Yes Came Case Study

She describes that she hears “brothers talking about spending each day high as hell on malt liquor and Chronic. Don’t sleep. What passes for ‘40 and a blunt’ good times in most of hip-hop is really alcoholism, substance abuse, and chemical dependency” (456). Through these lyrics depicted by rap and hip-hop artists, Morgan points out the fact that the African American community deals with tough situations including a dependency of drugs and alcohol. In addition to drug and alcohol abuse, Morgan explains that conversations between males are often times about killing one another and believing that their life expectancy is low. In this essay, Morgan relates the issue of drug abuse and survival with the life of the Notorious BIG connecting the fact that his life was surrounded by drug and alcohol abuse, jail, relationships, and murder. With the help of these lyrics stated in rap and hip-hop music, Morgan believes that “the seemingly impenetrable wall of sexism in rap music is really the complex mask African Americans often wear both to hide and express the pain” (457). As she describes the issues of the daily lives of African Americans, readers are able to better understand the reason behind the lyrics and the anger of why they perceive women as “bitches” and

Following the links between the social issues, Tupac makes an interesting observation on why African-American communities have trouble dealing with these social problems. He says in the song “First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers. Give 'em guns, step back, and watch 'em kill each other.” His observation could be interpreted as a conspiracy into eliminating or significantly diminishing the African-American population in the United States of America. However, Tupac does not mention who is behind the plot. Tupac suggests the solution of unity into solving the social issues that African-Americans are facing. According to Tupac, African-Americans should unite together to solve poverty, racism and violence. He shows

He makes many references to the south and shout outs to his home state Georgia, “Overall Georgia, Overall Clean,” a feature and act common in southern rappers and southern rap to do as well as, “Dirty South mind blown, Dirty South bread,”. Ludacris takes his listeners on a trip to the south with his imagery of staple food and drink of the south, “catfish fried up, Dirty South fed,” catfish being a popular south plate and, “sweat for the lemonade, sweat for the tea,” lemonade and sweet tea also being staples of the south. Ludacris also HINTS to African Americans and slave culture in his song. While talking about the south ludacris states, “sleep in a cot pickin Dirty South bed,” referencing to the cotton picking slaves of the south and then continues through alliteration, “Afro picks, Afro chicks,” and “Afro-American, Afro thick,” the later verse being more emphasized as Ludacris strategically had some of the music and beats fade as he rapped it. Another southern factor Ludacris shows his listeners is the mean thuggish ways in which he has to and can be, “Southern Hospitality or overall mean,” as well imagery of threats and violence. Coming from the street and struggle, one must establish not to be messed with as Ludacris does, “Forty Glock cal’ keep your mouth on hold,” with threats of guns and threats to a snitch, “rip ya tongue ‘cause of what your mouth told,” ending with, “DTP stay doing thugged

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,

In the 5th line and 6th line of this song, Tupac addresses a second issue that is mentioned in the song which is the mistreatment of black people by the police. “Cops give a damn about a negro. Pull the trigger, kill a nigga he’s a hero”. Tupac incorporates rhyme with the use of a derogatory term starting with n in order to signify the mistreatment. The rhyme uses repetition of sound adds a musical effect to make the song sound and the use of the naughty word starting with n is a term used to

It is a given that when people hear the term “hip-hop” the first image that comes to mind is that of an uneducated, jobless, violent thug with a gun control issue. This stigma is embedded in today’s society because of artist such as Young Jeezy, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, etc. that glamorize the calling of picking up a gun and “hustling” to sell drugs on the streets. This can be seen in a number of songs, but one song that can be picked out of the lineup is Young Jeezy’s Soul Survivor. “But if you lookin' for me I'll be on the block / With my thang cocked possibly sittin' on a drop, now/ 'Cuz I'm a rida/' Cuz er'ybody know the game don't stop/ Tryin' to make it to the top 'fore your ass get popped, now/ If you a rida” There is not much depth to this song, the story behind this song is that most youths that belong to the streets of ghetto usually get into the business of selling drugs to get quick cash. When he mentions “sittin’ of the drop” he is referring to the drug deal location, which shows how most rap has a criminal element to it. Through all of the “gangsta” glorification throughout “hip-hop” from to the gun slinging and alcohol consumption Lupe took a different

After listening to the song, you could tell that it had significant meaning in history and impacted the lives of many listeners who had just lost a special friend or family member. This is indicated by these sentences in the lyrics; ‘Seems like yesterday we used to rock the show’, ‘...you're gone’, ‘The night they took my friend’, ‘you still livin' your life after death’, ‘I’ll be missing you’, ‘Thinking of the day, When you went away, What a life to take, What a bond to break’, ‘... hard with you not around’, ‘...you in heaven smilin' down’ and ‘Watchin' us while we pray for you’. This song is a tribute to "The Notorious B.I.G."; Christopher Wallace, also known as “Biggie smalls”, who was murdered on March 9, 1997, at the age of 24. The song was released a month after his death (the same year), and became a number 1 hit all over the

