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Artifacts
Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., known by his stage name Lil Wayne wrote a rap called “Georgia Bush” for his album The Dedication 2, 2006. This rap stunned millions across the world simply because Lil Wayne was known for making “party music” not politically driven raps. In the rap Wayne starts by saying “This song right here is dedicated to the President of the United States of America.” Singling out exactly who he was talking about. He later goes on to say “The white people smiling like everything cool / But I know people that died in that pool / I know people that died in them schools.” He also mentions how a black man was shot dead on the street. The sad truth is that this line can still be valid today with the increasing gun violence and police brutality. The people supposed to be working towards fixing these issues aren’t even batting an eye. |
Straight Outta Compton was an album written by an American hip hop group called N.W.A, released in August 8, 1988. This album contains a politically driven rap that many of us have probably actually heard. The rap “F Tha Police,” happens to be the second song listed in the album. This album received a lot of positive feedback. In the rap F tha Police where the lyrics protest police brutality and racial profiling in particular went viral. Rolling Stones, Shinéa O’Connor stated that “It’s definitely the best rap record I’ve ever heard. Of course, I can see why people might be offended by the lyrics, but as a human being and not as a public figure, I’m not offended at all.” What many people might not know and something I recently found out was that the song provoked FBI to write a letter to N.W.A’s record company expressing that the song misrepresents and degrades police enforcement. Jerry Heller the band’s manager wrote about the incident in his autobiography, Ruthless. Heller explained how the letter was actually a scoundrel action taken by a “single pissed-off bureaucrat with a bully pulpit" named Milt Ahlerich. Ahlerich was falsely representing the FBI as a whole which earned him a transfer from his position in the bureaucrat.
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Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, known by his stage name 21 Savage. Savage was once just a petty criminal on the streets, so he’s not only admired for his musical skills but also this rise to name and fame. Most of the music written by Savage is about his life on the streets starting back form when he started dealing drugs at the age of 14. The song we’ll be talking about is called ASMR which came out on December 20th, 2018. There isn’t a particular reason behind why I picked this song other than the fact that I enjoy listening to this song. In the first verse, Savage speaks out about his interactions with gang life and guns, the guns he happens to know the background of. He says, “this AK47 made in Moscow” which is the capital of Russia, making this line factually accurate. In the next verse, he talks about how he's been on both sides of the gun and how he knows the pain. He later goes on the talk about the power of his gang and how they never had to hide behind drive-bys he says, “Drive-by? Nah, we the walk-up gang.” Although this rap is about his actual life experiences, Savage made this song in a way that makes people want to listen to his story without knowing that they are. He put a catchy beat in the background and his smooth flow makes you want to keep listening.
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Pure Water is a song written by an American Hip hop group called Migos. The group consists of three rappers by the names of Kirshnik Khari Ball, Kiari Kendrell Cephus, and Quavious Keyate Marshall. These rappers are professionally known as Takeoff, Offset, and Quavo. The name of the song; Pure Water refers to the rappers' “ice”, and ice, of course, implies to their jewelry. This song was created for the group to brag about all the money and girls these men attract with the possessions and positions they hold in the music industry. One of the lyrics in the song goes “No limit to the money I picked the gang up, took a flight across the country” which is to shows how easy they have it. The song holds a strong beat and a very interesting violin compilation making it sound different compared to other styles of rap in this music genre. |
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