Faith Bateman Ms. Bourgeois STA DE English 101 March 15 2024 Boosie Saved Baton Rouge Hanif Abdurraqib is a music critic, essayist, and poet that uses popular music to blend social history and insight into technical and emotional aspects of a song, album, or a performance. In his first collection, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, he combined essays that included a deeply personal consideration of self-identity and the continued suffering inflicted on Black bodies. In, “Burning That Which Will Not Save You: Wipe Me Down And The Ballad Of Baton Rouge”, an essay in his book, Hanif Abdurraqib linked Boosie Badazzs’ song, “Wipe Me Down”, to life in Baton Rouge rebuilding after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Through Hanif Abdurraqib’s use of …show more content…
Baton Rouge then became a swelled and overcrowded city because of the number of New Orleans residents that migrated there. Murder, poverty, and homelessness rates soared after the influx to Baton Rouge. It was truly pure chaos. Two years later, the remix to “Wipe Me Down”, featuring Lil Boosie and Webbie, was released. In Hanif Abduraqib’s essay, he really dives into the difference between this songs’ original and the updated version of the music video. The original video was blurry, oddly structured, and filmed in the streets of Baton Rouge. The rappers looked like ordinary people, just trying to make a living. The remix included everyone with money, jewelry, and power while they were in a club surrounded by attractive girls. Hanif Abdurriqib stated, “It is like watching the difference between a city that’s trying, and a city confident in a light at the end of the tunnel” (Abdurraqib 156). Hanif Abudraqib uses Boosie’s music video to describe the difference between Baton Rouge and Hurricane Katrina. Baton Rouge after the hurricane and Boosie’s original music video both symbolize a city trying to fight with what little they have just to