White Rappers Many white rappers have had a difficult time making it in the black industry of rap. Eminem, the most recent white rapper to hit the mainstream has had his own share of difficulties in this industry and in his life as well. The poem written my Marshall Mathers, now known as Eminem, entitled "Life," displays Eminem's views on his life, and just life in general. Eminem has continued on the legacy of the contact zone between the white men in the black man's industry, this being rap. What is a contact zone? "…Social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power…" (Pratt 584) In more simple terms a contact zone is where people of different backgrounds, races, nationalities, etc., meet, and the outcome that it provides. Eminem definitely fits this description with his music. Born in Detroit, Marshall Mathers was raised by his mother, and welfare. Mathers never knew his father, or what he looked like for that matter, never even seeing a picture of him. His mother was forced to move around a lot because his mother never had a job, and they were forced to leave many of the places that they lived in. Eminem was quoted in saying that six months was a long time to live in one place. "I don't like to give the sob story: growing up in a single-parent home, never knew my father, my mother never worked, and when friends came over I'd hide the welfare cheese." (Eminem2000.com) Mathers was born in Kansas City and traveled back and forth between Kansas City and the Detroit metropolitan area. He switching schools every two to three months made it difficult to make friends and stay out of trouble. Music and rap seemed to be a way out for Mathers. He was able to beat other kids in freestyle singing contests and brought joy to his painful existence. (Eminem.com 2) In Mathers poem, Life, he writes about life being one big obstacle put in front of you in order to slow you down, and whenever you think you are past it, it always comes back to get you. Mathers released his first album entitled Infinite in 1996. This album was accused of sounding too much like other rappers who were already in the industry, and presumably black.
There are a lot of Epic Poems written in Literature that intrigue, and capture reader’s attention like; The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, and the Divine Comedy. Never had the Hip-Hop culture had an epic story of its own until Lupe Fiasco came along. Lupe created a 17 song saga Called “Michael Young History (MYH) also known as The Cool” spread throughout his first two albums, and a few mixtapes. MYH is a frictional rap character who was raised by a single hard-working mother who struggle to raise Michael and his loving sister. With the lack of parental guidance the promising, intelligent young Michael turn into a drug deal. Michaels love for the street, and fame sent him to a road of greed, deception. In no time Michael had control of his neighborhood making money, bribing dirty cops to look away from his crimes. As Michael unethical fame rise his friends get jealous, setting Michael to end his life. Unless a music listener is not a Lupe Fiasco fan they will not be aware of this
In the short story “Tupac and My Non-Thug Life” by Jenee Desmond-Harris she talks about the death of Tupac Shakur and the impact it had on her and her friend Thea. I think its interesting that although Harris and Tupac are polar opposites she uses the connection of their race and applys it to this “coming of age” journey. Harris expresses that Tupacs music made her feel apart of something and that she valued the racial equality being voiced through his music. I can relate to this on multiple levels. For example when I’m feeling down and listen to sad music that i can relate to. Listening to music and lyrics that you can relate to brings you a sense of belonging like you arent the only one that has ever felt this way.
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.
Raised as an only child, Dwayne Micheal Carter Jr or more commonly referred to as Lil Wayne, was born September 27th, 1982, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Carter’s mother was only 19 years old when he was first born. He was being raised by both his mother and father until his father abandoned them while Dwayne Jr. was only two years old. After being abandoned by his biological father, his mother was forced to take care of him on her own and survive in the crime infested community of Holly grove, New Orleans. Even though he divorced his mother and remarried, his father forced the two live with his own mother and came by to abuse Lil Wayne’s mother on a consistent basis.This situation went on for three years until Lil Wayne’s mother eventually remarried and relocated to a different part of town. Growing up he did very well in school. He was actually enrolled in his school’s gifted program at a point and received top grades. He got into music at a very young age and wrote his first rap song at the age of eight. Lil Wayne had the drive to be the best and successful at his craft since he first began. At the age of nine he was challenging others twice his age and older at rapping. He would consistently go to neighborhood parties or events to rap and most of the time he was better then whatever adult he was going against. As a testament to this, at the age of nine he start receiving attention from one of the two co-founders of his future label, Slim Williams. From Slim, he then received other co-founder, Bryan Williams, phone number and what he did with it after that was truly caught the Bryan’s attention. He continuously called the number over and over leaving rap songs on the voicemail of Williams until he agreed to meet him in person...
According to Mary Louise Pratt a contact zone is: “Social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today”(Pratt 607).
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
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.
