hiphophiphop69-blog

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Journal Entry #7

What I wanted to talk about with this last open entry is to discuss whether or not lyrical ability matter in hip-hop. This entry will be more of me thinking as I write, so I won’t really have any sources. I think in hip-hop it is important to approach music for what it is rather than approaching everything and expecting it to shift the way you think about something. Music gives you the feels and I think it’s important to acknowledge that it does that not only through powerful lyrics, but also by how the sound makes you feel. Going outside of hip-hop I’ve become very interested in political punk bands recently because of that idea specifically. I’ll use the band GLOSS as an example, they are a trans punk band and it is a topic that they cover a lot in their music. Although they talk about the life of a trans person a lot in their music, they are yelling a lot over a lot of loud instruments so it is very difficult for me to figure out what they’re saying, but given the context of who they are and the society that they are in; the sound of their anger is very powerful and moving. This approach to how I listen to music is carried through to hip-hop as well. You can capture emotion through their voices and song production like for example in the songs “Codeine Crazy” and “Throw Away” by Future you can hear the pain in his voice given the context of the things Future was going through with his break up with his baby mother Ciara and his struggle with sadness and drowning those feelings with drugs. Future is not a lyrical rapper and is sometimes described as a singer more than a rapper and the hip-hop community including the hip-hop elites such as Andre 3000 loves him. Same thing goes with artists like the Migos, Lil Yachty and other rappers that fall under the category of mumble rap. Around the mid-2000s a lot of people started attributing Soulja Boy to killing the genre of rap, which I thought was ridiculous because crediting a teenage kid to killing a genre is a little absurd. Even in that discussion, it is still very hip-hop to create music and dances that people can dance to and enjoy. Dancing is one of the elements of hip-hop and a lot of early rap songs weren’t as ‘lyrical’ as Nas is, but people view early 70s hip-hop and contemporary hip-hop very differently.

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Journal Entry #6

It is popular to have an anti-policing perspective in hip-hop and this is a result of the injustices poorer communities face from the police. Hip Hop is undeniably from black culture and it is important to acknowledge the race and class relations when talking about hip-hop. For my lesson I would want to talk about the reasons for the anti-policing feeling a lot of hip-hop artists have. I would go over the stop and frisk policy that was implemented by the NYPD and how that affected young racialized people in New York. I would also talk about the prison industry and how it targets poor people of colour as well. I would play songs like NWA’s “Fuck Tha Police” which captures a communities anger towards countless displays of corruption in policing, Brand Nubian’s “Claimin; I’m a Criminal” which talks about how the system targets the black community, Public Enemy’s “911 is a Joke” which talks about how useless calling the cops because it often doesn’t solve issues and can aggravate them instead and J Dilla’s “Fuck The Police” which gives a perspective on police from a person from the community. I would talk about how these perspectives are important to listen to and that we shouldn’t dismiss these sentiments as just an attitude an attitude you grow out of. When people in hip-hop grow out of this feeling it is a result of becoming rich and being protected more by the police because of their class. NWA – Fuck Tha Police https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-TTWgiYL4 Brand Nubian – Claimin’ I’m A Criminal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msbZ3De3XsI Public Enemy – 911 is a Joke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPNK0VspQ0M J Dilla – Fuck The Police https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPOKZNLhOj8

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Journal Entry #5

The Indigenous artist that I will be discussing is Frank Waln, a hip-hop artist from South Dakota, United States. The first song I will be talking about is Oil 4 Blood; the song is a direct reaction to the Keystone XL pipeline that was being built on Indigenous land. The song was released in 2013, 3 years after the pipeline was commissioned. One phrase that I find interesting in this song is the idea of ‘poverty porn’ and his culture being ‘pimped’ out by the media. Whenever you hear about indigenous people on television you always hear about how poorly they are doing and while that is very relevant it is also important to capture the more positive aspects of indigenous culture in mainstream media because they lack representation. This song is relevant with the Dakota Pipeline that saw a lot of media attention recently; we got to see mainstream media follow the story so closely and then now we rarely hear about the pipeline unless you are searching on more obscure leftist media. In the Oil 4 Blood song he talks about how the government has essentially fucked him and his community over with projects like the Keystone XL one and he ends the song with a very powerful line saying, “build the pipeline and I’m burning down your oil”.  The other song I listened to from Frank Waln is ‘What Makes the Red Man Red’, which if you Google you see the results show a Disney song for Peter Pan. The song is sung by a racist depiction of an indigenous Chief, which is seen in the single artwork for the song by Frank Waln. The song talks about the lies that the North American educational system tells such as the history of Thanksgiving and Columbus Day. The song is titled, ‘What Makes the Red Man Red’ and in the song he suggests that blood is what makes the red man red due to genocide caused by America. I think what makes these songs original is the content because this type of lyrics will only be found in Indigenous rap because it is their experience, not anyone else’s. I do my best to keep up with Indigenous culture, so a lot of what I heard in these songs didn’t come as a surprise to me. I think learning about a culture that is being ignored so much. Oil 4 Blood by Frank Waln https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKh5awjGWSk What Makes the Red Man Red by Frank Waln https://frankwaln47.bandcamp.com/track/what-makes-the-red-man-red

