Gangsta Rap as Poetry There has been an ongoing debate for years about whether or not gangsta rap is poetry or not. Many people may believe that it is not poetry and that rap music just promotes violence, but on the other hand many believe that rap is poetry and that it tells a story. Poetry is defined as a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. Poetry can be violent, and saddening but the creator leaves it up to you to do determine how it makes you feel along with music. In Rap Poetry 101, Bradley states that “every rap song is a poem waiting to be performed.” In all poem and lyrics beat is primarily in mind when written, and any type of rap has a specific structure that can be reproduced into several forms. Poetry and rap are both defined by the art within its lines (Bradley). In rap music line breaks and slag are never accidental, line breaks and slag are what complete the lyrical system which is no different in poetry. Both poetry and rap are classified as art, although all rap poetry isn't great …show more content…
In the song “Mind is Playing Tricks On Me” by the Ghetto Boys rhyming is evident the song, Scarface states that “My mother always stressin’ I ain’t living right / But I ain’t goin out without a fight”(lines 4-5). In this song imagery is created through the lyrics because the tone of the song is more story like which is evident when Scarface states that “At night I can't sleep, I toss and turn / Candlesticks in the dark, visions of bodies being burned” (lines 1-2). Along with imagery, irony is also evident throughout the song in verse 4, Bushwick Bill states that “The more I swung, the more blood flew / Then he disappeared and my boys disappeared too” (lines 15-16). At this point he realizes that he is completely disconnected from what is reality and
In his essay Murray Forman, Represent: Race, Space, And Place in Rap Music. Forman talk about how rap music went from national to regional and locally. He argued that territories were claimed through the ongoing cultural practices that occurred within their bounds and were reinforced by the circulation of those who recognized and accepted their perimeters (Forman 196). He further explained how early DJ sound systems featured a series of practices that linked the music to other mobile practices, such as graffiti art and tagging that only way they were able to construct place based identities.
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.
Rhymes are two or more words that have the same ending sound. Songwriters and poets often times use rhymes to help their piece flow better, or keep the audience or readers engaged. Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is filled with rhymes, with a rhyme in almost every single line: “Brando, the King and I, and the Catcher In The Rye / Eisenhower, Vaccine, England’s got a new Queen / Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye” (line 6-8). Billy Joel uses the rhymes to move from one topic to the next, and the song is even in chronological order from 1950 to 1989. The rhyme schemes of the song are end rhymes as well as perfect rhymes. On the other hand, the poem is completely free verse, or without a single rhyme. This makes the poem less artistic and harder to remain engaged and interested. In addition to rhyming, allusions are another way of displaying artistic
Hip-Hop: from the live performances to the lyrics this here brought up many thoughts in my head. I attended a concert on April 2016 and several other old school concerts at the Queen Mary, front row VIP area which included; Debbie deb, Cover girls, Vanilla ice and so on. Going to an old school/hip-hop concert the songs and experiences as a whole are different with every time. New school hip-hop is narrative and with this you can receive the same lyrical experience every time, as for the concert the experience is the same as the next. I am not saying that an old school concert isn’t different in its own way but I do think their not so far apart performance wise. Example going to a “Drake” concert is more narrative compared to an old school
To be labeled as a feminist is such a broad classification therefore it is divided into various subsections, one such subsection is known as hip hop feminism in which Ruth Nicole closely associates herself with throughout this essay I will thoroughly discuss this form of feminism. Ruth Nicole is a black woman that categorizes herself as a girl, by her definition a girl is far from independent. Black girlhood discusses the shared experiences of the ever-changing body, which has been marked as vibrant, Black, and female, along with memories and representations of being female. As a result, Ruth Nicole wrote Black Girlhood Celebration in order to share her personal and political motivations of working with black girls within the community. A conversation that is not often articulated about due to a language barrier. In which this discussion accurately details a means to work with black girls in such a way that does not control their body or pilfer black female individuality. Under those circumstances, Brown believes that black girls are being exploited for their physique through the use of music and instructed to conform to white norms constructed by society.
