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The song “big momma thang” by Lil Kim made female rap turn in different aspects. Lil Kim expressed this sexual aggression in “big momma thang” as a preference to get people to listen and understand her music. She became the first female in hip-hop to flip the script on a subject that was only touched upon men. With lines like  “I used to be scared of the dick / now I throw lips to the shit / handle it like a real bitch” as an opener for her song, made her earn the title as Queen B. Around this time, she was known as fully loaded sex superstar female rapper who change the game in hip-hop. The opening of the song was a reference/sampled by Notorious B.I.G verse when he raps “I used to get feels on a bitch now I throw shields on the dick to stop me from that HIV shit.” Her flow was still self-assured, and aggressive but, over time, she did what few female rappers did – she expressed her aggression towards sex which her fans loved. In the song, it talks about a female employing her sexual engagements with others – which no female ever did. Verses like “Can't tell by the diamonds in my rings that's how many times I wanna cum, twenty-one, and another one, and another one, and another one,” express how she wanted to get pleased in bed. Not to mention, Kim flexes this sexual power and demonstrates her aggressive flow in other songs and photos.  Photo shoots of Lil Kim where she dressed in a leopard-print bikini with a matching robe made it clear Lil Kim was UP and not stopping. She made it known that she is here to introduce people to her inimitable universe. In addition, her sexual aggression in hip-hop had open many conversations in hip hop for woman. also, in today's society, she influenced a lot of female rappers/artists such as   – Nicki Minaj, cardi b, Dej loaf, etc.

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Any song about the passing of one’s father no matter what the relationship was like is nostalgic. Atmosphere does a good job by keeping the listeners wondering who exactly he is referring to until the very last verse of this nostalgic song. “ I thought I saw you yesterday But I didn’t stop, ‘cause you was walking the opposite way I guess I could have shouted out your name But even if it was you, I don’t what I would say We can sit and reminisce about the old school Maye share a cigarette because we both fools.” The indication could have been a past lover, a messed up relationship with his best friend. The song was actually detailing the father. Towards the end we see an apology from Atmosphere for doing what he had done. “ I’m sorry its official I was fistful, I didn’t keep it simple Chip on the shoulder, anger in my veins Had so much hatred now it brings me shame Never thought about the world without you And I promise that I’ll never say another bad word about you I thought I saw you yesterday But I know it wasn’t you ‘cause you passed away. Dad” Atmosphere feels a fool for the relationship he let him and his father had, and he’d do anything to change the past if he could.

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In Chanel, Frank Ocean perfectly describes his gender and sexuality. For those who don't know Frank Ocean is bisexual. He starts off the song by saying "My guy pretty like a girl", showing that his lover is attractive just like a female. He then continues on to say "I see both sides like Chanel, see (C) on both sides like Chanel". This line itself has a double meaning. It is said that the owner of Chanel clothing, Coco Chanel was also a bisexual, which explain's Frank's line when he says "I see both sides like Chanel". The second meaning makes more sense after reading the first one, "see (c) on both sides like Chanel" which Frank uses the Chanel logo, which literally has two of the letter "C" interlocking each other and facing in two directions,  as a way to describe being a bisexual. Another line Frank uses to demonstrate his bisexuality is when he says "In the pink like Killa Cam". He uses Cam'ron as a metaphor to explain that although he is attracted to men, he's also equally as attracted to women. In this song, Frank Ocean clearly embraces and accepts being a bisexual man.

Submitted by: Joseph Figueroa

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The song "If I were a boy" by Beyonce talks about how their are double standards between men and woman. If she was a boy  she wouldn't be judged for doing the things that men do. In the song she states "Drink beer with the guys
And chase after girls", if a girl was to go out to the club and have drinks and chase after men they would be considered a hoe. This song shows that men takes advantage of woman because they have more "power". Also it portrays that men have lack of respect of women trying to do things in life.The song is basically considered as a stereotype song referring to men and women.

