I am exploring themes found in rap music concerning the role of youth in gang violence, institionalized violences and poverty, and the virtual imprisonment of youth forced to live and operate in such milieus. I am especially focusing on rap music emerging out of or commenting on life in New York City.
One of the artists I am strongly considering to focus on is Immortal Technique, and his albums Revolutionary Vols. 1 $ 2. His lyrics focus on the situation of youth operating in violent, destitute settings, ignorant of the reality of their conditions. But, Immortal Technique also explicitly accuses the government, corporate America, and an imagined 'New World Order' in maintaining these violent conditions and perverted psychologies for their own benefit.
Other than this, I am looking to older hip-hop / rap songs, which seem to launch social critiques or at least relate the impossibility of modern living more so than modern rap genres. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.
Hey! Here are some themes that I was thinking about. We don’t have to use any of them in our presentation. I just wanted to get some ideas out there so we can figure things out. For better or worse, here’s what came to mind (I’ll post more if I think of more):
• Selfhood (alternative for identity)
• Status
• The different ways people who were affected by war as children later deal with/approach those experiences
• The impulse to communicate their story/experiences to others—what that means for them and for others, the different ways to do that
• Authorship--whether the author has experienced the story or not (fact vs. fiction vs. somewhere in between), whether embellishments have been made, the methods used to communicate the story/message
• Response—what literature about children in armed conflict is calling us to do, what it is trying to accomplish, what is the reader’s role (eg. to listen, to be shocked, to take action, how does it want us to perceive the words, who are the words targeting
2 comments:
I am exploring themes found in rap music concerning the role of youth in gang violence, institionalized violences and poverty, and the virtual imprisonment of youth forced to live and operate in such milieus. I am especially focusing on rap music emerging out of or commenting on life in New York City.
One of the artists I am strongly considering to focus on is Immortal Technique, and his albums Revolutionary Vols. 1 $ 2. His lyrics focus on the situation of youth operating in violent, destitute settings, ignorant of the reality of their conditions. But, Immortal Technique also explicitly accuses the government, corporate America, and an imagined 'New World Order' in maintaining these violent conditions and perverted psychologies for their own benefit.
Other than this, I am looking to older hip-hop / rap songs, which seem to launch social critiques or at least relate the impossibility of modern living more so than modern rap genres. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.
Hey! Here are some themes that I was thinking about. We don’t have to use any of them in our presentation. I just wanted to get some ideas out there so we can figure things out. For better or worse, here’s what came to mind (I’ll post more if I think of more):
• Selfhood (alternative for identity)
• Status
• The different ways people who were affected by war as children later deal with/approach those experiences
• The impulse to communicate their story/experiences to others—what that means for them and for others, the different ways to do that
• Authorship--whether the author has experienced the story or not (fact vs. fiction vs. somewhere in between), whether embellishments have been made, the methods used to communicate the story/message
• Response—what literature about children in armed conflict is calling us to do, what it is trying to accomplish, what is the reader’s role (eg. to listen, to be shocked, to take action, how does it want us to perceive the words, who are the words targeting
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