Rap music became popularized in Atlanta and the rest of the South in the early to mid-1980s. The first rap to come out of the city of Atlanta was uptempo party music with heavy bass and very obvious Florida influence. Hits like “Whoomp! (There It Is)” by Tag Team, and “Jump” by Kriss Kross defined the pre-Outkast era of Atlanta hip-hop. While these songs were immensely popular (“Whoomp!” is ranked by Billboard as one of the greatest songs of all time (“Greatest of All Time”) while “Jump” was one of the top 3 selling songs of 1992 (“Week Ending May”), groups from the city, for the most part, were commonly seen as “novelty” and “kiddie crews” (“Kriss Kross: Da Bomb”). While the emergence of relatively simple but enjoyable music was going on in Atlanta, rap as a whole began to truly explode. The newest major music genre entered its golden era; “Ready to Die” by Biggie Smalls, “Illmatic” by Nas, and “Me Against The World” by 2Pac were all albums that were rated “five mics” by The Source (“5 Mics?”) The “five mic” rating from The Source indicated an exceptional and rare hip-hop album. In this time of growth in hip-hop culture Atlanta, and the South as a whole was in large part left out. People were enthralled by cross country feuds between rap superstars; but just when it seemed like there was no space at the time for rap from anywhere but New York or California, the duo of Andre “3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, better known as Outkast single-handedly redefined rap music. Andre 3000 played an instrumental role in defining not just rap, but music as a whole in the 1990s and 2000s. His presence transitioned Southern rap from being viewed as nothing more than exciting, throw away party music to music that could be timeless an...
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)
While Eminem portrays himself as being from Detroit, he is actually from Missouri. He moved back and forth between Detroit, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri for most of his childhood. At the age of seventeen, Eminem started getting serious about wanting to be a rapper, giving himself the nickname M&M (meaning Marshal Mathers) and later decided to change the spelling to Eminem with the second E backwards as part of his trademark. He failed 9th grade 3 times, then dropped out, “School wasn’t for me” (Eminem). An education was the last thing on his mind. After throwing himself into the rap world on many levels, usually being shut down, he kept trying.
Mary Louise Pratt wrote the essay “Arts of the Contact Zone” with the purpose of explaining that society would benefit if people were exposed to and understood the concept of “contact zones”. She refers to contact zones as social spaces where cultures meet and clash with each other, usually with one culture being dominant over the other. A person living in a contact zone is exposed to two different cultures, two different languages, and as a result is presented with a struggle in each culture to maintain themselves. From being surrounded by several different cultures, people begin to integrate the concept of transculturation—a process in which subordinate cultures evolve by taking things from dominant, more advanced cultures, and make it their own. She also calls to attention the error of assuming that people in a community all speak the same language and all share the same motives and beliefs. Pratt insists that education and society must be reformed in such ways that introduce people to the principles of contact zones in order to gain mutual understanding of each other and acquire new wisdom. In order for this mutual understanding to be achieved, the subordinate cultures that exist need to be able to make their voices heard; this leads to the improvement of society as a whole.
From growing up on the streets of Detroit, this Rap God, Marshall Mathers, better known as his stage names Slim Shady or Eminem, struggled through all life’s toughest obstacles and used his words to turn his life around. His story is truly a tale of success against failure and defeat. He never let negativity bring him down especially when it seemed like his world was coming to an end at times.
Rap music has given me personally something to look up to. Not a role model but hope of continuing my dreams because rappers successfully made it. “For what’s money without happiness, or hard times without the people you love” is from a song called “Love Yourz” by J. Cole. He clearly understands how there is “beauty in the struggle and ugliness in the success” because he’s lived that life. Other songs such as “2Face” or “The Autograph” were instantly relatable to me because he has been through several struggles from the beginning of his childhood. Cole’s father left when he was six leaving his mother and younger brother alone. Cole became “the man of the house” but becoming a rapper is not as easy as it seems. Cole’s messages in these two songs are relative because I too, have had several issues with my mother and father creating a sense of lonesome. Hearing music like Coles helped me overcome my
The Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt opened up a whole new concept for our class. The new term “contact zone” appeared and Pratt defined it as "social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today." The idea of the contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that trigger much of the thinking about language, communication, and culture.
As one of the world’s most successful musicians, Marshall Mathers is the target of intense controversy. Mathers, better known by his stage name Eminem, is often written off as violent, misogynistic, and homophobic. Activist groups have picketed his concerts, parents have condemned his songs, and countries like Canada and Australia have even tried cancel his concerts. However, underneath the controversy, Mathers has revolutionized hip hop, turning it into a mainstream form of music. Mathers’ story indicates how artists must ultimately work without fear of controversy because that conflict indicates the presence of creativity and open thinking, which are both necessary for the progress of art. Thus, artists must forge on, working their craft despite criticism.