Kendrick uses the technique of anaphora in the last lines in third verse of the song: Or tell Georgia State "Marcus Garvey got all the answers" Or try to celebrate February like it's my B-Day Or eat watermelon, chicken, and Kool-Aid on weekdays Or jump high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements Or watch BET cause urban support is important () These five phrases all begin with the word “or” following a stereotype and or an expectation for African-Americans, such as eating watermelon and drinking Kool-Aid. Kendrick uses anaphora to indicate that these ideas placed on African-American identity are untrue and meaningless. Examples of the use of verbal irony is present in the pre-hook of the song: The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot () Kendrick reverses the saying “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice,” from a positive of blackness to the assumption and racial stereotype in …show more content…
The mood of the song changes sharply from angry and bitter to peaceful and serene at the end with the vocals of Lalah Hathaway lulling and somewhat hypnotizing the listeners as if to sleep. The track not only includes the vocals of Hathaway but also a Jamaican artist known by the name Assassin who sings the chorus of the song with aggression, a huge contrast to Hathaway’s sweet voice in the end. The song, “The Blacker the Berry” shines a light and open the eyes of Americans to the realities that the black community face every day. Kendrick speaks on the topics that both white and black America are afraid to confront; these are police brutality, white supremacy, and oppression within the black
For example, Tupac commences his rap song by referring to poverty in the first few verses in his song as he states, “I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself/ Is life worth living should I blast myself? / I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black/ My stomach hurts so I’m looking for a purse to snatch,” (Shukar l. 2-4). In these verses Tupac indicates that many African Americans live in poverty and they are not given many opportunities to do well for themselves. Changes to better their situation seem unobtainable and he portrays the voice of impoverished groups as he questions his purpose in life. He contemplates whether or not he should continue living. This verse also indicates that people with very little opportunity must deviate from the norms which society has placed on them, meaning that because they have no opportunity they must resort to stealing in order to avoid
William Raspberry grew up in a segregated town located in Mississippi. After moving away, he became a well-known man who wrote about issues such as rap music and crime for The Washington Post. His last piece, published in 2008 after Obama was elected president, is called “The Handicap of Definition” and focuses on how narrowly defined the word “black” is compared to “white.”
In order to convey our appeals and rhetorical choices we created a magazine ad depicting our idea for a device that keeps the toilets from clogging in the bathrooms. In Chapter 22, Offred tells the reader, “It was true that sometimes the toilets overflowed. Unknown persons stuffed wads of toilet paper down them to make them do this very thing. The Aunts had been working on some foolproof way of preventing this, but funds were short and right now they had to make due with what was at hand, and they hadn’t figured out a way of locking up the toilet paper,” (Atwood l30). To make the lives of the Aunts easier we decided to create a device that senses blockages in the drain and powerfully and automatically flushes them out.
Syntax was presented as the last part of the story that gave this selection its final touches to change the story. This can be proven because in paragraph 7, he says, “I got to my feet, stomach taut, mouth tired of chewing, and flung my Frisbee across the street, its shadow like the shadow of an angel fleeing bad deeds. I retrieved it, jogging slowly. I flung it again until I was bored and thirsty.” The way that the sentences are structured makes you think about how he felt after eating the pie that he stole. It also gives the story a sense of emphasis on what Soto did as a 6-year-old boy. He also states in the last paragraph, “I lay until I was cold and then crawled back to the light, rising from one knee, then another, to dust off my pants
Their responses were filled with appraisals for the professor mentioning how “dope” it was that we got to watch something from the Grammy’s. However, they fail to realize the impact and significance of that performance, song and album and to be completely honest, before that class I myself hadn’t realized the depth of his performance. Lamar’s powerful set began with him and the rest of his band entering the Grammy stage in prison uniforms, a sight I do not think viewers at home were prepared for. With a prison break, a colorful celebration ending with the image of the continent of Africa having Compton being the capital he brought front stage the internal struggles of modern blacks caused by external conflicts. A few lyrics from The Blacker the Berry that really stood out to me were “You hate me don’t you? You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture. You’re fuckin’ evil, I want you to recognize that I’m a proud monkey.” Lamar directs these words directly to the crowd, confronting white America about the system of oppression they have created which allows them to fetshize and appropriate the things they like about black culture, claiming it as their own, while denigrating and devaluing these qualities when they are featured on the creator. “Came from the bottom of mankind My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide.” By stating these now “politically incorrect” stereotypes during the age of colorblindness he reveals an inconvenient truth that even in this day and age people still harbour these feeling towards white people. The term monkey has often been used as a descriptor of black people aiming to indicate that they have “ape” like qualities. A famous incident is how a incredibly popular and talented Brazilian soccer player had bananas thrown at him mid match. The soccer player stops and actually takes a bit out of the banana, setting flame to a
In today’s society, there are a lot of songs and performances that speak out about injustice, human and social rights but the one that stands out the most right now is a song entitled “The Blacker the Berry” by Kendrick Lamar. Seeing that this song will be mostly heard by the younger generation it sends a message to them. That message contains three things powerful statement. The first thing is the color of a person’s skin, how others races perceive black people and how it makes a black person feel. This paper will discuss those three topics and give a background on why Kendrick Lamar might feel this way.
