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After going through the different categories of poetry given to us for this assignment, I think the depression section stood out to me the most. The first piece I read was from Meek Mill titled, “We Ball,” and it is about him losing many of his friends in the streets. He starts off by paying his respects to his late friends and continues to go on about how life is so tough and how he’s really tired of losing his friends. While reading this poem I see that he used a rhyming pattern towards the ending with the final few lines. The meaning behind the words he chose is really deep. He talks about no weapon against him shall prosper, a bible verse. Talks about him wishing his ramen would turn to lobster, meaning he prayed for his life to get better so he can make it out, and he talks about having to watch his own friends that are on the roster because he can’t trust anyone. The next song I looked at was “High for Hours,” by J. Cole. In this song he talks about America’s problems and the oppression he and many others go through on a daily basis. One form of a literary device that Cole used that stood out to me was the way he rhymed and put past U.S history into context with what is going on in our world now. He found a way to create a feeling where he makes the reader understand everything that he is feeling just by rhyming every other line. He pushes the history at us to make the reader understand that we as the people in the U.S are too hypocritical to notice any changes that have happened in the past years. To me, Meek and Cole are top artists to this day and continue to put out top tier music for everyone. Their choice in words and techniques used are amazing in making the reader feel exactly what they want them to feel.

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Women in this industry are a very big part of why it is the way it is. When I talk about industry I mean, the hiphop/rap industry. We need to move on and give them the respect they deserve. Too many times we find ourselves considering these women individually as “top female artists” or “Top 5 female producers” and we just isolate them into a separate category. When we should actually be considering them “Top artists” or saying that they should be up there with the top of the game. What I mean by that is, why can’t they just be included with everyone. When Venus Williams, famous tennis player, was asked if she’s one of the greatest women’s tennis players, she answered with, “I’m the best.” That’s how it really should be for these female artists. When we look at some of these artists like Lauryn Hill and Eve Jeffers we see the greatness that comes behind them. Lauryn Hill basically set the foundation for all these female artists to start building on. She paved the way for “female artists” to join the hiphop community. She, still to this day is considered as one of the greatest. In her song “Mystery of Iniquity,” which is considered one of her most famous songs, she talks about the world and the uneven advantages and disadvantages of the court system and how the system gets away with plenty of false claims. I read up on her a little bit and found out she was incarcerated for the failure to pay federal taxes because all the money she earned was being taken from her label. So she went through tough times throughout her whole journey and still made it possible for other female artists to prevail despite her complications. When we look at Eve Jeffers, we see a young talented female who released her first album and it debuted at number one on the billboards. Becoming the third woman to do so. That is incredibly hard to do and not to mention it was her first album. So, these women deserve everything they worked hard for. Imagine you work so hard for your winning school project just to be categorized in a group separate from all the other winners. It isn’t fair and people need to start realizing that.

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Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kidd M.A.A.D City,” takes us through a series of emotions. Every song is different and impacts us in different manners. I believe this whole album was a coming of age story. I say this because Kendrick starts off by introducing his tough young childhood. Then goes on to show the real conflict he endured by joining a gang and being peer pressured to do illegal activities then ends it by really showing the route he took to change his life and become better. The first thing that pops up in the album is the prayer he learned about repentance. He knew he wasn’t a bad kid, but rather a good one who was pushed into it all. One of the themes I picked up on was peer pressure. We see this in his song titled “The Art of Peer Pressure,” where he writes, “Really I’m a sober soul But I’m with the homies right now…. Really I’m a peacemaker But I’m with the homies right now.” K-Dot knew he really wasn’t a bad kid, but with friends he didn’t want to be that guy so he had no other choice but to go through with it all. He really showed us that he was a “good kid in a mad city.” He teaches us on his second to last song “real,” that being real isn’t doing hardcore stuff but rather being responsible. To top it off, he finishes it off on Compton by showing the world he is brand new and is now Kendrick Lamar.

