Romantic or Degrading: The Thin Line

For this blog post I am going to break down two different songs that soulful romantic production paired with some equally romantic themes...and some extremely degrading and sexually objectifying ones. I am going to provide you all with a close reading of each and let you decide for yourselves, as I have no idea what category the songs can fall into.

"You should be the brand new love in my life, Rashid got you under his sight, but I'm not the husbanding type, I come around when your man ain't f*cking you right. When you fussing and fighting going through scary things"


Chicago underground legend MC and producer Rashid Hadee is widely known for his "old school" type sample based production paired with witty lyrics generally involving love and life in the lower income areas of Chicago. The song "Surrender"starts with the sound of a female vocalist singing "Oh when love is born it's so warm. I feel you there. Everbody is willing do surrender." From first glance this song sounds like it's going to be all about your typical love story. But it is not. Over this extremely romanticized beat Rashid essentially only raps about being mesmerized by this nameless females body. He fantasizes over and over about having sex with her, even after he mentions he has a girlfriend or "one he's with." Throughout the song Rashid just speaks about having sex with this girl while openly admitting she has a man, but claiming he will just have sex with her on the side when her man cannot do it right. Then the loaded quote posted above this blurb is said which is SO contradictory and not allowing me to draw any sort of conclusion from the purpose of this song. All that being I absolutely love this song, and think it's a very well done piece of hip hop.







"I used to get a threesome every other weekend, cheated on my girl until we nearly stopped speaking, she broke down and cried and it hurt so bad, her friends went and told her I was a brand new dad."


Okay, this one is going to be fun. I'm sure many of you are familiar with Staten Island's Ghostface Killah. A member of the Grammy winning collective the Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface has been known for his coined style of storytelling through hip hop depicting life in the ghettos of New York and stories of violence and drug dealing. However, Ghostface took a quick break from doing all of that in 2009 with "romantic" album Ghostdini Wizard of Poetry in the Emerald City. The track "Do Over" provides listeners with a extremely romantic beat accompanied by R&B singer Raheem DeVaugn singing about wanting another chance at love with some lost partner. Normal right? Yeah, until Ghostface picks the mic up. He begins the song stating that he used to get threesomes every other weekend while having a girl friend, but got off scot free. But then the inevitable happened and Ghostface got one of these girls (not his girlfriend pregnant). His girlfriend who was aware of all of the sexual activites Ghost was engaging in while they are dating then leaves him because apparently the stipulations of their open relationship was for him not to get one of the random women pregnant. I would say this is quite an outlandish songs in a number of ways but I think it depicts a very vital relationship in Hip-Hop. After giving the listener insight on the story of why things fell apart, he then spend the rest of the song lamenting on how sad his is about this girlfriend of his leaving him. I think this depicts the difference between love and sex in hip hop very well in a sort of abstract way.  Rappers who are involved in this hyper masculine art form, and thus are involved with hyper sexualized females all the time are maybe sometimes held to different standards and norms than others in society. I mean use Snoop Dogg's marriage as an example. Then in his last attempt at reconciliation he states that if he would if he "Would of took the chance to see what was placed right in front of my face, 9 out of 10 times my actions wouldn't have been so naive and blind to carry out these mistakes." Really Ghostface in your testament of love for this girl you cannot even promise that you won't do it again, but instead say you very likely won't do it. I appreciate the honesty, I guess. He then closes the song by wishing this now ex girlfriend the best of luck in life and love.




So tell me, what were your reactions to either or both of these songs?

Do you think they fit the cast of what could be considered a "love" song? Or do they contain too many questionable concepts and themes especially those with sexually objectifying and sexualized females?

I am sure there are a myriad of other examples containing similar themes and ideas, feel free to post them and discuss them.

Still(A)Live

I've been waiting to do this and rep the giant "SAVEMONEY" sticker on my computer.

This is a group of my good friends from Chicago who mostly rap and make beats. Then there are the outliers, like the artists and the promoters, which is technically me - but I surely am across the country.

A couple of the members, two of my good friends Kene and Joey, are really coming up in the "rap world" with their Chicago-pride/intellectual raps/Savemoney reppin' raps.

Lets start with one:

"Who You" by Kene...or, I mean, Kami De Chukwu.

Beat by my homie Diego and the art by my other brother, Nikko.

