Analyzing What We Say and Why We Say It

When it comes to hip hop music, many people (mostly people from older generations) would agree that the genre is solely made up of idiotic, vapid, crude, violent, dehumanizing lyrics that do nothing more than cheapen and degrade the English language and the human experience. Many people also believe that the artists making hip hop music aren't artists at all, and have a below average intellect.

However, when more closely analyzing the lyrics of a large number of hip hop artists, this stereo type can be easily broken. Although intellect is somewhat subjective, it is easy to see that many hip hop artists are actually very smart people, with quick clever minds, and they use that to further highlight the meaning/message of their songs. Their lyrics make this obvious, but because people rarely take the time to analyze them, their intelligence often times goes unnoticed.

A great example is Nas himself. In his song “I can”…

In this inspirational song, Nas makes several historical references (especially in Verse 3) including the forced displacement of black Africans to the United States during the Atlantic Slave Trade, ancient kingdoms in Egypt, the Mandingo Empire of Africa, Alexander the Great, and the favoring of white people in America ALL to emphasize his main point that knowledge is power so if you work hard, stay a good person, and dream big, anything is possible. This history lesson that even myself wasn't fully aware of, is a great example of a rapper using their knowledge and intellect to highlight the overall meaning of their song. 

And there are plenty more songs out there that also break the stereotype linking hip hop music to stupidity and pointlessness. 

You can also click and check out this cool   article   that lists just some of the MANY songs that do just that. 

Analyzing What We Say & Why We Say It

Have a conversation, check their Twitter, or check their Facebook of almost any student at FSU and you're bound to hear or see some hip-hop slang terms used. Whether it be words like "dope" and "tight" as replacements for words like cool, hip-hop has had an undeniable influence on conversational English. These terms don't necessarily begin in rap songs but rather in the poorer neighborhoods and projects that many rappers come from. The terms gain widespread use and popularity from songs that make it to the mass of listeners. One great example of this is the song "Racks" by YC which led to Tyga's song "Rack City" and before you know it everyone is referring to stacks of money as racks.

 

Often the most common creation of slang terms is when artists refer to drugs. Marijuana is often referred to as "reefer" and "kush" along with a vast amount of others. Type either of those two or others into youtube and a music video titled the word is most likely going to pop up first then followed by all the videos actually talking about it. This can be seen for other drugs as well such as ecstasy being called "molly." Hip-hop influences have seamlessly integrated into how we talk today and whether or not you actually listen to hip-hop its most likely still made its way into your vocabulary.  

Backpack Rap: Writing for the Subculture

A backpack rapper is someone who raps about their real, somewhat average life. They aren't known as "mainstream" and don't talk about all their money/cars/women/success. According to a friend that I asked, "A more mainstream rapper may write an entire track bragging about how much bling or swagg they have and how no one could ever measure up to them. But a backpack rapper may choose to focus on the injustice that he experiences or how his undesirable financial position makes daily life challenging."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwnZI01YdXE

A great example is Chance The Rapper, who is self-produced and constantly refers to events in his life, primarily his ten-day suspension in high school. I chose this song because he's sending a message that love is better than anything else, even the drugs and fame that comes along with being a famous rapper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzWxf7tf3Qo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP5e8HqVN0o

Some of the more mainstream rappers have a problem with backpack rappers. David Banner spoke out against it, claiming that it's a problem because "everyone thinks they can be a rapper now." However, most of the people who listen to backpack rap today like it more because it's definitely more relatable to listen to a song about hanging out in a fast food restaurant than being VIP at a club and getting to do whatever you want all the time.

People are often shaped by the place in which they grow up in. That is why rappers have a different style according to where they came from. Most rappers grew up in poor neighborhoods in the rough parts of town. They’ve witnessed drug deals, gangs, innocent deaths, and the struggle to stay alive. These rappers often talk about these experiences in their songs and let people know how growing up in the hood has made them tough and gave them street smarts. Just about all rappers are proud of where they came from, no matter how bad the location was. To them it was home. A good example of this would be Lil Wayne. He came from New Orleans and he makes it clear that it’s a rough place and no one should visit his town if they’re not from there. Nonetheless, he is still proudly representing the area in his music and his interviews. Growing up in the hood he was involved with smoking and drinking and violence and sex at a very early age. He accidently shot himself when he was young because he was rapping with a gun in his hand, and he says that his friend did the same thing. When he talks about these events he laughs about it and acts as if it is no big deal, but to anyone who didn’t grow up with that situation it would seem terrible. This happens with other artists with similar stories. The customs and happenings of the hood often become a part of their culture. Even as they grow successful, and are able to move away they still take a huge piece of that with them. Lil Wayne is still all about drugs, money, sex, and violence, so the hood has shaped him and most other rappers into what they are and will always be.

