Childish Gambino Vs. Kanye West Analysis

Rap Direct, listened to a miniscule five albums in the time frame between fall of 2015 and fall of 2016, two of those were by the same artist. Wait, it somehow gets worse. Sans the fact that the head of a fucking music blog barely even listens to music, the albums he listened to practically define everything that I consider represents a safe-haven in modern mainstream music. What I mean by safe-haven is that these projects, those of which include Drake’s underwhelming Views and Kanye West’s overhyped The Life of Pablo, are merely nothing more than what already play on the radio constantly, making each hit song on the project practically

In the days following Lil B’s lecture at MIT, I found myself trying to make sense some longstanding unresolved feeling I’ve had regarding the illustrious Based God. Lil B is a polarizing artist, I used to identify with the Task Force’s cultish fanboy worship of him during the Blue Flame era. As time went on, I drifted, but was never able to connect with those who crusaded against him as some sort of antichrist of #realhiphop. For the former, Lil B appears infallible; a recording artist who can do no wrong and whose work can’t be measured by any sort of normalized standards of judgment. For more conservative hip-hop fans, Lil B’s unpolished and seemingly haphazard approach to creating music makes him a pariah that should be ostracized from the rap game.

It is clear that Kanye's music has changed, his lyrics have turned in another direction. His first albums would show how he became the person he was at that time, the struggle he suffered. Now his music do not make the same emphasis, it is more obscene in which he raps about drugs and that he compares him self to god. Also in one of his newest music video named Famous, Kanye shows a scene in which political figures as elected president Donald Trump appears naked along with George W. Bush. Up today the equilibrium of Kanye's mind it is unstable due to the actions he has committed this past years (Vevo 2016).

One of the more prominent criticisms of hip that Rose points out is that there is a large amount of misplaced blame in the world of hip hop. She writes, “increasingly, too many of hip hop’s supporters point to structural racism to explain the origins of the problem but refuse to link these structural forces to individual action and to the power of media seduction” (p. 73). In this section of the second chapter, Rose is explaining that those who defend commercial hip hop are taking a more-or-less one-dimensional approach to their arguments by solely blaming structural racism and overlooking the

To begin with, within these last few weeks the public has heard Kanye West make some extremely controversial statements, from him praising Donald Trump, to him saying in an interview with TMZ that “400 years of slavery was a choice”. Contrasting kanye’s recent action with Childish Gambino who has recently released a new song and video that can be interpreted as his views on what America truly is. Both men are held in high esteem in both the public eye and to black people living in America. The popular opinion is that Childish Gambino is now taking Kanye’s place in the music industry and being the voice for black people, however Kanye’s place in the industry is secured and can never be taken; not because he is a “genius” or makes “good music”

The purpose of Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, creating his song was to demonstrate the history of black oppression in America, from the Jim Crow Laws to police brutality. He also created the song to show America’s false promise of freedom. While showing the how rappers, hip-hop, and

As one of the world’s most successful musicians, Marshall Mathers is the target of intense controversy. Mathers, better known by his stage name Eminem, is often written off as violent, misogynistic, and homophobic. Activist groups have picketed his concerts, parents have condemned his songs, and countries like Canada and Australia have even tried to cancel his tours. However, regardless of the intense backlash, Mathers has revolutionized hip hop, transforming it into a mainstream form of music. Mathers’ story indicates that artists must ultimately work without fear of controversy.

Molefi Asante is the author of It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation. In this article, Asante predicts that the post-hip-hop generation will embrace social justice issues including women’s rights, gay’s rights, and the anti-war movement. To challenge these stereotypes, Asante speaks to the personification of the African-American ghetto and the need to stop glorifying black suffering. For Asante, the post-hip-hop generation no longer expects hip-hop to mobilize disenfranchised youth. Asante states, “The post-hip-hop generation shouldn’t wait for mainstream musicians to say what needs to be said…No movement is about beats and rhythms…. it must be bigger than hip-hop.” Because hip-hop is controlled by corporations, Asante says hip-hop will never be the focus of political change. Asante argues that “old white men” have dictated hip-hop, and by extension the actions of black youth, since 1991. “Allowing white executives, not from the hip-hop culture, to control and dictate the culture is tragic because the music, and ultimately the culture, as we can see today, has not only lost its edge, but its sense of rebellion and black movement- the very principles upon which it was founded.” Asante calls for the rise of “artivism,” a new social movement that uses art to improve community police relations, failing schools and the criminal justice system. Asante encourages the post-hip-hop generation to unite with Latino/Immigration Rights and Black Civil Rights

