When people think of hip hop, story telling is usually one
of the first characteristics to come to their mind. Story telling is extremely
common and is one of the aspects of hip hop that makes the genre different from
others. In the early days of hip hop, you had artists that would release tons
of songs that would use story telling to promote a certain message. The message
could be a simple message like “Damn, life is hard in the ghetto” or a much
more complex message like “materialism in the ghetto was a problem that led to
an increase of crime in America”. One example that demonstrates the latter is
Boogie Down Productions “Love’s Gonna Getcha (Material Love)”. In this song,
KRS-One embodies the “wise father of hip-hop” personality and begins to tell a
story about how life was difficult for him and his family because his mother
couldn’t make enough money to afford all the luxuries that he and his siblings
wanted. He later begins to take actions into his own hands and starts selling
drugs with his friend Rob which quickly spirals into gang shootings and watching
his friend Rob die on the streets. KRS-One ends the song with him saying “when
you fall in love with materials and you start scheming and carrying on for it,
just remember, it's gonna get'cha”.
Although east coast rappers like
KRS-One, Mos Def and Talib Kweli used story telling to promote a positive
message, other rappers from the west coast such as Eazy-E and Ice Cube used
story telling to show their life in the California ghettoes. The most
recognizable song is Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day”. This song is used by Ice
Cube to showcase the events that happened that made his day enjoyable like him
getting a triple double in basketball and not having the police harass him at a
red light. Although these are simple things, they play a major role in
depicting the gangster rap lifestyle of the 90’s in the West Coast. Another
song that does a great job in depicting the gangster rap lifestyle is the song “No more questions” by Eazy-E. The song paints the scene of an interview between
Eazy-E and a female interviewer. In the interview, he tells the interviewer how
he breaks into houses and sells drugs in his spare time. He also talks about
how he’s never slipping and maintains a gangster persona all the time.
The story telling that occurs in
the west coast is most relevant to the story telling that happens in present
day hip hop. Popular present day rap artists mainly use story telling to create
music that enforces their gangster persona or endorses smoking, drinking or
partying. Good examples would be Wiz Khalifa in songs like “Medicated” and “The Plan” as well as Mac Miller in songs like “Lucky ass bitch”.
I totally agree with you that story telling from the west coast is relevant to today's! "Lucky ass bitch" is extremely related to smoking and partying lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteI think every song has some kind of story behind it, whether it be a story about their life or a story about partying and having fun. Their songs all come from experiences they have been through in their lives.
ReplyDeleteWiz Khalifa does express a lot of stories in his song, and it was a good point that old West Coast rap is relevant to contemporary hip hop today. Partying, drinking, and doing drugs is a common theme in hip hop at both times.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the examples you used to further support your statement about rap and it's use of story telling. I like how you used an example from the East Coast, and then one of the West Coast.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the examples you gave of the early hip hop story tellers like Ice Cube and Eazy-E and what they rapped about. I also liked how you gave some more current examples of rappers who are telling stories like Wiz and Mac Miller.
ReplyDeleteI love the song choice of "It Was a Good Day", just because it really does show a story behind it. Although I do not like the west coast style as much as the east coast, they do have a better story behind the song
ReplyDeleteI like your choice in using "No More Questions" by Eazy-E. It is clearly a setup for a story, a dark story, complete with characters and all. Eazy-E himself narrates his dangerous and explicit lifestyle, exemplifying storytelling in hip-hop.
ReplyDeleteUsing examples from both the east and the west coast does a good job showing how storytelling in hip-hop is universal in a sense. Also, good job in going into detail with the two songs "It Was a Good Day" and "No More Questions." It helped show the deeper side of the aspect of storytelling through rap.
ReplyDeleteExplaining the variations of storytelling by using East Coast and West Coast rap as examples was great. I also liked how you detailed songs that had more meaning in them.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that rappers today tell stories that more closely match those of old west coast rappers. However rappers today have more power in my opinion since hip hop has become a popular genre for everyone so if they did choose to tell a more positive story or send a more positive message I think they would have more of an impact today than the older east coast rappers had.
ReplyDeleteGreat examples! Krs-1 always kills the track and that first song basically disses all the rappers nowadays that are obsessed with material things. Ice cube and NWA are great examples because they were the first graphic lyricists to speak about the really hard times in the streets. "Good Day" is an awesome example of rap that can talk about the small positive things that can change your day. Makes you realize it's the small things that matte
ReplyDeleteStory telling is a huge part of making top hits. I like how you used the example "Today was a good day," by Ice Cube because it is a song in which you can feel what he's going through when he raps. Lyric influences have become more popular over the years and its not about beats anymore.
ReplyDeleteI believe that when an artist portrays a story through their music, they really have to utilize their lyrical talent. I think that "Love's gonna getcha" was an excellent example of what I mean. A song with a story just makes it that much more interesting to listen to
ReplyDeleteI liked some of the older songs you used, especially "It Was a Good Day" by Ice Cube. However, I definitely think you could've given better and more diverse examples of storytelling in modern day hip-hop. For example, I think it would've been more fitting to use a Macklemore or Lupe Fiasco song which can really paint a picture in your head, rather than talking about some "Lucky Ass Bitch."
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