Joe is the center of the universe. In the beginning of the play he has everything and everyone but he does not like himself. He describes himself as an empty shell, “nothing left to kill,” (Millennium Approaches 46). Although he may be Mr. Popular, Joe is not happy with his life. As the play continues, Joe eventually loses his mother, Harper and Luis. He is alone; he has no job opportunity in Washington because Roy has died. But Joe is happy. Joe has finally faced unlocked that “hidden thing” and he has embraced it. Joe’s secret exists no more, and he gains that confidence and sureness that he was missing. Although Joe loses everyone else, he finds himself. And as we know, Joe’s happiness comes from how he sees himself. How can someone expect another to love them if they do not love themselves? Joe demonstrates progression in that he finally learns to love
Firstly, McBride claims that rappers use violent lyrics as a vehicle to bring about awareness and thus promote social change through use of violence. In a section of the essay, he talks about how rappers have made hip-hop go from something you would hear at a party to something you would hear in a local news report because rappers use violent lyrics in order to talk about the issue in their society and how these issues must be acted upon now so that it can
Joe is a caring person who loves simon and wants to be there for him. In the movie at a ball game Simon was up to bat and Joe was the only one cheering him on. Joe still loves simon even though Simon killed his mother. When Joe found out who his father was he didn’t want to believe it was the preacher. The preacher had treated Simon so badly. Joe said he found his real father which was Ben Joe’s moms boyfriend.
In Chapter Five of the novel, Janie describes Joe’s impact on the people of the town of Eatonville and his unique dominance qualities: “There was something about Joe Starks that cowed the town. It was not because of physical fear. He was no fist fighter. His bulk was not even imposing as men go. Neither was it because he was more literate than the rest. Something else made men give way before him. He had a bow-down command in his face, and every step he took made the thing more tangible” (47). Joe Starks is the husband of Janie and the proud mayor of Eatonville, the first self-governing all-black town. Starks is a control freak and incredibly stubborn when it comes to considering other opinions against his own.
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
Nobody can argue that the attack on Joe’s mother marked him for life, it branded him for eternity! This built in him an incontrollable rage! He needed to quench the burning desire inside him. He needed to satisfy his thirst for vengeance! Therefore he set out to hunt down the perpetrator to bring him to “justice”, even if it was by his own hands. It would only be fair to seek out revenge! It was not going to be any other way! Joe wanted an eye for an eye and he was determined to get it!
He is so popular and listened to he uses his musical creations to tell people what he thinks and speak for minority groups. A large group that Kendrick is heavily involved in is the Black Lives Matter Movement. What this group is attempting to do is to stop oppression on blacks and to be treated that of any other citizen in this country. It was started after a chain of killings of unarmed blacks across the country. Kendrick agrees that this needs to be resolved and wants to be apart of this history of the United States. He wants this to stop as life is a precious thing and shouldn 't be taken away from people. Another factor that always goes into his music is that he grew up in one of the most violent cities in America affiliated with thousands of brutal gangs. For example, one time his friend was shot in a parking lot and when he was being taken away his friends grandma came over to Kendrick and said something that saved his life. She told him to be one with god and stop the violence. His father was also in an extremely violent gang that was located within his area. This also affected his music as this was a big part of his childhood with his dad being in a bad scene. Another one of Lamar’s influences of his music is religion. This religious part means his music will always have a good message and rarely includes references to drugs and alcohol. You can find all of these examples in most of his
Hip-hop is an influential form of music that displays an artist’s honest and revealing story that many of the general public can relate to. One of the many songs that I can relate to is “Love Yourz” written by J Cole. The song talks about how Cole reflects on the most important things in life such as love and happiness. He realizes that the money and fame didn’t bring him the happiness he desired. To gain true happiness, he needed to appreciate himself and those that love him. Finally, Cole talks about how he’s going to make something out of himself even though he grew up living a struggling lifestyle. “Love Yourz” is one of the songs I can relate to because the lyrics show that no matter how messed up your life is, you should learn to love the life you have. “Love Yourz” made me realize that there will always be someone there to support my decisions and accept the person I am, and who I am to become Even though I cannot relate to having the status of a successful rapper, it is important to reflect on the ideas that J Cole emphasizes on.
