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Pedro Ferreira
Zeigler
Micro-Study Two
12 Mar 2014
“Money Trees” and “Touch the Sky” Language Analysis
“Money Trees” by Kendrick Lamar and Jay Rock, and “Touch the Sky” by
Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco are two international music hits. This micro-study aims to
analyze the language, context, and method of delivery of the themes in these songs in
order to find how they are produced.
To achieve this, I rely on, “Discourses of difference: applied methodologies for
evaluating race and speech style” by Kate T. Anderson, a source published in 2005 at the
Journal of Applied Linguistics. It gives an interesting insight into components of
discourse across communities. I also quote a Sage publication called “Toward a
Development Discourse Inclusive of Music” by Joshua Dankoff. I also bring up valid
points from a James G. Spady interview published as a “The Fluoroscope of Brooklyn
Hip-Hop: A Conversation With Talib Kweli.” I also rely on general ideas collected
through various other sources, as well as Oxford Dictionary definitions, terms from the
textbook Analyzing English Grammar, and the lyrics of the songs from website
RapGenius.
The discussion of how the message is conveyed has to begin with the phonemes
that make up the phrasal units that convey a message, which is received and responded to
in context. Anderson calls this a discursive approach to discourse. She defines discursive
discourse as “multiply layered, contextual interactive systems.” Quoting Fenton, Berker,
Mercer, et al, Anderson elaborates that according to this view, “individuals jointly
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construct meaning through the navigation of shared understandings within historical and
social contexts as well as linguistic particulars of talk.”
In conversation with James G. Spady, rapper Talib Kweli, emphasizes the
multilayer aspect of the hip-hop discourse in saying, “I believe Hip Hop is theater… The
way we act. We create characters. We tells stories. We direct. We write the script. We
perform it. We do all that.” When Kweli says that he writes the script, he is also saying
that he is in charge of a discourse. That is because “music is socially meaningful…
largely because it provides means by which people recognize identities and places, and
the boundaries which separate them,” (Stokes qtd. in Dankoff). This narrative power
oozes out of “Money Trees” and “Touch the Sky”.
“Touch the Sky” is a title with a verb phrase made up of two content words and
one structure word. The action suggested, is figurative. One cannot touch the sky but to
think about it, is to dream. The same way, the noun phrase made up of two content
words, “Money Trees”, is also an abstract idea. Trees of money do not exist but they
represent the idea of having an abundant supply of funds. With a discursive perspective
in mind, it can be said that these are the common themes in both songs. The fact that
these phrases are also used in the refrain makes the discourse more powerful as they are
repeated in rhythm with background music that often emphasize the tone of the diction.
Both songs are first person rags-to-riches narratives. They play like testimonies of hard
work. West sings, “Before anybody wanted K. West beats Me and my girl split the buffet
at KFC,” while Lamar sings, “And I been hustling all day, this a way, that a way, through
canals and alleyways, just to say money trees is the perfect place for shade and that's just
how I feel.”
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This micro-study was effective in showing the power that songs have in creating.
It relies on an arsenal of devices including words that have stronger connotations with
specific communities, background music, and context. Between the up-beat sounds of the
songs and the abstract words of the refrain, I find encouragement in these two songs but
if one listens closely to the autobiographies present in each he or she can see that these
artists are also criticizing the means to which people often pursue these ends.
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Works Cited
Anderson, Kate T. "Discourses Of Difference: Applied Methodologies For
EvaluatingRace And Speech Style." Journal Of Applied Linguistics2.2 (2005):
129151. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Dankoff, Joshua. “Toward a Development Discourse Inclusive of Music.”Alternatives:
Global, Local, Political (2011). SAGEPUB. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
"discourse, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. 12 March 2014.
The Fluoroscope of Brooklyn Hip Hop: Talib Kweli in Conversation James G. Spady and
Talib Kweli Callaloo , Vol. 29, No. 3, Hip-Hop Music and Culture (Summer,
2006) , pp. 993-1011. JSTOR. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Lamar, Kendrick. “Kendrick Lamar - Money Trees“ Rap Genius. Web. 12 Mar 2014
West, Kanye. “Kanye West- Touch the Sky” Rap Genius. Web. 12 Mar 2014