Gang Starr track “Code of the Streets” exposes the experience of living and being raised in a poor community. The lyrics of the song tells a story of how are dragged into a never ending cycle of poverty and criminal activity. The song mainly focuses on why people are motivated to do crime and the meaning of survival. Also, better understand the emotions and thought process of an individual who was in that situation. When focusing at the three main ideas it will create a story for the listener. When artist starts to sing the lyrics. The artist had a steady tempo when singing. They were not rushing nor going to slow. The artists were singing in a normal pace. It seems like the artist were trying to have a conservation with the listener. It looked …show more content…
When talking in a normal pace it helps a listener to better understand the message and story of the song.
The artist used multiple different samples to create the sound track. They used “Little Green Apples” by Monk Higgins and “Synthetic Substitution” by Melvin Bliss. It was interesting to see how Gang Starr included all of these different samples and made a song that has a good constant flow. The song starts off with a constant drum beat, which has a mild sound. They used the song “Synthetic Substitution” to create a mild drum beat rhythm from the start till the end of the song. The drums help to create serious tone. The artist used couple scenes from “Little Green Apples” to create a constant background song that flows together well with the constant drum beat throughout the song. The artist uses certain saxophones scenes from Higgins song. The saxophone scene was change a little bit in order to create a flow with the song. The soundtrack of the saxophone helped to create a bit of a sad tone of the song. The melody of the
…show more content…
The lyrics says “It starts with the young ones doing crime for fun … if you ain’t down, you’ll get played out son”. I think this lyric was very interesting because I think it shows that children who are raised in these poor communities are involved in these criminal activities from a young age. They feel that they must be involve in these criminal activities because if they aren’t part of it they will be left behind. The sound mentions that “They … say we’re a menace to society… I say “why is it me”. The lyrics show that society thinks that people who are from these poor communities cause a lot of trouble. The society are judging them based on their upbringing. When a person says “why is it me” it shows that they feel that they are being look down in society. When society looks down at these people it shows that they aren’t given many chance to prove themselves. In the song its says “I can’t work at no fast-food joint … I got some talent ... selling drugs”. It was interesting to see that people who came from poor communities or have different skin colors are not given any opportunities. Some people who come from these poor communities have potential to become good members of society, but people don’t want to give them the chance. Therefore, they are drag into the life of crime. The songs goes on by saying that “I can leave behind, The mad poverty… Organized
For centuries now, gangs have been all over America, causing violence and ruining the youths opportunities. Children's lives can be ruined joining a gang leading into violence and substance abuse. From the earlier 20th Century, to now, gangs have been an issue in low income cities and neighborhoods. In Jacob Saenz’s poem, “Evolution of My Block”, written in 1982, Saenz describes to the readers how the gang life was in his neighborhood and on his block. Throughout the poem, he talks about the pressure of gangs and how they functioned. His poem speaks more than what is actually said and hides many of his thoughts through the words and rhymes. The poem conveys many messages and specific aspects which have to deal with culture and race. The narrator
The street code is a very important concept when talking about the world of the inner city. In Anderson’s words, the code of the
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) is a 1 hour and 40 minute documentary that observes the black power movement in American history. This film is directed by Swedish director Goran Hugo Olson and has detailed footage that was shot during the 1960s and 1970s by Swedish journalists. The footage largely focuses on the black power movements. The film allows viewers to not only grasp a better understanding of this movement but allows us to understand why this movement appealed to Swedish journalists. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 includes vintage interviews with Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and other prominent leaders during the Black Power Movement. The documentary also contains contemporary audio interviews and commentaries from various entertainers, artists, activists, and scholars, including but not limited to: Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, Melvin Van Peebles, Erykah Badu, Abiodun Oyewele, and Questlove from The Roots.
Gang violence is a complex issue with many causes consisting of; lack of jobs, dysfunctional schools, and a biased judicial system, these things have shaped and molded the social structure of this South Central society into something dark and perverse, it has given rise to violence and death, and the inconvenient truth of the matter is it’s our societies fault. References Anderson, Elijah. 1990. The. The Code of the Streets.
