Rap Songs Influence Essay

Music and what lyrics are placed in songs has had a lot of influence over my emotions not only when I listen to the song but when I think about the event that goes with that song. In this day and age music and media have more power to manipulate young minds than it did only a generation ago. The songs that people say are deep and meaningful are usually those that are easy to connect with. The six songs you have listened to are songs most people do not understand until they analyze the meanings of them. My own mother in fact does not like the music I listen to just because of the language and because she tends to see things as they are instead of the feelings and motivations poured into something.

“You and the six” by Drake is a song that talks about the relationship he has with the most influential people in his life. It also mentions some life events. It refers to things he had to do to stay at the top since he has arrived there. He talks about the fact that kids used to call him black because he grew up jewish and kids didn’t understand how those two things could go hand in hand. Now that his is a rapper people

expect him to act a certain way and he has been called “soft” or not “black enough”. This song came out this year so there really is not a memory that goes that far back with me; and yet this song makes me cry almost everytime I listen to it.
This first time I heard it I was laying down on my bed in my room I was listening to his new mixtape and this sad intro started playing. I started to reflect on a personal issue I think it had to do with what someone said to me. I cannot even recall what it was but I remember hating them for it. I sense that Drake poured emotions into this song and it made what I felt so much stronger. I cannot remember anything else about that specific memory. It was not until I started getting into rap music that I realized that fame is not for everyone even though most people want it in some way or another and that even if you get to the top some people will treat you the same way they did when you were at the bottom.
In 2013 J Cole dropped his album Cole World: The Sidelines Story and many of my friends were obsessed with it. The song “Lights Please” which I now love was on this album that I didn’t listen to until this year. I remember being at summer camp and hearing girls in my tent sing some of the lyrics to his songs. One year later, at the beginning of eighth grade year the album that “No Role modelz” is on came out and my friend Julie loved it. We were sitting on a field hockey bus and she was jamming out to it. Naturally I got bored of my own music (since I only had 10 songs downloaded at the time), and I asked her to unplug her headphones. I wish I could say I chose to like J Cole, but I did not understand the hype built around him. But because of the hype I felt obligated to like his music even though it was not as powerful to me as it was to Julie.

