Behind a Crooked Smile The music video of “Crooked Smile” by J. Cole illustrates a story that not most people see. The music video reenacts the incident that involved the slain of Aiyana Jones. Although the music video portrays a tragic event, the lyrics of the music video tell a different story. The lyrics tell a message to people, especially females, to love themselves and to not worry what others think of them. In the music video “Crooked Smile,” Cole illustrates the war between the government, drugs, and the innocent victims who are caught in between them. With the song and music video combined, the message to its viewers is to find change and peace not only in the community, but also in our minds. J. Cole, born Jermaine Lamarr Cole, …show more content…
J. Cole talks about his insecurities such as his “crooked teeth” and expresses how nobody is perfect (22). Cole also says “I keep my twisted grill, just to show the kids it’s real” (9). Cole is now a famous artist who has the money to fix his crooked teeth but chooses to keep it the way it is to express that “We ain’t picture perfect but we worth the picture still” (10). Cole then transitions his lyrics that will target young women listeners. He expresses how some women are “Killing themselves to find a man that’ll kill for them” (17). Cole then encourages women to not “fix what God already put his paint brush on” (20). On the second verse of the song, Cole says “To all the women with the flaws, know it’s hard my darling” (28). This part of the song aims towards female listeners. Cole says “When I tell you that you’re beautiful you can’t be sure ‘cause he don’t seem to want you back and it’s got you asking” (30-31). This part of the lyrics explains how some women do not believe they are beautiful due to the fact that they cannot find a man. He later says “Take it from a man that loves what you got and baby girl you’re a star, don’t let ‘em tell you you’re not” (33-34). By saying this, he is promoting self-love and inner beauty amongst the generation. However, it did make me question why the lyrics and music video did not match. Although they do not technically match visually, the …show more content…
Cole uses a slang that is being used in this generation to help people understand the message being expressed in the lyrics. This slang is mostly understood by the younger generation. His music falls in the genre of hip-hop and rap. Cole also uses expletive language to emphasize certain parts of his song. Some people would view this music video a different way. A possible opposing viewpoint would be that people should not do illegal things to support a family. If the father did not turn to illegal activities to support his family, the police would not have invaded his home and shot his daughter. Other opposing viewpoint would be how the father should have found a job to avoid getting into trouble. The whole music video is in remembrance of the little girl Aiyana Jones and to show its audience the injustice it served in America (Alexis 5). The music video does not focus on the lyrics, but focuses on a whole different story. Although the music video is about the war between the government and drugs, the lyrics and the music video share a mutual message and that is to seek peace not only in the community, but also in our minds. Today, there have been issues on police brutality and unlawful arrests. This music video really illustrated different point of views of different people such as the victim and the policemen. Although the music video displayed a different message, the lyrics also provided a great message to people especially young women. Both music video and lyrics
... song entitled “Formation”. The filming took place in Los Angeles, but features references to Hurricane Katrina, with Beyoncé on top of a police car in a flooded street and later cuts to a man holding a newspaper with Martin Luther King Jr.’s face on it with the title “The Truth”. Later a young hooded boy dances in front of a line of police officers with their hands up before the video cuts to a graffitied wall with the words “stop shooting us “ tagged on it, at the end of the video the police car sunk with her on top. Not only did this song, bring awareness to the 10th anniversary of hurricane Katrina it also brought awareness to police brutality, racism, and the “black lives matter movement”. I stand with Lil Wayne, Beyoncé, the people of New Orleans and the countless others who are pushing for a change in the way minorities and the lower class citizen are treated.
Trina’s intent was to create a song that liberated women from the double standards and stereotypical views placed upon them. Her song however can cause harm to young women that listen to take this song to heart. Instead of liberation, we are moved further down into the hole of degrading and devaluing women. Trina should’ve sent the message that these things were wrong. Instead she endorsed and encouraged them.
The genre of rap and hip-hop music has taken on a whole new persona in the generation of millennials. Fortunately, there are rappers such as Jermaine Cole, or “J Cole”, who work to hold on to a pure form of hip-hop and strive to portray a message in all of their songs. J Cole is a southern rapper with a northern style and flow. His main messages in all of his music is to speak the truth about his life and the world around him. You can listen to all his songs from the start of his career to now and you could understand who he is as and essentially listen to his growth as person. His song entitled “January 28th” is no exception to transparent style. The theme of the songs is to let his audience know that he extraordinary and he gives pieces
The music of today has many songs in which there is a hidden meaning or stories behind the song. The song " Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and Pharrell is a song with a hidden meaning given much to talk about , another song which has a similar meaning with previous song is "You Do Not Even Know It " by Rick Ross. The intent of this paper is to compare song to song through its similar meaning. Both of these songs have a very rough meaning. These songs are inspired in hidden personalities , lies , appearances, violation , drugs , sex, etc. In " Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and Pharrell it talks about rape and sexual assault and all of these because of the use of alcohol and drugs. In "You Do Not Even Know It " by Rick Ross it also talks about how some people appearencess are not what they really are in
Many of the MC’s that spoke during the video mentioned how they had seen a lot of bad stuff while growing up. Stuff that can be hard to forget about and impact the way you view things. For example, while many of them were growing up, the president had recently been
The event in Littleton, Colorado, 5 years ago was a shocking wake up call to our society. Because of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s fanaticism with artists such as Marilyn Manson, music was labeled as the culprit for negatively influencing the youth of America. Music is a tool of expression that an artist uses to vent their frustrations and to reveal their emotions. However, these artists do not see the moral boundary that they have crossed with their emotionally disturbing lyrics and dark melodies. To grab the attention of teenagers, musicians often produce music videos with a vivid portrayal of the song’s message. The heavy influence it has on kids today is in direct relation to the murders and shootings that are happening. The use of CD walkmans and the carelessness of parents are making it easier for children to get their hands on the “satanic music.” The anger expressed by these musicians shows the youth that violence is culturally acceptable. Due to the strong emotion that is portrayed in music, the youth responds to music more so than they do to video games, movies and TV. There are many components in music structure that influence violent behavior such as music videos, lyrics, style, and role model images.
