feels a social responsibility to the less privileged and is concerned with inequality among the followers. Through servant leadership, a servant leader will attempt to correct these social injustices and by enabling and empowering the followers while helping the followers in developing valuable personal skills. Servant leaders are ethical, projecting strong moral behavior towards the followers, taking leadership paths that serve the greater good of an organization, the community and even society as a whole.
Modern society has made a sub-culture that lives in a reality that is not real. It is so far from the truth that the inhabitants of this sub-culture so often cannot live in both realities and have become a spectacle for others to marvel at. This sub-culture is made up of entertainers, millionaires, and athletes. The people in this group can range from newborns to death and some live on well after. The specimens that I find an interest in are the young ones that enter into this society not knowing well that their lives will never be the same. Britney Spears was just another victim of the society that brings into their prison.
The movie Stardust displays multiple themes throughout itself; one of the themes would be selfishness. Throughout the entire movie of Stardust, several characters displayed selfishness. An example of a selfish character would be Lamia, one of the three witch sisters. When Lamia completes the task of killing the star and taking its heart, Lamia gets everlasting beauty and youth; Lamia’s yearn to kill the star makes her selfish, because in the kingdom of Stormhold, stars are not just a lump of rock, they are a person; the life of the star means nothing to Lamia, because she needs the star’s heart for her own personal benefit. Another example of a selfish character in the movie of Stardust would be Septimus, one of the deceased King of Stormhold
Homophobia is a term that is defined as the hatred and fear towards people that are attracted towards members of the same sex. Homophobia can be found in western societies and also in other areas of the world where homosexual practices are punishable by law. While heterosexuality is accepted by society through public expression such as romance, courtship, marriage and family, the lives of homosexuals are reduced to something that is done as private. Effects of heteronoative practices can be witnessed through the usage of social media where people including teens use the Internet as an outlet to talk about their experiences of bullying and in some cases admit they plan on completing suicide. Through the effects of bullying and stigmas, resistance practises have started to occur such as “Pink Day” where institutions and communities raise awareness of celebrating diversity towards homophobia and all other forms of bullying.
Now number four is "Greek Tragedy" by The Wombats. I know what you are thinking. The Wombats? Yes it is a real band, and yes they are really good. This song is not really telling a story, but it is really interesting. the best line in it, in my opinion, would have to be "It's wrong, but surely worst to leave And she hits like ecstasy So free up the cheaper seats Here comes the Greek Tragedy". This song may be slightly suggestive to certain things so if that makes you uncomfortable i wouldn't suggest listening to it.
The homosexual community faced, and still faces many hardships. Homosexuals are constantly being judged based on their feelings and beliefs. Many homosexuals and supporters believe this is not fair, especially the ones in Ame...