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This song details 50’s vision of having a price tag on his head and his near death experiences that he had been in back in 2000. 50 was shot 9 times. He describes the danger life he was living at the moment and all the pain he felt when he was shot. In his intro he say “Many men wish death upon me, Blood in my eye, dawg, and I can't see, I'm tryin' to be what I'm destined to be, And niggas tryin' to take my life away, I put a hole in nigga for fuckin' with me, My back on the wall, now you gon' see, Better watch how you talk when you talk about me, Cause I'll come and take your life away, Many men, many, many, many, many men, Wish death 'pon me, Lord, I don't cry no more,Don't look to the sky no more,

Have mercy on me”.
By reading these lyrics one can already tell that this a nostalgic song. In his second verse, he said some deep things like “Sunny days wouldn't be special if it wasn't for rain, Joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for pain, Death gotta be easy, ‘cause life is hard, It'll leave you physically, mentally and emotionally scarred, This is for my niggas on the block twistin' trees in cigars, For the niggas on lock doin' life behind bars, I don't say "Only God can judge me," ‘cause I see things clear, Crooked-ass crackers will give my black-ass a hundred years, I'm like Paulie in Goodfellas, you can call me the Don, Like Malcolm by any means with my gun in my palm, Slim switched sides on me, let niggas ride on me, I thought we was cool, why you want me to die, homie?”

In addition, the beat melodies are sad, the percussions are heavy and the overall temp is slow, and the extra effects and background voices are sequenced wonderfully and it’s pleasing because it sets the mood to the whole song.

Weselando Merceus

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Although the title of this masterpiece is known as “Juicy” the artist portrays Nostalgia while comparing his past struggles to his current success where he has all of what he's always wanted. A great example of this is when in the first verse he speaks on his past as a child growing up. This nostalgic moment could be heard in the lines of ” Hanging pictures on my wall. Every saturday rap attack, Mr. Magic, Marley mal.” Another focus of the passed that resembles nostalgia in comparison to the present is when Biggie says “ Birthdays were the worst days, Now we sip champagne when were thirty”

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10.The Notorious B.I.G - Juicy (Original) From Album [Ready To Die]

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Song: "The Point of No Return," Geto Boys, 1996

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Song: "The Point of No Return," Geto Boys, 1996

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The song “The Point of No Return” by Geto Boys embraces the theme of community and activism. The song discussed drug trafficking, police brutality, and how the government and capitalism greatly affects poor communities and the people who live in them. An example of the song talking about police brutality is when Scarface says,

“You got out of line they hit your ass with the gat

Let you die where you lay and left your ass for the rats”.

Also discussed in the song is the assassination of activists like Martin Luther King

Fred Hampton, and Malcolm X.

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De La Soul’s song “Eye Know” shows multiple ways of the theme love by the men talking about what they would/will do for a woman they care for. In the song, POS talks about the girl leaving other men for him, but this is because he has left other women her already. The song also talks about how love is more important than sex through Dove and then goes into POS talking about how he shows his affection to this woman, who he supposedly loves, with gifts and letters.

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3 Feet High and Rising is the debut album from the American hip hop trio De La Soul, which was released in 1989.

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Keisha Cardona

Macklemore feat. Kesha – Good Old Days

This amazing song carries a nostalgic theme all throughout the end. The songs describe how one day we will look back to our young days wishing we were young again. Macklemore and Kesha explain how one day our lives will completely change and we will miss the magical, restless, fun nights we all had. They talk about being scared of the future and thinking of their past as their best memories. They remind the audience that the best memories should be the present as well as the past. We all learn from pain and experiences, and although the past was the best time for them, they remind their audience to enjoy every bit of their life. What we have today will not be there tomorrow, so enjoy the old memories as much as the upcoming ones. Nostalgia is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations exactly what Macklemore and Kesha explain throughout their song.

We all think about growing up and having the perfect life but one day we will regret growing up so quickly and just want to stay young forever.