“I got tha word as hell/ya blew trial and tha Judge gave you/25 with an L/ time to prepare to do fed time/ want see parole.” “25 with an L” means a conviction of 25 years to life. The artist seems to be telling his friend that although he’s in jail for life, he will be looking out for his responsibilities, kids, and baby mother. “taken risks, while keeping cheap tricks from getting on her../ like in the hood... Implies there is risk that could lead to jail or death protecting his family from cheap man who will take advantage of a single mother. Since most guys in prison worry about their family being bothered, Tupac was assuring him to not worry about anything because he’s doing his best to keep them

As N.W.A fell into the laps of the mainstream target audience: white, middle class, suburban males and their angst filled teens, more problems began to arise regarding the misconceptions of gangster rap and appropriation of the experience of black men in low income cities. Most of the rap that this demographic would hear on the radio was the lighter Pop-Rap of MC Hammer and The Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff. According to GZA, the founder of the Wu Tang Clan, “the label (Gangster Rap) was created by the media to limit what we can say. We just deliver the truth in a brutal fashion…They don 't like that, so you hear 'ban this, ban that '. We attack people 's emotions. It 's a real live show that brings out the inside in people”. But many people outside the scene just associated it with the violent rivalry between the East Coast’s Bad Boy Records and the West Coast’s Death Row records that ultimately resulted in the mysterious murders of The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac. However, when ‘Efil4zaggin’ hit number #1 on Billboard charts, the genre became more widely acknowledged and accepted by mainstream audiences. Although, in a general sense, “Fuck Tha’ Police” was relatable to the Every-Man in it’s dissatisfaction with unfairness- it cannot be separated completely from it’s specific context. Although facing discrimination and brutality at the hands of cops was a common experience for minorities, suburban America still refused to believe that this bias was happening. This track

While listening to this song, it is easy to understand he is upset on how life is difficult in the ghetto and the mistreatment of african americans by police. Within the first few lines it says “im tired of bein poor and even worse im black. my stomach hurts so im lookin for a purse to snatch. cops give a damn about a negro, pull a trigger kill a nigga hes a hero Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.” He has a strong feeling that cops don’t care about african americans due to what life was like during that time in ghetto areas.

The song, No Justice, whose text appears above is a quiet, plaintive, soulful song in the rap genre sung by rapper Ty Dolla Sign and his brother, Big TC, who is currently incarcerated and serving a life sentence for a murder charge that he claims he is being falsely accused of. Through the hardships he is facing however, Big TC was still able to record his contribution for his brother’s song while locked up. As with most songs, especially rap, voice is the primary component to the track. Unlike many songs however, this voice component completely takes center stage. The words each brother sings are clear and unhurried. The listener never has to wonder what was said. The background of snare drums, horns, and back up singers is quite muted so

Every time you say “what up my nigga?” I hear, “what is up my slave that is see of no value to call a full man but you are just an instrument of existence that stems to push my profits higher and higher. And in the slight chance you start to think otherwise remember I

"There's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East, instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me, and I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do." These lines represent how the government is not resolving poverty, but instead tackling drugs in the Middle East and because African Americans are deeply involved with the use and trafficking of drugs, blacks are easily targeted. In the last line of those lyrics, Tupac refers to himself for never committing a crime unless he was forced to because he needed to get by as stated before African Americans don't have the same opportunities or fair chances in society as other races. Even though the white race mistreats, targets, and does not care for the black race, Tupac also points fingers at his own race for a lot of the hate and anger they are surrounded by. In addition to this, he raps "I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other. We gotta start makin' changes, learn to see me as a brother 'stead of two distant strangers." He knows that his own people are at blame because they have jealousy towards each other and they're more about individuality than unity. Again Tupac is trying to inspire his people to quit the selfishness and take a stand to help configure a

Strain Theory explains the lyrics as Tupac was conflicted with his own belief whether it is possible to achieve the changes he wished. Through the entire song, Tupac wanted people to change their behaviors, and treat others as brothers. However, the necessity of filling hungry stomach and the low

“Hey, hey, hey, gather ‘round hustlers/That is if you’re still living/And get on down before the judge give the sentence/A few more rounds before the feds come and get you/Is you gonna smile when your date gets issued?/You know them feds taking pictures/Your mom’s in prison, your father need a new kidney/You family’s splitting, rivalries between siblings/If cash ain’t king it's damn sure the incentive/And good riddance.” This verse belongs to the song ‘The season/Carry me’ by Anderson Paak, a young and talented musician. With only a few words, a scenario of a black man struggle in the ghetto became vivid and touchable. Noticing at Anderson’s brilliant wordplay in the last part, the ‘cent’ in the ‘incentive’ cooperate with money. Except that, flow and rhythm are also being well done by Anderson Paal.