The contemporary art world has seen many changes throughout the years. Advances in technology, viewer outreach, and money has allowed for the visual arts to accelerate at a faster pace. With the advent of the Internet and social media websites, an implied growth of interests in the visual arts has been developing. One example of the impact social media has on the contemporary art world is the 2013 exhibition I Who Have Arrived In Heaven by Yayoi Kusama held at the David Zwirner gallery. Attendees waited three hours in line at a chance to participate in the Infinity Room and take a “selfie” to upload to Instagram, a popular social media application that is photo centric. According to a New York Times article written in 2013 for the exhibition, …show more content…
Basquiat being aware of the connotation of this reference would struggle with being a black artist surrounded by a mainly white art world. In 2011 the New York Times article “Hip-Hop Finds an Artist to Believe In”, discussed the correlation of hip-hop musicians and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The art curator Franklin Sirmans states: “Jean-Michel lived as the only black person in the room,… A Jay Z or Swizz Beatz can relate to that as record executives.” Jay Z may mention his ownership of a Basquiat painting, but he also relates to the struggle that was placed upon Basquiat as a young black artist in the 80s. The article goes on to say: “Jay Z begins a verse in the song with the couplet “Inspired by Basquiat, my chariot’s on fire /Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I’m tired,” and in later verses makes reference to the pressures of escaping the ghetto but not its stigma, something Mr. Sirmans says Basquiat, whose work was often regarded by critics as “primitive,” faced.” With the negative criticism Jay Z received on the art and music front, one thing is lacking within these reviews and that is the correlation between Jay Z and Basquiat. In the 80s hip-hop musicians and Basquiat influenced each other and worked together; because of the higher status Jay Z represents today and the idea of celebrity that currently inhabits our media, these historical aspects tend to …show more content…
Sotheby’s approached this in a different way than most institutions would, by asking Drake to curate the music to accompany the works in the exhibition that were selected and curated by Sotheby’s specialists. In hopes to boost sales in their private sector and some also speculate to garner younger collectors— they are utilizing Drake’s name to expand their pool of buyers in the best way they know how, social media. The exhibition “I Like It Like This” showcases 56 works of contemporary African-American artists’, range from Jean-Michel Basquiat and Terry Atkins to Kara Walker and Wangechi Mutu. Sotheby’s thought it advantageous to have the global superstar musician interpret the works through his selection of music. During the exhibition, visitors are able to listen to the tracks via Beats by Dre headphones, a highly profitable electronics company co-founded by rapper Dr. Dre. At the media preview, Sotheby’s specialists urged viewers to take photos and share them on social media, specifically Instagram. These specialists even challenged the viewers to pick their own soundtrack for the selected works in order to be featured on Sotheby’s website. As the specialists
Death causes remorse. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, The murderer goes insane after being reminded of his guilt. In “The Sniper” by Liam O'Flaherty, The narrator plainly states that after the battle rush, he became bitten by remorse. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a story about a man trying to convince the reader that he’s sane while murdering his enemy. “The Sniper” is about a sniper in a battle to survive and discovers one of the dead enemies is his brother. Both authors use mood and symbolism to show that undeserved death causes remorse.
When Jean-Michel Basquiat was invigorating the oppressed art movement of street art, Madonna was an upcoming singer. After a couple of years, and while he was creating amongst, with and for the LA and New York’s art elite, Madonna was still an unknown but aspiring entertainer and they were together.
In this essay, Joan Morgan talks about how the hip hop allows African Americans to articulate their pain. She considers that the beauty of hip hop comes from is its ability to express all kind of feelings, but many feels that hip hop lower women to just a sex object. In her journey to understand what is happening to men in the black community, she exposes herself to the music of famous male rappers. To her surprise, she discovers that the macho appearance is just a disguise to hide how hopeless they feel when it comes
Author Imani Perry analyzes Hip Hop music not only by the musical aspects of the songs but the contextual and underlying meaning that songs portray. In Imani Perry’s Prophets of the Hood, she believes that the most important aspect of a song is metaphors and similes, which “engage the imagination and expand or transform the universe in which the MC dwells” (Perry 65). Perry focuses on the realistic quality of Hip Hop because “it tells us something about the political, artistic, and philosophical ethos of the music” (Perry 86). Her main argument is that although Hip Hop music may contain vulgar language and profanity, it ultimately warns people about “the dangers of illegal activity or mistreatment of others or oneself…and finds arguments in
In the essay, “Hip-Hop’s Betrayal Of Black Women”(221), by Jennifer McLune, she vents her feelings regarding hip-hop songs that are rhythmically diminishing the value of black women. She provides example on how the lyrics are being voiced and how hip-hop artists do not seem to care. Kevin Powell in “Notes of a Hip Hop Head” writes, “Indeed, like rock and roll, hip-hop sometimes makes you think we men don’t like women much at all, except to objectify them as trophy pieces or, as contemporary vernacular mandates, as baby mommas, chicken heads, or bitches” (221). There have been apologizes for what the rappers have said but nothing to resolve the dehumanization of black women. McLune informs the readers that hip-hop singers belittle black women and make them invisible. Jay-Z, a popular hip-hop artist is brought to center stage by McLune. The essay shows the example of a part of Jay-Z song that says, “I pimp hard on a trick, look Fuck if your leg broke bitch hop on your good foot” (222). This lyric is a perfect example of how hip-hop artist have no remorse in the words they sing. The hurt feelings and loss of self-esteem black women suffer, is of no concern to the rappers. McLune expresses that those who are underground hip-hop artist follow the footsteps on being sexist and using crude words in their lyrics just because they yearn and dream of being in the spotlight. Upcoming rappers want to be loved like Jay-Z and other famous notorious rappers.
