Where’s the attention? What is first to be noticed about the album “To Pimp a Butterfly”, by Kendrick Lamar? Kendrick Lamar is an artist who uses a technique with this specific album, by connecting each song to the next. An interesting way he connects the pieces is by poem. The layout can easily induce the listener to hear the entire album for its story. In the album “To Pimp a Butterfly”, Kendrick expresses a deep and meaningful view on life and how things proceed in society. He also includes plenty of imagery, examples, and stories of how society has changed us. As we continue, I will be expressing how Kendrick presents positive songs; which then can switch quickly to more negative songs, and the belief of the Law of Attraction.
Society these days “everybody lacks confidence…and…potential is anonymous” (I, by Kendrick Lamar, verse 2). Kendrick believes that with lack of confidence comes negative emotion. With negative emotion comes a bad string of events. This is called the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction is the belief that, like attracts like, and positive thoughts cause positive experiences in life; negative thoughts bring negative experiences. In a way The Law of Attraction is similar to good and bad karma. Bad karma
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Lamar joins each song together with a poem. This poem is cited in the song Mortal Man in the album “To Pimp a Butterfly”. In this song Kendrick is talking to 2Pac and the creation of this album. 2Pac then listens and understands what Kendrick went through to make these songs. Kendrick rose to be a king, from being just a peasant (King Kunta). Then Lamar felt lost in fame in fortune (These Walls). Self-realizing began when Kendrick contemplates with suicide (U). Kendrick then fights with his devils to stay alive (For Sale?). Finally, he struggled with the guilt of leaving the people of Compton and wasn’t able to help the kids there (Hood
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) is a 1 hour and 40 minute documentary that observes the black power movement in American history. This film is directed by Swedish director Goran Hugo Olson and has detailed footage that was shot during the 1960s and 1970s by Swedish journalists. The footage largely focuses on the black power movements. The film allows viewers to not only grasp a better understanding of this movement but allows us to understand why this movement appealed to Swedish journalists. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 includes vintage interviews with Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and other prominent leaders during the Black Power Movement. The documentary also contains contemporary audio interviews and commentaries from various entertainers, artists, activists, and scholars, including but not limited to: Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, Melvin Van Peebles, Erykah Badu, Abiodun Oyewele, and Questlove from The Roots.
When listening to rap music we get to experience the environments that the MC lived through. Most MC’s use music as a way of coping with reality, their violent and hard life. In this way they find a kind of shelter in their songs even though these songs describe their life and how hard it is.
For decades, America has oppressed African Americans due to the color of their skin. Although the country has made many strides in preventing some racial actions, racism still consumes the black culture starting in their early years. Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar released his second studio album To Pimp a Butterfly on March 15, 2015. Lamar spoke out against structural racism on this album and even made a case for the black culture being at fault for some of the racism they face. His message may not have been accepted by all the masses, but his bold statements sparked new conversations that any artist dreams of doing. Lamar introduced several metaphors for the racism in America, but the key focus was the development of the caterpillar into the
In Verhsawn Ashanti Young’s article titled, “Nah, We Straight: An argument Against Code Switching,” he makes his objectives clear as he argues against people Right to their own language. The author questions the advantage of standard American English as opposed to other types of English. He refers to those aspect as code switching, which he believes can lead to racist thinking. Code switching, according to Young, calls out for one way of speaking to be omitted in favor of others, based on one's rhetorical situations. The author points out that students are required to translate from Afro-American English or Spanglish to standard English and not the other way around, which is concerning. Youngs method to get around this segregation is the usage
In Lupe Fiasco 's song "Words I Never Said," he collaborates with Skylar Grey to bring awareness to hard topics that no one wants to converse about, by expressing his own emotions, supplying factual evidence, and challenging the credibility to back up his statements. Throughout the song, Fiasco gives his opinion on subjects he finds important, like conspiracy theories, terrorism, and drugs. After rapping about all these issues and more, Fiasco explains, why it is important to stand up and talk about the unfair and unjust problems in the world, instead of being afraid of what people think. Fiasco 's purpose of the song is successful because he exemplifies the feelings that the audience can relate to and uses metaphors, alliteration, and facts to explain his reasoning. He succeeds in persuading his audience, by bringing up his own judgments on real life events, supporting those judgments with
“You Was Right” by Lil Uzi Vert is fairly easy to understand lyrically. The essence of the song deals with unfaithfulness in a relationship as well as the aftermath. Lil Uzi Vert spends a large portion of the song admitting his mistakes to his presumed girlfriend in hopes of making things right between them. The song starts off with the hook, which rests upon the premise of how Lil Uzi Vert should have stayed loyal rather than taking another girl home with him. For example, he says, “You was right, I was wrong” (6) in an attempt to console his girlfriend and apologize. Following the hook, the first verse centers on Lil Uzi Vert’s riches due to his success as a rapper. He ties that in to his relationship by expressing how he wants to share his wealth with his girlfriend. At this stage in the song, Lil Uzi Vert is attempting to win his girlfriend back with his money and general success as a rapper. The hook then repeats itself to indicate that the argument between Lil Uzi Vert and his girlfriend is still continuing. The second verse signifies an escalation in their conflict, as he says, “You just locked the door, so I gotta text you” (42). His girlfriend is refusing to even listen
Macklemore begins with “When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay, / 'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight. / I told my mom, tears rushing down my face.” In just these first couple of lines, the listener is easily able to understand what the song is about, and also comprehend the stereotype that is associated with gays and lesbians. The listener is given the equation that Macklemore made up when he was younger; he added the stereotypes that were given to gays: being artistic, having a gay relative, and being tidy. By following these fashions, he assumed that he was gay as well. When Macklemore states that tears were rushing down his face, it gives even more awareness to the negative connotation that gays
Hip-Hop’s criticism of George W. Bush is a good example of hip-hop’s reflection of Black public opinion. The Republican candidate who already had a low approval rating of 57% amongst African-Americans received an even lower approval rating after his lackluster efforts to support Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (Jones, 2003; Cillizza & Sullivan 2013).
