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.

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).

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.

 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”

“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. 

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