In the year 2002 Kanye Omari West, previously known for his contributions to the hip hop genre as a producer, creating instrumentals for such acts as JayZ, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and more, released his first studio single just a few weeks after a nearly fatal car crash. His jaw had to be wired shut for that period of time and despite that Kanye still recorded the whole track with a fractured jaw. I think this incident gives us an insight into what and of an artist Mr West truly is. One that is passionate about his craft, one that is not afraid to push creative boundaries, and it shows throughout all his projects. When it comes to cover art, themes, production and lyrics on his albums Kanye gave his audience and critics the best piece that he could make. So in this essay i would like to deconstruct Kanye West's work and discuss the innovations that he's brought to the rap genre throughout his career as an artist.
The documentary film “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” addresses some of the biggest issues of hip-hop to date. It explores why rappers feel the need to portray a thug persona on camera, why rappers choose to treat woman like sex objects, and how is this affecting our society as a whole. This results in the discussion of who is the one pulling the strings of hip-hop, who is the one giving out those big money deals? In order to understand these issues one must know the history of hip-hop and how it started and evolved.
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop
While hip-hop embodies self-expression as a whole, rap took the ideal and took it to a whole new level: a new form of rap music, ‘gangsta rap’, emerged as a byproduct of the individuality that hip-hop followers pride themselves on. Author Tricia Rose sums up this controversy by saying “a key aspect of much of the criticism that has been leveled at hip-hop is the claim that it glorifies, encourages, and causes violence” (34). Riddled with misogyny and violence, rap has come under fire from numerous critics saying that the music itself is socially inappropriate. Author Rachel Sullivan explains how these opinions and attitudes towards rap music created a public view of hip-hoppers as African American low-lifes, and how rap was blamed for supposedly generating a violent fan base (607). It doesn’t help the situation when rappers tend to revel in their ‘gangsta’ lifestyles. As a response to general criticism, rap artists have used a term called ‘keeping it real’ to defend their music, saying that rap music refers to the hardships of street life in the Bronx community (Rose 134). But while the battle continued to rage on within the rap scene, others were forming their own opinions as
With means to express oneself, helps one overcome the difficulties of life. This approach represents the entire nature of the hip hop culture, especially when dealing with social justice issues. Today, hip hop culture’s association revolves around raps (lyrics) and the rappers which reflect how consumers receive messages about social justice issues. Unlike breaking and graffiti, the music/lyrics penetrate society more. However, for this analysis, the focus will rely on a visual element with a connection to hip hop music. Even though a music video would make sense as a visual means of expression, this analysis has more interest in a hip hop album’s cover art. Also, this focus will lead to the question of how important is art to send messages
There are a lot of trends in today’s generation that are new and have never been seen before. Social media is a huge one. However, there is a specific aspect of our generation that started from the generation before us. This is a huge part of the culture of young adults today and means a lot to many teens. That part of the culture is music. Music has this weird way of bringing together people from all walks of life. Music sensation, Rihanna, has her own song titled “Please Don’t Stop the Music”, which talks about how music gets people grooving. Within the music category, the focus will be hip hop and the culture of hip hop. Many people believe that hip
Alternatively, the very strength of hip-hop discourse, which is a critique of the generations-long African American impoverishment, runs the risk of rationalizing persistent and programmatic social envy and identity-politics anger--without also supplying a rationale for breaking out of self-destructive cycles. Nothing about of rap/hip-hop, which he characterizes as "the most significant cultural achievement of our generation" (22). Indeed, the market success of hip-hop created heroes and cultural icons where none had existed before and from among the most unlikely of sources. What he does insist on, however, is that hip-hop culture and the values it sanctions are rife with contradictions that an assertion of its complexity does not sufficiently
Music is one of the greatest ways of expressing one’s personal feelings and experiences through the use of story-telling. One of the most popular genres of music is rap or also known as hip hop. Hip hop music has a profound effect, both positive and negative on many of today’s youth which transforms and evolves American culture and society. What started it all was the origin of “gangsta rap”, which was popularized by gangster rappers such as Tupac Shakur, Notorious BIG, Ma$e, Snoop Dogg, and Scarface. These were all rappers who influenced American culture and made the genre of rap and hip hop more mainstream which captivated many listeners not only on a local level, but on an international level. However, some of the lyrics that were stated were not only meaningful, but sometimes controversial in the eye of the general public. Nonetheless, hip hop music has always had an influence on many generations and their shaping of what we know today of the modern American society and culture.
“Rap is poetry” (xii). To any avid fan of the genre, it is a statement that seems obvious. The words could easily be the musings of a listener first introduced to the art form, not the focal point of an entire work of contemporary criticism. Yet in Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop, Adam Bradley’s primary focus is this very point, the recognition of traditional poetic elements within rap music. With the global cultural and economic phenomenon that hip hop has become, it is easy to forget that the style of music is barely thirty years old, that scholarly criticism of it has existed for only half of that time. When viewed within this relatively new arena of scholarship, the importance of Bradley’s text is
The overall theme of the articles researched were all based on elderly depression and the effects elderly depression can have on their quality of life. During the course of the research, similarities were very evident amongst the different articles. Some of the similarities were: depression is often miss or misdiagnosed in the elderly population, group psychotherapy, assessments, and medication treatment. There are many articles available on elderly depression, but you must know exactly what to look for as there are many topics the information falls under. Elderly depression research ranges from normal part of aging, to death, to living situations and on and on. However, even with the current research available, there will still a gap in literature until effective ways to diagnosis the elderly with depression are found. There are still too many elderly people being misdiagnosed, not diagnosed at all etc. The biggest reason that the literature gap will remain is because there is still too much stigma