The prevailing stereotype that arises from the first thought of the African American community is the notion of everyone being a hysterical and violent gangster, but this farther from the truth as stated within this song. As stated by Heavy D, “Nonsense, violence, not a good policy, Therefore we must ignore, fighting and fussing” which openly attacks the stereotype of African Americans stated above. This line of lyrics combat this by stating that they must not be prone to violence and they must ignore it otherwise they will, “Let's get together or we'll be falling apart” (Heavy D). This song makes it imperative that the African American community to not fall into the stereotype ground work that has been laid before them as it will lead to “self-destruction”.
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
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.
After reviewing this week’s episodes of serial, and given our topic, I found that the Rhetorical Appeals are directly linked to the court cases. These Rhetorical Appeals (Ethos, Pathos, and Logos), are used throughout both cases. From Jay’s case, it’s clear that Pathos and Ethos are two main elements supporting his defense. However in Adnan’s case, Logos was the prevalent appeal when defending his innocence.
of the poem, as irony has built up to this point during the poem by
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop itself often represents through music.
At its core, black protest music is characterized by the expression of resistance and the articulation of the heartache and pain that Blacks have endured throughout history. Likewise, Shakur as a social critic conveys through his music the despair, anger, and resentment that resonates with many African Americans” (2005). Just as in, the song “Changes” where he illuminates social oppression that affect the African American population. For example, just within the first stanza, Tupac makes reference to poverty and welfare, issues of substance abuse, and racism. Tupac stated “I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black” making the correlation between his skin color and the poverty in which he grew up. He goes on to reinforce this connection further by stating, and “My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch.” He also illustrates the relationship between police brutality and race by declaring, “Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a
The album Black Panther: The Album, Music From and Inspired By (2018) is from and based from the movie Black Panther a black superhero movie with good critic review. Since the album is based on the movie most of the songs talk about the movie like “Black Panther” or “Pray For Me” just to name a few. The songs are mostly for people who are black since they are mostly rap and black singers but they can be listen from people of different races. The album consists of different singers but the real man of the hour is Kendrick Lamar. He is in most of the tracks and stood out the most in the album. What really made this album great is the combination of modern day black music with the African American cultured music. I like some rap and black music but never been fully in them but this album really caught my attention. Most people will say that rap is just vulgar and very crude but this album may have change their minds when listening to these lyrics.
“I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself. Is life worth living should I blast myself?” (Tupac Shakur, “Changes”). The second and third line of one of Tupac’s most famous songs creates deep emotion-filled thoughts about the listener’s self in a presently oppressed society. Tupac Shakur is the most well-known rappers of all-time and has made a major impact on the rap industry because of his capability to be poetic while being a gangster rapper at the same ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬time. This marvelously superb song shows Tupac’s more proactive side by educating everyone about and tackling African American Social issues. When you are constantly being treated unfairly as an individual, simply because of your skin color, you are going to do everything in your power to end it, which is what Tupac Shakur was trying to accomplish by publishing this song. The song "Changes" is one of the best examples of this, founding his point and conveying trust within his music and connecting it