How Rap Music Influences Poverty-Stricken Nations
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How Rap Music Influences Poverty-Stricken Nations

They share explicit, yet precise themes and concepts about the ghetto.

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How Rap Music Influences Poverty-Stricken Nations
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Rap music has been such a cultural influence in the lives of people, both rich and poor. However, rap music was not always popular with people. It began as a form of self-expression in low-level ghettos and other impoverished places. Everyone has a different style of music, but rap is a different kind of musical style. It carries a different tone in music. Rap has influenced poverty-stricken havens and easily connects to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” because it provides a glimpse of what a harsh ghetto is for those in it, thus conveying the reality of those that are not aware of it, much like “The Allegory of the Cave”. .

Rap is so culturally significant because it influences and reconnects with impoverished cities in the U.S. Eminem, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, DMX and Nas are just some of the many venerable artists that rap has spawned in its existence in the music industry. Rap has--albeit--aggressive, misogynistic, rustic, and vulgar lyrics, but those lyrics are to exemplify and convey the encroaching setting and/or environment from where that rap artist came from. Rappers particularly “rap” about their neighborhood and what it was like for them when they were growing up. It wasn’t pretty picture. A typical rap song’s rhythm is usually very, jarring, and deliberately-paced. It is very different from romantic classical music, where the tone of the piece is cool and calm. Rap carries a heavier beat and a tone that works to achieve a different kind of purpose. The purpose is so that the audience understands how hard it is to live life in a ghetto.

Saul Williams is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper and he has expressed that “he thinks that it is a mistake where rap music is these days. It doesn't seem to be able to look out of the ghetto and that's ultimately unfortunate, because it defines the limitations." Williams conveys that rap music speaks or “spits” truth about rough neighborhoods that people live in. Moreover, rap music is a way to express the hardships of one’s own personal life experiences. These are the elements and cultural connections that appeal to my artistic taste in this particular type of music. These real-life connections in the rap music that the artists write is so vivid and pivotal to them and their audience and rap music’s audience is predominantly of an African-American demographic.

When I hear artists, regardless of what style of music is happens to be, revealing their background story of where they came from before they got to where they are to their audience. A rap song that is particularly significant to me and is a great example would be Eminem’s song “Kim”. The artist Eminem raps about how he plans to kill his then-wife Kim Mathers after she cheated on him. Eminem raps “how could you just leave me and love him out the blue. Awe what’s that matter Kim? Am I too loud for you?!” This is what I find so appealing in this music. Some formal elements are the pain and anguish that some of these artists have gone through and/or are still going through in their lives, and they express those emotions through their lyrics, beat, rhythm, and the song’s hidden meaning. This gives both the rap artist and rap song more depth in their songwriting. This can also make the songwriting interesting on what it is the artist is trying to convey, whether it be talking about their own impoverished lifestyle or equal rights for all. Rap music still, nevertheless, has true meaning behind the songwriting.

Rap music also connects with Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” in a couple of ways. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” is about these prisoners that have been chained inside of a cave since their childhood and are unable to move their heads and can only see the wall before them. Behind the prisoners, there is a fire and puppeteers cast shadows upon the wall. The prisoners get the illusion that what they see on the wall is actually real. They have no perception of reality. That is, however, until one of the prisoners was released and forced to step outside of the cave and gage at the true spectacle of reality, thus realizing that what he saw before in the cave was simply an illusion. This is how rap music relates to Plato’s essay. Rap music details the reality of the ghetto in its lyrics and generates it so that its audience can understand the struggles of some people living there and better comprehend the reality of the issue because most rap music talks about sex, drugs, prostitution, and many other vices. Why? It’s because the artists that wrote those types of songs are from those types of neighborhoods that have those things. Those rap artists were and/or are surrounded by those types of things on a daily basis and that is what rap music tries to convey just like in Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”. People outside of the rap music genre don’t truly understand the harsh reality of low-level neighborhoods, until they are “brought outside of the cave”, listen hard to what the lyrics are saying, and try and fathom what really goes on in a rapper’s microcosm of society. Only, then, can that listener get an actual glimpse into the reality of the rap music genre.

Many music critics have noted and given rap bad reviews, claiming that it is fueled with gratuitous cursing, overblown misogyny, offensive lyrics and unnecessary racial stereotypes and some audiences have noted that rap is a bad influence on the younger generation, making the genre recapitulative, primeval and anarchic. I believe that those “offensive” lyrics are a way for the artist to communicate and speak the truth about the rough ghetto that he or she might have lived in for a while, thus revealing more about themselves and gain more depth in their art and creativity.

In conclusion, rap music reflects the oppression of impoverished societies through their explicit, yet precise themes and concepts about the ghetto and also connects with Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” because it sheds light on the truth and reality of ghetto life to those that are not familiar with the genre.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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