The author in Flower Boy really speaks to us right in the beginning. I get the sense that they are trying to tell us that nothing good lasts forever and that you need to learn to grow and move past everything that has happened both good and bad. Tyler just talks about his troubled emotions and life and what he does to fix them and when he’s really down he’d rely on his friends who wouldn’t do much either. On “Boredom” he writes, “My friends suck, Fuck’em, I’m over ‘em ‘Hi y’all, y’all ain’t hit me all-day What the fuck is the problem? Is it me? ‘Cause I’m not solved, I’m bored.’” We get a sense that this album is just him expressing his emotions, feelings and love.. Tyler the Creator, outside of music is a character, not a bad one, but rather a good one. He usually says what he wants when he wants and how he wants. He isn’t afraid of what’s out there and he surely isn’t afraid of what people have to say about him. So this album was no different. Just his life but in music form.

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As a reader of the Last Poets, you really get a sense that the author Christine Otten really tried implementing many themes throughout the entire reading. For every character there was at least one main theme and she even made a way for every character to share a theme. That is where I started looking when I began finding my theme to write about. The theme I decided to write about was on the focal point of development. By development I mean, that the main characters all lived multiple lives and had troubled childhoods and as they got older and more developed they learned and grew and while still having setbacks in their adulthood they were still able to develop for the better and change for the good. When we look at Omar, he lived a tough childhood. He had issues with his family, he dealt with racial issues and had issues with lust and drugs. He went by different names, maybe to try and live different and better lives. As he got older and matured, we got to see the better version of Omar. He began to better his life by learning to let go and falling in love with music and poetry. After finding this love he went on to join a group which would later be classified as the founding fathers of rap. When we look at Felipe. He dealt with family issues, gang issues and legal issues. When he was young, with no father figure present, he and his mom moved from the east coast to the west coast multiple times. For a young child, that is very difficult. He had to restart his life many times. He would feel like his life was amazing on the west side, with no stresses or cares in the world, then his mom would just move them back to New York. This is when he would join a gang and start causing trouble. While he knew he could go on and do better stuff, he stuck with the gang and got in plenty of trouble. He then went on to fight legal actions after stabbing a man. All this was executed while he was a young adult. As he grew up he began to improve his life. He started working for the community and also found a love for poetry and later joined the phenomenal group alongside Omar. He did still have some issues as an adult involving his wife but from where he came from to where he ended up, was still a great jump. So we see that the theme carried along this storyline was character development and it was visualized through our main characters.

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The character I decided to write on is Felipe. The section we read this week was all about Felipe and his growing up life and even his adult life. So the topic of setting and conflict fits very well with his lifestyle. In his early teen life, he moved from East Harlem to California many times and in each place he felt like a different kid living different lives. When he lives in East Harlem he has pressure and stress on his shoulders as he is involved in gangs and commits gang affiliated acts. When he’s in California he is just a kid enjoying the weather. He says, “Once in a while I thought of California. Especially in the wintertime. Then I missed the mild weather and the palm trees and the space” (Otten 223). This just shows the great life he was living in California.  He really has no stress on him. His first introduction to conflict is when he gets into a scuffle and ends up fighting a kid named Alligator, with the help of two Peurto Ricans. Then after seeing that, a guy named Jose then invites him to hangout leading to an altercation where Felipe beats the sense out of a man to help Jose. This led to the beginning of his gang affiliations which seemed odd to the guys because he was a smart student. His whole life is centered around conflict. Even his own teacher catches eye and lets him know that he could do better than that and that he can work hard to go to college instead of throwing his life away with gangs at such a young age. She says, “You could go to college if you wanted to, you know that right?... Do you want to become a gangster? Because it seems that’s the way you’re headed”(Otten 240). This puts so much more in his head because he then gets stuck with two separate groups of people who want two separate things for his life. So he’s conflicted with what he really wants. But more importantly, Although his life was conflicted, his mindset stayed linear. He never changed who he really was. He changes what he did and who he was with but his mind never did. This is exemplified when he talks about the guilt of robbing or hurting someone, and how he’d only be able to do so if there was a reason to and not just out of the bloom. This goes to show that although he was in gangs his ideals and morals stayed the same. Finally, one of the final major conflicts that occurs within the section involving Felipe is when he cheated on Iris with Lula. The ending of this section just stirs up problems and conflicts as word comes out that he cheats on his wife.

