Diana Ross: A Successful Black Icon Analysis

In the book Assata: An Autobiography written by Assata Shakur, she writes about her experiences growing up during the civil rights movement era. Going back and forth in each chapter she describes her childhood growing up with her mother and grandparents and her life when she is older going through the judicial system after being indicted. Through her narrative we are able to get her evaluation on race, class, and gender during the Black Freedom Struggle and how she approached these issues.

Royalty cant buy you loyalty, tell me if I lose everything would you be over me? Hip-Hop, according to Dictionary.com is defined “The popular subculture of big-city teenagers, which includes rap music, break dancing and graffity art. Kodak Black, Kevin Gates and Lil Uzi Vert greatly contributes to this genre.

In her essay “hip hop’s betrayal of black women,” Jennifer McLune implies that “(h)ip-hop owes its success to the ideology of women-hating” (193). She does not agree with Kevin Powell’s article that hip-hop does not mean to “offend” black women, but instead artists are only letting out their temper throughout their music. McLune feels infuriated that many artists in hip hop (including black men) rap about their community and downgrade their own women. In the hip-hop genre, sexism is mainly used, not only by black men but also by many other race hip-hop artists. Artists assume that women-hating in their rap songs will be accepted by women, but do not realize that it is affecting all women. Some lyrics focus on success and making money. Nevertheless,

True Self Lorna Simpson was born in Brooklyn, New York in the 1960s. She studied and graduated from the University of San Diego and the school of visual arts in New York. Simpson creates images that make the audience view the important stereotypes of black women in a new and improved way. Lorna presents us with provocative and life-changing images because she sees black female identity as an overlooked culture. In her images, she expresses her thoughts on the representation that black woman has in our culture she also points out that because of our society black women aren 't able to embrace themselves as who they are because they are influenced by other cultures.

In Tupac and My Non- Thug Life Jenée Desmond writes a vividly narrated story about a well-known rapper Tupac Shukar and how she relates her image and identity connection with the former rapper. Raised in the white suburb town and the only black high school cheerleader Tupac 's music and lyrics helped her get through her interracial blend as an African American teen. Jenée expresses her emotions toward her former icon as a teen girl. In the contribution to his death, Jenée Recalls vivid descriptions of her obsession with her image through her teen-hood, when his passing accrued Jenée recollects her past and explains her vivid descriptions when he passed away. She described the moment of his death a tragic moment. In the article, Jenée mentions “ his music represented a part of me that was forced and privileged to confront what it meant to be black” even though she never met him his movements as an African, lyricist and rapper made an impact in her life. She mourned over his death with her friend Thea, another African

In “Tupac and My Non-Thug Life” by Jenee Desmond-Harris, the author writes about how the death of a famous rapper impacted her life. The author first talks about how the day she found out Tupac had passed affected her. The authors mind was thinking about things like her dance routines and exercise techniques. However, after coming home for the day the utterance or the words: “Your friend died” “You know that rapper you and Thea love so much!” from her mother made the whole day change and feelings of remorse and sadness follows. (42) The author gives a feeling of sorrow and remorse as she writes about the weekend after this terrible revelation. The author and her friend Thea cope with the tragic event by using pics of tattoos on Tupac and copy

“I Will Always Love You”, as Sang By Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston “If I should stay, I would only be in your way…” Anyone today could probably finish the rest of this song after hearing these lyrics. “I Will Always Love You” is one of the most iconic songs of the 21 Century. This song is widely covered by professional artists and cover singers up to today. When two identical lyrics are sung by two different singers, these are not identical lyrics anymore.

Having Barry as the leader of Motown he was able to break down many barriers with racial and social issues. His music made a connection for the ears of during the time when racism was at an all time high.

The white community has become some of the biggest fans and supporter of black rappers. We can take into account the success of Ms. Nicki Minaj herself. She is a platinum selling artist who has a diverse fan base selling out shows around the world. Nicki Minaj has let her talent build an empire for her. When watching clips from her shows on TV we see both white and black women standing side by side single along as Nicki Minaj

sharpest young critics, believes that male rapper uses violence as a symbol to express macho power, as a way to resolve all the disagreements between blacks and as necessary for individual protection. Due its popularity, hip hop exacerbates the criminal image of black men in a criminal justice system that has an overpopulation of black men in the prison system. Sorrowfully, many believe that this is the direct product of overly increasing black male criminality as opposed of blaming the social structure.

She went on to act in two more movies “Mahogany” and “The Wiz”. The Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history in 1993. This was due to the fact that she had more hits than any other female artists on the charts – 70 hit singles while she was a part of The Supremes. As a solo artist she has sold over 100 million records all over the globe.

The song Dear Mama by Tupac Shakur relates to the ongoing struggle and hardships that numerous lower class single mothers endure, where Shakur describes how he learned to appreciate his mother and the sacrifices that she made for him as he became older. By formatting the lyrics with verses around a repeating chorus, Shakur was able to emphasize his personal narrative within the verses and allow for a recollection period between each verse to allow listeners to reflect on and comprehend what they just experienced. The form of Dear Mama is consistently strophic, where at the end of each verse Shakur repeats the emblematic phrase, “There's no way I can pay you back, but the plan is to show you that I understand, you are appreciated.” Appealingly,

Drugs are one of the biggest sources of income for those connected to cartels and other large-scale operations. These 10 richest drug dealers of all time made unbelievable amounts of money throughout the course of their lifetimes. Some of these stories are beyond unbelievable, so you better sit down before you read this. Now presenting: the 10 richest drug dealers of all time.

“Beauty is not defined by your physical features, it is defined by the heart inside your chest and the love that flows through it.”- Imania Margia. This meaningful quote written by Imania Margia explains the true significance and message shown through both the short story “Barbie” written by Gary Soto and “Pretty Hurts” sang by Beyonce. The short story “Barbie” written by Gary Soto presents a young girl named Veronica who learned from a young age, that in order to be pretty, you must fit standards and stereotypes- Barbie stereotypes. However, when she gets a new Barbie the following Christmas and ends up destroying it, she learns to accept both Barbie dolls. In “Pretty Hurts” sang by Beyonce, the speaker was taught from a young age to care about appearances. Throughout the story the speaker struggles with herself, and she thinks she is not good enough. In the end she comes to realization, and shes says she is finally happy with herself. Between these two sources, the theme; ‘Everybody needs to learn that you are beautiful in your own way, and don’t need to live up to beauty standards’ is shown between the dynamic character of the speaker in “Pretty Hurts” and the motif/symbol of the two Barbies in “Barbie”.

The Impact of Hip-Hop Ever since its birth in the 1970s in West Bronx, Hip Hop has been known as “Gangsta” music and most commonly associated with black culture. Since its creation it has become a fast growing genre of music and has growing fame all over the world. The popularity of it has increased to all races, age and gender. However the growing popularity of hip hop has come with several controversies among scholars. Some scholars argue that the growing popularity of the genre is very helpful to low income families who can use this as their outlet into going to Universities, on the other side some believe associating the genre to black culture is bad for the culture as a whole and they should not be associated together.