Chamillionaire: Getting Away From The Police

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born in Compton, California, on June 17, 1987. His parents moved to Compton from Chicago to get away the city 's gang culture, although his father was a part of the notorious Gangster Disciples gang. When the the 80s crack trade and West Coast gang presence increased, Lamar grew up around a lot of street activity, but he seemed to be more influenced than scared or harmed by it. He was a good student who enjoyed writing, stories and poems, and then came the lyrics for his music.

I was too late. The “officer” had already reached the car and began to haul Sarah out of the car. I immediately tried to get out of the car, but the car door was jammed. Struggling to get to the other side of the car, I reached out to see if I could save Sarah, but the kidnapper had already gotten out of my reach. He was dragging Sarah unwillingly to a van that had pulled up on the opposite side of the traffic. A few men ran out to help get Sarah and her attacker into the van. I saw one of the men inject Sarah with a liquid.

Throughout the song, Tupac gives an inside look on the social problems affecting African-Americans and suggests possible solutions. In the first stanza of the song, Tupac first talks about how certain social issues are linked together; he makes a correlation between his skin color and being poor. Tupac says “I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.” Then he explains how poverty causes crime by saying “My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch.” And finally, he demonstrates the relationship between police brutality and race by saying “Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.”

Nelson George states that “Gangsta rap is direct by- product of crack explosion. Unless you grasp that connection nothing else that happened in the hip hop’s journey to national scapegoat will make sense. This is not a chicken-or-the-egg riddle —first came rocks, then gangsta rap” (136). To prove his point he examines the connection between drug culture of the inner city areas and the hip hop music. The money collected from illegal drug deals spent on recordings of gangsta rap music. George says “Suspicion of women, loyalty to the crew, adoption of a stone face in confronting the world, hatred of authority—all major themes of gangsta rap-owe their presence of lyrics and impact on audiences to the large number of African-American men incarcerated in the ‘90s” (138). I agree with his statement that gangsta rap is a directed by- product of crack explosion, because social and racial issues for instance drug dealing influencing the lyrics of music and this explosion of heroin and crack in communities gave birth to gangsta rap.

In the past 2 years alone, more than 3 dozen criminal prosecutions have had rap lyrics be presented by the prosecutor as a vital piece of evidence in the case. [Manly] In many of these cases the prosecutor will use violent lyrics created by the defendant to prove that that person is inherently dangerous and in other cases, will use the lyrics as a direct confession to having committed the crime in question. If you read into these cases you will notice a common theme between them; the defense will claim that the lyrics are freedom of speech and should be considered artistic expression, while the prosecutors will claim that the song is either a criminal threat or has too many similarities to the actual crime that it should be considered a confession. The primary basis for this debate is that hip-hop music is a misunderstood cultural practice because of the racial divide between the defendant and the criminal justice system.

To gaze into the lyrics of both Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur is like living in the ghettos of New York City where violence never stops. Both of these artists grew up seeing and living a life filled with violence. Gunshots and drive-byes, death and murder were a daily occurrence. Although the lyrics of both artists are simply telling their life stories and how hard it was to grow up in their “hoods” they contain vulgar, hateful, and sexual verses that send the wrong message to their listeners. Whether these listeners are teens or adults, white or black, they are continually sending notions of hatred and fear through their lyrics and actions. Ultimately,

Hip-Hop is the most dominant genre in the U.S. surpassing Rock, Country Music and R&B. Hip-Hop took music to a whole different dynamic, with its catchy beats and rhythmic music accompanied by rhyming. Unfortunately despite all the excellent elements that Hip-Hop has brought to the table, the Hip-Hop industry is known to promote a great deal of gun violence. This day in age rappers take pride in using their guns, bragging about the many guns they have, and have no problem telling the world that their not afraid to use it either. There has been many cases where famous rappers have lost their life due to gun violence. Rappers like Notorious B.I.G, Tupac Shakur, Bankroll Fresh, Big L, Jam Master Jay and the list goes on are all rappers who've been killed by the use of guns. A very famous rapper known as Snoop Dogg wanted to do something that Hip-Hop rarely does and that’s convey a meaningful message to stop gun violence. Snoop Dogg wrote a song called "No Guns Allowed" featuring Cori B and Drake, incorporating a theme where the use of guns should be prohibited because young lives are being taken away daily due to gun use. Not only did Snoop Dogg use his lyrics to get us to hear his message but he also used his music video to help visualize his message. Snoop Dogg uses Ethos, Logos, Kairos and other rhetorical strategies to persuade the audience that gun violence is a serious issue that needs to come to an end.

