The, By Hip Hop Duo, Macklemore And Ryan Lewis

It is clear that the hip hop culture plays a huge role in the lives of many people. It has influenced the way people dress, the way they talk, and the way they act. Unfortunately, many big corporations have taken advantage of this and commercialized rap music in order to gain a profit (Blair, 497). Commercialization is a very complex topic; however, it is important to understand. This is because of the fact that when something becomes widely known, such a hip hop and rap have, it is vulnerable to change (Phillips, paragraph 9). An example of this is when author Nicole Phillips states, “Hip-hop became more about edge and less about the content of the message. It became about sales….” (Phillips, paragraph 9). Therefore, in order to prevent any further change, one needs to understand commercialization and how it works. This paper is going to explore the complexities and nuances of commercialization of the hip hop culture. In order to do this, this paper will consider what commercialization of hip hop culture entails. This paper will also discuss how Elizabeth Blair, author of “Commercialization of the Rap Music Subculture,” conceptualized commercialization, as well as how she discusses the situation in general. After discussing these topics, the paper will move on to discussing cultural appropriation. This discussion will include how authors describe cultural appropriation, and a debate regarding this topic.

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.

The connection that is drawn between the formerly economically challenged rapper and the child whose parent works two jobs, and can’t pay his child’s college tuition is paramount in making this point. The illusion of the American dream is set through many hip-hop songs. The picture of the evolution of the rags to riches story is set by many rappers in current hip-hop culture, this picture is the basic premise

The lyrics of a song often have no substance and a clear example would be any Britney Spears song. The lyrics of “All Falls Down” are very deep. They talk about the ideal situation in life; We should go to school, get a good job and make money to buy what we want. The lyrics then ask, what if this doesn’t happen? This is prevalent in the first verse. “She has no idea what she doing in college. That major that she majoring, it don’t make no money.” The song questions these everyday values because we focus so much on these things, we don’t realize there are more important things in life such as life itself. Even Kanye admits that he spent money at Jacob’s Jewellery store before he thought about a house. “I went to Jacob with

McBride uses emotional, logical, and ethical appeals to drive his point. His use of emotional appeals are used to get attention and provoke thought from people who may have similar backgrounds to his, or those who may have a strong opinion towards hip hop culture. An example of this would be “hip hop remains an enigma, a clarion call, a cry of ‘I am’ from the youth of the world” (McBride 1). A clarion call is a strongly expressed demand or request for action- a plea, essentially. This pairs with the word “cry” to create a sense of despair in the youth of the world. By grabbing the reader’s heart as well as their attention, this moves the reader to consider the music as more than just defiance.

Today many people feel compelled to buy anything or everything with an expensive price tag. This includes Expensive designer clothes, latest gadgets, expensive vehicles and many other similar things. This form of consumerism has embedded itself in today’s society; where it's encouraged to invest in such materialistic possessions. Kanye West is an African-American rapper, producer, and entrepreneur, who articulates his struggle with consumerism and the struggle for those around him in his song “All Falls Down.” West, utilizes puns, rhyme, and juxtaposition to highlight the issues surrounding materialism that can be interpreted differently by different listeners such as African Americans and White Americans.

Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” sheds light on the struggle of achieving rich and fame and the trials that come with. Rolling Stone and Billboard praised the album awarding it the best album of 2015. The album depicts the difficulties of fame by putting the trials and tribulations on display; the inability for those to adjust to their new lifestyle and the potential temptations that creep in. “To Pimp a Butterfly” has been both a divisive and uniting factor in its emergence in popular culture.

The song expresses how people are not living up to society's values and norms. It suggest that the socialization is at fault and that they contribute to improvement of self being. The song implies the way society goes against values and norms by one of the very first lyrics in the song. The lyric goes, “What’s wrong with the world, mama, People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas…” (lines 1-2). This makes one aware of the lack of values in one's family. Values is the belief or an idea that a person or group has to determine is correct or not. Another verse of how the band shows one disobedience of the values and norms comes toward the middle of the song. “People killin', people dyin’, Children hurt and you hear them cryin, Can you practice what you preach, And would you turn the other cheek…” (lines 50-53). These verses show of society has failed to act stable and logical way that society once viewed as correct living. These actions show that citizens have not lived up to the expectations of society. Social norms are likes the laws of society. Laws are things that are illegal behaviour and norms are like behaving in a way society wouldn’t like. For example being in gangs, like the bloods, or the crips, or a big group that goes against society's norms like racial groups. An example of a racial group would be the KKK.