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)
I was so interested in the truth that I suspended my assumptions about West as I pursued more information through research, giving me an objective lens. It truly rattled me to have been so wrong in my assumptions, it felt weird to know that because of something I didn’t know, I had believed something. It genuinely shook my self-confidence. I really prided myself on my knowledge of Hip-Hop, I thought I knew all the classic albums, how could I have overlooked this one for so long? So, jolted by this sting of self embarrassment, I searched further, I wanted to know what else I had been oblivious to. It became increasingly clearer to me that there were two completely opposite views about Kanye, the more popular view: he’s a worthless egotistical pop star, who’s created nothing of value, and, as I was shocked to learn over time, the informed view, and the truth, that he was and is one the most influential artists of the 21’st
While on a recent carefree jaunt throughout Harlem, I was introduced to the lyrical genius of one “Big L.” As is common of all true artists, Mr. L passed before his time, but not without a legacy. You see, it is the will of the Almighty Himself that I elucidate the meaning of Mr. L’s first major work, “Put it On,” in order for it to be made accessible to the common man and the upper crust alike, so that this truly majestic piece may live for eternity in the bosom of humankind. To this end, I have composed a line-for-line translation of the complex, sophisticated diction, which, I expect, will henceforth serve as the standard through which all scholars will study this master of the English language.
Hip-Hop music has grown significantly since its beginnings in the South Bronx in the late 1970s. The music and its influences have travelled all around the world, even to a small town in Scotland called Paisley. There, 19 year old grime artist Shogun just released his first single “Vulcan”. In this track, Shogun shares his life and desires through a fast-paced delivery of lyrics. “Vulcan” although being a grime track by a Scottish artist, shares many of the characteristics of American rap songs which are discussed by Byron Hurt in his 2006 documentary, “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes”. Grime music was formed as a way for people from less affluent neighborhoods in East London to vent and express themselves similar to the origins of rap/ Hip-Hop in the Bronx of New York City.
For centuries, music has been a powerful form of art that has influenced many people, social policies, and cultures. Music often mirrors the milieu from which it is created. The genre of hip-hop music, also known as rap music, developed among African-American and Latinx youth in the Bronx in the 1970s. Ever since then, it has evolved and spread to all parts of the world. However, hip hop is not just a music category – it is also a form of culture that conveys the marginalization and oppression suffered by individuals of minority populations. Because a culture often involves sharing of customs and values, sampling has been a method of building a tradition and heritage between modern hip-hop and older pieces of the same or different genres. Sampling alludes to the borrowing of musical elements from the recordings of other performers and the incorporation of these sonic* elements into contemporary hip-hop pieces. Sampling can involve borrowing just the rhythm and beat of a piece, but it often integrates parts of the lyrics as well. While it is true
Some of my earliest memories of listening to Michael Jackson include his number 1 hit 'Beat It'. I can remember that when I was younger, Michael Jackson’s 'Beat It' was one of his first songs that I ever listened to. Between the driving rock guitar, the soaring vocals, and the overall story that the song delivers, the song has easily become one of my favorite Michael Jackson tracks to this day.
The lyrics of many rap songs encourage violent and aggressive thoughts in teenagers. Many teens don’t realize that the music they are listening to affects the way they think. According to Morrison, a columnist whose writings focus on the impact of the choices people face every day, “Words do have meanings, meanings suggest thoughts, and thoughts lead to action” (Morrison). Even if the person isn’t affected right away by the violent lyrics of most today’s rap songs, eventually they will become more prone to certain thoughts. As Morrison stated, “In experiments on over 500 college students . . . subjects were found to experience an increase in aggressive thoughts after listening to songs with violent lyrics. Those subjected to the mean music were more apt to connect hostile meanings to words deemed to be violence neutral by the researchers” (Morrison). In time, words that aren’t intended to cause malicious thoughts, suddenly take on new meanings. Travis L. Dixon, who studies Communication at the University of ...