Many rappers and musicians use parts of other artist music to rap over. In Hip Hop this is a very common practice and with some artist it is more noticeable than with others. However, this practice raises many legal questions. Should artist be allowed to sample others work in their own pieces? In short the answer is yes.…
On March 6, 1972 in the small town of Newark, New Jersey Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal was born. Also known as Shaq. Shaq grew up with his mother Lucille O'Neal for most of his childhood. Unfortunately his father was put in prison when Shaq was a baby for the possession of illegal drugs. There was something special about Shaq.…
At the peak of the West coast versus East coast beef many people on both ends began to feel a personal connection to the issue and for Jenee Desmond-Harris that was exactly the case. The situation between both rappers, Tupac and Biggie, brought out the violence within the African American community to the forefront and the influence it had upon many on both ends. The essay I decided to evaluate was “Tupac and My Non-thug Life” by Jenee Desmond-Harris. The article entails Ms. Desmond-Harris’s experience of hearing the news of late rapper Tupac Shakur’s death. Ms. Desmond-Harris explains how she and her best friend Thea were huge fans of Tupac and the effect that his death had on their lives.…
On September 12, 2003 the country world experienced a tragic event, the pass of Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash was known most from his country music. Johnny Cash received many awards during his career, over 10 Grammy Awards. Johnny Cash was born J.R Cash on February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas. Cash had six siblings, seven including him.…
Tupac Amar Shakur (real name Lesane Parish Crooks), better known by his stage name 2pac, was an American rapper, lyricist, screenwriter, poet, actor and one of the most prominent names in 1990s gangsta rap. Tupac was born in The Bronx, New York City on June 16, 1971 to Afeni Shakur - a member of the Black Panthers, hence why much of Tupac’s upbringing revolved around the Black Panther philosophy. Tupac along with his mother and half-sister Sekyiwa moved between homeless shelters around New York City and as a result he retained a few friends and depended on writing diary entries and poetry to keep himself occupied. The poem “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” was a metaphor for Tupac’s life. All the odds were stacked against him but somehow…
The first Gangster Disciples date back to the 1960s. The current leader of the group is Larry Hoover and has been since 1974. The story starts when hoover was born November 30, 1950 in Jackson, Ms where stayed until he was four. In 1955 at the age of four him and his family moved to chicago. By 1964 he was thirteen and decided he wanted to be apart of a gang called the supreme Gangsters, which resided on the city’s southside(68th and Green) where he stayed.…
PRESS RELEASE Kanye West for President Kanye West Announces Formation of Presidential Exploratory Committee (Miami, Florida) October 12th, 2015: Today, Kanye Omari West, the internationally acclaimed music producer, business magnate and world renounced fashion designer, officially declared he is compiling an exploratory committee to ensure if his plan of running for the Presidency of the United States of America as an attainable course of action. Mr. West stated, “If my grandfather was here right now he would not let me back down! I don’t know I’m fit to lose anymore after this. It doesn’t matter though, because it isn’t about me.…
Tupac, one of the most influential and acclaimed rappers of all time, wrote The Rose That Grew From Concrete, a very insightful poem that integrates itself deeply with societal roles. For my visual representation I decided to first draw the imagery the poem creates, that is the rose that grew from concrete. I interpreted that because Tupac and the people he associated himself with were apart of minority groups, himself being shot to his death in a gang-related crime; because of this I believed that the rose growing from concrete was an analogy for the rare success of someone from an harsh and challenging upbringing. The rose and those in minority groups both have it extremely difficult to rise from where they are expected. The rose arises…
Annette Lareau’s book, Unequal Childhood: Class, Race, and Family Life, explores how social and racial factors can influence the experiences in one’s childhood. The differences in childhood experiences as a result of social class and race circumstances creates unequal childhoods. Lareau’s study on 12 families, in both working and middle classes, reveals why these factors are relevant to various parenting styles and unequal childhoods. Childhoods are unequal because of the different experiences encountered based on their family’s social class. Social class refers to the parents’ income, occupation, and level of education, as well as where that family lives.…
James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens was born on September 12, 1913 in Oakville Alabama. Owens was the youngest of 10 children born to Henry Cleveland Owens and Wife Mary Emma. His parents worked as sharecroppers and his grandparents were slaves. Owens was often sick suffering from chronic bronchial congestion and pneumonia. Still, at an early age, Owens was expected to work, picking up 100 pounds of cotton despite the fact that he a frail child, in order to help in providing for the family.…
The Injustice of Trayvon Martin It’s what you see everywhere, it’s what you’ll hear anywhere: it’s racism. In the 2010s, racism was still prevalent despite how far the United States had come from slavery. On February 26, 2012, a white neighborhood watchman shot and killed and unarmed 17-year-old. George Zimmerman, the watchman, claimed self-defense against the black teenager; he was never arrested.…
Holstorm Changes” is a hip hop song by Tupac Shakur. The song was originally recorded during his tenure at Inters cope records in 1992. The song makes references to the war on drugs, the treatment of black people by the police, the difficulties of life in the ghetto, and the perpetuation of poverty and its accompanying vicious cycle value system in the urban American culture. “Changes” has remained one of Tupac’s most notable and popular songs in hip hop history. The late Tupac was an African American rapper who was shot dead in 1996 at a ripe age of 25 years.…
Jenee Desmond – Harris wrote an article called “Tupac and My Non-thug Life,” which was published in an online article called The Root. The title of this article seems very contradictory and that is because it is. This article is about how Desmond – Harris, as a young privileged half white, half black teenage girl, finds herself trying to embody Tupac after his death. The contradiction of this is that Desmond-Harris did not relate to Tupac in the ways of how they grew up. Desmond – Harris had yet to confront any of life’s hard edges when Tupac had passed.…
Why the Difference? In The United States, inequality is quite an issue. Inequalities are also seen within one race such as the African American race. There are “two black Americas (Gates)”, the thriving and the poor.…
“Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, who performs as Kendrick Lamar, was born in Compton, California, on June 17, 1987.”(Biography.com, 2016) “Kendrick Lamar is an award-winning rapper and songwriter best known for his innovative take on life in Southern California as well as for his affiliation with rap star and super-producer Dr. Dre.” (Biography.com, 2016) Kendrick Lamar is quickly becoming one of the most exciting rappers in today’s entertainment world. Like many other known rappers Kendrick Lamar came from a negative and struggling beginning, to a life of money and fame.…