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The character I am deciding to write about is none other than the main focal point of this reading, Omar. I chose Omar because I’ve quite enjoyed seeing everything from his perspective and the way he is explaining and describing everything in a third person perspective. The way Omar is in the reading just makes you feel like you’re watching a movie because everything that has happened so far has been explained so deeply that you feel as if you’re seeing it. We’ve seen Omar develop from this young kid who isn’t in the best of living shapes to a grown adult where he gets into an altercation and shoots a man. The way the story bounces back and forth to show his childhood and how he grew up is amazing. It was so good that I didn’t even realize he went by plenty of names because he explained Jerome/Geronimo and Omar/Umar so well. But Omar is such a deep descriptive man especially when it came to the ladies he was with or had sexual relations with. He would describe everything as if he was a police investigator, but no one, in my opinion, was described as well as Dora. When he was younger and he had found Dora he explained and described her with such ease and such distinct terminology. For example, “The white of her skin made him think of ice cream… She had goosebumps despite the heat… She had small, pointy teeth and thin pink lips”(Otten, 67). The way he depicted her just made me as a reader think he found his love. Not only is Omar so great at making things feel real, he never stops talking in the reading. Everything leads to another and it allows him to think back during his childhood then bounce right back into his adulthood as if nothing had happened. One character trait I noticed about Omar was that he seemed as if he couldn’t make up his mind with his women. This is brought to our attention when Zaid is talking to him in the beginning when he says, “You’re just like me. Too proud to just give in, but I see what’s smoldering in you, man. A little turn-on and a quickie isn't good enough for you. What you’re looking for, no woman can give you”(Otten, 21). This just goes to show that Omar isn’t content and isn’t in it for the sex and pleasure. This makes me think that he’s always looking for something new. As a young child he was criticized by his family and looked down upon. It was mainly his grandma. He didn’t seem to care or think too deeply about it back then because he was young, but as he got older, all those years of hiding it and not realizing it he just bursted out and got furious. There’s one small part near the beginning in the book where Grandma Elizabeth says, “Look how tall he is. Not so round and fat as Jerome. Jerome’s a Fuller”(Otten, 47). It might’ve been tough love, but her personality towards Jerome even before and after that part didn’t sound like any form of love.

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Hey guys, my name is Anthony Bercham and I am a sophomore here at Stan State. I am currently majoring in Kinesiology with a concentration in Rehabilitation Science so that I can work towards becoming a physical therapist. I was born in the beautiful city of Toronto, Ontario Canada and I moved here roughly ten years ago. I love both countries and I am blessed to have lived in both. I am also Assyrian, I know I look like the whitest kid, but I can assure you that I am full Assyrian from both my moms side and my dads. I love working out, playing video games and playing ball with my friends. I played football for 7 years and got some big achievements and awards for it. I'm a huge nerd for Star Wars and Marvel. Alright enough about me, in this class I hope to learn more about Literature and how it impacts the lives of others. I hope to leave this class with a better knowledge of speaking, reading and writing. I've had Professor Zandarski in the past and all I can say is that she is an amazing teacher and I already know that I will leave this course with more knowledge than I came in with!! Stay blessed guys and good luck this semester!

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This was supposed to be at the top but I messed up and I am too confused on how to redo it, so enjoy 

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This was supposed to be at the top but I messed up and I am too confused on how to redo it, so enjoy 

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The GIF above is showing my favorite rapper at a high school basketball game getting sturdy with it. Sturdy meaning he is going crazy with his movement.