ipl-logo

Use Of Toasting In African American Culture

823 Words4 Pages

African American and African Diasporic Cultural Connections
Sloan Nelick
First Choice: Boasting
Song: “Bank Account” by 21 Savage
The popular song “Bank Account” by 21 Savage uses the African American oral tradition of boasting. Boasting is a technique that involves the act of flaunting one's accomplishments, wealth, or abilities in order to assert dominance or superiority over others. In the song, 21 Savage raps about his riches and lavish life. He repeatedly talks about how much money he has, specifically in the chorus when he raps, “I got 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 M's in my bank account, yeah. In my bank account, yeah” and then proceeds to say: “I got 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 shooters ready to gun you down, yeah. Ready to gun you down, yeah.” Using the boasting …show more content…

It is a way of storytelling and celebrating respected heroic figures. One recent song that uses toasting is “Blessings (Reprise)” by Chance the Rapper. He uses toasting to thank God for his blessings as well as recognize his prowess. The song also reveals that these blessings and miracles come to us when we love and praise God. This song is more poetry than rap, thus embodying toasting. Chance states the lyrics, “I speak to God in public. I speak to God in public, He keep my rhymes in couplets. He think the new shit jam, I think we mutual fans.” These lyrics acknowledge his deep faith in God and reveal that God keeps Chance in check. The lyrics “I speak to God in public,” are repeated twice in a verse in the song to acknowledge Chance’s continuous love for God and the rewards he receives from loving him. He then goes on to say, “Chance openly sings about his faith and how it is the key to his success throughout the entirety of his album as well. By using this tradition in his music, Chance the Rapper is continuing a practice that has been present in African American culture for centuries.
Works Cited:
“Chance the Rapper (Ft. Anderson .Paak, BJ the Chicago Kid, Raury & Ty Dolla $IGN) – Blessings (Reprise).” Genius, …show more content…

This tradition, also known as playing the dozens, roasting, or signifying, involves two rappers engaging in verbal sparring with each other, often in the form of insults or disses. Traditionally, African Americans viewed ritual insults as entertainment and a form of competitive play, according to the textbook. In the rap genre, artists use this tradition to assert themselves and anger their competitors. For example, in Drake’s song "7am on Bridle Path," he uses playing the dozens to deliver insults to his rival Kanye West. The song takes aim at Kanye after an ongoing feud between the artists followed the end of their friendship in 2018. In August of 2021, Trippie Redd released a song featuring Drake, where Drake disses Kanye in the lyrics. Shortly after Kanye posted rude text messages on social media that were about Drake. Then “7am on Bridle Path” came out, where Drake revealed his comebacks to Kanye. Throughout the song, there are various clever lyrics that diss Kanye. Drake actually references Kanye’s Instagram post about Drake when he says, “They tried to label me mean, I say what I mean. People that could’ve stayed on the team, They played in-between,” because Kanye was trying to label Drake as a bully. Another example is when Drake says “I could give a fuck about who desiging your sneakers and tees” where he bashes on Kanye’s partnership with Adidas on his Yeezy brand. On the

Show More
Related

Hip Hop Planet Summary

223 Words | 1 Pages

According to the passage, Hip Hop " is not just for working-class whites, but also affluent, suburban kids who identify with this music with African-American roots. " What once originated as a way to express the pain and deprivation felt

Read More

Analysis Of Hip-Hop Planet By James Mcbride

847 Words | 4 Pages

Finally, hip-hop is inspirational and powerful because it summons people to come together and discard the social and racial issues they are faced

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Azealia Banks

625 Words | 3 Pages

In 2014 Banks calls out calling out rapper Iggy Azalea for symbolizing white exploitation of black culture saying that she uses hip-hop as a costume that she is able to take on an off when she wants to, noting Azalea’s accent and lack of commentary on police brutality. Banks notes that Azealia’s recognition is part of a broader phenomenon in the United States of white appropriation of black musical production (74). Outside of the realm of cultural appropriation Banks’ has worked to re-appropriate derogatory terms usually directed at women, specifically the word “cunt”. Banks not only uses the term to validate the black female body, but to challenge heteronormative norms in hip-hop, and establish herself in a position of power. In addition to allowing her to appropriate a sexual gesture that rappers often used to express power over a romantic interest, Banks’s prominent and provocative use of the word “cunt” reclaims a word men commonly used to belittle women and rearticulates it as a figure of strength and

Read More

Comparing Kanye West And The Confederate Flag

648 Words | 3 Pages

Kanye West’s musical career was a story of success from the start, with his first album The College Dropout debuting at #2 on the Billboard Charts and later winning a Grammy for best rap album of the year (Current Nominations and past) to his most recent self-titled album Yeezus Debuting at Billboard #1 and receiving multiple Grammy nominations with total music sales amounting to 87 million units (“Gold and Platinum Database”).When he first came into the limelight he rivaled rappers such as gun-toting 50-Cent with his more honest and easy-going raps. Because of his style he not only cast the genre in a different, more positive light, he made it easier for more sensitive rappers, such as Drake, a Toronto based R&B/Hip Hop artist to be accepted into the genre. Not only did he popularize his own style he made it the status quo for the new age of hip

Read More

Tupac Drake Stereotypes

1281 Words | 6 Pages

Drake does not try to pursue a false image of himself being a “typical rapper”. Aubrey has recently talked about his feeling towards many young musicians creating a false persona of themselves for them to be viewed as “untouchable” or “powerful”. In the song “Two Birds, One Stone”, drake tells rappers to stop trying to be or become something they are not. “Still they try and tell you I'm not the realest, like I'm some privileged kid, that never sat through a prison visit, or like it was just handed to me tied with a ribbon, I never worked to get it, but really it's you with all the drug dealer stories, that's gotta stop, though” the wise Aubrey says on a track from his upcoming album “More Life”. He is tried of many trying to become superior by lying that they have experienced a life on the streets becoming drug dealers only to live financially.

