Macklemore is a Seattle based rapper who, along with his producer Ryan Lewis, blew up a few years ago with the release of their album titled The Heist in 2012. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the release was the fact that it was released as an independent album, or without a major record label’s distribution. This album also won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, got nominated for album of the year, and got Macklemore and Ryan Lewis the Grammy for Best New Artist.
The album was promoted the most through the release of its singles and especially the song, Thrift Shop. Thrift Shop became one of the best party songs during its release, and escalated Macklemore to the top of the internet craze thanks to YouTube. However, what most people don’t realize is how diverse a rapper Macklemore really is, and how he tackles issues such as gay rights and money in a way that most rappers don’t. Macklemore has expressed support for gay rights in his song Same Love. He has shown that it doesn’t matter how much money you have or how you choose to spend that money, such as shopping in thrift stores just because some people think that you have to be cheap to shop there. However, he brings the truth to the listener by showing how issues can be solved if we just look at others the same way we would look at ourselves.
Much of the album is inspired by Macklemore’s childhood and upbringing, and the album reflects the things that he wished for when he was little, including White Walls and Wings to celebrate his success and dream about becoming a basketball star. The tracks on the album reflect the culture of hip hop and also provide Macklemore’s unique opinion on social issues that most rappers wouldn’t point out. Macklemore managed to answer the question “why do we judge individuality?” by showcasing examples of how people judge others and then pointing out the flaws of judging without the proper background.
Macklemore is a great rapper because of his ability to be a social critic in his music and provide an opinion contrary to the stereotype of most rappers.
The message that a song puts forth is the most expressive and influential part of the aspect of art that revolves around music. A song that speaks through its rises and falls and lyrics is a song that is able to move the listener. The combination of good lyrics, instrumentals, and the expression of those two is how a song can send its message.
However, another way to express the same message or clarify the song’s message is to accompany the song with a video that is meaningful. Raleigh Ritchie, better known as Grey Worm from the show Game of Thrones or from his role in the show Adulthood, is also an upcoming artist who released his EP, or extended play, Black and Blue EP in 2013, and The Middle Child EP in 2014.
Jacob Anderson also known as his stage name Raleigh Ritchie
Ritchie also published a video for his song “Stronger Than Ever” from the Black and Blue EP on YouTube and has received over 2 million views. What strikes me as such a big deal about this song is that it speaks to me through the video first and the song second. The song almost seems like an accompaniment to the video because of how relevant both are to each other. Watch the video below:
The video shows the mental battle of people who experience depression and other forms of mental illnesses. The way that we can see this through the video is that at the time 1:48, we see Ritchie holding his head in his hands and sitting next to the woman normally. We can see why she offers him a tissue and water, instead of being surprised at how he was flying away. The reality of the situation is that Ritchie is experiencing a mental battle and the song tells the story of the battle through the expression of the lyrics. Each successive verse is more aggressive than the last, showing that the battle is getting harder to fight as time goes on and as others offer their sympathy, but don’t really understand the pain that he is going through.
The last verse is especially important to telling the story since it reveals the insecurities that Ritchie covers up with false assurances to himself and others. The first part shows how Ritchie covers up his insecurities by pretending to know what is going on and knowing how to handle his life. He keeps telling everyone else to believe him, using repetition as a rhetorical strategy to emphasize that the people surrounding him shouldn’t try to help him because he feels as if everything is alright and he doesn’t want anyone to see his weaknesses. He also uses symbols in the last part of the verse to emphasize the intensity of the battle in his mind by using lyrics like explosions, thunderous, and volcanoes. He also uses these words to describe the moment of realization, like an epiphany, of his situation and how he is actually in trouble and isn’t fine. This epiphany is so explosive and revealing that his thoughts come rushing in faster, just like the lyrics, and he also reveals what he feels he needs to do.