This song implies that individual’s are violating the norms and values of society. They start the song with a verse that expresses

Macklemore uses logos to explain the logic of same sex love. The first lyrics in the song helps the audience grasp what the song is about, and the problems with it. By Macklemore stating his interaction with his mom about being gay creates rhetorical examples because his personal experiences will trigger memories, and experiences people have gone through to make them connect more to the song. The song uses ethos by trying to have people believe in the positive things about being a homosexual, and wanting to change the societal norms and stereotypes people have against homosexuality. The concept of pathos in the song is all about the emotion, and how a person feels when they are listening to the song. The song is suppose to trigger emotions in someone so they can fully understand the perspective of the song, and it’s full purpose.

He speaks with such emphasis when delivering these raps, leaving no doubt as to the purpose or meaning of his lyrics. Throughout both verses, Mos Def pulls no punches while speaking about pertinent issues in modern urban society. Things such as drug use, police behavior, and government spending are critiqued with an almost confrontational vocal tone, as if his experiences and opinions have formed and anger about the current direction our society is headed in. Mos Def’s rapping about socioeconomic problems are very controversial, because some people have not been exposed to the things that he raps about and thus may not understand (Perry). However, he raps them so confidently and with such stress that no one can deny how strongly he feels about the subject matter. Similar to the beat of “Mathematics”, Mos Def’s lyrics also bring about a sense of conflict. His flow is certainly not structured perfectly- as the pace speeds up and his words become more serious and pronounced as the song progresses. This was done intentionally to give the piece its harsh tone and send a clear challenge to its listeners- to stop sending society in the wrong

He says, “no freedom ‘til we're equal, damn right i support it” (Macklemore). What this line means is that justice and freedom is only fair when everyone is equal. He supports everyone being equal. “Whatever god you believe in we come from the same strip away the fear underneath it's all the same love”(Macklemore). He is saying everyone is equal and should have liberty and freedom. Lastly he says, “its human rights for everyone, there is no difference.” (Macklemore). He believes everyone should be treated the same no matter what.

He refers to mostly sex, which is honestly what I should have expected. But even this being the content of his album, it still worked very nice, aside from a few lines that made me chuckle. "I just eat pussy other people eat food." That lyric had me laughing. Mac Miller isn't known for his wonderful singing, but the way he uses his voice in these songs just ends up working with the beats. He actually doesn't have that bad of a singing voice as I look back at some of the songs he did on previous albums ("Objects in the Mirror", "ROS", "Jump"). It seems that on every album he gets a little more personal, like on the first song "Congratulations," where he seems to be talking about his ex-girlfriend and how he went through the beginnings of trying to become a rapper. I tried to tweet at him to figure out what the first song was about, of course he didn't respond, was worth a shot

At this moment, Kendrick’s monologue addresses the battle encountered by African Americans today and the frustration that comes with wanting and deserving more than they have. The backing vocals in this section of the song imply that American society wants African Americans to submit to it and praise it, even though many of them have suffered from it. This introduction signifies how dazed society is to the black people and how there is a constant battle between

The song tells the tale of suburban hero, a working class teen without faith or direction. In telling his story, important issues are encountered with a focus on the working class teen. The shallow and hypocritical nature of mainstream media is also touched upon. The music flows between the five parts like a rock opera, and it works with the lyrics to give us a deeper sense of the challenges “Jesus” faces. The song also features a 14-minute music video including dialogue and a shortened version fitting only the song itself, which can give more indication of the song’s intended meaning. In part one, Jesus of Suburbia, we get a background of Jesus’ character, including the fact that he does cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and cigarettes; and he doesn’t believe there is anything wrong with that. We see he lives with his divorced mother who is often gone. The music to this first act is standard pop punk, consisting of fast power chords, loud lyrics, and stop time. Lead singer Billie Joe delivers lyrics in his traditional full-of-angst fashion, and this reflects the attitude of Jesus. Additionally, the music video shows Jesus breaking up with a girlfriend and proceeding to have sex with multiple intoxicated girls and do hard drugs in a run-down area. In this section we see into the life of someone we might not want to even think about as well-off students at a good university. Though we don’t necessarily connect with Jesus yet, it is easy to pity his situation. After a few chords and two drum fills, we move on to the second