The music video of “This is America”, a political hip-hop song by Donald Glover, criticizes the US’ media’s reactions to African-American tragedies. The music video of ‘This is America’ conforms to rap culture by including distracting visuals, but it deviates from rap culture when it showcases atrocious events caused by black gun violence; Glover both alludes to and deviates from political hip-hop conventions to argue that rap entertainment distracts Americans from current African-American tragedies. It is essential to understand what the conventions of a particular genre are before one can identify whether or not a song conforms to or deviates from the conventions of that genre. In general, hip-hop can be categorized as either political or

On February 15, 2016, Kendrick Lamar took the stage at the 2016 Grammy Awards show. Shackled in chains, he moved lethargically across the stage in a prison uniform. Words began to stream out of his mouth and I imagined the elephant that filled the room as an unapologetically black male made a statement to the world about African American oppression in the United States. Kendrick Lamar’s showcase included an intricate set that addressed social issues such as mass incarceration with song, “The Blacker the Berry”, while keeping hope towards better days with song “Alright”. The elaborate performance on February 15, 2016 would be a performance that will go down in history. An artist used his platform to discuss important issues in the United States to a diverse audience. With so much passion invested into the song, it was almost impossible to pick any other song besides “The Blacker the Berry”, as it discusses a wide range of issues within the United States, especially related to the black body.

Hip-hop culture has been rapidly growing as a popular trend amongst youths in Western culture. Social media platforms like Instagram are flooded with photos of white teens posing in black rap artist t-shirts, wearing their hair in corn-rows, and captioning their pictures with famous black rap artist quotes. When quoting these lyrics, or listening to these hip-hop songs, they most likely are not thinking of the meaning behind the artists’ words. When reciting Tupac or N.W.A., do they relate to or even understand the political poetry about the oppression of blacks in America? This paradoxical idea of color-blindness proves to be confusing as people of white privilege claim that all races are equal while simultaneously ignoring the oppression

Within History, Rap has been considered the “CNN for black people”; what started as a way to express struggles in the ghettos of New York has transformed into one of the most popular genres of music in America. The popularity of rap has allowed many to have their voices heard, created new fashion trends, and even developed popular modern slang used by people throughout the world. The commercialization of rap has resulted in a significant following of the culture in America but also a large number of people who oppose the music. The culture of rap music has a substantial impact on popular culture in America, and by using an open mind and looking past the violence and language, people can better understand the meaning behind rap and the perception that follows it in America today.

“I want kids of this generation to see that everything is cool, that there 's some kind of unity in hip-hop. We all found something that 's really important to us, and music is all we 've really got” – Missy Elliot. Hip-Hop is a cultural movement and popular genre of music that emerged during the early 1970 's by working class Black youths in New York City. The cultural movement has rapidly expanded across different countries and ethnicities over the years, becoming one of the few markers that define a generation. Hip-Hop can be seen as “the fundamental matrix of self-expression for this whole generation” (Katz & Smith, 1993). Through music, itself, artists can express their feelings towards different events or social changes that they’ve see or have experienced in their lives. According to Frith (1986), this perspective towards writing music is similar to Mooney’s argument that popular song lyrics is a reflection of what’s missing or needed at their time, giving us a trace of America’s ‘mood’ throughout history. In return, music artists captivate the minds of people among various backgrounds who use these relatable music lyrics as a source of empowerment or as an expression of their own thoughts. While some music artists create music to uplift their audience by giving them a sense of freedom, other artists create music that separates their audience by dehumanizing one group and giving power to the other.

We can surmise, then, that Obama’s image is directly related to the notion of the “post-racial” through his failure to explicitly discuss racism, which in turn, affects how notions of race and raciality are conceived and discussed in the American socio-political landscape as a whole; in contrast, hip hop is in a position to deal more explicitly with race and racism. As Jeffries argues, “Poverty, disorder, and ghetto culture are central to analyses of hip-hop meaning, thanks to the symbolic importance of the ghetto as an element of hip-hop authenticity and the historical importance of neglected urban space as the birthplace of hip-hop culture” (Thug Life 28). Thus, hip hop remains firmly rooted in traditionally Black spaces and experiences which lends hip hop and rap artists the

Kanye West has been involved in the hip hop industry for the past 20 years. His original impact came in the sounds of his beats. He started off as a producer for various artists in the industry receiving critical acclaim for his work on several different albums. Eventhough his main talent was being a producer, he continually aspired to be a rapper. After several failed attempts to sign to a major record label as a rapper, he would eventually sign to Rock-a-Fella records because the record company feared losing his producing talent to another company. After signing to Rock-a-Fella, he released his debut album. With more recognition, West decided to found his own label and would produce many more top charting albums over the next 10 years. For