“All the love you won't forget
And all these reckless nights you won't regret
Someday soon, your whole life's gonna change
You'll miss the magic of these good old days”

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MACKLEMORE FEAT KESHA - GOOD OLD DAYS (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

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Eminem's song "Going through changes", discusses the struggles/problems the artist himself went through and how he realized it and decided to overcome due to his own personal reasons. Starting off with the first verse of the song, he confesses how he truly feels inside. Confessing his feelings reveals a sentimental feeling for the past, since the artist went through personal problems, such as being drug addict. Therefore, when he reminisced about his past, it portrays nostalgia.   Going forward into the song, his lyrics said:  “ It became a problem you’re to pussy to tackle, get up be a man, stand, a real man would of handled this shit…” .  At this point, the artist began realizing that he must step up his game to overcome his problems. Although he knew he had issues of his own, he was not strong enough to overcome it.  The more he thought about his rough past, the more he realized that he needed motivation to go forward; and that motivation that he explicated was his daughter, Hailie.

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In this 2pac classic “Keep Ya Head Up,” the artist talks about how females struggle with the everyday life of men treating them faulty and how he doesn’t understand why some men hate women so much. Regardless of appearance as he states “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice,” no women of any kind should be left alone or disrespected. In the first verse where he says how men do so wrong to women but then again was raised by women, puts a reminder to men that need to man up and stop the violence and mental abuse and to know their role. This male artist expresses and reflects not only on the male’s perspective of women but what women go through as far as well.

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Tupac - Keep Ya Head Up (Official Video)

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Song: TuPac – Changes

This song “Changes “by Tupac Shakur, engages fully with the theme community and activism, because in the song, the rapper raps about police brutality which is a major issue in his community. The first line in the song is Tupac contemplating suicide because he feels unable to help in his community because of the color of his skin. Then he talks about the unfair treatment of blacks by police officers and then discusses how people who are active in their fight for equality are frequently silenced or killed. This was mentioned when he says “2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead”. Huey Newton was a political and civil rights activist and co-founder of the black panthers.

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Within the song Miserable America by Kevin Abstract, he raps about gender and sexuality. For example, in the first verse Kevin states, “My mother's homophobic, I'm stuck in the closet, I'm so claustrophobic.” Kevin’s mother represents society being homophobic and pushing him into the closet and in the next line Kevin states he's claustrophobic so clearly, he wants society to accept him. Kevin then goes on to rap, “Miserable America, Assassinate my character.” In these two lines it represents the hatred of gay people in the history of the United States and how it has produced Prejudice in modern America. Lastly, Kevin states in the chorus of the song “I don't care, I don't care, I don't care…” In the chorus Kevin then presents us with his feelings about prejudice towards him for being a gay man in America, he doesn't care what you think since he can't change and won't change for anyone.

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BROCKHAMPTON TOUR TICKETS ON SALE NOW!: http://brckhmptn.com/dates/ 'MISERABLE AMERICA' from Kevin Abstract's sophomore album 'American Boyfriend' 'American Boyfriend' on iTunes: https://itun.es/us/TVy2fb 'American Boyfriend' on Spotify: https://goo.gl/5TDVgT Directed by Kevin Abstract DP: Luis Panch Perez Edit & Color by Henock Sileshi + Kevin Abstract Produced by: Alex Mallis Song produced by Michael Uzowuru, Jeff Kleinman & Ricky Reed

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In 50 Cent's song "21 Questions", he questions the loyalty and love that his girlfriend claims to have for him. He asks actual questions to see if his girlfriend is with him for the moment or just with him because he has money, fame, and fortune. For example when he asks "if I fell off tomorrow, would you still love me? If I didn't smell so good, would you still hug me?" he is questioning her loyalty and love.  It also shows the true love that 50 Cent feels for this girl, and the questions that he thinks about.

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Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group North America 21 Questions · 50 Cent · Nate Dogg Get Rich Or Die Tryin' ℗ 2003 Shady Records/Aftermath Records/Interscope Records Released on: 2003-01-01 Featuring: Nate Dogg Author, Composer: Curtis Jackson Author, Composer: Jimmy Cameron Author, Composer: Vella Maria Cameron Music Publisher: A.

