On Monday, April 19th, 2017, at approximately 1500hrs, I Detective A Richards and Lieutenant A Williams responded to a dead body in the residential area on 306 Oak Street. Upon my arrival, I noticed numerous patrol units on the scene as well as police security tapes surrounding the address mentioned above. Subsequently, I came into contact with the Patrol Officer that was in charge, Sergeant Tupac Shakur then briefed me on the situation at hand. According to Sergeant Tupac Shakur, he was dispatched to 306 Oak Street for the reason that Bob Marley had not seen or spoken to his daughter Nicki Aaliyah Minaj since the evening of Friday, April 15th, 2017. I later learned that this was highly uncommon seeing that Haughton remained in contact with the family on a constant basis.…
Rapper Jay Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. "He was the last of my four children," Jay Z's mother, Gloria Carter, later recalled, "the only one who didn't give me any pain when I gave birth to him, and that's how I knew he was a special child." His father, Adnes Reeves, left the family when Jay Z was only 11 years old. The young rapper was raised by his mother in Brooklyn's drug-infested Marcy Projects. During a rough adolescence, detailed in many of his autobiographical songs, Shawn Carter dealt drugs and flirted with gun violence.…
Victor Hugo once said. “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” In essence, music is the not the cause, but the effect of an individual’s circumstances and culture. Contradictory to this hypothesis, there are skeptics that believe art is the cause and culture is the effect. Is one solely right or do both ideas hold validity?…
The Resurrection of a Legend Not many teens are able to say they were stage dancers and turn into a great rapper, but Tupac Shakur can. Tupac started his career at the age of 17 years old. He was a stage dancer for a well-known rapper and given a chance to rap a verse in a song.…
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16 1971 in New York. His mother was Afeni Shakur. She was a member of the Black Panthers. His father is claimed to be Billy Garland who was another Black Panther but the other possibility was Kenneth “Legs” Sanders who was a local drug dealer. Tupac started by writing plays and he would also pretend to be famous singers like Prince.…
A difficulty to many artists while writing music is running into writers block. Just as an author gets writers block the very same thing can happen to an artist writing lyrics. Getting writers block is almost simply a lack of inspiration so then the process of perfecting writing skills is to always be inspiring in lyrics. The inspiration behind a song will also give the message which equals your delivery to the audience the artist is trying to reach. From the delivery of the song it leads to the audiences.…
Outkast is a duo formed in the early 90s by Andre 3000 and his high school rival and career friend Big Boy. The young artist began calling themselves “Two Shades Deep” as amateurs and later changed their names to Outkast. The group gained popularity with his singles like “Hey yeah” being released and jumping to the top slots on radio charts everywhere. Being considered underground and not yet mainstream making a number one song was definitely not something these two performers ever expected only dreamed of. Starting out in shopping malls when they were just sixteen years old the band participated in hip hop battles and began getting a lot of local attention.…
The History of Hip Hop Today, Hip Hop is a worldwide genre that has swept the globe with passion and soul. What started out as a generally “black culture genre,” is now accepted and done by every race and culture, and even in different languages. Rappers such as Run DMC, Doug E Fresh, Grandmaster Flash, and Kurtis Blow put a stamp on the Hip Hop world and gave it its popularity and momentum. The history of Hip Hop and how people used Hip Hop as a voice for African-Americans, shows how the evolution of Hip Hop is a great thing for the world. What is Hip Hop, and what is the history of it?…
As I looked around I came to the realization that these kids around me had the same love for music as me. A little sprout of hope started to form as I started to progress in my musicianship. I knew music would be a big aspect to my life because of my roots, but it was not until high school when I would finally find…
Learning to hear multiple melodic lines and harmonies in your mind is complicated, but once you have the melody created most of the work has been completed for you. With enough time and practice you can learn to master the skill of composing completely in your own mind. By learning to compose in your head, you can create more interesting compositions that don't rely upon the use of an external source to validate the sound you envision. Songwriters must become competent at setting words to music and understand what rhythms work best to support a given melody. A true mastery of songwriting takes practice, skill, and dedicated work.…
Book Review The book called Hip-Hop Revolution The Culture and Politics of Rap by Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar was a very informative, historical source for learning about the background of how hip hop came to be. Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar is an associate professor of history and director of the institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut. With his skills, Jeffrey Ogbar writes a book that examines genders in hip hop, authenticity of hip hop, and races that had an influence on hip hop. The book goes into the historical side of things and it gives the reader words like minstrel, jezebel, Nigger Heaven, Black Power Movement, Black Panther Party, and many more.…
Thus, with every passing year, the contemporary popular music of the Seventies strayed away from the “counterculture” themes folk and early rock n roll endorsed. In part, geopolitical issues weren’t as pressing, but the tragedy at the Altamont Free Concert combined with Charles Manson’s murder spree largely brought an end to “hippie culture”. Disco, Funk, Country, and the early stirrings of Hip Hop took became the new music, and tended to focus attention on domestic politics and race. The war themed songs that did come out of the Cold War Era however, were songs that attempted to humanize and empathize with people living under Communist regimes. David Bowie, famously recorded his album “Low” in West Berlin, where he unleashed a string of…
"Marshal Bruce Mathers III was born on October 19, 1972 in Kansas City, Missouri" ( Ruffner 153 ). When Eminem turned twelve his mom and him moved to Detroit. But when they moved to Detroit they moved a lot they were always moving from house to house the longest they had stayed at a house was six months. "From the time he was about twelve Eminem and his mother had stayed in the Detroit area" ( Ruffner 153 ). Eminem is a American rap artist who is a role model to people all across the world.…
The following Monday a select group of parents were ready to meet with me to listen to me speak. My years of rapping and spitting verse have made me comfortable in front of all kinds and sizes of audiences, this would be a piece of cake. I put on my freshest set of street or urban clothing on then put my black, pinstriped suit on over them. The parents started filing into the small auditorium. I could tell they were all wealthy and were illiterate in terms of the streets, no wonder their children were so bad at rapping.…
Gangsta rap was one of the many subgenres of rap during the ‘golden era’. This time between the late eighties and early nineties was when rap had countless artists and all were different. Whether it was black nationalism, gangs or religion itself rappers could rap about whatever they wanted and were still financially stable. Although things changed in rap when certain portrayals of black masculinity were becoming noticeably more commercially successful than others. (Randolph, 8)…