This is one of my favorites, as he starts off with the "Imma be real famous" quote. He comes in giving the right amount of pauses with the right amount of bars to draw you in...then BOOM! Shit gets fast. The slows back down to get you in the mood. 

The wordplay is amazing as well. It "could be too much to handle on a Dark Night [when] he's robbing   (Robin) like a black mask vandal (Batman)." 

He's definitely shedding light on yall. Then he speeds up, then closes out. I'm happy to see you paid attention to the climax pyramid in English class my brother.

Speaking of "light," that is the name of his tape that did damage to the blogs. Click here NOW. Get it.

While you wait...look down.

#Purple

No ASAP Mob, just listen ASAP. Your boy Leeks is a corny one. Still #Savemoney though. 

This is my boy Joey Purple, and this is his track: "BLVD" that I enjoy so much

The smooth smooth smooth beat from my brother Katrae (III Beats) and Joey coming straight out demanding respect for our brotherhood. Two times. 

This track is super purple though, the chopped and screwed effect is there, but the bars are fast. I love how we as a group can take this trippy-element to a new playing ground.

Let's talk about this album cover for a minute. First off in the bottom right corner is sort of our "crest" as an organization. This is what i looks like blown up: (right) and the font he uses with the famous Danish "ø" What does that make you think of?

Something else to think about: he brings up a great point within the song about how "we growin up in a city (Chicago) with the criminal fame where the most trill n*ggas never been in no gang." WHAT?! But his music is so good!

Oh, click this and listen.

Barriers broken here. #Savemoney really revolutionizing. And you really don't hear any violence within either of the songs. But you can't stop listening. Times are changing and Savemoney [is] Still(A)live. 

Proof:

 The duo, killin shit. Peep.

Again, here are the links to both of their respective tapes. I hope you enjoyed. Hit stains, no gangs, and #Savemoney.

Chukwu: https://soundcloud.com/kami-de-chukwu/sets/light

Purple: http://www.chicagonow.com/chi-towns-finest/2012/08/mixtape-joey-purple-the-purple-tape/

Mouse Trap: Lil Mouse

  Although I am sure everyone is now tired of me riffing about Chicago, I have another feature on the city for you.  This one is my most shocking, yet.  I'm sure it stunned some of you to hear about the things that Chief Keef was up to at the age of 16 and now 17, but this artist is even younger.  For some of you, this will be old news as many internet memes have spawned from what is sure to be the most unbelievable artist to ever emerge from Chicago.
   Hailing from what is known as the "Wild Hundreds", Lil Mouse is a thirteen year old boy who raps about sex, drugs, and violence.  All issues that plague Chicago's South and West side, particularly the neighborhood that Lil Mouse comes from.  His music raises quite a few questions.  First of all, how is someone so young talking about these things? Where are the parents?  Absent, supportive?  Similar to Keef, is his art a product of his environment or is the artist to blame for such a perpetuation of bad themes?
  He has now gone on to have Lil Wayne featured on his hit single "Get Smoked".  I don't want to give to much away about Lil Mouse because the video is very telling, but I think there is discussion to be had about him.  Chicago is receding out of the spotlight and it clearly takes the shock of a 13 year old to bring it's limelight spot back.  Can it really be take any further than this, though?

Chicago Hates You

   A few nights ago, I was invited to go to a hip hop concert.  It was my good friend's younger brothers birthday gift, so I got a free ticket.  I was excited about the show, but was pretty much indifferent to how the result would be as I know most of these events are rather anti-climatic.  However, I took it as an opportunity to do some field research for class. The headlining artists were Curren$y and Big K.R.I.T, two artists that I think are fine but by no means would I go out of my way to see.

