Kanye West has produced works that many interpret as exhibiting the struggle of black identity in the post-modern era. In, Twisted Fantasy he could be interpreted as exploring what is known to the Self in juxtaposition to what is unknown, if the ideas he were presenting were to transcend the disconnected chaos of society. Kanye West is world renowned for his somewhat dark lyrics and the prolific imagery of his music videos. He has always gone for the shock value, in music and the real world. While West presents images that are startling, he is reflecting society with a noticeable lack of original thought while at the same time not addressing root causes for the desolation he portrays. West is the guy on the street who saw the graffiti on the wall, recognized a lot of what people were talking about and summarized it as a reflection offering no solutions or understanding of the problems inherent in the black or of the feminine experience. He gives the worlds youth music to get lost into. Many conservatives believe that he is a bad role model, but they do not understand his lyrics because he is not speaking to them, he is speaking to the youth. It is this type of lyrical composition that has made Kanye West a household name. In the article, Celebrity, Victoria Price explains, “The origin of the unique phenomenon of twentieth-century celebrity may be found in the words of one of America’s Founding Fathers, John Adams, who wrote, ‘‘The rewards . . . in this life are steem and admiration of others—the punishments are neglect and contempt. The desire of the esteem of others is as real a want of nature as hunger—and the neglect and contempt of the world as severe as a pain.” (Price, 463). The author suggests that fame is not at all w... ... middle of paper ... ...dustry and is delivering a strong message to the public, and to young people. It is interesting because West is a controversial figure. West has already crossed the international line. His music is known the world around, and he often travels to other countries in Europe and Asia to play shows. He earned his international reputation by playing off of the insecurity of society. He uses themes that captivate his audiences. These themes usually include, race, love, hate, dysfunction and drugs. All of which he uses to communicate to the worlds youth. Works Cited Price, Victoria. “Celebrity” St James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 16 April, 2014 Schmid, Randolph E. "What Makes a Hit? it's all in the Fans." The Globe and Mail Feb 11 2006: 0. ProQuest. 16 Apr. 2014 . West, Kanye. “Dark Fantasy”. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Roc-A-Fella, 2010
In 21st century North America, there is a strange, seemingly-unanimous idea that, to fit the norm, one must be white, Christian and male. While, over the course of the latter 20th century and in the past decade, this has changed, the norm is very much still Christian and male; African-Americans now fit into the “All-American” stereotype, for the most part. However, there are, of course, outliers – deviants from the standard norm; these outliers make one wonder what the norm truly is, why it is so, how did it get to be that way, and what the norm will be in the future. Kanye West's 2004 single titled “Jesus Walks” is written as a ode to Jesus helping him and every other Christian through hard times in their life. Sampling the same beat and background vocals, Lupe Fiasco customizes West's song to fit his own spirituality, in “Muhammad Walks.” Finally, Matisyahu employs his gift of verse and beat-boxing to distribute a rap about his religion, Judaism, over the airwaves and on television. Both Matisyahu and Lupe Fiasco challenge the societal norm of Christianity, while Kanye West solidifies the claim that Christianity is a syncretic religion.
It starts by describing a young woman in college, stating, “she has no idea what she’s doing in college, the major she majored in don’t make no money, she won’t drop out, her parents will look at her funny (West).” By doing this the song establishes that this woman wants success but she doesn’t know how to obtain it since she was basically pushed into pursuing a career in college that she was unsure of in order to obtain success. The song furthers the story of the woman when she states that she gives up and goes on to say that her tuition money is enough to buy a few pairs of new shoes. The desire for success and frustration of not being able to achieve it, is what essentially leads the woman of taking this shortcut of dropping out of school to acquire material possessions in the “now” instead of the slower more standard route of finishing her education and finding success through that. Kanye West then describes in the song his addiction of material possessions when he began to acquire wealth from his music career. He says in the song “Man I’m so self-conscious, that’s why you always see my with one of my watches,” showing that he took the route of obtaining material possessions as soon as he acquired money to try and show others his success (West). He furthers this point by stating “then I spent 400 bucks on this, just to be like, you ain’t up on this,” showing it wasn’t just one instance, but a constant reoccurrence of showing off his material possessions to constantly try and present himself to others as
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
“WHICH ONE,” shouts the lettering on the alternate cover to Kanye West’s new album. Its boldface type and repetitive hammering reads less like a question and more like a blunt statement - and no matter how unusual or unimportant it may seem, it offers an adequate representation of this album and Kanye West in general. There’s almost no denying that West is a narcissist and/or egomaniac - he has supplied evidence a thousand times, on his Twitter and in real life. But in spite of - and perhaps because of - his flawed personality, West is the most influential figure in music, period, the turn of the century. Glancing at the contemporary radio stations, it’s hard to hear a song that doesn’t have West’s influence.
What we only see in Tupac is the violent life he lived and how he is the root of corruption among our youth. ?They say Tupac [hip-hop] teaches our youth to be gangsters and has no positive message, but they forget the U.S. climate is negative.? (Anonymous poem author) Judging someone by their outside character can never determine what they are feeling on the inside. In other words, Tupac was the true example of society today. We see the negative clearly, but how much do we know about the positive?
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.