I’m not defeated, I believe that I can turn this ship around
Destroy the status quo until I know I found a common ground
I’m not alone, I’m just focused in my zone, this is easy
I’m fine, I just need time to turn this into home, I’m good, believe me
Believe me when I say I’m gonna be big
Explosions crack through, thunderous mountains
Hearts exploding, minds, volcanoes pop and blow
I’m not alone, I’m not alone
Who am I kidding? I’m sad, no ideas coming
It’s driving me mad and I’m fighting it
It’s turning me bad, I’m loaded, pages taking me over
I just wanna be home before my friends and family
Mom and dad, it’s closing in on me, I need recovery from it all
I’m coming home and I need closure, I need closure
The song relates to our culminating question, “Why do we judge individuality?”, by showing the inside of individuality and how it can be something that can only be explained by a shared experience or common knowledge. The only way to judge someone’s individuality is if you have experienced their individuality directly and put yourself in their shoes as well as experienced their experiences. This way you can truly say you understand their pain and happiness and understand them. However, those who don’t experience the same things as the ones they are trying to understand only see their exterior and not the battle within. The song brings awareness to how people who battle mental illnesses live and gives a reason to learn more about the effects of these illnesses. It also answers the question indirectly by showing that people have to experience the same battles to understand each other, as shown through the music video and the woman trying to help Ritchie. We judge individuality so that we can understand them and compare them to ourselves. But we can’t compare them to ourselves fully if we don’t know anything about the battles that they experience with themselves, in their mind. This song delivers the message about the importance of realizing when you are in a state of depression or experiencing other mental illnesses, and it also shows how intense and difficult a battle with mental illness can be since you have to fight it alone.
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced any severe depression, so I can’t empathize with those who have, but I’ve known what small moments of indecision and fear are like. I feel that if I hadn’t realized what I needed to do in time, then I might just have spiraled into depression. I have a huge support system though, and it’s thanks to them I’ve remained as strong as I have.
Heart of Darkness, a novella by Joseph Conrad, is a story about blatant racism and exploitation of “inferior” races to the benefit of “superior” races. There are many other issues that present themselves in the story that include sexism, racism, the issue of humanity, and the battle between civilization and savagery. One thing that is important to note is that the story emphasizes the “good” aspects about civilization and the word itself has a positive connotation, while savagery is used to push the “evil” connotation. However, Marlow, the main character of the novella, bypasses most of the stereotypes that manage to take hold of the rest of the characters. He is affected by his environment, but he also feels that way because of the pressures of another character, the manager, who is Marlow’s boss.
Marlow adapts very easily to his environments and when he makes decisions, he surprises everybody else. He is a sailor but is different from other sailors in that he is the only one out of the introductory characters who still “followed the sea” and doesn’t represent the normal stereotypical version of a sailor. He is described as a wanderer who travels across land and sea, unlike most sailors, who are described as sedentary since their home is the sea and the ocean is their country. (Conrad 3-5) A great example of a hip hop artist that can be compared to Marlow is Kanye West in his ability to produce albums with such varying themes. West is described as a musical genius – not a lyrical genius, don’t worry – because he began to produce music at such a young age and his music career is one of the most unique in that he has been a producer, rapper, and singer. His albums have evolved each time with a new theme as West adapts to the hip hop environment and the style of the day. For example, West’s first album (The College Dropout) was a sample frenzy, meaning almost every song took parts from other songs in the final production. West has also put out albums that used string accompaniments and live instrumentals(Late Registration & So Help Me God), electronic and house samples (Graduation & Yeezus), autotune (808s & Heartbreak), extensive features (My Beautiful Dark Fantasy, and collaboration projects (Watch the Throne & G.O.O.D. Music Presents Cruel Summer). Also, Kanye West has started other business ventures with shoes, clothing, and a Fatburger chain, defying the limits of music artists.
Marlow and Kanye West both defy the limits of their stereotypes, and it makes the readers of Heart of Darkness and the listeners of Kanye West wonder how steroetypes form when we have characters and people who so easily defy them.
One of my favorite hip hop artists is KiD CuDi; someone who is a very diverse musician since he has produced music, written raps, and been a part of a duet named WZRD with fellow producer Dot da Genius. He is on the top of my list because of the message he puts forth in his music.
He has released four albums as Kid CuDi, following a story that spans the course of all of the albums and more to come, and he has released the alternative rock album WZRD as WZRD. KiD CuDi talks about various problems in his life and problems that are faced by people in general. His music mixes the perfect blend of meaning and a carefree attitude, at least as an album as a whole. Each album he has released changes throughout the story of the album, but each song helps keep the story going.
He doesn’t just rap about drugs and money, but he finds a way to fuse his lifestyle with a real message, such as his song Brothers featuring King Chip and A$AP Rocky, which talks about how he wants to thank everyone in his life for how much he’s accomplished so far. The thing that makes this song unique from other songs about rappers’ “crews” is that CuDi respects all of the people he has worked with and praises them for how he has been able to gain as much success as he has. Yet he also acknowledges how people can get out of touch with each other and how it is important to recognize that while they may have not always been there, but if the did help you through a part of your life, it is important to remember them and try to affiliate yourself with the people you grew up with.