The piece of art I chose to analyze was Chicago Hip Hop artist G Herbo’s music video for “Bottom of the Bottom”. The music video portrays G Herbo as a common black man in the Jim Crow era. He is walking past a group of white people and the white woman smiles at him, he smiles back and the white men chase him with riffles and beat him up. Eventually the white people hang G Herbo. The video also shows G Herbo getting wrongfully pulled over by the police. He eventually gets a cruel and unjust sentence at the end of the video. He correlates him getting an unjust sentence to being hanged.
He did multiple interviews from celebrities to regular civilians. He created this film because he had a love for hip hop but was an activist. There was an interview on the video from Spelman College regarding the protest of the misogynistic video of Rapper Nelly, who is seen swiping a credit card in a girl’s buttocks in his music video “Tip Drill”. Rapper Nelly never commented but canceled plans to hold the bone marrow drive at Spelman. He then goes on to show BET’s Spring Fling in Daytona Florida. It was disgusting to see men lusting after women, touching women who did not want to be touched. In the interview with one young man he justified his actions by saying “look how they dress.” The objectification of women in hip hop has taught young men to view women as sex objects for their own
Celebrities, especially musicians, have a substantial impact on the lives of their audiences. Artists use lyrics as a way to speak about meaningful topics or events, and these words can also serve as a source of identification between the singer and listener. Focusing specifically on the relationship between the artists Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and their typically female followers, an obvious difference can be found between their respective attitudes towards the role of women.
...t of people around you. The images are really helped clarify what the singer really wants to talk about. Without the images in the video some many things could have been interpreted from the song itself. Before I watched the video I just thought the author was talking about war, and specially the wars America was fighting at the time of the song’s release. The music in combination with the instrumentals and video create a piece of art that enlightens the soul.
While the song was supposed to help resolve conflict, it actually created conflict because the message was misconstrued by the public. In Michael Jackson’s music video for “They Don’t Care About Us”, the preamble of the Official Music Video (Prison Version) States, “This Film is NOT degrading to any one RACE, but pictorializes the injustice to ALL MANKIND. may GOD grant us PEACE throughout the
J Cole’s fourth studio album tries to break away from the typical rap sounding album into something that transcends just a piece of artwork. Instead, it is a piece of artwork. At its core, the meaning challenges the idea of glorifying a life of crime. Using imagery and strong word play, J Cole reveals the consequences of living in this life. However, he empathizes
Cole’s musical idols, which greatly influenced his musical style. His style captures the attention from younger generations and the adolescent population, whom also came from an uneasy childhood and along the way lost motivation. “I 'm here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don 't follow what you 've been told you 're supposed to do.” (Music times, 2014) Through this message, J. Cole constantly portrays to be an ambition seeking activist. He hopes to project hope in those who are struggling by sharing his life challenges and voicing how he overcame
This song implies that individual’s are violating the norms and values of society. They start the song with a verse that expresses this concern. “What’s wrong with the world, mama/ People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas…” (lines 1-2). This makes one aware of the disobedience of values that are held in the family. Values are “standard[s] of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes.” (Newman, 32) Another verse in this song that illustrates how society is defying norms and values is when they sing: “People killin', people dyin'/ Children hurt and you hear them cryin/ Can you practice what you preach/ And would you turn the other cheek…” (lines 50-53). These lines utter that society has failed to act in a sane and coherent way that society once viewed as correct. The actions affirm that individuals are not living up to society’s norms. Norms are similar to “rules of conduct” and suggest how an individual “should” act. (Newman, 34) In the song they question the acts that would be taken that violate certain norms. Another example of the infringement of society’s norms and values is expressed when the s...
...try to awaken people’s sympathy through these frame of war, because music is a very powerful way, it can change people’s feeling and emotions. Through this music video, they will change their mind of life, because through this video, they know that many people are living in difficult conditions, then they will help people who live in difficult situation.