“While the rich kids is drivin ' Benz ,I 'm still tryin ' to hold on to my survivin ' friends.” In this quote Tupac had his audience take a second to image a rick kid driving in the hood with a Benz while a poor African Amirian boy is struggling to keep his friends. Tupac uses his lyrics to help paint a picture though his lyrics of the life of a black person which brings us to Imagery. The use of imagery in this song is amazing. Without even watching the music video and just listening to the song I could easily image everything that Tupac was trying to explain. This is what makes Tupac the best rapper still till this day! Another use of imagery is when he said “Dying inside, but outside you 're looking fearless, While tears, is rollin ' down your cheeks”. By this quote we as the audience should realize that there is more to this song that Tupac is trying to explain. In this quote I feel as though he was explaining that as African Americans more so black women tend to always wear this smile on our face no matter the situation when we know something in us is dying or is just not right. For some reason us black women have a habit of hiding our true feeling and situations. Last was the use of symbols which ties in with imagery. “They got money for wars, but can 't feed the poor”. What was Tupac really trying to say? This quote symbolize so much about America as a whole, and how as a nation we spend so much of our money on weapons for warfare but yet there are little kids who go days and weeks without no food. Is that fair? This quote symbolized pain and loss of hope because they (poor people) will never see a happy day. As they say we have to have the poor to have the
His music is very genuine and original, he tells stories through his lyrics. His songs revolve around love stories, police brutality, social media, and motivation. Growing up African American he understands the struggles and the economic disparities we go against everyday. His positivity toward imperfections amazes me. All the money that he has he spends it wisely he doesn't believe in fixing certain physical traits that makes him feel like him. In his song “Crooked Smile” he mentions he wont fix his teeth just because he has money.
West states that the younger generation is the population that are mostly targeted due to the fire that they contain inside. The fire that is built from the Black Community is consider beautiful by West because the fire is expressing their anger. West uses the fire as a metaphor for anger because the Black community is feed up with so much injustice that is done to them. African Americans want change and the only way that they can created this change is by using their beautiful fire to face everyday obstacles. He uses Kanye West as an example of a Black activist because he is not afraid to speak on the struggles these African Americans are facing. Which is why West said that the Black Community should not be hesitant on
Kanye West’s album Yeezus has been an ongoing topic of controversy over the intent of the title and content. From that album is the keynote song that drives the controversy, I Am a God. By analyzing the song’s place in hip hop as well as West’s intended message, this essay will examine the intended as well as the unintended messages that stem from the song. Though Kanye West has received criticism from I Am a God, it is from the unintended message and the true message of the song is smeared.
When West first showed up (late 90s and early 2000s), the world was a different place. Fans of the genre were most likely listening to gangster-rap, artists like: Jay Z, Notorious B.I.G, 50 Cent, Tupac, Ice Cube, Eazy E, N.W.A, Wu-Tang, Nate Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg (Best Gangsta Rappers), the kind of music that dominated mainstream rap at the time. Rappers and fans of rap were mostly in a gangster-influenced mind state. West was foreign to the idea of being a “thug” or a “gangster”. West grew up in an average house while his mom made good money working as a professor in the English department at Chicago State University. He was well educated and attracted to more preppy fashions- sport coats, polo shirts, and sunglasses, quite the contrary to what other rappers were wearing in those times. Like many rappers, West wrote about his daily experiences, experiences majorly ...
Some weaknesses of James McBride’s “Hip Hop Planet” include its cynical tone and his attitude towards the musical side of Hip Hop. McBride opens the essay with a reflection on what his ultimate nightmare is. He showcases the Hip Hop community in a negative light with phrases like, “music that doesn’t seem to be music—rules the world” (McBride, pg. 1). This starts the essay off negatively because it misleads the reader by letting them think he is not a supporter of the Hip Hop movement. As you read the entire essay you realize this is not the case. The article itself isn’t very inviting because tone of the entire essay is very cold and cynical. He also doesn’t agree with the typical Hip Hop sound saying things like, “It sounded like a broken record” (McBride, pg. 1). The sound of Hip Hop music is what helps define it and is a crucial aspect of
“New Slaves” a rap, hip hop, song written, produced, and composed by Grammy award winning, hip hop mogul, Kanye West. Recording artist Kanye West, could possible be considered the most controversial rapper of all time. Kanye speaks on topics relating to him and his culture in his music. West grew up with a mother who was raised during the segregation era, meaning that he has many extreme views on fairness, and equality in America. In Kanye’s career, along with his amazing music and creative image, he is well known for his public outbursts, and his hatred for the media and the paparazzi. West stands up for what he believes in, and is sometimes selfish of his feelings. This track was included on his sixth studio album entitled “Yeezus” in 2013.
Now that you understand his childhood, you can understand his music much clearly. His music isn't about killing cops or raping a girl, but of hope for people like him out they're selling drugs to survive. He gives the clear message of hope to everyone who makes the effort and realizes that drugs isn't the way to go and to never give up on life and to live life to the fullest.
Eminem could be considered a symbol for many artists, because rap contains a very large teenager fan base. Eminem being as famous as he is, uses a format many rappers if not most use, which is profanity. Profanity is one of the main reasons rap could be seen as a ‘vulgur’ form of music. Now these uses of profanity could be harmful if people got used to swearing, but the real ignorance lies in ignoring the message of the music because of a certain swear word used. Eminem for example is constantly seen singing about his personnel life whether it be his domestic problems with his wife and kids or problems with other rappers. Now again for many it could be just another rapper ‘babbling’ about his life in the ‘ghetto’...