They are thought to be gangsters, drug dealers, thugs or using women for only their bodies as if they were only an object. This stereotype had originally started in the 1990’s with Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur who had been looked upon as this stereotype on many different platforms of media. In actuality, they were struggling because of economic inequality. Their music was often viewed as a menace to the lyrical art industry causing others to be as rebellious as them, leading to generations of many trying to be viewed as a “typical rapper”. Drake does admire their music and idolizes them, but he does not feel the need become another copy. Drake does not try to pursue a false image of himself being a “typical rapper”. Aubrey has recently talked about his feeling towards many young musicians creating a false persona of themselves for them to be viewed as “untouchable” or “powerful”. In the song “Two Birds, One Stone”, drake tells rappers to stop trying to be or become something they are not. “Still they try and tell you I'm not the realest, like I'm some privileged kid, that never sat through a prison visit, or like it was just handed to me tied with a ribbon, I never worked to get it, but really it's you with all the drug dealer stories, that's gotta stop, though” the wise Aubrey says on a track from his upcoming album “More Life”. He is tried of many trying to become superior by lying that they have experienced a life on the streets becoming drug dealers only to live financially. Many do this so they can be looked at as wise and to be respected. Aubrey believes that by lying about where you are from to be more respected is foolish. The 30-year-old shamelessly flaunts the greater Toronto area as his home. The lyrical genius refers to this area as “the 6” or “6ix side” which refers to Toronto's area code which is 416 and 647. Drake
Rap music has always been an intriguing topic in society. It was created in the 1970s and continues through the present. There have been drastic changes since the commercial success for the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rappers Delight” in 1979. The way rappers convey the message is completely different
All of Joe Rantz life, he was constantly let down by those around him, especially his own family. However, he never let his feelings be revealed due to his desire to keep his reputation for being masculine alive. Because of this, many people including his own girlfriend, Joyce Sindars viewed him as this impassive and impenetrable person: “ ‘I just don’t understand why you don’t get angry Joe’... ‘It takes energy to get angry … When they left, it took everything I had in me just to survive. Now I have to stay focused. I’ve just gotta take care of it myself.’”(134). Joe feels as though evoking of feelings of anger, would only do more damage than good. He does not want to be hurt more, so his best option was to keep this all inside: “Joe realized, he answered hesitantly, cautiously, unused to unveiling himself”(219). Joe Rantz has never allowed himself to fully expose who he is to people. He fears that if he does people would be able to capitalize on it. The fear of having your vulnerabilities capitalized on stems from people, especially Joe’s coach exploiting every hint of weakness he could find. Along with hating the idea of being taken advantage of, he also believes he will be seen as inferior by those around him. Men who commonly expressed their emotion were looked down upon for being more feminine than masculine. While showing no real vulnerabilities, one must also be mentally and
One of the major differences between the two is the act of aggression versus patience. Natives are traditionally more patient, while the non-native trait is aggression. Joe shows both of these traits during the novel. When Joe’s mother is attacked by a white man, Joe finally makes the decision to kill the attacker for justice. He is impatient when his parents don’t allow him to pursue the attacker, and eventually acts out in violence when Joe and his father see him in public. After his dad attacks first, Joe then says that “Lark flailed, unable to get a similar grip on my father. I was on him too, now, with the cans of Rotel tomatoes.” (Erdrich 244) After the attack, Joe then says that “A pure black joy in seeing his blood filled me.” (Erdrich 244) These values are very non-native, when lashing out in violence like that. After this attack, Joe then kills the attacker with the help of his friend Cappy. This could fall under the category of taking, rather than giving, which was a non-native value. Joe took the life of a man, rightfully doing so for justice for his mother. Joe also shows great patience throughout the novel with his mother. After she is attacked, she becomes almost mute and acts very weak and different. Joe was always patient and kind with her, because he knew how traumatized she was from the attack. The balance of patience and aggression are shown how Joe has
I think it is cool how biggie is able to look on the brighter side, and express himself through rap. Most people in his situation wouldn’t even think of making music and sending it to
Lastly, rap music should not be stereotyped as meaningless noise that has no purpose other than for something that drug addicts and gangsters can vibe with. Mainstream rap has been known for its simplistic couplets that glorify drugs, violence, and sex with multiple women. These lyrics are so simple that a kindergartener can write them. Unfortunately for rap as a whole, this became the characteristics that people first think of when they think of rap. But not all rappers make simple music. Rappers such as Jermaine Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and many more construct lyrical masterpieces along with morals, lessons, and messages for their listeners to reflect on. Unlike most songs currently out right now, these rappers display a variety of
He got himself a top of the line soundboard and microphones and speakers and everything you could think of he has it. Joe 's friends skeptic is a rapper and has a band so the come up to joe 's house to record songs and to get help editing the audio and music videos. Their band is called HI-grade productions and JOe is the manger he puts everything out there on the market like their cds and albums, “All of HI-grade productions belongs to me and skeptic.” said Joe. Joseph Sado is the hard working music producer of the local band HI-grade