Rhetorical Devices In The Message

The early 1980s was considered the “Golden-Age of Hip Hop”, this due to the fact that the genre was in its infancy and every new record that was released during this time period was seen as an innovation. Before 1982, hip hop records were boastful party-raps that illustrated the perseverance of young African Americans self-confidence even through dire circumstances. After Grandmaster Flash and the furious five released their classic hip-hop record “The Message”, the scope of hip-hop as a genre changed forever. Melle Mel’s verse in “The Message” utilizes Craig Werners 3 step processes by using personal experiences to explain the struggles of African Americans in New York’s inner cities.
Before Grandmaster Flash and the furious five released

He writes that a typical blues or gospel song both followed a three-step process that can be used by entertainers across multiple platforms. These processes, although slightly different in wording, do share an overall meaning and purpose. The process begins with the artist acknowledging their overall experience or burden, after that the artist must find the voice to tell the story through. This story can be told from the perspective of the artist themself, or through the perspective of another individual. The final step consists of the artist using said struggle to demonstrate how it affects people on a larger scale, this is the step that makes a piece of art relatable and palatable. Whether Melle Mel of the Grandmaster Flash and the furious five knew about this process or not, he seemed to explain the hardships of living in New-York inner cities through this process

Melle Mel raps from his own perspective in this section of the verse. I believe Melle Mel uses the end of the verse to address the youth listening to the song but also explains to the audience why so many of the troubled youth at that time were so rebellious. Citizens that lived in these inner cities resented individuals who were not going through their struggle because they understood that lack of empathy displayed by middle and upper class America entails they were seen by the general public as second class citizens. This creates a natural divide between cultures and races in America. Manning Marable explains how the government conspired against the rights of African Americans when he states “So much was his 1980 candidacy for the White House identified with the various movements against affirmative action, court-ordered busing, and civil rights for blacks, Latinos, women … Economically, as the 1970s and 1980s continued, Blacks in urban areas found that many industries associated with cities had moved to different locations or had outsourced jobs to foreign countries”. As an African American youth, there was no positive portrayal of who they were in the media, they were marginalized in society but also increasingly stereotyped as a threat to