Kody Scott grew up in South Central L.A. during the nineteen-sixties and seventies, soon after the creation of the Crips. Raised in poverty without a father, and a full family raised solely by his mother, Kody Scott led the stereotypical “ghetto” life, a poor and broken home. However he does not blame this on his own personal decision to join the Crips while only eleven year’s old. The allure of the respect and “glory” that “bangers” got, along with the unity of the “set”(name for the specific gang) is what drew him into the gang. Once joined, he vowed to stay in the “set” for life, and claimed that banging was his life. After many years of still believing this, he eventually realized that the thug life was no longer for him, and that gangs were a problem on society and the “Afrikan” race(page 382-383).
For this assignment I decided to read the book Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city by Elijah Anderson. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. The code of the streets is basically morals and values that these people have. Most of the time it is the way they need to act to survive. Continuing on within this book review I am going to discuss the main points and arguments that Anderson portrays within the book. The main points that the book has, goes along with the chapters. These points consist of Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, decent daddy, the mating game, black inner city grandmother. Now within these points there are a few main arguments that I would like to point out. The first argument is the belief that you will need to accept the street code to get through life. The other one is the belief that people on the street need “juice”. For the rest of this paper we will be looking at each one of main points and arguments by going through each chapter and discussing it.
The relevance of the song was portraying that using drugs and alcohol will help you escape life situations. Regardless of how hard or tough it is. All you need to do is to get drunk or get high, than your problems will flush away. But the video don’t explain the reality of the outcome of how drugs and alcohol will or could affect your lifestyle and how it could lead you to lose your job, family and life. All it shows is the fun side of being intoxicated. Which, it raises a big flag on kids or teens that do have access to the media like the
1-The story tells, Real facts occurred in the 1940s, where it was a racist society. Gangs were scattered throughout the cities, and regions, and the streets. To live, you have full get away, or belonging to one of them. You should help the gang members that they were right or on falsehood. Also, it is a kind of bigotry, not much different from intolerance, national, ethnic, and sectarian That were prevalent in American society. in fact, it is the inevitable result of this society. When the corruption becomes prevails, injustice and lawless prevails too, and justice will disappear.
The inclination to violence stems from several circumstances of life among the poor; the stigma of race, drug use and drug trafficking, and lack of employment, as well as the media and, family/peer association. The Code of the Streets by Elijah Anderson, is a groundbreaking essay the social scientist wrote, taking us inside of a world that most of us only read about. Anderson shows us how a frantic search for acceptance and respect governs social relations among the African American race; primarily the young men.
While the musician?s were playing, I was surprised how the audience was. Most of the audience was talking loud, drinking alcohol and eating snacks. Some audience was even clapping hands and humming along with the song. This was quite an opposite environment compared to the concerts I went to. Sometimes the audience was so loud that I could barely hear the songs. It was interesting that even though the crowd was so loud, the musicians seemed very comfortable with it. They played the song as if the audience?s voice was also part of their song. When audience was loud, they would play loud and when audience became quite, they played very soft and tender. It might be to get audience?s attention. But, it seemed the m...
Curiosity is a concept that has lingered in people’s minds for centuries. Defined as “a strong desire to know or learn something,” curiosity often leads people to question concepts and ideas that are bestowed upon them (Oxford Dictionary, 2017). Music is a subject that people often strive to learn more about. In the realm of composing music, there are certain thoughts that go through the composer's mind that they want to showcase in their piece. When a composer writes, one can assume that their mood is often portrayed in their song, giving that song a distinct emotion. For example, love songs are usually written in two different tones: happy or sad. It is up to the listener to determine which tone it is being portrayed. The act of performing
From tempo to diction, any change in the performance of song can not only create a completely different experience for the listener, but also grant an entirely different meaning to the song being performed. This concept is incredibly well represented in the differences between Paul Robeson’s and William Warfield’s rendition of “Ol’ Man River.” Some of the main divergences being in the tempo of the song, musical style, and finally in how the song was performed in relation to staging.
The music in this movie helps the viewer improve their understanding of Chiron and the situations he faces. One of the techniques Jenkins uses with regard to his music choices in the film is called chopped and screwed music. This form of music is developed by slowing down the song and highlighting certain parts by repeating them a couple times. It helps the listener concentrate on the meaning behind the words and not the song, as a whole. This kind of music is very popular in the south, especially among the African American
Destroying a house, the system of leadership, and the social system, the gang shows that because a destroyed environment makes them feel
... been brought out in this song by using many different aspects of music closely related to Africa including the African drumming and Zulu chanting. The song did well to connect the different parts of the animal society and I also feel that the choice of the Zulu language was a good one. This language has great rhythm when sung which creates a great mood of positive thoughts and hope.