Rap Music Research Paper

‘Rapper’s Delight’ For the majority of all people, music plays a significant role in the shaping of one’s character. What one is listening to can reflect aspects of their identity such as race, religion, class, culture, and more. Because of how personal the music listening experience can be, there is so much about a person that can be learned, just knowing what they listen to. For my interview, I have chosen local rap artist Nati Denu to explain to me how music has shaped his identity. Being both a creator and a listener he offers a unique view on how music has shaped his identity and how others identities are shaped by music, most notably those who listen to rap music. In Nati’s own words, “I identify with rap by giving it priority in my life, it’s pretty much my life at this point you know? The emotion, the style, and just how fun it is are my reason for wanting to be a rapper”(Interview with Nate Tsegaw, September 23, 2015) Nati’s journey through rap music first began through exposure from his older brother. At a young age he listened to many songs, second-hand that although he could not fully comprehend, he still found them catchy and entertaining. As Nati reminisced about his early childhood he told me, “I remember when I was in kindergarten I think, my brother would always play Without Me (Eminem) and I could not get it out of my head!” (Interview with Nate Tsegaw, September 23, 2015) While I doubt he fully understood some of the adult lyrics Eminem would often say, Nati’s experience with much of rap music at the time dealt more with how catchy and fun he perceived the song to be. Fast forward to when he was in high school and he began to become seriously involved with the message behind many rap songs. As his critical thinking skills grew his appreciation for the music did as well. Finding common ground with many of the artist’s background and lyrics, rap music became the genre of music, which has played one of the biggest parts in shaping the person he has become present-day. What is interesting about Nati’s love of rap music is that when asked about how he started, he mentioned his brother, but what got him listening to it seriously, so much so that it has shaped is aspirations, were artists such as Outkast, Lupe Fiasco, and Kendrick Lamar, respectively. …show more content…
Songs from when he was a teenager such as Lupe Fiasco’s “Dumb it Down” led him to really take a good luck at how people who share aspects of his identity, namely black people, can be looked down upon in aspects of society even as important as music. He realized after taking the time to understand the song that he could vent his own frustrations just like Lupe Fiasco does, in an eloquent and clever manner. It was after realizing this that his taste in rap music began to broaden to not only music that made him move, but also music that made him think. Growing up, many evils of society were shrouded from him to protect his innocence but, through his exposure to rap music, he gained a means of understanding the suffering many both like him and extremely different, go through. And later in his life he too began to rap, not only to speak of pain he has seen or gone through but also to express himself in much greater detail than he could or prefers to without the music. When asked about his identity Nati had a lot to say, being …show more content…
From the way he dresses, people he hangs out with, and his opinion on many social issues, rap and many would say hip-hop, has helped formed his identity. The way he dresses tends to mirror those in the rap industry that he looks up to. The people he hangs out with, for the most part, share a similar taste in music with him. And issues such as racism, violence, and oppression he understands more, through critically analyzing songs those he looks up to writes and his own experiences. For him, rap music can not only inform one of important issues but also inspire people to take action and face those issue head