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Journal Entry #4

Last year Robitussin released a television advertisement that featured several people coughing on screen and there would be a blue and purple cloud shooting from their mouths. The commercial plays on the aesthetic of lean culture and references Future’s album cover for Dirty Sprite 2. Lean is a mixture of a strong cough syrup mixed typically with sprite and a jolly rancher.  The advertisement is for a cough syrup and uses a very similar colour palette as the DS2 cover as seen below.  The commercial did not credit Future as the person who influenced their aesthetic for the commercial, but after it was shown social media immediately identified Future’s album cover as the inspiration for the commercial.  The commercial also has clips of the cough syrup being poured out and the liquid is a very similar purple as the lean mixture. Neither Robitussin nor Future really commented on it, but it was pretty huge moment in hip-hop because Future has not seen that type of mainstream look before. Although he is undeniably popular in hip-hop a lot of corporate companies like Robitussin would avoid backing artists like Future or the Migos because of their subject matter. 

Commercial can be viewed here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctdoivT-uhA

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Journal Entry #3

Growing up I was a huge fan of Jay-Z and was for some reason happy with how rich he was. I thought his line where he said, “Partner I’m still spending money from ‘88” was so fresh and it was something I strived for as a young teenager. Rap has a strong history of being political from people like Public Enemy to J Cole or Kendrick Lamar today. It is still very much a form of music that protests structural injustices… structural injustices from a capitalist system. On one hand I find it strange that a culture that is known for speaking out against the capitalist system strives to become extremely wealthy, but on the other hand I kind of understand because rap generally comes from less fortunate beginnings so when wealth is being waved around, it is not surprising that it is what people seek. There is a lot of stress on this idea that if you work hard enough you’ll make it out of any situation, which is something that I find extremely harmful and untrue. I believe that way of thinking leads to very harmful views on homelessness because people can look at them and simply brush them aside because they just didn’t work hard enough. I’ve seen many examples where hip-hop artists that I love degrade and dehumanize homeless people in their neighnourhood making them run across busy traffic (Dipset) or more recently forcing a homeless person to do 20 push ups for money (Meek Mill). It’s important to address that equal opportunity for all doesn’t exist in this system.  As long as we are in the system we are currently in there will always have to be the oppressors and the oppressed and it’s not enough to strive for a ‘nicer’ capitalism that is more inclusive of people’s identity if people are still being oppressed because of class structures.

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Journal Entry #2

My understanding initially of convergence culture is the idea of 2 cultures meeting. For example I would consider the RUN DMC & Aerosmith song the convergence of rock and rap culture. After reviewing the article provided in class written by Henry Jenkins, my understanding of the term convergence culture is the idea of old and new media. Convergence culture focuses on the consumer more and their role in influencing what goes on in that media. It goes both ways, it’s not just top down. The Putting that idea to hip-hop I believe the term convergence culture is very relevant, I find that hip-hop loves to blend the old with the new. Kanye West and The RZA are known for sampling and recycling old records from jazz, blues, R&B, etc. and mixing it with hip-hop. It’s very common today to see rappers use many different medias to advertise themselves. With new media, it has become easier for rappers to be heard through platforms like Soundcloud and Instagram, which is like the modern day business card for a music artist. I still am not confident in my understanding of convergence culture. Hopefully reviewing other journal entries will help me with understanding it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BEaXZBVnI

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Journal Entry #1

Growing up there was a decision to be made, either I skated and listened to rock music or I played basketball and listened to rap music. My older brother chose to play basketball and listen to rap music and that influenced me to do the same. I remember having discussions with my best friend about Tupac’s legacy in grade 3 and 4. I remember watching Puff Daddy as a 4 year old in Atlanta in a closet (I don’t know why my aunt had a television in a closet). I’ve always been interested in popular culture as a kid; I remember being 9 or 10 years old and knowing about rock and roll history and surprising my teacher with the things that I knew. He saw my interest in hip-hop through our discussions and as a joke got me a Vanilla Ice CD as a gift in the year 2001 or 2002. Hip-Hop plays a big part in my identity… it influenced how I speak, dress and act. Hip-Hop was also my introduction to graphic design. I didn’t grow up with a family interested in visual arts so I never went to museums as a kid. One of the few places I got to view graphic design was album covers and booklets. My first CD was a DJ Clue mixtape, then Ludacris debut album and then I got 50 Cent’s Massacre. The Massacre artwork was mind-blowing to me because it had 2 layers (1 transparent cover that was filled with decorative elements and another of just 50’s body). Kanye in my opinion has really brought together the 2 worlds of design and hip-hop with his album covers for the most part being done by renowned artists. Hip-Hop has become popular culture now, so it’s more common to see how hip-hop has influenced design. For example, Robitussin released an ad last year that was clearly influenced by Future’s DS2 album artwork. After The Life of Pablo was released I was even able to see how that cover influenced some of my colleagues here at OCAD.