Read More

Bri Stereotypes In On The Come Up By Angie Thomas

1741 Words | 7 Pages

Since most famous up in coming rappers are men. They do not expect a young girl like Bri to make an impact on the rap scene but she proved them wrong. When Bri and her Aunt Pooh enter the studio for her first recording the people in the studio mock and make fun of Bri by saying “Hold up, you made That for this li’l girl? What she gon’ do, spit some nursery rhymes?”(105).

Read More

When Chickenheads Come To Roost By Joan Morgan

1201 Words | 5 Pages

Lorissa Figueroa Professor Patton ENG 1A 7 February 2018 More than what Rap Portrays When we listen to rap music we don’t really pay attention to how lyrics can affect people as often as we should. Since rap music has started it always influenced violence and sexism, but not everyone notices how it influences the black community. Joan Morgan explains this in a passage of her book When Chickenheads Come to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down (1999).

Read More

Latinidad Still Not A Player By Simon Frith

474 Words | 2 Pages

While altering his song “I’m Not a Player” to combine with Joe’s “Don’t Wanna be a Player,” Big Pun strategically changes a few sets of lyrics in order to emphasize his Puerto Rican background. He not only includes the “Boricua/Morena” sequence, but Pun also adds the suffix of “-ito” onto multiple English words, such as “(Mercedes) Benz” and “twin.” This linguistic change links an ethnicity to his sound while allowing him to remain devoted to core hip hop aesthetics. Through the use of language, Pun establishes the Puerto Rican identity as one that is able to combine and mix with other cultures and identities, not one to be hidden

Read More

Summary Of The Film 'Beyond Beats And Rhymes'

392 Words | 2 Pages

“Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Summary This movie was a broad discussion about hip-hop music (or more specifically gangster rap) and what kind of social issues the music not only showcases but seems to promote. The producer of this film, Byron Hunt, interviewed people involved in all aspects of the hip-hop industry, including famous rappers, to try to get to the bottom of this. Some of the most prominent issues discussed in the film were the over-sexualization of women, gun violence, and anti- homophobic attitudes. Hunt would ask those involved in the industry about why they think these themes are so prevalent.

Read More

Hip Hop Planet Speech

1186 Words | 5 Pages

Firstly, McBride claims that rappers use violent lyrics as a vehicle to bring about awareness and thus promote social change through use of violence. In a section of the essay, he talks about how rappers have made hip-hop go from something you would hear at a party to something you would hear in a local news report because rappers use violent lyrics in order to talk about the issue in their society and how these issues must be acted upon now so that it can

Read More

Hip Hop Culture Analysis

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

Analysis Of Hip-Hop's Betrayal Of Black Women

633 Words | 3 Pages

In her essay “hip hop’s betrayal of black women,” Jennifer McLune implies that “(h)ip-hop owes its success to the ideology of women-hating” (193). She does not agree with Kevin Powell’s article that hip-hop does not mean to “offend” black women, but instead artists are only letting out their temper throughout their music. McLune feels infuriated that many artists in hip hop (including black men) rap about their community and downgrade their own women. In the hip-hop genre, sexism is mainly used, not only by black men but also by many other race hip-hop artists. Artists assume that women-hating in their rap songs will be accepted by women, but do not realize that it is affecting all women.

Read More

Kanye West Homecoming Analysis

506 Words | 3 Pages

Hip hop critics believe that hip hop is a violent subculture and supports crime and violence, but research has shown that there is no direct correlation between the two. One hip-hop artist that goes against this stereotype is Kanye Omari West. Mr. West lyrics allows the listener to understand that you don’t have to rap about having money and cars to get someone’s attention. In Kanye West’s Homecoming, he said, “Reach for the stars, so if you fall you land on the clouds.” This is an influential quote that encourages the listener to reach for their goals, but if you happen to fail on the way it’ll be ok because you have a comfort system to be there for you.

Read More

The Importance Of Violence In Rap

946 Words | 4 Pages

Nowadays, everyone wears the identity with pride. The genre was a testament to triumphing over hardships, to having enough confidence in oneself not to let the world drag you down, and to rising above the struggle, even when things seem hopeless. Violence in rap did not begin as an affective agent that threatened to harm America 's youth; rather, it was the outcry of an already-existing problem from youth whose world views have been shaped by the inequalities and prejudice they have experienced. The relentless wave of heroic new rappers arriving on the scene formed the golden age of hip hop in the 1980s, a newfound voice which rose from the impoverished ghettos during the 1980s and inspiring a generation of black youth to fight the police brutality they faced on a daily basis.

Read More

Oral Tradition In African American Culture

360 Words | 2 Pages

It has a powerful history, beginning with Africans' proslavery existence. Women have been involved in rap music

Read More

More about Use Of Toasting In African American Culture

Related Topics

Open Document