  It was a relentlessly cold night in Chicago, and the show was set at Congress theatre, a once great but now deteriorating concert hall that looks like something out of the abandoned Detroit metropolis.  Once inside, I realized the crowd wasn't quite what I expected.  I expected to see alot of scenester white kids, which there were, but the majority of the crowd was actually hispanic and black.
  The hottest DJs in Chicago were up on stage, playing all the current Chicago staples for everyone to listen to, Chief Keef, King Louie, and so on.  In typical rap concert fashion, the doors opened at 7pm, and you had to face an endless army of upcoming artists before a hint of the headliner even emerged around 1am.  (We ended up leaving frustrated after 5 hrs of openers w/o having seen the main acts).
  The most interesting part of the night was the first act, however.  It was a female MC who had charisma and was by herself.  She was the only artist to perform alone on stage that night.  She came onto the stage and asked who likes Young Chop, the hottest producer in Chicago at the moment.  The crowd was still disinterested.  Chop's "I Don't Like" beat began to blare and she started to do her own verse on top of it.  She had the chops for it, but the crowd was clearly unimpressed.  They threw up middle fingers, yeled 'boo!', and other mean things.  They yelled "bring a skinny girl out!".  It was too much for her and she left after just three tracks.  I felt bad for her because it took guts to try and rap over the hottest beat, especially as an overweight, female, and asian MC.  She wasn't the only one to get hate that night, however.  Basically every act that night was booed and flicked off as people were restless to see the opener.  Even Young Chop's new group, 8tmg, received no love from the crowd.  Chicago truly hates everyone, even it's own stars.  After about 15 spinoff acts of Chief Keef, we had had enough.  But the last opener we saw got interesting.  After being booed and hated on, an MC by the name of Paperboy confronted the crowd.  "All you hatin' ass white boys get to the front so I can beat your ass, this is Chicago! Your own talent! The F*** is this!?!".  After their set, they accompanied security into the crowd to harass a particular white boy who had flicked off everyone, accusing him of being a racist amongst other things.

We were bored with the antics, so we left.  But it was quite the experience and I learned that Chicago does truly hate everyone, even it's own..

Can You Be Too Real?

Chief Keef, where do I even start?  The young sensation who has Chicago in the spotlight, but for all the wrong reasons.  I first heard of Keef on a Chicago hip hop blog that I frequent called Fake Shore Drive.  To be honest, I was hyped on him immediately.  I loved his producer's beats, and I thought his songs were fun to play at parties. The sense of youthful camaraderie amongst friends is clear in his hit single "I Don't Like". His first mixtape "Back From the Dead" was released at the age of 16 just after he had finished a sentence for allegedly firing a gun at a police officer.
         This leads me to my next point being that Chief Keef is from the most dangerous city in the U.S., Chicago.  If you don't believe me, look for yourself , http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/ .  There is basically a genocide occurring in the South side of Chicago and it doesn't seem like it is getting any attention.  However, Keef uses this as a backdrop for his music.  His lyrics speak of firefights, robbing on sight, shooting at strangers, and all sorts of crime.  One of his mantras of gang affiliation, 'OTF', stands for "Only The Family", so if you aren't a part of his family, you are a likely target for him.  The theme of all of him and his friend's(Glory Boy Ent.) music is mainly that of isolation and not trusting anyone outside of the "family".  It is understandable that he has an attitude like this because of the environment he was raised in, but perpetuating the violence further is clearly not working.  On his way up, everything was going so well for him.  His Twitter account showed pictures of money stacks too big to count, fancy cars, clothes for his newborn daughter,  and him living the life with his friends. Kanye even remixed his hit track to catapult him into the spotlight. Until an incident recently, no one had really taken any opposition to him.  After the killing of Lil JoJo, a fellow Chicago rapper who was an enemy of Keef and his Glory Boy Entertainment posse, Keef responded by laughing on Twitter....absolutely terrible.  Further investigations are being held as Keef and his friends are going to be possibly held responsible, http://www.suntimes.com/14964520-761/lil-jojo-murdered-in-chicago-police-now-looking-at-chief-keefs-tweets-source-says.html .  Lupe Fiasco took a stance against him and then Keef said he'd kill him, too.  Clearly Keef doesn't have a very good PR agent to filter his responses, so the real him surfaces, and it isn't pretty.  He actually is living the life he speaks of in his songs, so the authenticity of his lyrics can be really relatable for some people, but at the same time, he is cashing in at the expense of the whole community.  It is his art, and it is great to see a young kid come from nothing to something, but just not like this..

Also, notice, there are no women in the video.  I haven't seen any of his videos that have women in them although he speaks of them in his songs frequently. Like we discussed in class, is his environment a place he deems unsuitable for girls?

It is also interesting to note that Chief Keef has a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome.  People credit his lyrical delivery as one that is cold and removed, but it may stem from his condition rather than what he has weathered on the streets..