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hip hop as a cultural phenomenon
culture of hip hop
culture of hip hop
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Art is often a guide to the unconscious mind. Even if a writer is focusing on a certain topic, the mind may find its way to talking about what it desires to. This is true in all creative expression and it is in this manner in which the mind forces us to spill out secrets. Writing may be the easiest form to read and understand, though it requires a skilled writer who allows him/her to put him/herself on the page. Enter, Tyler “The Creator” Okonma, an indie hip-hop rapper and entrepreneur from Los Angeles, California. Okonma’s genre lends way for lyrics that don’t conform to traditional standards, being as when he started his career he produced, wrote, and released all of his own albums on his own website. His use of shock value may cause listeners who don’t stick around to think his lyrics have no significance in society or to insight on his mind. However, in Okonma’s lyrics, we can find a message. This message gives us a small window to his mind and the longer we look the more he see his true personality, his relationships, and most importantly, how he sees himself. While we can’t see a great deal about a person’s history just from looking at a person’s behaviors, we can see their personality. From that we can determine why they act the way they do, which may give us clues as to their developmental history in childhood. So first, we’ll tackle Okonma’s personality traits. Personality traits are generally classified as sources of behavior that govern the majority of choices we make and the life we live. We can determine personality traits by, as stated, looking at behavior and general reactions to experiences. Take, for example, these lyrics: “My mother raised me a single parent so it's apparent / That I got love for my mother, non... ... middle of paper ... ...ons. Without deep insight into his past and family life, it’s difficult to truly confirm theories about his development. But the traits discussed previously are derived from behaviors seen, and actions made, now. Okonma’s actions are very specific. He tells us a lot more than he thinks. But whatever Okonma’s actions in the past or future, hopefully he understands himself, and finds someone else who understands him as well. Works Cited Funder, D. C. (2010). The Personality Puzzle. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company Okonma, T. (2010). Bastard. On Bastard [CD]. California: Odd Future. Okonma, T. (2010). Sarah. On Bastard [CD]. California: Odd Future. Caramanica, J. (May 4 2011). Angry Rhymes, Dirty Mouth, Goofy Kid. New York Times. Retrieved November 10, 2011, From http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/arts/music/tyler-the-creator-of-odd-future-and-goblin.html.
In the article written by Shamontiel Vaughan entitled "Why J. Cole's '2014 Forest Hills Drive' is best rap album of the year,” the author makes a great point about artist having meaning to their music. The meaning behind J. Cole’s music consist of how the lyrics are based on his past in the state of North Carolina. Shamontiel talked about how rhyme patterns are nothing without a meaning. She explains how artist are comfortable with meaningless flows with words that shows expression that match the rhythm, but their content has basically no meaning. Most Artists rap about a bunch of nothing with a passionate flow, that at some point rappers need to tap into the true meaning of Hip-Hop, which is having flow and a message. The only true reason why I fell in love with J. Cole as an artist, is because of the fact of where he was born and raised with the support of his community. Lastly his platinum albums were so great, and he is different from any other artist.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
In these few chapters that we read, we have already learned a lot about Okonkwo, his life, and how he shows sympathy to some, but to others he is heartless. Okonkwo is other wise known as an unsympathetic person. Okonkwo is a clan leader of umuofia who holds many titles and is well known among his people. Okonkwo's daily life consists of tending to the three yam farms he has produced and to make numerous offerings to numerous gods and to help himself and his family. Okonkwo's personality is hard driven, since his father did not provide for him and his family Okonkwo had to start man hood early and this led him to be very successful in his adulthood, Okonkwo is an unsympathetic character who only shows sympathy rarely because he believes it's a sign of weakness Okonkwo's family relationships make him a sympathetic character because when his children show signs of manliness or do their jobs right he shows sympathy towards them. He is an unsympathetic character because whenever he get a little mad he has to take his anger out on something and that is usually vented by beating his wife's.
Cervone, D., Pervin, L. A. (2008). Personality: Theory and research (10th Ed.). New York: Wiley.
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
The article “Rap Lyrics on Trial” written by Erik Nielson and Charis E. Kubrin was about Vonte Skinner, a man who was convicted for attempted murder for 30 years based on the evidence of rap lyrics written before the crime. The court case didn’t have sufficient evidence to convict Skinner because the witness changed their stories many times to be considered consistent, but the jury felt convinced Skinner was guilty when they heard Skinner’s lyrics: “In the hood, I am a threat / It’s written on my arm and signed in blood on my Tech” and “I’m in love with you, death”. Neilson and Kubrin argued whether rap lyrics should be presented as a piece of evidence after Skinner’s conviction is overturned. They claimed that when rap lyrics are
From birth Okonkwo had wanted his son, Nwoye, to be a great warrior like him. His son instead rebelled and wanted to be nothing like Okonkwo. Okonkwo would not change so that his son would idolize him, as he had wanted since his son's birth. He chose not to acknowledge his son's existence instead. This would weigh heavily on anyone's conscience, yet Okonkwo does not let his relationship with his son affect him in the least bit.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
Okonkwo wanted to become one of the greatest men in the Ibo tribe, but three unfortunate events occur bringing him closer to his end. Okonkwo was a proud, industrious figure who through hard work was able to elevate himself to a stature of respect and prominence in his community. The one major character flaw was that he was a man driven by his fear to extreme reactions. Okonkwo was petrified of inadequacy namely because his father was a complete and utter failure. This fear of shortcoming made him hate everything his father loved and represented: weakness, gentleness, and idleness. Who was Okonkwo, well Okonkwo was a hero and also he...
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2009). Personality traits. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Mccrae, R. R. and Costa Jr, P. T. 1997. Personality trait structure as a human universal. American psychologist, 52 (5), p. 509.
Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He raises his family by his mentality of manliness and is ...
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (5th ed). Boston , MA, USA: Pearson
Okonkwo is an interesting character that experiences many changes throughout the novel. He is a self made member of the Umuofia community unlike his father. His father’s cowardliness and laziness never provided for him or the rest of his family. Growing up, he developed a fear of becoming like his father and that is why it became his influence and purpose in life is to live successfully. This is one of the reasons he reaches troubling times along with his Chi. The concept of Chi plays a big role in his destiny and it was can be interpreted two ways after reading the book. It is possible that Chi may have caused his difficulties, but I believe that he caused them himself because of his strong-willed nature.
Okonkwo's life was driven by his strong desire for status. In Okonkwo’s eyes, status was defined in two parts. The first part being how much respect and how many titles one has. Okonkwo goes to extreme odds to gain respect in his village, Umuofia. Okonkwo’s opinions on success relating to titles is displayed very early on. An example of this