ipl-logo

Jay-Z's Song 'The Story Of Oj'

588 Words3 Pages

In Jay-Z’s music video for his song The Story of Oj, he uses the effect of a black and white colored video. This theme of black and white or black versus white is the main basis of the song and video. In each scene all of the “characters” are in correlation to the Black Face cartoons of the 1930’ and 50’s. which are all dark black faces with big, wide, white lips. He presents the idea of labels within the black community in his lyrics. By saying “Light N****, Dark N****, Faux N****, Real N****, Rich N****, Poor N****, House N****, Field N****, still n****, still n****.”. Jay-Z uses this as his chorus and is repeatedly said. The chorus shows that African Americans separate themselves from their culture by using these labels and not just saying that they are “Black”. Showing that no matter what you are still a “N****”, and that you should not assimilate to the “white man”. …show more content…

The visual is a cotton mill, where the bundles of cotton go in and the output is members of the KKK. This symbolizes that what the slaves were doing by being forced to pick cotton was going into the making of the suits of the KKK. This showed that all the work the slaves did, went into the making of those who discriminated them. He also uses the imagery of a boat that had chained slaves that transitioned into a navy ship. This shows that although bringing the slaves to the US was a bad decision, the government covers this with a government name such as the Navy to make it not seem as

Show More
Related
619 Words | 3 Pages

In my book there were a lot of conflict between the whites and blacks. The whites were plantation owners and the blacks were slaves. Throughout the book there were a lot of symbols but the most important symbol was the tractor. The tractor represented the blacks did on the plantation, the tractor was the primary tool that pushed the blacks off the land.

Read More
639 Words | 3 Pages

Wilson used a lot of symbolism for what I believe to be a message on the mistreatment of the black man and the change that was seen in that time period and the next few decades after that. From the water to the struggle to stand, there

Read More
677 Words | 3 Pages

John Lewis give excellent customer service as the have won many awards in how high their customer satisfaction rates are. For example, in 2010 a survey by retail analysts, Verdict, gave John Lewis their award for Britain's favorite retailers for the third year running. (http://www.verdictretail.com/john-lewis-retains-title-of-the-uks-best-retailer/). This must show that John Lewis care for their customers enough for them to win this award for multiple years running. John Lewis also offer partnership cards for loyal customers, this credit card has been recognized as the top UK credit card when it comes to the level of service it offers to the card holders.

Read More
1740 Words | 7 Pages

This is showing how to lead up the march on Washington it came from the protest in other cities which put pressure on the government and the march on Washington and the speech by king really made the government think and see how the blacks were

Read More
264 Words | 2 Pages

Jay Z’s song Big Pimpin’ received great hype and one of the major reason behind it was its beat. The beats used in the song were composed by the Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi in 1957 for Khosara Khosara, an Egyptian movie. The Big Pimpin begins with the Middle Eastern flute which is claimed to be the song of Abdel Halim Hafez and Baligh Hamdi. The heirs of the Egyptian composer claims that Jay Z has illegally used the flute beats in his song.

Read More
1006 Words | 5 Pages

Because the image is titled “Worse Than Slavery”, the conclusion that the KKK treated freed slaves cruelly and they showed no mercy towards them. This group in particular made it extremely hard for freed slaves to be accepted into the White American society and they prevented African Americans from utilizing their rights as new citizens of the United States. In Document H, Henry Adams, a former slave, illustrates a scene that he was involved in after the emancipation of slaves. Adams explains how he was asked by white men who he “belonged” to, and when he said no one, he was beaten by those men. He says, “I met four white men about six miles south of Keachie, De Soto Parish.

Read More
188 Words | 1 Pages

Yes, I agree with your analysis of Mos Def's focus on black culture and its connection to hip hop culture in the song. Mos Def is emphasizing that his blackness is central to his identity and that hip hop culture is a way to express that identity. He notes that hip hop culture, like black culture, has roots in struggle and oppression, but has also become a means for empowerment and expression. Regarding the final lines of the song, I also agree that Mos Def is highlighting the victimization that black communities face. The line "hip hop will do whatever you say do, but Black, it can't save you" emphasizes that even though hip hop culture provides a means for expression and empowerment, it cannot erase the systemic inequalities and injustices

Read More
1335 Words | 6 Pages

On one hand, the Negro seeks personal and cultural authenticity—a sense of self and free expression within a land, a language and a way of life whose very foundations were formulated and built on the notion of African-American slavery and denigration and were also alien to the African immigrant/slave. Yet, on the other hand, the African-American must make some conforming strides within the racist confines of American society in order to sustainably co-exist within

Read More
668 Words | 3 Pages

For example, Radio Raheem is always shown with his huge boom box and loud rap music to characterize black people. At the same time, he does this with Pino & Vito, the italians who worked at the pizzeria wore tank tops and a cross around their neck. Spike Lee does this in order to represent these different racial groups in his film, but most importantly to put out their differences. Scenes like these give background information and more understanding to scenes later on in the movie, like when we saw the white man drive by in his car and the latinos decided to splash him with the fire hydrant. Another moment where the tension between the races could be felt is when the slow music is played when the cops pass by the black guys who are sitting on the sidewalk.

Read More
585 Words | 3 Pages

J Cole’s music appeals to the mind of the listener, he raps about real life issues: more than heartbreak and love. He raps about real life experiences. He often raps about his experiences of being black and the discrimination that he has lived through. In his song, “No Role Modelz”, he says “I came fast like 911 in white neighborhoods, ain’t got no shame bout it”. He expresses that there’s a clear difference between how the justice department treats white people versus black people.

Read More
1882 Words | 8 Pages

Some of the main cores of Beat Street are the music, dancing, and graffiti art works – all of which are part of hip-hop culture. Scholars note that hip-hop as a movement originated in roots from African American traditions and are mainly used to express their culture as well as identity (Blanchard 24). Rap music, for example, comes from West Africa’s “nommo.” This idea refers to the power to deliver words to act upon objects and to bring it to life. The historical and traditional underpinning of rap, therefore, becomes representative of the rich and distinctive culture of African Americans.

Read More
1196 Words | 5 Pages

“The Steam engine, the cotton spinning machinery, and the manufacture of iron with coal and coke deserve their renown, for invention on this scale wan unprecedented, and it inaugurated an era of industrial expansion and further technological innovation that changed the world”. In the early 1800’s people lived in the countryside as women and men worked as predominantly farmers, but during the mid-1800’s new machines that used steam and coal were able to produce goods at a massive scale. This is known as the Industrial Revolution. This revolution started in Europe, mainly Britain, and expanded to the entire world.

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

It 's being portrayed that being a man equals violence, poorness, being from the hood, can not be a sucker or you 're going to be tested, have your game face all the time, showing no emotion, and when they pick up a microphone they are a totally different person than who they really are. It was once said, ¨We teach boys to be afraid of fear, of weakness, of vulnerability. We teach them to mask their true selves, because they have to be a hard man. ¨Men want to have so much power, but they don 't have any power at all. The hip hop artist just has physical power over their body and how they display themselves, so they dress certain ways to get respect to feel powerful which also is hypermasculinity.

Read More
661 Words | 3 Pages

This leads to society seeing things in a black and white form, by this I mean people see things one way and that is not how it should be seen. One of the key topics that Omi talks about is racism. He talks about how you see it in movies, T.V. shows, and more. An example of this would be in the movie The

Read More

More about Jay-Z's Song 'The Story Of Oj'

Related Topics

Open Document