Macklemoore's Shattering of Typical Rap Notions with The Heist

Rap music, also known as hip-hop, is a popular art form. Having risen from humble origins on the streets of New York City during the mid-1970s, hip-hop has since become a multifaceted cultural force. Indeed, observers say, hip-hop is more than just music. The culture that has blossomed around rap music in recent decades has influenced fashion, dance, television, film and—perhaps what has become the most controversially—the attitudes of American youth. For many rappers and rap fans during it’s early time, hip-hop provided an accurate, honest depiction of city life that had been considered conspicuously absent from other media sources, such as television. With a growing number of rap artists within this period, using hip-hop as a platform to call for social progress and impart positive messages to listeners, the genre entered a so-called Golden Age

Adversity sometimes gives rise to greatness. The day-in, day-out struggle of scratching an existence out of the hood can instill in one an aspiration to conquer the highest peaks. America's most poverty-stricken slums and crime-ridden inner cities have birthed some of the greatest visionary talent the music industry has ever seen. Those who struggle to make it out seldom succeed, but the ones with the will to do so possess a certain spark that drives them to unimaginable heights.

After Macklemore finished giving his story about the impact of shoes on his life, he then turns towards the audience, to speak to them about how consumerism has changed us and how it frees us while it simultaneously traps us in its grasp. He explains these feelings in the lines, “I’m an individual, yeah, but I’m part of a movement. My movement told me be a consumer and I consumed it. They told me to just do it, I listened to what that swoosh said.” He’s frustrated with himself for being part of this toxic movement, but knows it’s too late. He finishes the song with a sober line of defeat: “…This dream that they sold to you, for a hundred dollars and some change, consumption is in the veins, and now I see it’s just another pair of shoes.”

1. Using documents from the Reconstruction Chapter of RAP, discuss some of the ways in which African-Americans were segregated in the South after 1883. What was (where) the major goal(s) of segregation in the South, based upon your analysis of the text?

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

McBride begins the essay by telling the readers of his nightmare. He once feared that his daughter would arrive home one day with a stereotyped rapper husband with “ mouthful of gold teeth, a do-rag on his head… and a thug attitude” (McBride 1). He came to realize that he in fact, hip-hop, a genre that he once didn’t believe was music, had become one of the most known genres in the world. The speaker first heard his first rap song at a college party in Harlem in 1980. The jazz lover he was, cringed at the rap music he claimed to be so poorly thought out and written. For the next 26 years of his life, he went out of his way to avoid hip-hop music all together, as if It was never there in the first place.

Otherside is a very meaningful rap, which I feel reflects my generation, by Macklemore. Macklemore wrote this song in 2009, from his parents basement, where he was forced to move after falling victim to drug addiction. Otherside is a deep, chilling song, which describes what it’s like to be a drug addict, and how the media encourages things like drugs, sex, and violence. This song shines a lot of light on the growing trend of lean, which is a mixture of promethazine with codeine cough syrup, Sprite, and Jolly Ranchers. The intro and outro of the song are from a news clip of an interview between a reporter, and another famous rapper Bun B, speaking about the death of his friend, who overdosed on codeine cough syrup, rapper Pimp C. In this song Macklemore talks about his struggles with drugs, and how he’s seen many lives ruined, and taken by drug addiction. Macklemore wrote this song to educate people about the dangers of drugs and expose the falsity of how various rappers claim to live. Macklemore wants people to know that the glamorous, rich, sex and drug filled lives many Hollywood personalities claim to live is all smoke and mirrors and they portray themselves this way just because, sadly, that’s what sells.

With things, such as explicit lyrics and depiction of women, drugs, and violence an assumption can be made that gangster rap represents a masculinity that rappers portray themselves as in their songs. Dating back to its origins, African Americans had always been the face of gangster rap, with such names like Tupac, Biggie, Jay-Z, DMX, and much more, as covers of rap magazines. Gangster rap had always been seen as what people interpret it to be and that is a raw rhythmic and explicit version of poetry in motion, but gangster rap depicts more than what people interpret it to be. Gangster rap depicts the image of how a strong African American male should look like, a bold, angry, rebellious, and fierce man. Strong African American males are subjective to gangster rap, mainly because of how gangster rap portrays masculinity. In “Brotherly Love: Homosociality and Black Masculinity in Gangsta Rap Muscic” Oware argues that although gangster rap music portrays the masculinity of African American males through the use of hyper masculinity, misogyny, and violence in lyrics, gangster rap music also provides a way for rappers to express themselves to commemorate their fellow friends through lyrics that depict family/friend relationships, success by association, and have a tribute for lost friends.

