Gregorio Salas
Mrs. Gonzalez
Eng.1301.sx5
Dec. 12-17
Music's Hip Hop and R&B kings of 2017
Music has been around for centuries and has gone through many different changes throughout its life-span. Certain groups of music can always be related to other ones in various amounts of ways such as punk rock and hard rock, but one pair has always stood out and has more similarities than the rest; hip hop and R&B. Some of the best music projects and albums, in my opinion, have been hip hop or R&B related such as Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. album and Khalid's American Teen album. In my opinion both of these albums dominated the hip hop and R&B community in 2017 by record sales and just the overall message of their albums with the way they portrayed it through
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The 19-year-old artist has made a name for himself through this album, and it is well deserved to say the least. The album tells of Khalid growing up and enjoying life in America like every teen, but he doesn’t only tell of the great things in life as it seems he is well aware of all the bad ones too. Songs such as "Young Dumb and Broke" and "American Teen" both describe how being an American teenager should be just enjoying life, growing up, and having fun. The songs do this with upbeat instrumentals and catchy choruses that really depict the singers joy in life and in song. However, with all the good moments of being a teen aside, there are still troubles of being one such as heartbreaks, worries, and fears. Khalid also does well to capitalize on these emotions as well with "Shot Down" and "Hopeless" both pertaining to heartbreaks, unrequited love, and everything in between. Shot Down is sung slowly as if time is slowed for him when he's in love, the beat is soothing and relaxing also an indicator of being in love. Hopeless is different however as he sings the song with a kind of unhappy happiness, it's as if he's trying to trick himself into being happy even though he knows its hopeless to love this girl. The album is relatable and that could very well be a reason for its …show more content…
If I were to turn the tables however I could clearly show them why these albums are the best and it would be in my first body paragraph of the essay which is about the record sales and critiques of both albums. The facts are right there, the albums did the best in both of their respective genres and its true. The sales were of astounding numbers, and the critics were raving about them what else is there to say? Even Khalid's album did amazing and it was his first one, that should speak for