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F*ck The Police by N.W.A is about police violence and how they target black people. Throughout the first verse, Ice Cube, mentions how he gets targeted because he is a teenager with some money, and the police see him as a drug dealer or gang member. This song was made to show the struggles the members had to go through with racism and police brutality. Dr. Dre said the inspiration of this song came from when he and the members of N.W.A were forced to lay face down on the concrete while police held guns to their heads. In one of the skits in the song it displays a police officer pulling over the members and when they asked why they were being pulled over the cop gave no reason and says it ways because he felt like it. Police Brutality has always been a problem and this song, along with other police brutality cases, shed some light on what some people go through.

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Brain Renderos

Professor Donaldson

Reading Hip Hop

The song “Changes” by Tupac Shakur is about how there is police brutality in the African American community. The song mentions police brutality on African American and people would see this police brutality as a good thing, making the police officers look like heroes. In the lyrics the artist says “Cops give a damn about a negro

Pull the trigger kill a n*** he's a hero” showing the audience of how police officers are depicted as people who don’t care about the African American community.

Another part of the song mentions is that there is violence and 🤬 distribution in the Black communities. However, this part of the song points out that no one cares about the Black community. The people who are racist would just see the black community as criminals (Which is not true about the African Americans).

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In the beginning of the song Brown Skin Lady there is a conversation between 2 men and one of them talks about liking women with lighter complexion. The song starts off by Talib stating “but most of yall brothers came from your mothers” and he is referring to the black men that do not prefer women of their own kind. Throughout the song Mos Def and Talib Kweli are embracing brown skin ladies by referring to their skin as cocoa butter and also empowering their inner and outer beauty.

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In the song "Wet Dreamz" off of Cole's third studio album "2014 Forest Hills Drive," Cole shows explains the gender roles of teenage boys growing into adolescence when they see a female that they would like to have relations with. He explains how he is day dreaming about this woman, as much men  would do as they are fantasizing about a woman. He uses lyrics such as "It started off so innocent
She had a vibe and a n*gga started diggin' it
I was a youngin, straight crushin', tryna play the sh*t cool
But a n*gga couldn't wait to get to school
‘Cause when I seen them thighs on her
And them hips on her and them lips on her" which starts off the vision of this certain event. Throughout the song, Cole explains everything through the male's point of view, playing male gender roles into the whole track.

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The song “Where Is The Love” by Black Eyed Peas demonstrates the theme community and activism. This song addresses the people as a whole and the struggles that we all collectively experience. Taboo names a couple such as “nations droppin’ bombs,” and “a war is going on, but the reason’s undercover.” Apl.de.ap mentions “wrong information always shown by the media.” “Where is the love?” they ask.They are calling for peace, for change, for a love that seems to be non-existent. Will.i.am. States, “man, you gotta have love, this’ll set us straight,” and “let your soul gravitate to the love.”

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The Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love? (Official Music Video)

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From Time is a love song written by my two favorite artist Jhené Aiko, and Drake. I chose this song in particular because it was my favorite RAP song that had the theme of love. This is one of the few songs that Drake raps about love rather than singing about it in an R&B rhythmic fashion. This love song tugs on my heart strings not only because of Jhené Aiko's beautiful, perfect soothing voice, rather because Drake hits on my favorite topic within love, reflection on a break up. Throughout this song he raps about his regret, and how he feels about her moving on.

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Jocelyn Vega
Missy Elliott's song "Gossip Folks" lyrically and visually shows great creativity. In the music video she uses a school theme where gossip is seen alot of the time. She even uses child dancers in the school uniforms as well. The song is about what how celebrities are viewed and what the public knows or thinks they know about the celebrities. In the chorus of the song she uses nonsense words that dont make sense but becomes catchy. Some of the lyrics are "musi ques, i sews on bews, i pues a twos on que zat, and pue zoo".