Rap and Romance From Drake’s inspirational raps to Ed Sheeran’s romantic lyrics, music has the ability to ignite a fire inside our souls and give us new ideas. Not only does music play a key role in influencing our society, it also continues to have the greatest impact on teenagers. Henry David Thoreau, nineteenth century transcendentalist, wrote, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” Thoreau's philosophy still remains relevant through music, especially the songs “Skyscraper” by Demi Lovato and “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey.

Since the beginning of its art form rap music has been subject to scrutiny throughout its existence. In a Theresa Martinez reading from the semester, the author describes rap music as a resistance. She builds on a theory of oppositional culture that was composed by Bonnie Mitchell and Joe Feagin (1995). In this article, “POPULAR CULTURE AS OPPOSITIONAL CULTURE: Rap as Resistance”, Martinez explains how African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans draw on their own cultural resources to resist oppression. She states that this very resistance to the dominate culture in

In early 2012, Macklemore had read the story of a 13 year old boy who had been bullied so much for being gay he eventually committed suicide. These are issues the singer feels passionate about so he was inspired by this boy’s story to write a first draft.

Do you ever wonder what is the meaning behind what you so proudly sing whenever you hear it? Music is an art form of culture which organizes sound with times It first came around in prehistoric times, however, as times passes, music is drastically changing. As a result, in the last decades music has experienced drastic changes in the themes they are talking about. These changes are due to the generations and what they are living, political and social actions of the time. For example, the decade of the 80s was the rise of hip-hop and rap music from a local phenomenon to a worldwide known genre of music. Previously, a crack cocaine epidemic had stroke major cities in the USA and it coincided with the rise of hip-hop in black communities as these

The appeal he uses most often is pathos, it is found throughout the song. Macklemore uses a word that is very hurtful to homosexuals: “faggots" (Haggerty, Lewis, Lambert, 2102). He uses it to show how people inappropriately use the word, but it is a word that causes a lot of pain to some people. His word choice is effective in bringing out emotion as in the line, “plagued by pain in their heart.” The choice to use the word plague describes just how bad the pain is. When people hear the word plague, we think of a widespread disease that affects hundreds and causes worldwide scare. He is saying that this pain is what they have in their heart every day. By using pathos to appeal to the emotion of love in every chorus, “my love, she keeps me warm,” Macklemore successfully tugs at a listener’s heartstrings because most can relate to the feeling of love in some way or another. Another phrase that he uses that applies to pathos is “some would rather die than be who they are.” In today's society, the topic of suicide is extremely emotional, which is what this lyric refers to. Macklemore uses a great deal of pathos appeal to reach out to his listeners and get his argument across.

Throughout history, music has been used to express the feelings of people or groups whom may have no other outlet to express themselves. The best example of this occurrence would be the lower class of America’s use of rap music. Rap music started out as a fun variation of disco with the purpose to make people dance and enjoy themselves, but it later transformed into one of the best outlets to express the struggles of poverty in the United States. The genre gained popularity when the song “Rapper 's Delight” hit the charts in the early eighties; rap evolved into a plethora of different styles from there, Gangster Rap formed with NWA in the late eighties, and rap really hit it’s zenith in the mid nineties. Modern rap began in the early starts of the twentieth century. Because of the storytelling that rappers do in the music, it gained notice in the inner city where the demographic could relate. Many young teen in the inner city environment built dream to be famous rappers just like their own favorite artists . Rap connects to me by its style, its purpose, and its political incorrectness.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is an American hip hop duo from Seattle, Washington formed in 2009. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis teamed up with Mary Lambert, a talented poet and songwriter. This song mainly talks about a personal story. The video, spanning decades from childhood to old age, depicts the life of the main character and the same-sex partner with whom he falls in love, including the social conflicts in their path of being in love due to their difference because of sexual orientation. The three display through music to show their support for civil rights and marriage equality through unapologetic discussion of the intolerance the cause and it’s supporters continue to face. Macklemore also explained that the song came out of his own frustration with surrounding hip hop culture towards homosexuality. Since many artists these days uses offensive words such as “fag” and“faggot” as a way to use against people they think less of.