He raps about his perseverance in many of his songs including “Soundtrack 2 My Life”, one of his most famous songs, which is about his childhood perseverance, “Scott Mescudi vs. The World”, and “Mr. Rager”, which are songs that involve the perseverance of death and the journey involved in getting past the initial shock of dying. This take on death is a vital part of KiD CuDi’s album and how it relates to the story of the “Man on the Moon”, which is the overlying character of his albums. The official video is shown below:
The official video of Mr. Rager depicts Scott Mescudi as persevering through a mob of men, as he fights his way to something or someone. In the song, CuDi sings “I’m going to heaven”, which could mean that he’s trying to find a better place after he has died or after a part of him has died. This journey is shown through the video, which takes a surprising turn of events at the end, showing him completely fine in a therapist’s office. I still have many opinions on the video, but I would like to hear your comments and opinions on what you think the video might mean. If you want more background, you should check out the rest of the album so you can see the song in context of the other songs: Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager.
Just so you know, I’mma go crazy with this metaphorical interpretation, so prepare to have your minds blown.
It’s interesting how artists can inspire imagination in the listener, viewer, or reader. My teacher read a book, Flora and the Flamingo, by Molly Idle, to an AP class of juniors. It won The Randolph Caldecott Award in 2014 for its illustrations. In fact, the book only has illustrations, from start to finish. In this art form, the illustrations can be interpreted in any way, from their obvious literal meaning to a much deeper philosophical meaning. Books are commonly written with words and the illustrations are used to help the reader imagine what the author is trying to convey, but Flora and the Flamingo uses the images to allow varied interpretations, just as music can inspire different interpretations.
Cover of 2014 Caldecott Award winning children’s book “Flora and the Flamingo” by Molly Idle
The version of the story that my teacher described to me involved a little girl, Flora, meeting a flamingo, and she copies the bird’s movements. However, the girls falls over when the bird does something the girl can’t do. The flamingo then helps Flora up and they learn to dance together. They realize that they have more fun and learn faster when they work together. However, I can come up with many different interpretations when I look deeper or turn the literal images into a metaphor for something out of this world.
For example, I interpreted Flora and the Flamingo on some level as a student in peril and a teacher with no one to pass on his skills to. Flora is the entity that represents a student who feels that they are on the verge of passing away without leaving behind a legacy or real accomplishment. When Flora finds the flamingo, she tries to learn how to dance quickly, without really trying at it because she just wants to say she did something. But as she fails, the teacher finds that he needs to pass his skills on in order to feel accomplished about actually doing something with his life. They both want to leave a legacy behind. However, instead of teaching Flora, the flamingo joins Flora in learning something new together. In this way, they both learn something as a student and pass their skills on as a teacher to feel accomplished with their lives. The last illustration depicts the flamingo and Flora literally jumping into a lake or pool – some body of water – but in my interpretation, I see it as the two of them leaving their legacy with each other and traveling onwards to the next realm together.
This interpretation definitely doesn’t suit young children very well, but in culture, aren’t we used to seeing adult jokes, ideas, and deep meaning mixed in with cute puppets and cool visual effects in children’s media and toys? We can find different views and interpretations intertwined in all aspects of culture, but nowhere more so than in music, especially the immense sociopolitical genre of hip-hop/rap.
There are many different albums, artists, and songs that I can point to that could describe how lyrics and instrumentals in hip hop can incite differences in interpretation and opinion, and can create controversies or bring a new light to old conflicts.
Back Cover of J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive
Some of these songs include J. Cole’s Fire Squad, in which J. Cole makes a “joke” about racism and how white people are taking over the music industry and have been by taking the “black man’s music”. In a way, this is true since hip-hop, jazz, and rock and roll all stem from African-American culture and only became popular when white artists used that style. The controversial verse, shown below:
J. Cole’s verse sparked controversy because he brought up the racism conflict, but it is well played on his part because he is of mixed ethnicity, and is able to look at the situation from both sides of the argument while being able to experience both cultures at the same time. While J. Cole claims he was joking, he also said that “all good jokes contain true [stuff]”, meaning that while he doesn’t have anything against the people whose names he mentioned, he does believe that in history and currently, white people are brought up faster in the music industry and that they rise to fame because of their skin color. I have to say that I believe this to be true as well, since I speak from experience, when I say that parents believe that white rappers automatically rap about more meaningful topics than black rappers. This is in no way true, since there is a proportional amount of good and bad rappers in terms of subject matter as black rappers. There are just more black rappers in general, so parents tend to associate the bad subject matter to the minority (in the U.S.) and they tend to associate the good subject matter to the majority (in the U.S.). However, it comes down to interpreting J. Cole’s verse as either an attack on whites in the music industry or a clever but harmless verse that tries to tell the truth.
