Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, also known as Nas, is a lyrical genius when it comes to rapping. His stories are crafted so beautifully that they make even gangsters cry. There is a uniqueness to Nas that sources from a crystal gem hidden in the depths of earth called "the dictionary" and emotion. Mastering the dictionary may be a difficult task for many, but not for Nas. Nas's rap consists of lyrics with many forms of meaning, style, and realism from life experiences.While Nas's rap seems to be pure entertainment contributing to violence and negativity, his rhythm and poetry is an art in itself contributing to positivity in the world. His positivity arises by helping people in hardships have a greater outlook of life, looking beyond history for a better future, and inspiring the art of rap. Firstly, rhythm and poetry tends to have a negative stigma that roots from the depths of the ghettos to …show more content…
Nas preaches to reduce the violence and negativity by addressing and learning from the past. His songs topics touch the bases of slavery, racism, and violence in the world. Nas tends to cover the topic of slavery the most frequent in his music because his home country is the U.S. Though a horrible problem in the U.S's past, he tends to show that we must remember and look past slavery and unite as one. Also having had ancestor slaves Nas feels a connection towards that topic. Failure to remember the past will lead to greater problems in the foreseeable future. Forgetting the past is easy, remembering it is the difficult part. Through music Nas tries to preserve these topics. In the song patience with Damian Marley they both say we need "patience" in order to overcome these problems then one day we may rid them. Its just human nature to act like animals, but we must "seek knowledge" in this world. A few ideas that Nas says at the end of the song Africa Must Wake Up really stands out to
In Adam Bradley’s “Rap poetry 101” he shows us how rap is more than just songs being sung, it is poetry; it is something that has an empowering ability to make the familiar unfamiliar.In this chapter Bradley creates a new viewpoint too rap. Bradley shows us how rap and poetry has become a very similar piece of art that should be further appreciated. In the chapter poetry 101 Bradley describes how rap is a form of public art, and how rappers have become our greatest public poets. The importance of rap as poetry is shown throughout Bradley's book as well as the evidence behind the reasons rap is poetry.
In a reputable rap album an artist must tell a real-life story. The following three artist come from different but similar backgrounds. One artist from Detroit, one from Compton, another from Brooklyn. Sada Baby along with other Detroit rappers share their experiences living in different parts of the city. Throughout D.O.N. by Sada Baby, he references a lot of weapon use, gang activity, and drug use in his neighborhood. The songs on this album go into so much detail about these things, because this was the life he was born into. This is what he knows first hand. In Sada Baby’s song, ‘Guatemalan’, he goes through the steps of his daily life and even goes on to justify why he is the way that he is based off his experiences.
During the 80s a controversial group of rappers came together and changed the game of Hip Hop for generations to come. Niggas with Attitude, otherwise known as N.W.A, was comprised of the rappers; Ice Cube, MC Ren, Easy E, Yella, and Dr. Dre. Theses rappers spoke the truth about life in the streets; the hustling, the trapping, the sexual encounters, the gang life, and the most important, the racism. They shined a light on these issues in a violent, sexually explicit, yet intelligent and revolutionary way. The Facebook page, *N.W.A* creates an environment that connects people of all races, backgrounds, and ages; with the goal of immortalizing, and spreading the original message of the group.
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. I chose to examine, review, and study a few of his songs. Kid cudi grew up in cleveland, Ohio. His father passed away when he was a young age which affected the kid ever since. He writes about living his life and having to go through many obstacles
Aside from “The Message,” Notorious B.I.G.’s song “Things Done Changed” also highlights Black issues.
One of Williams main topics of concerns is the wrong messages that “public airwaves” are sending to their listeners and followers. Williams claims rap and other medias are representing and sending the wrong message about African American communities. She mentions that rap music once held a positive message but now rap music is bombarding the public with the use of profanity, violence, and obscenity throughout their lyrics and music
One of the many adversities he had to adapt to was the feuds of the East and West Coast. This influenced his songs and the way his fans depicted the East Coast, Bad Boys. He also had to deal with the way blacks were treated and looked at by the white community. Although his music brings up many controversy, he is undoubtedly a big part of the way African Americans are being depicted today. He reached the people not just through his music but by the constant protests for equality also while striving for the betterment of his the African American community. The way that society and media looks at African American people and hip hop music are all rooted from
A race issue that occurs within the rap and hip-hop musical genre is the racial stereotypes associated with the musical form. According to Brandt, and Viki rap music and hip- hop music are known for fomenting crime violence, and the continuing formation of negative perceptions revolving around the African-American race (p.362). Many individuals believe that rap and hip-hop music and the culture that forms it is the particular reason for the degradation of the African-American community and the stereotypes that surround that specific ethnic group. An example is a two thousand and seven song produced by artist Nas entitled the N-word. The particular title of the song sparked major debates within not only the African-American community thus the Caucasian communities as well. Debates included topics such as the significance and worth of freedom of speech compared with the need to take a stand against messages that denigrate African-Americans. This specific label turned into an outrage and came to the point where conservative white individuals stood in front of the record label expressing their feelings. These individuals made a point that it is because artists like Nas that there is an increase in gang and street violence within communities. Rap and hip-hop music only depicts a simple-minded image of black men as sex crazed, criminals, or “gangsters”. As said above, community concerns have arisen over time over the use of the N-word, or the fact that many rappers vocalize about white superiority and privilege. Of course rap music did not develop these specific stereotypes, however these stereotypes are being used; and quite successfully in rap and hip-hop which spreads them and keeps the idea that people of color are lazy, all crimin...
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)
Since hip-hop has expanded from the undergrounds in Bronx in the 70’s it has grew into a popular accepted music genre. Consequently, as it progressed from the golden age it gradually grew away from its original roots. If one were to evaluate the change of lyrics in hip-hop, they would see a difference between early hip-hop and today’s hip-hop. The current state of hip-hop is in a stage where things like hey young world are outdated. Instead of broadcasting out a positive message, hip-hop sends out a message of sex, drug, and violence. The early musicians who helped solidify hip-hop, by producing music that told stories on subjects of race, respect, or even music that had a positive message.
The lyrics from the rap by Jay-Z entitled "99 problems but a b*tch ain't one" has great lyrics showing the way rap and Ebonics has effected the way African Americans are viewed as today in both a positive and negative aspect. In the first verse Jay-Z gives us a good example how rap with the use of Ebonics has made him rich when he says,
In famous rapper Eminem’s popular hit song “Lose Yourself”, the rapper combines poetry with his skill of rapping while implementing an urban twist on the art form. Eminem includes common poetic techniques such as plot, internal rhyme, assonance and couplets and manipulates them in order to emphasize the message of his song. Through these techniques, Eminem relays a message of persevering through the struggles of life in order to transcend from poverty to success. The use of poetic techniques enables Eminem to reach his audience in a way that encourages them to pursue their dreams and goals in the face of adversity that they may experience on a regular basis.
Rap Genius. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 01 May 2014.
Today 's rap music reflects its origin in the hip-hop culture of young, urban, working-class African-Americans, its roots in the African oral tradition, its function as the voice of an otherwise underrepresented group, and, as its popularity has grown,
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is a famous quote by George Santayana. Although the r...