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Ethan Cruz

Professor Donaldson

Reading Hip-Hop

This particular song by Lecrae called “Forever,” is about love and commitment to one woman. The song shows many reasons as to why these are the topics, but one that really stands out is when he says "Any boy can go and find a girl and try to satisfy her for a whole night, But a real man can take one woman and satisfy her for a whole life.” In these specific lines in the song, he demonstrates how love is really supposed to be and what real commitment looks like. He explains commitment when he mentions being loyal to a woman rather than having a one night stand.

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Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises Forever · Lecrae Church Clothes 3 ℗ 2016 Reach Records Released on: 2016-01-15 Auto-generated by YouTube.

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The “Love” themed song chosen for this assignment is “Into You’ by the rapper Fabolous and Featuring Tamia. This “Love” themed song tells the story of two people starting off as friends, but like any true love story they start to experiment and become more than friends. The lyrics talks about how fondly he feels about her and how he wants to be more than friends and take their relationship to the next level. As the verses continues he talks about how he would showcase his love for her. Loving her brings him the joy and happiness where material things could not compare.

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Fabolous Feat Tamia - So Into You (Official Video)

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Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

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Aubrey Drake Graham better known by his stage name Drake. Drake released the video God’s Plan February 14, 2018. The music displays creativity unlike any other. Rappers are often funded to shoot music videos by the label , in return the rappers use these funds towards sets , clothes and everything to prep the video. Drake’s version of creativity used those funds to support random families. Drake used 996,631.90 of the budget , he donated towards After school programs , college programs , shopping spree , and more. This form of creativity inspired many fans and other artist. Drake also took to instagram encouraging others to do something to make someone happy and tag him. The lyrics behind the video express how much hate the rapper gets from other people while also sharing his vision with video funds. Another rapper is yet to do the same as drake with this vision.
Submitted by Salomon Philippe

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Runaway Love deals with thr creative side of rap through Ludacris using imagery and sstorytelling to talk about physical violence. Physical violence isn't easy to talk about. When he says " Sneakin in her room when her momma's knocked out" the listener automatically enters into the mind of the little girl unprotected because her mother is too high on 🤬 to stop him from hurting her daughter. Then he says " Yells and abuses, leaves her with bruises. This line brings the listener into a situation where a young girl is left vulnerable and her mother is no where around. In these two instances the mother is absent from the picture leaving a "boyfriend" and stepfather alone thinking that their daughters will be safe. Using storytelling and visual imagery gives a creative edge to this rap song

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Dear Mama by Tupac Shakur	This song is completely about reminiscing the past and wishful longingness. It revolves around Tupac’s mom and his childhood. It holds a sadness in it when they talk about their struggles, but these difficulties made him appreciate his mother even more and become found memories to look back on. He talks about how loving she was and how hard she worked for them. These special moments create a nostalgic mood for him and the listener. The music is soft and slow, and the back-ground singers voice is smooth and pleasing to the ear giving the whole song a comforting sensation.

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Dear Mama by Tupac Shakur	This song is completely about reminiscing the past and wishful longingness. It revolves around Tupac’s mom and his childhood. It holds a sadness in it when they talk about their struggles, but these difficulties made him appreciate his mother even more and become found memories to look back on. He talks about how loving she was and how hard she worked for them. These special moments create a nostalgic mood for him and the listener. The music is soft and slow, and the back-ground singers voice is smooth and pleasing to the ear giving the whole song a comforting sensation.

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This artist, Joyner Lucas, is different, but also creative with the wordplay as he attacks this nostalgic-like beat with echoing snares. Joyner focuses on trying to bring blacks and whites together; he wants everybody to understand the different sides of races. Joyner wants people, from his perspective, to understand the average black or white man's point of view and that's creative because it breaks down into specific moments and/or examples of common stereotypes and misconceptions in the life of that man’s perspective. Joyner not only addresses these issues through rapping, but delivers his lyrics through conversation portraying each man as if they were face to face. He creates a picture, literally in the video, that makes the audience uncomfortable to watch because it addresses the elephant in the room: racism.

-Dante Henry