Cover of Flying Lotus – You’re Dead!
Another example of interpretation would be Flying Lotus’s album, “You’re Dead!”. This modern swing and jazz album is full of meaningful instrumentals as well as a few songs with features on them including the likes of Captain Murphy, Angel Deradoorian, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat, and Niki Randa. Each and every song represents the journey one takes to reach death, encounter death, and pass on to the next world. The album inspires the listener to envision death as a lively experience that shouldn’t be frowned upon but welcomed when the time is right. The sequences of rising and falling action in each song also makes each song represent different struggles that one goes through when experiencing death, and the best part about this album is that the music can be interpreted to fit with any belief and religion in regards to the afterlife.
Interpretation is all about finding the truth as it relates to you and the people you care about. Artists can purposefully make their artwork vague or metaphorical to encourage multiple understandings. That is what is so interesting about hip-hop and how it can connect to birth, death and everything in between and beyond.
Hey guys! So, today in my AP English class, we watched the video projects that each group made to answer the question “What are the consequences of persevering or not?”. My group decided to use an instrumental of Kendrick Lamar’s song Money Trees off his freshman studio album, good kid, m.A.A.d. city to write a song that answered the question. Here’s a link to the original song: (Clean version)(Explicit version/the normal one). My group decided to take the stance that perseverance always leads to death in the physical standpoint, and that the legacy of the perseverance isn’t a physical object but the experiences that the one who perseveres leaves behind.
Another example of perseverance can be found in Kendrick Lamar’s album mentioned above. Lamar describes his perseverance and that of the others who live and were raised in the hood. While using his personal story as the basis of his project, the album hits many important aspects of life growing up in the hood. Lamar’s album is already considered as one of the classics in the hip-hop genre because of its diverse yet familiar sound, insightful lyricism, and overall message. The album has songs that, at first, just seem like bangers, or tracks that have a good dance beat or replay value, such as m.A.A.d. city ft. MC Eiht, and Swimming Pools (Drank), but the real message shows how the artist is trying to reach a real level with his listeners. The perseverance shown through the songs shows Lamar’s real life experiences while out with his homies participating in gang related behavior and fighting his alcoholism, respectively. The perseverance of participating in this kind of behavior resulted in the untimely death of one of his friends, which placed stress on his other friends and himself. The outcome of the perseverance is that Kendrick Lamar is now a successful artist who stays true to his roots and sends out a message to encourage today’s children to step up and make their own destiny without being held down by the racial segregation that still exists in the U.S. The album embodies the perseverance of the typical African American teenager from the hood with each song playing a role in defining society’s image of this character, and then redefining the image to show the effects of the perseverance that the individual went through to show a changed individual. Kendrick Lamar is one of my favorite rappers because of his diversity with his ability to rap on almost any track, and his determination to stay true to his roots while also sending a positive message.
I’ll be posting a lot of music and hip-hop related stuff on this blog, and I want to show how hip hop is really an intelligent movement with important messages as long as you know where to look. Most mainstream hip hop nowadays is just about women, drugs, and alcohol. The best hip hop, in my opinion, is the music that gets you thinking about the message the song is putting across. Old school hip hop and some new rappers still put across a strong message, but a lot of new rappers are only in it for the money. Anyways, I’ll be discussing new and old songs, new and old school rappers, and the meaning behind certain songs that I can relate to my AP English Language and Composition class.
Hip-hop is a genre of music that rose from the struggles of African Americans living in the Bronx in New York City during the 1970s. The hip-hop movement was, and still is, one of the most promising ways for many to break out of the racial barrier that clouds minorities. The hip-hop movement began as an intellectual movement to break the racial barrier and to unite cultures through popular music. The most important thing about hip hop is that it is an expressive art form that uses literary devices with the combination of a heavy bass and strong percussion to bring out the message in the lyrics.
The term “hip hop” is made up of the Wolof (Senegalese language) word hippie meaning “to open one’s eyes and see” which refers to enlightenment, and the English word hop, which is a type of movement. Hip hop means an enlightening movement. The hip hop movement originally started with sampling different genres of music – including rock and roll, jazz, rhythm and blues, and more – and reciting rhythmic and meaningful verses. Deejays and Emcees brought hip hop to the community by using a turntable to play two vinyl tracks at the same time to create a new sound that also emphasized percussion and bass.
