Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Nava Sepehri (10)
Philosophy 1030
Installment #2
Dr. Oliver
Philosophy of Rap Music

  In my first installment, I explained why rap music is controversial, its effects on the American population, and why it is critical to American culture. I already reached my one thousand word limit in my first installment, so in this installment, I will break down a few song that appeals to current events in America. Before I do that, I would like to point out that there are many different types of rap music. I will be evaluating a more politically aware rap song.

   “I’m Not Racist” by Joyner Lucas may just be the most politically and culturally aware rap song of the decade. In this song, Joyner spends the first half of the song spitting rhymes from the point of view of a stereotypical white male trump supporter. In the first half of the song, he says things like, “Put your fuckin' pants up, n****! Put that suit back on! Take that du-rag off! Take that gold out your mouth! Quit the pitiful stuff and then maybe police would stop killin' you fucks. Yo, what the fuck?! I'm not racist.” Yes I know, it’s a lot. In the second half of the song, he speaks from the perspective of an African American male, saying things like, “It's hard to elevate when this country's ran by whites. Judging me by my skin color and my blackness, tryna find a job but ain't nobody call me back yet, now I gotta sell drugs to put food in my cabinet. You crackers ain't slick, this is all a part of your tactics.” This rap song shows two different sides in modern day America and it’s very impressive because he explains BOTH sides, it creates a sort of social harmony. 

Link to my first post: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/search?q=nava


Below is the full video to this song I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LISTENING TO IT!!! 


1 comment:

  1. The thing about this song, and rap generally, is that it reiterates an unsubstantiated narrative. The complaint that the way a person dresses and presents himself can be harmful is legitimate, but the argument that ridiculing bad senses of style is racist is, of course, not legitimate. The fictionalization of a population is only ever harmful to dialogue - as is the use of stereotypes - but, as you know, this song isn't intended to create dialogue; it's intended to be divisive and to justify a widening chasm in American populations.

    Rap music is just music, so it is not inherently divisive and holds no objective value. We add value to the music based on a variety of perceptions, including our own value judgments on the message and its relationship to reality. That rappers today seek to restore and even intensify the divisiveness of a genre is indicative of the failure of the genre to adapt to its modern reality as a mainstream genre of American music. Of course, the fact that most successful rappers have felt the need to be degrading towards women, insulting towards homosexuals, and glorifying to criminals are also valid indicators of that failure.

    So while I understand that the incredibly hyperbolic rhetoric of the genre is appealing to many, it is noteworthy that if any truth remained in that rhetoric then none of these rappers could play their music on the radio, nor circulate their mix tapes. The reality of oppression and cultural suppression is far worse than any American-born and -raised individual can comprehend without venturing out there into the real world, where people still get their whole families killed by whispering a word of complaint about a genuinely oppressive society.

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