“…So flash yo cash and whoop your ass if you've got more than me

And whatever you got is more than mine so n***a let me see

Cause jealousy's reality when it comes to n****z bread

And snitches go from rags to riches bitin to the feds

Cause coke is green and money is king and n****z want the crown

So all you n****z goin up you f*****s goin down

The situations critical with stories on the streets

Kill em dead and get yo bread but make sure that you eat…” – Andre Nickatina

 

Pretty rough stuff, huh? So rough it needs to be heavily censored in order to be in a school publication.  To many people this is considered an awful genre of music that consists of ignorant dumb black people talking about their “hoes”, drugs, and money. That may be true for most modern main stream rap, but is not the case for all rap.

 

Many people who are ignorant to the meaning and message of rap, and the slang just stereotype it as “black people talking their hoes, their drugs, their money, and swearing, it’s all the same stuff over and over.” I’ll give them credit though, the stereotype is absolutely correct for most modern main stream artists and just rap over all (Soulja boy anyone?). But you can’t deny the great stuff put out by great main stream artists such as 2 Pac, Biggie, Big Pun, Run-D.M.C., Krs One, Bone Thugs n Harmony, and many more and a particular favorite underground Bay Area known as Dre Dog or Andre Nickatina now. From left to right: Andre Nickatina, 2 Pac, Bone Thugs n Harmony, and Biggie.

 

 

 

Obviously the content of rap is very controversial and I believe the biggest controversy is the explicit language. Explicit language is part of the sound to rap; it wouldn’t sound the same without it. Just like how Rock wouldn’t sound the same without the guitars. If you can look past the explicit language and realize what the artist is saying you’ll realize that it’s very deep and has a strong political and social message behind it. Another thing about explicit language is it’s a great way to get attention and cause controversy in our society so your message as an artist gets a lot of attention.

 

Rap often carries an important message that most people can’t grasp because they are so ignorant to problems our society, even our politicians are blind to the problems in our society or just chose to ignore them. Rap covers a broad category of topics, but the main focus is about growing up around violence and hardships in ghettos (urban and gang violence), racism, drugs, corruption, poverty, and other problems in society.

 

The quote I opened up with touches on the topics of violence and drugs (and how money is directly related to drugs.) If you pay attention, Andre Nickatina is talking about violence between people for drug dealing control and when he says “coke is green and money is king and n***az want the crown”. If you’re in control of the money, people are jealous of you so it’s more than likely you’ll get killed or wounded “So all you n***az goin up you f****rs goin down

The situations critical with stories on the streets”.

 

A great example that touches all topics listed earlier is a verse in a song by 2 Pac called “Changes”. (youtube video above)

 

“Come on come on                                                                 1

I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself  2

is life worth living should I blast myself?                               3

I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black                      4

my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch         5

Cops give a damn about a negro                                             6

pull the trigger kill a n***a he's a hero                                  7

Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares                                    8

one less hungry mouth on the welfare                                  9

First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers                     10

give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other                11

It's time to fight back that's what Huey said                          12

2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead                                                 13

I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere       14

unless we share with each other                                            15

We gotta start makin' changes                                               16

learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers   17

and that's how it's supposed to be                                         18

How can the devil take a brother if he's close to me?                       19

I'd love to go back to when we played as kids                                   20

but things change, and that's the way it is” -2 Pac                21

 

In lines 1-5 2 Pac is talking about the hardships of growing up in the ghettos and in a society that does nothing about their situation and talks about poverty, “my stomach hurts so I’m lookin’ for a purse to snatch”. In lines 6-11 2 Pac is talking about corruption in the police and how they are celebrated when they beat or murder black people, and how they do nothing about drugs in the ghettos because they just view it as potentially one less poor person on welfare. In lines 14-21 2 Pac is talking about social changes that need to be made to improve the quality of black life by being more brotherly to each other instead of hating each other.

 

A little later in the song 2 Pac says,

 

 

 

“Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs 

so the police can bother me 

And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do 

But now I'm back with the blacks givin' it back to you 

Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, 

crack you up and pimp smack you up” – 2 Pac

 

2 Pac is talking about how black people’s public image is ruined by the very problems that the government creates and doesn’t help fix, “Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me/And I ain’t never done a crime I ain’t have to do”. In order to get out of the ghettos many people have to sell drugs to actually get enough money to move due to how expensive housing and schooling are.

 

Rap has a huge impact on society whether you want to believe it or not, especially in the Bay Area where rap is a huge influence to the population. Rap integrates cultures and brings people together because most people (lower-middle class) can relate to some of the problems in the music, whether it is poverty, gang violence, racism, drugs, and corruption. Many Black, Asians, Brown, and even White people listen to rap and connect to it.

 

 

 

Rap is powerful. Rap is part of our world.

