A Glimpse Into HipHop Through The Lens Of Rap Ibteysham Iqbal Tawsif 6554455 Seminar 6 Tierney Kobryn-Dietrich 1. My Life by The Game ft. Lil Wayne, 2008 This song helps paint a picture of lower-income ‘ghetto’ neighborhoods. The game shares his experiences growing up in an area of criminal activities such as drug abuse, murders, gang violence, and increasing crime rates rooting in social issues such as poverty. As stated that hip replicates and reimagines the experiences of urban life by appropriating urban space with its art forms (Black, 2014). Game ‘spits’ facts about how he is from a city where you have to ‘do or die’, meaning how life for his community is uncertain like that. He warranted this further by telling how BIG-E (compare to Jesus or GOD) was shot a block away from where he was. Exhibiting the realities his people grew up in and had to live in. All these statements align with what was discussed in lecture about stigmatizing physical locations and facilitating residential segregation by race and ghettoization (Black 2022 Week 4). 2. Changes by Tupac Shakur, 1998 Tupac beings the song by questioning his existence in the, then given circumstances he was facing. He builds on this by discussing how cops do not care about pulling the trigger and killing black people as they will be viewed as heroes. Furthermore, he shuns light on how members of their own community are giving each other, black kids, and drugs, and how that leads to problems between community members which end in fights and murders of their own, by their own. His discussion perfectly reflects what the author said about how people do not like being oppressed and that they will respond in ways that reflect that fact (Black, 2014). As discussed in the lecture, the majority of working-class African Americans were facing oppression through inaccessibility to investment which could’ve been the cause for internal clashes rooting from low income as well (Black 2022, Week 2). Moreover, from the lecture we learned about how there were cuts made to welfare and public services aligns with when Tupac rapped in the song about giving cracks to the kids who the hell cares (Black 2022, Week 2). 3. Tales From the Rails by Lordz Of Brooklyn, 1995 This song speaks about an African-American’s experience with graffiti, both good and bad. The rapper talks about how he had to sneak out the window to write on the train, how he ‘bombs’ (spray paints) whole cars, and how his brother’s style of graffiti runs from door to door. Aligning with the discussion that marginalized populations assert a form of urban citizenship through the appropriation of space in the city (Black, 2014). Jamming the idea of limiting public space that was facilitated by the government with wars called upon graffiti. Signs like, “Keep Out,” “You Are Now Entering Dragons Territory,” “White Power,” “Dominicans Not Allowed,” and “Down to Kill.” as mentioned in the article (Chronopoulos, 2011). The artist also speaks about running from the law, never paying the fare, writer’s inks not being any crime and here to ‘bomb’ the system. In the reading, James Reynolds gets on the subway and wonders who is in charge here, which blends well with what message the rapper is trying to communicate (Chronopoulos, 2011). Referring back to the articles spoken about in the lecture, we came across St. Catherines and Niagara region waging war on graffiti; which shows how systems of oppression still lay in 2022 (Black 2022 Week 4). 4. The 3rd World by Immortal Technique, 2008 This song specifically aims to provide an insight into the ‘third world’ lives being experienced by the Iraqi-American rapper. He raps about the inhabitable physical conditions that are existing in third-world countries in the middle east, where water cannot be drunk, police brutality is not half ass nice as America’s, making the hood looks like paradise, and how the American government massacres people while denying it for years. His ‘bars’ align with the lived experience discussed in the article, about Lebanon experiencing a rise in taxes, political injustice, corruption, issues with women’s rights, and with their Prime Minister resigning as a result of all this (Brennan, 2019). The Lebanese Rapper Fattouh (stage name Malikah) gave voices to the unheard voices with this song that she says she wrote about 2-3 years ago but was waiting with doubt about its release given the toxic patriarchal government in the middle east (Brennan, 2019). Ultimately, facilitating “the ghetto’s CNN”, in their context (Black, 2014). As stated by the author, “Storytelling, flow, linguistic inventiveness, delivery and of course the emphasis on ‘keeping it fresh’ (i.e. being original) are at a premium in rap” (Black, 2014). The Iraqi rapper predicts that 700 children will be dead by the end of this song, talks about soviet union weapons deciding elections from where he is from, and racist white men making the best clientele. One of the most important aspects he raps about is how blacks, indigenous people, and Asians were from the same place where racism exists now between the communities of the same color, which has been internalized into these cultures by Racist White Caucasians. ( I am personally triggered into mentioning these lines because this is my lived experience being a Muslim Bangladeshi being a minority in Canada) “Destroyed our culture and said that you civilized us Raped our woman and when we were born you despised us Gentrified us, agent provocateurs divide us” 5. We The People by A Tribe Called Quest, 2016 The rapper here aimed to create a tribe of collective forces with this song. Bringing in topics of poverty by referring to ramen noodles as the repetitive food item for all their meals, this situates a perspective for a listener to understand the socioeconomic conditions of minority communities. This aligns with the lecture, where the professor discussed that automation caused unemployment in rural parts of America where African-American communities lived before moving to the cities, this led to an increase in seeking job opportunities and urbanization of African-American life (Black 2022 Week 1). Later in the song, the rapper talks about all black, mexican, poor, muslim, and gays being bad, and all of them ‘MUST GO’. He also talks about doors having signs, “Keep Out,” “You Are Now Entering Dragons Territory,” “White Power,” “Dominicans Not Allowed,” and “Down to Kill.” as mentioned in the article (Chronopoulos, 2011). Here the rapper tries to give voices to all marginalized communities in the context of America at that time. Light feminism can be seen when he raps about white missies dreaming of a world that is equal with “no division”. Such topics align with the toxic misogynistic culture in the middle east that The Lebanese Rapper Fattouh (stage name Malikah) talks about in her tracks (Brennan, 2019). References: Black, Simon. 2014. “‘Street Music’, Urban Ethnography and Ghettoized Communities.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38(2):700–705. Brennan, Sam. 2019. “Queen of Lebanese Hip-Hop Raps on Revolution.” Al. Retrieved December 18, 2022 (https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2019/11/rapping-on-the-revolution-with-the-q ueen-of-middle-east-hip-hop.html). Chronopoulos, Themis. 2012. “Introduction.” Spatial Regulation in New York City 11–14.
