Post by Monika on Oct 4, 2010 14:17:39 GMT -5
In Honors English, we have to write four papers (and a final paper), each with preassigned structures. This paper (our second one) was the "Example Paper". In it, you're supposed to write a general statement in the first paragraph and then devote the rest of the paper to examples supporting it.
I just wrote my paper an hour before class, so I was pressed for time trying to figure out a topic. So, I decided to write about the first thing that came to my mind, which was about how rap is completely awful. I quickly googled as many horrible lyrics as possible, and BAM! Instant paper.
(For future reference, the class has only 8 people, so it's fairly lax and the teacher didn't care...much.) Below is the paper for your perusal/amusement.
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Old Music, New Message
I’ve been enjoying music of all types since I was a young child. I love classical music, rock music, country music and especially rap music. Growing up on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, the de facto rap capital of the world, I was exposed to rap music for much of my childhood life, and I still am today. Unfortunately, I have not retained my childhood love of the music. This is not because I have grown up; rather, this is because the message of rap music has changed dramatically. Rap songs that were originally harmless ditties about how great the rapper was have since devolved into songs concerning and promoting sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, and the objectification of women.
Faheem Rasheed Najm, better known as “T-Pain”, is a great example of the latter. His song list includes “Buy U A Drank” and “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper)”. Both songs involve treating women as little more than objects; lyrics in the former (“Back to the crib, show you how I live/Let’s get drunk and forget what we did”) suggest that T-Pain wants to intoxicate a woman to the point of sleeping with her, while lyrics in the latter (“You got them big ass hips, god damn”, “I need to get her over to my crib and do that night thing”) show that T-Pain cares about little more than the physical appearance of strippers and that his sole desire is to sleep with them.
Another example would be the famous rapper Christopher Brian Bridges, better known by his stage name Ludacris. Several of his songs portray and promote violence and sex. “Move Bitch” and the accompanying music video are entirely about Ludacris suffering from road rage under the influence of alcohol and drugs (“I’ve been drinking and buzzin’ too”, “I’m DUI, hardly ever caught sober”) while threatening to harm or murder anyone in his direct path (“I’ve been thinkin’ of bustin’ you/Upside yo’ motherfuckin’ forehead”, “And you about to get ran the fuck over”). Later lyrics in the same song clearly treat women as objects (“Young and successful, a sex symbol/The bitches want me to fuck ‘em, true, true”). Another Ludacris song, “Get Back”, and the accompanying music video concern Ludacris becoming quickly enraged by one of his fans to a point where Ludacris considers killing the person. Lyrics (“Why you all in my ear?/Talkin’ a whole bunch of shit that I ain’t tryin’ to hear.”, “I ain’t playin’ around./Make one false move; I’ll take ya down.”) make no effort to hide the portrayal and glorification of violence.
Still, other songs take these messages to their most logical extremes. The current mainstream rapper, DeAndre “Soulja Boy” Way is a prime example of this. His first and most famous song, “Crank That”, was merely a song concerning how amazing he thought he was. Conceited as it was, the song did not encourage teens to go out and perform random acts of violence. As Soulja Boy grew in popularity, however, the messages in his songs began to change completely. For example, Soulja Boy’s recent song “Smoke Some” contains a chorus that repeats “Smoke some, nigga. Choke some, nigga. Smoke some, nigga. Gon’ roll some, nigga. I’m high as fuck.” It is undeniably a song blatantly instructing the listener to smoke marijuana. Other recent songs of his, such as the self explanatory “I Got Bitches”, are no exception to this new trend in rap.
In short, rap music and the lyrics that they contain are suffering harshly. A genre that once consisted of only harmless, self indulgent songs is now plagued with messages that portray violence, sex and drug abuse, and - given the popularity of most mainstream rappers - , these messages are being glorified and promoted to most children and teens today.
I just wrote my paper an hour before class, so I was pressed for time trying to figure out a topic. So, I decided to write about the first thing that came to my mind, which was about how rap is completely awful. I quickly googled as many horrible lyrics as possible, and BAM! Instant paper.
(For future reference, the class has only 8 people, so it's fairly lax and the teacher didn't care...much.) Below is the paper for your perusal/amusement.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Old Music, New Message
I’ve been enjoying music of all types since I was a young child. I love classical music, rock music, country music and especially rap music. Growing up on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, the de facto rap capital of the world, I was exposed to rap music for much of my childhood life, and I still am today. Unfortunately, I have not retained my childhood love of the music. This is not because I have grown up; rather, this is because the message of rap music has changed dramatically. Rap songs that were originally harmless ditties about how great the rapper was have since devolved into songs concerning and promoting sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, and the objectification of women.
Faheem Rasheed Najm, better known as “T-Pain”, is a great example of the latter. His song list includes “Buy U A Drank” and “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper)”. Both songs involve treating women as little more than objects; lyrics in the former (“Back to the crib, show you how I live/Let’s get drunk and forget what we did”) suggest that T-Pain wants to intoxicate a woman to the point of sleeping with her, while lyrics in the latter (“You got them big ass hips, god damn”, “I need to get her over to my crib and do that night thing”) show that T-Pain cares about little more than the physical appearance of strippers and that his sole desire is to sleep with them.
Another example would be the famous rapper Christopher Brian Bridges, better known by his stage name Ludacris. Several of his songs portray and promote violence and sex. “Move Bitch” and the accompanying music video are entirely about Ludacris suffering from road rage under the influence of alcohol and drugs (“I’ve been drinking and buzzin’ too”, “I’m DUI, hardly ever caught sober”) while threatening to harm or murder anyone in his direct path (“I’ve been thinkin’ of bustin’ you/Upside yo’ motherfuckin’ forehead”, “And you about to get ran the fuck over”). Later lyrics in the same song clearly treat women as objects (“Young and successful, a sex symbol/The bitches want me to fuck ‘em, true, true”). Another Ludacris song, “Get Back”, and the accompanying music video concern Ludacris becoming quickly enraged by one of his fans to a point where Ludacris considers killing the person. Lyrics (“Why you all in my ear?/Talkin’ a whole bunch of shit that I ain’t tryin’ to hear.”, “I ain’t playin’ around./Make one false move; I’ll take ya down.”) make no effort to hide the portrayal and glorification of violence.
Still, other songs take these messages to their most logical extremes. The current mainstream rapper, DeAndre “Soulja Boy” Way is a prime example of this. His first and most famous song, “Crank That”, was merely a song concerning how amazing he thought he was. Conceited as it was, the song did not encourage teens to go out and perform random acts of violence. As Soulja Boy grew in popularity, however, the messages in his songs began to change completely. For example, Soulja Boy’s recent song “Smoke Some” contains a chorus that repeats “Smoke some, nigga. Choke some, nigga. Smoke some, nigga. Gon’ roll some, nigga. I’m high as fuck.” It is undeniably a song blatantly instructing the listener to smoke marijuana. Other recent songs of his, such as the self explanatory “I Got Bitches”, are no exception to this new trend in rap.
In short, rap music and the lyrics that they contain are suffering harshly. A genre that once consisted of only harmless, self indulgent songs is now plagued with messages that portray violence, sex and drug abuse, and - given the popularity of most mainstream rappers - , these messages are being glorified and promoted to most children and teens today.