The song “Lights please” doesn’t have a deep memory associated with I basically fell in love with the song lights please slowly and it annoys me that I missed out on J. Cole’s music for so long just because my brother liked it and it was too mainstream for my taste at the time. The very first time I heard I was around twelve and the meaning of this song was distorted to me. I just thought it was another song about sex. Only two years later I realize that the song still has a messed up cloudy meaning. He talks about how ignorant the girl his is with is but it isn’t right how guys treat women regardless. He also talks about the power sex has over a man. March of this year is when I decided to actually listen to his music. The song “No Role modelz” came on and the rhythm was easy to groove to. After about a minute into the song my brother Nicholas walked in and said something to the effect of, it’s about time you got some good taste in music and proceeded to be super annoying about it. I do not associate the song with him being annoying but it is used as a way to block out the childish ways of my brother.
I have been immersed in rap culture for a little while now. Kendrick was the second rapper I respected for his lyrics. The song Good Kid maad city was easy enough for me to understand even when I was twelve years old. Songs in which rappers open up about their origins are the most interesting to me because so very few people make it in hollywood. The ones that do usually have very interesting stories to tell. These songs are usually the ones that the artist shows the most emotion towards because it is like pouring out part of yourself. I remember dancing to this song after a swimming class in the summer and feeling really cool because I finally got to listen to Kendrick’s album even though I was a year late.
The song “Good Kid” talks about the struggle of a black man in the hood and how people’s preconceived notions affected him. he was a “good kid” brought up in a “maad” city and as he made his way through the ranks in order to be where he is people have judged him because of shallow things like his old socioeconomic standings. This is yet another song that proves my point ; getting to fame is just as hard as dealing with negative comments or people being in your life as soon as you get to the top of the billboards.
When I was around the age of seven, I attended the same school as a lot of the kids on my block. This caused all of us the become fast friends and have the opportunity to hang out with each other whenever we wanted to. Unfortunately my brothers and I had overlapping friend groups and my brothers and I played with our friends in one large group. Since there was a three year age gap between my oldest brother Michael, our friends were interested in completely different things. For some reason they thought that rap music was one of the coolest things ever. My friends and I obviously had to think that rap music was cool too because we were the cool kids in our grade for hanging out with fourth, fifth and sixth graders. Rap music was also cool because my parents didn’t necessarily want us to listen to the songs that were played. As a kid utterly defying you parents was an alright thing to to.
One day as my brothers, their friends, and I were playing an intense game of football Trevon a “cool” 12 year old kid turned on the boombox that we had (yup that was still a thing) and he played the song “The World is Yours” by Nas. Since they all liked the song I did too. I went back to school that Monday cursing up a storm reciting song lyrics from song I had listened too(don’t tell my mother please). The kids at school then thought rap was cool, too and I was living it up in my own little bubble. For some reason my parents though the friends my brother had were bad role moodles and as we grew up our friendships fizzled. As did the opportunity for me to listen to this music.
A few years latter I “got to go” to the mall with my mom for a shopping trip. We were going to purchase back to school clothing so we went into Macy’s. We enter the store and I start shopping in the children’s section. One of the sales assistants walks over to me and suggests in an embarrassing way that I check out the plus size kids clothing or the juniors section. I was eleven at the time and I wasn’t the skinniest kid. The fact that I went to Renbrook and was surrounded by skinny people all the time was bad enough. If I am going to be completely honest part of the reason I joined a track team was because I didn’t want to be chubby and I still don’t. The walk over to the other section was pretty shameful and it didn’t help that the sign said kids 14-16 plus on it. Because I felt so ashamed, I pretended to actually shop there even though I didn’t want those clothes. Even so my mom picked out a semi cute pair of white pants. But I promised that those pants would never fit me again.
When we got to the check out, the lady asked, “Would you like to apply for a Macy’s card today?” Since my mom loves discounts she agreed and started to fill out the form on the computer. When she was almost done the lady said something to the effect of can you put in your annual income so we can make sure you can pay for this card. The statement she made checked out even though the card was only $100-200 a year max.My mom brushed the comment off entered in the information and bought the clothes because she knew how much I needed them. She also bought them because she thought they were nice and my mom and dad have always worked hard to give me the best they could even though I didn’t realize it.
When we got in the car I took my mom’s phone, plugged in the headphones I found in the seat pocket, and turned on the music Nicholas downloaded. Coincidentally it happened to be a song by Kendrick Lamar my favorite rapper at the time. The song was “Black Boy Fly” and if you listen closely one of the first things he said was, “frustrated and riding down the backstreets” and frustration when exactly with what I was feeling. I think in the song “watch this black boy fly” is talking about a kid trying his hardest to made it out of the hood and to create a better life. This person worked hard and it paid off.
I usually listen to this song while I am running because it is booth soothing and motivating. This song keeps reminds me that no matter what you can make it if you try your hardest. In the car all I got out of the song was I am gonna be someone and go back to that Macy’s and show that lady how awesome I became. But now that song makes me remember how insignificant my problems are. I have a pretty good life filled with opportunity that most people don’t get. There are many people who will judge you based on looks and assume you do not belong where you are, but those people don’t define who you are and what you will be. Those people are not worth your time and there is no reason why you need to prove a point to them. I will never be happy if I keep letting people like her get under my skin and drag down my self image.
I chose these songs to make a point about the meaning that can be hidden behind rap songs people label as profanity riddled crap.

People think rap music is not good for children to listen to. At a certain age I guess that can be true, but once you are old enough to understand the meanings behind some rap songs it can actually change you perspective for the better. All of these songs also have a theme that I was putting together as I wrote. The first three songs, “You & the Six”, “Lights Please” and “No Role Modelz” depict the stories of how two different rappers became famous. They also talk about the struggles they faced when they became famous. Even when their music was being played on multiple radio stations people found something to criticize them for, or people just started to pretend they have alway had that rappers best interest in

mind.
The last three songs talk about how capable anyone is of achieving their goal. Nas “The World is Yours” is saying you can do anything the world isn’t closed off to you. Both,“Good Kid” and “Black Boy Fly”by Kendrick Lamar reveal the fact that you can be on the “come up” too. Meaning no matter the situation you are in hard work can get you out of it.