So Kendrick Lamar dropped his album a week early on iTunes and Spotify, whether or not it was intentional. It was eventually taken off of iTunes, but it is still on Spotify, and IT IS AMAZING – at least in terms of lyrics and message. I have to say, I haven’t been impressed by the collective presence of one of Lamar’s albums since his first studio album, Section.80. Although, I may be comparing two completely different works of art there since To Pimp A Butterfly is a prominently funk and jazz style album with the most emphasis on the lyrics and the use of multiple rhetorical devices, while Section.80 is much more modern and doesn’t incorporate jazz as much.
Cover of Kendrick Lamar’s Sophomore Album: “To Pimp A Butterfly”
This album portrays a very deep part of Kendrick Lamar that we haven’t seen as much of; or at least not to this extent. This is evident when you look at the production of the album since it was handled mainly by four producers that Lamar has long been working with, and the only featured rappers were Snoop Doggy Dogg and Rapsody. The album is about black empowerment and may send the general message that many other rappers have sent in the past, but what makes this album different is that it is for the new generation, and it is an album that was released by a mainstream artist. While many don’t necessarily like the new album, it is a classic in terms of its message and renewal of hip-hop’s roots and influence.
A clever image of the track listing for To Pimp A Butterfly
To Pimp A Butterfly is a play on the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee because the album discusses racism and the struggle of black people to gain equal rights and opportunities through changing people’s mindset, not just the law. However, Lamar also says that the law still upholds some of its racist tendencies when he raps about actor Wesley Snipes in Wesley’s Theory and how the law works against him when prosecuting him and other black people. The law is still racist and people in general have stereotypes set up for other ethnic backgrounds, but those people also use those stereotypes to make others feel sorry for themselves and prevent themselves from getting to the top. These are two recurring themes in the album, with Lamar focusing on the journey of his fame and perseverance through the metaphor of the butterfly from the title.
One of the most important rhetorical devices used in TPAB is the extendedmetaphor of the caterpillar, its cocoon, the metamorphosis into the butterfly, and the pimping out of the evolved form that would otherwise be beautiful. The caterpillar represents Kendrick Lamar when he first started rapping, or when he wasn’t famous. The caterpillar eats and eats until it grows large enough to form its own cocoon, so Lamar fed on the prospects of fame, money, and women, which are continuing themes that affect Lamar in his journey throughout the album. This metaphor is the main theme of the album, since the album revolves around this journey, and on what the caterpillar feeds itself in order to grow, what the cocoon keeps with itself, and how the butterfly is changed by corporate America and label industries.
Another rhetorical device used are grammatical devices including asyndetons, polysyndetons, and anaphorae that are almost second nature when rapping, because they flow with the beat and help maintain rhyme and rhythm. Asyndetons help make the story flow and the artist describe their feelings in the song. An example of an asyndeton in the song, Wesley’s Theory:
The first verse is fast-paced and shows the perspective of a black artist who has made it big or has become successful, and shows how life can be often viewed through their perspective. This perspective shows the fast-paced life of successful artists and how they often give in to vices of the world.
However, the second verse in Wesley’s Theory uses a polysyndeton to portray corporate America through Uncle Sam and slows down the beat a bit before picking it back up to emphasize the impact of economy and industry and capitalism and how it can slow down one’s life to keep everyone under control. Uncle Sam can control everyone’s life indirectly through life’s commodities and luxuries, and Uncle Sam pimped out the butterfly by “Wesley Snip[ing] your *ss by thirty-five”, referring to how the government still finds loopholes to confine blacks.
The third rhetorical device used is an anaphora, which is a repeated phrase and is one of the most commonly used devices in music since the chorus or hook to many songs repeats lines and provides the overlaying effect of a recurring theme throughout the song. However, TPAB includes an even larger anaphora that is presented throughout the entire album when Kendrick Lamar reads more and more lines of a poem at the end of each song. The poem grows longer and longer by the end of each song, until it it finally recited in its entirety in the last song, Mortal Man, which is an inspiration to the new generation by sharing an interview with Tupac Shakur, the late hip-hop legend, and incorporated Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X into its inspiration and message for the generation that didn’t get to experience them. This anaphora helps tie together all of the songs and lays out the overlaying theme for the entire album beautifully.
To Pimp A Butterfly is a classic due to its incorporation of jazzy and funky instrumentals as well as its renewal of the message of real hip-hop and its roots as well as its influences. The album incorporates many more rhetorical devices as well, and connects every song to every other in a story that could be read as a series of poems. You guys should definitely check this album out, maybe even buy it, it’s worth the money for the inspiration and deep message.
Hip-Hop Maharaj 