Notes and quotes (2012 words)
Joey Bada$$ – Like Me (primary text)
Internet links
1. Joey
Bada$$ Takes on Police Shootings in ‘Like Me’ Video
·
‘Last few years of heightened public attention
to shootings of unarmed black men”
·
“Joey Bada$$ has taken his rapidly rising
status and platform to speak out on what it means to be young and black in
America”
·
“The powerful clip features visual reference
to some of the most widely protested cases of young, unarmed black men who have
been shot to death, including Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown”
·
“With a hoodie on and his hands raised, Bada$$
embodies some of the most pointed signifiers of these cases”
·
“Bada$$ is one of several hip hop artists to
not only speak against police violence, but use their art as a form of protest”
2.
In a New Video, Joey Bada$$ Takes on Police
Shootings
·
“Bada$$ credits Nas as a source of inspiration, and, like
Nas, he's using his beats and metaphors to highlight social ills”
·
"I
think music is the most powerful tool when it comes to spreading messages and
getting words across"
·
"My
way of protesting is through my music […] with this newfound stature I have
this voice where if I say something, a lot of people listen to it"
3. Joey Bada$$ writes
impassioned response to the death of Alton Sterling
·
“Joey Bada$$ has spoken up about police
brutality plenty in his career, not least in the video for “Like Me” at the
start of last year”
·
“What the government is doing amongst
our people is downright disturbing but not surprising”
·
“The code words to killing black men
is “he has a gun!” That gives them the rights and incentives to shoot and most
of the time it’s just a cellphone, wallet or a downright lie!”
·
“I’m tired of putting up these
hashtags every time another story hits the media… What are we going to do? When
will true justice be served?”
4. Hip-Hop’s History
with Police Brutality: Why We Should Live in the Now
·
‘Black celebrities have voiced concern for the state of race
relations in America and solidarity with a community that feels more under
attack than ever.’
·
‘We can
oftentimes overstate the significance of having very famous people lend their
voices to the social challenges of the day. They can’t be counted on to be the
most informed on issues, and it’s juvenile to assume that someone is qualified
to address weighty societal problems just because they’ve made a lot of money
singing, playing a sport, or acting.’
·
But
because so many view contemporary hip-hop as more defined by codeine and
clubbing than raising awareness, there’s a lingering belief that today’s
rappers don’t care like their forbears did. Hip-hop is no longer black
people’s CNN, but perhaps it’s become something
different: more of a town hall for the culture, a sounding board, a place to
vent as opposed to a source of information. And maybe that’s still enough to
help galvanize a generation. It certainly seems to be.
·
Celebrities
speaking out doesn't solve problems but it does make it harder for consumers of
all colors to ignore those problems when their favorite is calling for it to be
addressed.
PDF
1. Opportunity for Black
Men and Boys: Public Opinion, Media Depictions, and Media Consumption
·
Distorted
pattern of portrayal:
-
black men are underrepresented overall in the media in terms of
factual programming and as relatable fictional characters
-
negative associations are exaggerated so black men are shown to be
connected with criminality, unemployment and poverty more than is truthful
-
positive
associations for black men are limited to entertainment, mainly those linked to
physical achievement such as sport
-
black
males tend to be associated with problems that are impossible to solve
-
the
historical context of black men’s lives is missing from the media, such as
reasons for black economic disadvantage
Books
1. M.K.
Asante – It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip Hop Generation
·
‘Post-hip-hop
is an assertion of agency that encapsulates this generation’s broad range of
abilities, ideals, and ideas, as well as incorporates recent social advances
and movements’
·
‘When
we consider hip hop’s origins and purpose, we understand it is a revolutionary cultural
force that was intended to challenge the status quo and greater American
culture.’
·
‘Although
hip hop was founded on the principles of rebellion, over the past decade it has
been lulled into being a conservative instrument, promoting nothing now or
remotely challenging to mainstream cultural ideology. Even in the midst of an
illegitimate war in Iraq, rap music remains a stationary vehicle blaring
redundant, glossy messages of violence without consequence, misogyny and
conspicuous consumption. As a result, it has betrayed the very people it is
supposed to represent; it has betrayed itself.’
·
‘In
hip’s case, and the same is true for hip hop, Scott Saul, professor of English
at Berkeley, points out that “it [hip] moved from a form of African-American
and bohemian dissent to the become the very language of the advertising world,
which took hip’s promise of authenticity, liberation and rebellion and attached
it to the act of enjoying whatever was on sale at the moment.’
2. Stare
in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics
·
‘We
can, too, take songs like “F*ck Da Police” and examine them as political
critiques against the growing role police play in the expansion of the American
prison industrial complex. But though black citizens in cities across the
country rail as much against police brutality as they do against black-on-black
crime, there is no significant anti-police brutality movement led by prominent
rap MCs.’