Hip hop has so many subgenres that preach different messages to the listeners. Artists are inspired to sing according to what they experienced when growing up, or what they thought should be done to address a particular issue.
Hip hop is both a culture and a lifestyle. As a musical genre it is characterized by its hard hitting beats and rhythms and expressive spoken word lyrics that address topics ranging from economic disparity and inequality, to gun violence and gang affiliated activity. Though the genre emerged with greater popularity in the 1970’s, the musical elements involved and utilized have been around for many years. In this paper, we will cover the history and
Hip Hop/Rap music is a new kind of music that appeared during the 1980s . It portrays life on the streets.There are some connections between rap music and jazz music, they come from the Last Poets, which is a group of ex-convicts, one of them released an album backed by the funk Kool and the Gang, this made it become very influential in the early New York rappers.Rap also combines the elements of African American musical traditions such as blues, jazz and soul with dance-hall reggae, dub and Caribbean calypso. It made rap into the most influential and complex form of
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)
A progressively predominant phenomenon is the formation of gangs that is crosscutting all ages and backgrounds. Gangs are always in an outgoing state of evolution and transformation, influenced by numerous factors; such as social exclusion, racism, bias, community disorganization, availability of drugs and weapons within the society. The previously mentioned factors contribute to developing a personality that focuses on the negative side of life. It is worth noted that the decisions people made in their life is strongly interlinked to their historical background. Consequently, it is important for children to have a stable relationship with their parents from birth to adolescences, since that period of time shapes their personality and impacts their life choices. In order to find a proper solution that may help reduce gang formation, it is essential to focus on the main problem behind developing a gang and the motives that foster the development of gangs. A solution that may help reduce gang violence is passing a law that forces all parents to meet a child psychologist before having children and provide them with incentives to recognize the seriousness of meeting a child psychologist. The logic behind is that it raises their awareness of the consequences of becoming parents and its associated responsibilities. Besides, it offers the parents with the relevant information about the dangers of psychological aggression, and maltreatment and it guides them on the potential means of dealing with children’s behaviour. This paper will shed the light on some of the arguments supporting the solution stated above.
With poetry coming in many different styles today, writing comes easy for some. One way that poetry is written today is in the form of rap. The artist known as "J Cole" is one of the best rappers of the 21st century. J Cole went double platinum with top hits such as "Wet Dreamz" and "Love Yourz". In both of these songs Cole connects the listener's with relatable stories and scenarios. Both of these songs are forms of poetry somehow.
The influence of Hip-Hop has never been as great as it is in this day and age. Often dismissed by a majority of America as simply a fad, hip hop has become a global phenomenon and has arguably been the most popular form of music for the past three decades. Hip-Hop has influenced art, language, fashion, culture, and sports. This music has been used to teach elementary level children, it has been taught in undergraduate universities and serves as a bridge for hundreds of philanthropies. The influence of Hip-Hop has also been felt in films. These films range from fictional works, documentaries, and autobiographies. A film known as, Something from Nothing by famous rapper Ice T sheds light on elements within Hip-Hop that have enabled the genre to reach millions of people.
The lyrics in many songs contain violent and explicit lyrics that usually talk about killing someone along with sounds of gunshots in the background. Gangsta rap also talks about drug use and portrays negative attitudes toward women, especially black women. The artists refer to women as, “bitches,” “whores” and sex dispensing “hoes.” On the contrary there is a nice side effect to controversy; you can use it. to get a message across and most importantly sales records, just like NWA, Ice-T, Public Enemy, and the 2 live crew soon discovered early on in their time.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.
A famous poet once said, " I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty." That famous poet was known as Edgar Allan Poe and he is seen as one of the most significant writers from the romanticism era. If you think about it, Poe was right. Poetry is a creation of beauty that one reads with the heart instead of their eyes. It allows you to express yourself and inspire others. poetry is everywhere, It’s the lyrics on the radio and the plot to your favorite movie. If you have never written a poem before, then you have not lived the life from a true literary perspective. Perhaps you just don 't understand the values of writing or maybe you aren 't able to express your thoughts into words, so I 'm going to show you how you can overcome these obstacles.