 

 

 

 

---

“…So flash yo cash and whoop your ass if you've got more than me

And whatever you got is more than mine so n***a let me see

Cause jealousy's reality when it comes to n****z bread

And snitches go from rags to riches bitin to the feds

Cause coke is green and money is king and n****z want the crown

So all you n****z goin up you f*****s goin down

The situations critical with stories on the streets

Kill em dead and get yo bread but make sure that you eat…” – Andre Nickatina

 

Pretty rough stuff, huh? So rough it needs to be heavily censored in order to be in a school publication.  To many people this is considered an awful genre of music that consists of ignorant dumb black people talking about their “hoes”, drugs, and money. That may be true for most modern main stream rap, but is not the case for all rap.

 

Many people who are ignorant to the meaning, message, slang of rap just stereotype it as “black people talking about their hoes, their drugs, their money, and swearing, It’s all the same stuff over and over.” I’ll give them credit though, the stereotype is absolutely correct for most modern main stream artists and rap over all (Soulja boy anyone?). But you can’t deny the great stuff put out by great main stream artists such as 2 Pac, Biggie, Big Pun, Run-D.M.C., Krs One, Bone Thugs n Harmony, and many more, and a particular favorite underground, known as Dre Dog, or Andre Nickatina now, in the Bay Area.

 

From left to right: Andre Nickatina, 2 Pac, Bone Thugs n Harmony, and Biggie.

 

 

 

Obviously the content of rap is very controversial and I believe the biggest one is the explicit language. Explicit language is part of the sound to rap; it wouldn’t sound the same without it. Just like how Rock wouldn’t sound the same without the guitars. If you can look past the explicit language and realize what the artist is saying you’ll realize that it’s very deep and has a strong political and social message behind it. Another thing about explicit language is it’s a great way to get attention and cause controversy in our society so your message as an artist gets a lot of attention.

 

Rap often carries an important message that most people can’t grasp because they are so ignorant to problems in our society. Even our politicians are blind to the problems in our society or just chose to ignore them. Rap covers a broad category of topics, but the main focus is about growing up around violence and hardships in ghettos (urban and gang violence), racism, drugs, corruption, poverty, and other problems in society.

 

The quote I opened up with touches on the topics of violence and drugs (and how money is directly related to drugs.) If you pay attention, Andre Nickatina is talking about violence between people for drug dealing control and when he says “coke is green and money is king and n***az want the crown”. If you’re in control of the money, people are jealous of you so it’s more than likely you’ll get killed or wounded “So all you n***az goin up you f****rs goin down

The situations critical with stories on the streets”.

 

A great example that touches all topics listed earlier is a verse in a song by 2 Pac called “Changes”. (youtube video above)

 

“Come on come on                                                                 1

I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself  2

is life worth living should I blast myself?                               3

I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black                      4

my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch         5

Cops give a damn about a negro                                             6

pull the trigger kill a n***a he's a hero                                  7

Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares                                    8

one less hungry mouth on the welfare                                  9

First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers                     10

give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other                11

It's time to fight back that's what Huey said                          12

2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead                                                 13

I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere       14

unless we share with each other                                            15

We gotta start makin' changes                                               16

learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers   17

and that's how it's supposed to be                                         18

How can the devil take a brother if he's close to me?                       19

I'd love to go back to when we played as kids                                   20

but things change, and that's the way it is” -2 Pac                21

 

In lines 1-5, 2 Pac is talking about the hardships of growing up in the ghettos and in a society that does nothing about their situation, and talks about poverty, “my stomach hurts so I’m lookin’ for a purse to snatch”. In lines 6-11, 2 Pac is talking about corruption in the police and how they are celebrated when they beat or murder black people, and how they do nothing about drugs in the ghettos because they just view it as potentially one less poor person on welfare. In lines 14-21, 2 Pac is talking about social changes that need to be made to improve the quality of black life by being more brotherly to each other instead of hating each other.

 

A little later in the song 2 Pac says,

 

 

 

“Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs 

so the police can bother me 

And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do 

But now I'm back with the blacks givin' it back to you 

Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, 

crack you up and pimp smack you up” – 2 Pac

 

2 Pac is talking about how black people’s public image is ruined by the very problems that the government creates and doesn’t help fix, “Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me/And I ain’t never done a crime I ain’t have to do”. In order to get out of the ghettos many people have to sell drugs to actually get enough money to move due to how expensive housing and schooling are.

 

Rap has a huge impact on society whether you want to believe it or not, especially in the Bay Area where rap is a huge influence to the population. Rap integrates cultures and brings people together because most people (lower-middle class) can relate to some of the problems in the music, whether it is poverty, gang violence, racism, drugs, and corruption. Many Black, Asians, Brown, and even White people listen to rap and connect to it.

 

 

 

Rap is powerful. Rap is part of our world.