·
‘Perry
defines rap realism as rap that is chiefly concerned with the social conditions
of (black) working-class (urban life)’
3.
Pulse of the People: Political Rap Music and
Black Politics
·
‘Clearly,
Hip-Hop has a strong relationship with political and social issues’
·
Culture-specifically
Black music – historically has been a resistance mechanism that Blacks utilised
to assert their visibility in arenas whose majority players deemed them
invisible. Blacks have used culture to disseminate information, increase
solidarity, fight against injustice, and maintain political and social
movements.
Other media texts
YG – One Time
Comin’
This music video for the YG song ‘One Time
Comin,’ in dedication for the victims of police brutality, presents not only
the artist in a car chase with the police but also another black man in an
on-foot chase with an officer. The latter of the two chases ends in the man
being shot (off-screen) by the white officer, of course working to depict
what’s now come to be a more prevalent instance in the U.S.A. What’s also quite
interesting to note here is the way in which this on-foot chase is displayed,
which is predominantly through the lens of a police body camera. This is quite
timely as there have been more calls for the wider use of body cameras
recently, as well as concerns being expressed with
their use.
Vic Mensa – 16
Shots
Again with a music video, quite similar to
the one above, Vic Mensa’s ’16 Shots’ presents the issue of police brutality in
both a more graphic and disturbing way. Displaying Mensa being riddled with
bullets by multiple police officers, the video really helps reflect the hard reality
that there is with each case of police brutality. Helping to get this across
even more is the inclusion of the dash cam footage showing the shooting of
Laquan McDonald. This is aided not only with a monologue describing the events
that took place in his shooting, but also in another scene that there are jumps
between with an actor mirroring the body language of Laquan in his final
moments. This was particularly effective in conveying what is often the case
time and time again, with cases of police brutality.
Kendrick Lamar –
Alright
The music video for the Kendrick Lamar song
‘Alright,’ which has been heralded as one of ‘the songs of Black Lives Matter’
by Rolling Stone, shares most of its similarities with 16 Shots. Displaying a
narrative where a fleeing suspect (black man) is shot by a white police officer
and also accompanied by a monologue, this time by the artist himself describing
the current racial discrimination that goes on, a real dark, harsh vibe is
given of the USA today.
Elements such as the monochromatic, black and
white filter which is present throughout the entirety of the video only help
contribute to this but the visuals in the video itself are what really strike
as being quite powerful in terms of social commentary. One scene in it for
example shows Lamar and other members of the rap group he’s in being carried by
4 policemen in a car as he raps along to a different track. What’s quite
interesting to remark on here though is that the audience could either perceive
this as in some way at least, a form of representing ascendancy above the
injustices that the police force have made over recent years or the car that
the officers are holding the rappers in is a casket and they’re the pallbearers
for it. As all 4 of the rappers are black men, perhaps it’s just going to show
that anyone despite their position in society or success can often be a victim
to police brutality simply on the basis of their skin.
The final part of the video in a way akin to
’16 Shots,’ shows the artist himself being a victim the hands of the police.
Standing on top of the lamppost a policeman can be seen ‘shooting’ Lamar down
and we’re presented with a shot of him in slow motion hurtling back down to the
earth. Just after he hits the ground though after he’s supposedly killed, a
close-up shot of him smiling is shown and maybe this is done with the purpose
of matching up with the hook/refrain that’s sang throughout the track which is
‘we gon’ be alright.’
TI – Warzone
In this music video, the artist himself which
in this case is TI takes more of a backseat just rapping along to the lyrics of
the song. However what is really striking here is the narrative of the video
and how it flips or inverts what we’re usually used to seeing in society where
black people are the ones marginalised by other groups. Instead what we see is
white people in this position through different walks of life.
Throughout the video there are clear
re-enactments of cases of police brutality all the way from Tamir Rice evident
with the kid playing around with a toy gun, Eric Garner as you can more or less
tell he’s saying ‘I can’t breathe’ and also Philando Castile as we’re shown a
shooting happening with 3 seated passengers, one of which being a baby and the
other another of an adult filming the aftermath of the shooting for a live
broadcast. The only difference in all of this though is that all of the victims
were white and the police officers were black. It’s evident that this was done
with the purpose of perhaps being a wakeup call to groups other than black
people in America, to not just sit down and allow injustices like this to take
place anymore. The audio extract of Jane Elliot asking a white audience whether they’d want
to ‘be treated the way blacks are’ only helps further get this across as it
really does work to galvanise audiences to stop being passive to things that
they know aren’t right.
Usher - Chains by Film the Future ft. Nas, Bibi Bourelly
Although this video is
a lot less graphic than the ones before, it still does help represent what now
seems to be the current sentiment towards the police brutality. In the video we
see people, particularly young people wearing clothing like hoodies, holding up signs
that read things such as ‘JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS’ and ‘AM I NEXT?’ just
representing the tension that exists between the police and the black community
in particular.
