Rappers J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar are very good at identifying these stereotypes and providing perspectives from which these stereotypes can be observed in their albums Good Kid M.A.A.D City, Born Sinner, and 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
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| 2014 Forest Hills Drive |
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| Good Kid M.A.A.D City |
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| Born Sinner |
In "Tale of 2 Cities", Cole contrasting the perspectives of someone who has only lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina (or better known as Fayettenam) and another who has gone to New York city and has seen the bigger picture. Growing up in such a small town where there are limited options, someone may partake in criminal activity just to get by because they have no other option as Cole explains when he says. "They robbin' niggas on the daily, Can you blame a nigga that ain't never had things?".
In "The Art of Peer Pressure", Kendrick Lamar describes a day with his friends in Compton, California and how they are riding around acting recklessly and luckily escape the cops after a home invasion. Kendrick is not inherently a violent or reckless person but the influence of his friends is too strong to fight off and he gives into the temptation, conveyed in the lines "I never was a gangbanger, I mean I was never stranger to the folk neitherI really doubt it Rush a nigga quick and then we laugh about it That’s ironic ‘cause I’ve never been violent, until I’m with the homies".
In the "Mo Money Interlude", J. Cole is describing all kinds of money, not currencies but "party money" and "dope money". Here Cole is addressing the things that blacks tend to blow their money on. In this money interlude Cole addresses how blacks don't know how to act when they receive large sums of money and they end up blowing it, he says "Blacks always broke cause we don't know money Spend it 'fore we get it and could never hold money,". Then feeds the systematic oppression theory when he says "money control niggas white man control money laughin like 'yea yea my nigga get yo money'".
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ReplyDeleteI could listen to all three of those cds everyday. I am a HUGE J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar fan and this post really caught my interest because they are talking about the stereotypical black male. In Kendrick Lamar mixtape O(verly) D(edicated) where he described similar situations in songs such as “R.O.T.C.” where he speaks about how all of his friends sell drugs and how sometimes he wish he could do the same but his conscience kicks in and makes him re-evaluate that idea. That is what R.O.T.C. mean “Right on time Conscience” and he says “So I tell my nigga front me, let me put it on the strip. Then give it back when I think about the consequence.” He really does have a way with words like another song from the same mixtape called “Barbed Wire” where he talks about no one should let the “system” take them down. Even though they know that the “system” will always try to knock them down regardless of what they do. Kendrick has the idea that the system will always try to bring theblack male down and he says “Tryna get away from the world stereotype. Barbed wire got a barricade on your destiny”. Which is another term for jail. I believe the whole mixtape talks about him trying to overcome the everyday struggles of a black male from the hood.
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