 

 

RACE & IDENTITY in HIP HOP

When most people think of hip hop they tend to associate it with a certain race and then associate that race with a particular identity. Now race only has to do with the physical attributes that someone has like, their skin complexion and facial features. Where identity is based more on a person, or groups, conception and expression of their individuality; and when you think hip hop its easier to see the rappers, DJ's, and fans sharing the same identity than to say they all have the same race. The idea of hip hop being more cultural than racial wasn't really apparent in the beginning years, mostly because at that time all of the rappers and DJ's were African American and hip hop was only heard in neighborhoods that were predominantly black. It took rap groups like the Beastie Boys, 3rd Bass and Cyprus Hill to show mainstream America that Whites and Latino's were apart of hip hop too.

The identity of hip hop was basically the same for about the first decade of its existence. This was just DJ's and MC's making and performing music that people could dance to and have fun. It wasn't until Ice T dropped his song "Body Rock", in 1984 that someone actually talked about violent things, like gangs, in their songs. You can say that Ice T played a big part in pioneering the whole idea of gangster rap because a year later the first real gangster rap record was released in by Schoolly D. This led to a big change in hip hop and led to a growth in west coast rappers, who mostly were gangster rappers. Then in 1988 NWA released their debut album, Straight Outta Compton. NWA along with many more rappers like, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube (as a solo artist) showed that hip hop's identity had changed to gangster. They justified their violent songs by saying that they represented the lives they lived in the inner city.

This gangster rap continued throughout the 90's but along with it grew many different sub-genres of hip hop, such as dance music, the 2 Live Crew, or more lyrical and relaxed music, like a Tribe Called Quest. Another area of hip hop that was growing were live performances and big concerts that had multiple, big time, artist participating. Hip hop's identity hasn't really changed that much over the past 15 years because you still have gangster rappers, dance music and lyricist. You even have rap groups that resemble those of the 90's. Hip hop is still expanding and is breaking through different generes. One of the biggest is rappers partnering up with house music and dubstep DJ's to make music that is loved worldwide. The most important thing is that  you now have way more rappers and DJ's from multiple backgrounds, races, religions and countries who now come together as one to share their love for the culture of hip hop. Now here's some live performances so you can see how crazy they are:

Race and Identity By:Taylor Woods

Often times when one thinks of hip-hop, the people and culture that it rose from is more often than not thought of as well, the identity and the race of hip hop. Race is the physical characteristics of a human being, their skin color, hair texture, eye color, etc. Identity is the base of any meaningful idea, the core parts, for hip-hop this identity envelops music, struggle, rhythm, and joy.  Russell Simons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings once said, "The thing about hip-hop is that it’s from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized.” In one sentence he sums up the identity of hip-hop. 

Hip-hop has always been composed of an identity and a race; more and more now a days the difference becomes much more clear. In the early days of hip hop the race that consumed this art was that of African Americans and that race only, seldom seen were any people of other races in the light of hip hop. For this, as other races began to creep into the realm, some did not take to this lightly, being that hip-hop was for African Americans, or so they thought. In the video below Blacking Out, you see the conflicts that arose when Caucasians began to embrace the art of hip-hop. They were seen as traitors to their own race, or that they were mocking the genre. This would have not been a problem if those who were narrow minded would take into consideration the identity of hip-hop, they would see that with the identity all groups of people were part of hip-hop.

Hip-hop is for all people who have been “locked out” or “not recognized” those who want a voice to be heard through a lyrical melody. In Common’s song “I Used to Love H.E.R.”  he discusses the identity that hip-hop has in the form of an allegory in which he personifies hip-hop to show it in its truest form.

Eminem was amongst the first to prove to the world that hip hop was not just for one race but was about fitting an identity, being able to relate to the music you created and to be at home with the artist in your genre. In the cypher below you see Eminem among the one and only Mos Def, one who will forever be known in hip-hop.

storytelling

As my dad always loves to say, it's a shame our generation has been taken over by the idiotic and annoying rap songs we hear today. Of course, anyone under the age of 35 completely disagrees. Fine, once I showed him the song, "walk it out" by UNK, I can understand why he might think of rap as (in his own words with an imaginary beat), "And you pick your nose and you don't know why...".   Obviously it's debatable that certain songs can be seen as annoying, but that doesn't take away from the fact that mostly every song has a story behind it. Even a song as repetitive as "Walk it Out" has the story of these rappers coming from nothing and making it big. In his second verse of Walk it Out remix, UNK says, "I walked it out the bank, with a lot of zeros. That's what my teachers called me, predictions like they Cleo. So I do my dance for 'em, then make 'bout forty thousand. I do that in a month, I'm on resorts and islands.." He's saying it's ironic how his teachers use to call him a zero, yet zeros are the only thing he's counting on his paychecks. He's just shoving it into their face when he brings up a teacher's salary of forty thousand by making it clear he makes that in a month. In my opinion, that's probably the worst example of a story within a rap song. That just proves my point that almost any rap song can have a story behind it. One of my favorite songs that has an incredible story to compliment it would probably be, "Live your life," by T.I. and Rihanna. Even though half that song is about being famous and all the great things that come with it, the song also emphasizes the importance of "stop lookin as what you ain't got and start being thankful for what you do got." T.I. also highlights the significance of ignoring all the haters because in the end, when you come back at them, it only fuels them to keep coming back at you. Money also being an important value of his life, he expresses how the time you spend retaliating is money you could be getting.