On the other hand, some people are not as receptive to the criminal justice debate that Meek Mill’s sentencing has sparked. Rahman Hammond posted a Facebook post criticizing those who choose to blame the criminal justice system “for the choices of grown men” (Hammond). He believes that people are not holding Meek Mill accountable for his actions while he knew that he was on parole. Even though Meek Mill is not innocent in this situation as he violated New York law by riding a dirt bike, an unauthorized motor vehicle, his sentencing and the background for his case serves as a striking reminder of the harsh sentencing that black people face, no matter their wealth, notoriety, or popularity. Meek Mill is now 30 years old, yet he is still on parole for a crime he was convicted on when he was 19 years old. He spent over 10 years on parole not allowing him to practice any civil liberties. Even though the dirt bike charges were dismissed, the judge still sentenced him to two to four years in prison. People should be held responsible for their actions; however, the courts should also be held responsible for giving people unnecessarily harsh punishments compared to their white counterparts for crimes they have committed. Even though people say that Meek Mill is made an example of for black people, they also fail to realize the privilege that Meek Mill has a famous, wealthier black man. Black individuals who are typically exploited by the criminal justice do not have the finances to even hire a lawyer to properly defend their case. By examining Meek Mill’s case, individuals will hopefully understand the injustice that occurs within the black community and also understand what is at stake by ignoring or deflecting the concerns of a part of the population that essentially has no voice.

In the concept album, good kid m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar creates an autobiographical narrative that describes the societal pressures of growing up as a black teenager in Compton, and how his self-awareness and musical passion allowed him to escape from the city’s cycle of violence. Through the album’s storyline Kendrick makes the case that, despite coming from a hedonistic, gang infested city, he is able to transform into a puritan. Kendrick narrates this story through several different perspectives, including actual people from his life as well as his own psyche. Kendrick Lamar mainly invokes the persona of K.Dot, who is based on Kendrick’s actual seventeen year old self. This story begins from the first person perspective of naive K.Dot, who is characterized by a raspy, inflicted voice. The lyrics of this character show the ignorance and lack of direction in his life, as well his self-doubts and impressionability. It is eventually revealed that K.Dot has a passion for music. While K.Dot is a good kid at heart who is not gang affiliated, his innocence is tainted by the desires of the Compton lifestyle. After a violent encounter, a transformation begins to occurs from within K.Dot. He realizes that the negative influences of gang culture have corrupted him,

DMX was just sentenced to six months in jail after failing to pay child support. The rapper was arrested in June, right before he hit the stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York (NY). According to reports, DMX owes more than $400,000 for child support, and so a warrant was issued by the city of White Plains (NY).

Gang affiliation has been a major influence on the career path of rappers since the beginning of the generation X hip hop genre. Rappers, producers, record label owners, and even the simplest of bodyguards have endured drastic repercussions of artists unintentionally combining the music industry with their street life. From having trouble with the law and having trouble in the streets, rap wasn’t the only lifestyle for them. Most are able to escape the effects, while others tend to drown in the downfall that follows after their unvarying course of adverse decisions.

A well known rapper by the name of T.I who is in prison right now did the selling of drugs and running around in the streets but changed his ways once he made it big in the rap game. Many people miss understand T.I because of his recent conviction due to guns. What many do not know is that he was on a gang hit list and with him being the man of the house it was his job to protect his family. If I was in that situation I will do the same.

Hip-Hop is an extensive and a broad conglomerate of various artistic forms that ultimately originated in the South Bronx and then quickly spread throughout the rest of New York City among African-Americans and other African-American youth mainly from the Caribbean and from Jamaica during the 1970’s. Over the course of decades and recent years, controversy surrounding Hip-Hop and rap music has been the vanguard of the media. From the over hype of the East and West Coast rivalry to the deaths of Tupac, Biggie, and even Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, it seems that political and broadcasting groups have been injudicious to place essentially the blame on rap and Hip-Hop music for a superficial trend in youth violence.

Boom, boom! Boom, boom! The kind of bass that drains batteries and the kind of lyrics that unload clips, these are the sounds that rap music produces. I chose this topic because I am extremely interested in rap music and I want to explore the violent aspect of the industry. I have never had a chance to look at the violent side of it and I plan to find answers to questions I have in my search. Tupac Shakur is one of my favorite artists and when he was shot and killed I really started to take notice of the violence. People were getting killed because of an image that was being set. What I really want to know, however, is why rappers feel compelled to graphically describe the violence.

     Most rap songs that contain violence reflects incidents that occur in today’s society such as the Rodney King incident. “Rap music brings together a tangle of some of the most complex social, cultural, and political issues in contemporary American society.” Rap and hip-hop artists write songs that promote the killing of enemies as well as targeting institutions such as the church, government, and justice system (Ro 145) Most artists relive their own painful experiences over and over again though their music, delaying their own society’s process of recovery . for example, in 1989