Jay-Z's Song Cry

This song has a remorseful and gloomy mood incorporated in it. Early in the song J. Cole depicts himself as selfish and trying to keep to himself. “I like to write alone, Be in my zone,” here J. Cole is explicitly telling us that he would rather do what he does, which is making music, alone. “Until they snatched it from my mama And foreclosed her on the loan I'm so sorry that I left you there to deal with that alone I was up in New York City chasin' panties, gettin' dome Had no clue what you was goin' through,” J. Cole explains to us how he was blinded by sex, money, and fame. He tells us that he was too busy getting panties to care about his mother having her home for closed. Not only was it her home, but the only place he called home throughout

Moreover, Jay-Z explains how poetry hides beneath the surface of hip hop songs, making it a form of art. However, many individuals are unaware of the poetry due to them focusing on the beat and punch lines of songs or quickly labeling rap as provocative rather than hearing the message behind the lyrics. Jay-Z states an individual cannot half-listen to a

Originally from Marcy Houses housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City,[9] Jay-Z was abandoned by his father Adnes Reeves and shot his brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry[10] when he was twelve years old.[11] Jay-Z attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn, along with rapper AZ, until it was closed down. After that he attended George Westinghouse Information Technology High School in Downtown Brooklyn, with fellow rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, and Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey, but did not graduate.[12] He claims to have been caught up in selling drugs, to which he refers in his music.[11]

In the essay, “Hip-Hop’s Betrayal Of Black Women”(221), by Jennifer McLune, she vents her feelings regarding hip-hop songs that are rhythmically diminishing the value of black women. She provides example on how the lyrics are being voiced and how hip-hop artists do not seem to care. Kevin Powell in “Notes of a Hip Hop Head” writes, “Indeed, like rock and roll, hip-hop sometimes makes you think we men don’t like women much at all, except to objectify them as trophy pieces or, as contemporary vernacular mandates, as baby mommas, chicken heads, or bitches” (221). There have been apologizes for what the rappers have said but nothing to resolve the dehumanization of black women. McLune informs the readers that hip-hop singers belittle black women and make them invisible. Jay-Z, a popular hip-hop artist is brought to center stage by McLune. The essay shows the example of a part of Jay-Z song that says, “I pimp hard on a trick, look Fuck if your leg broke bitch hop on your good foot” (222). This lyric is a perfect example of how hip-hop artist have no remorse in the words they sing. The hurt feelings and loss of self-esteem black women suffer, is of no concern to the rappers. McLune expresses that those who are underground hip-hop artist follow the footsteps on being sexist and using crude words in their lyrics just because they yearn and dream of being in the spotlight. Upcoming rappers want to be loved like Jay-Z and other famous notorious rappers.

All of the songs on this album relay different messages to listeners. Most songs contain a lot of pathos, call to action and more. Pathos is really prominent in certain songs such as Sorry, Formation, and Freedom. An excerpt from Sorry says: “Now you want to say you 're sorry/Now you want to call me crying/Now you gotta see me wildin '/Now I 'm the one that 's lying/And I don 't feel bad about it/It 's exactly what you get.” This displays the emotions after getting out of a relationship or during the struggles of it. Other lyrics from this song that display this

On verse one, Kendrick is speaking about someone, which I will explain further, whom is mistreating him and his family, on how this person was filled with arrogance and even dared to chase a better life than what he ever had. He also rants on how he never needed him and he will never need him. Kendrick was extremely mad at this individual and the amount of pain in his voice, you can sense the hatred he carried inside him. He quotes, “The world don’t need you, don’t let them deceive you. Numbers lie too, f*ck your pride too, that’s for dedication. Thought money would change you. Made you more complacent. I f*ckin’ hate you, I hope you embrace it.” This is a message from Kendrick to K. dots actions, which he fights a difficult battle in his

In the first verse, West introduces a woman who has her problems with materialism. To elaborate on her condition, Kanye uses a pun by stating:

Based off the lyrics, the song is all about how Beyonce truly feels deep down inside. The message behind

Another rap artist she used in her argument was Shawn Carter, also known as Jay-Z. Jay-Z did not have a father as he grew up. Both Tupac and Jay-Z grew up as adolescents, who sold drugs, had guns, lived in the ghetto, and had a mentality of a thug or gangster. Even though they had those cons, they both rapped about being good parents will prevent your kids to be like them. “The fact that child abandonment is also a theme in hip-hop might help explain what otherwise appears as a commercial puzzle—namely, how particular music moved from the fringes of black entertainment to the every center of the Every teenager mainstreams” (Eberstadt). Hip-hop music does not only symbolize adolescent black teens, but also disobedient white teens.

This song is full of multiple literary devices such as hyperboles, metaphors, and imagery. The hyperboles in the song emphasize strong feelings such as love, hate, and pain. For example, “Just [going to] stand there and watch me burn” (Rihanna, 1), is emphasizing that she is in extreme amounts of pain and all that her significant other is doing, is watching her suffer. “You ever love somebody so much you can barely breathe when [you are] with [them]” (Eminem, 33), emphasizes and how he is so in love with

Another idea that interested me in the song was the idea of losing someone close to you. Chris demonstrates this idea by singing “And the tears come streaming down your face; When you lose something you can’t replace;When you love someone but it goes to waste.” These lyrics show us the anguish and pain of losing someone you love. The line “tears come streaming down your face” emphasizes the greiving as people will cry and feel misery from losing someone close to them. He then goes on to say “When you lose

The lyrics of a song often have no substance and a clear example would be any Britney Spears song. The lyrics of “All Falls Down” are very deep. They talk about the ideal situation in life; We should go to school, get a good job and make money to buy what we want. The lyrics then ask, what if this doesn’t happen? This is prevalent in the first verse. “She has no idea what she doing in college. That major that she majoring, it don’t make no money.” The song questions these everyday values because we focus so much on these things, we don’t realize there are more important things in life such as life itself. Even Kanye admits that he spent money at Jacob’s Jewellery store before he thought about a house. “I went to Jacob with

After this experience all of his friends and family told him that his opportunity is over, and to give up his dreams of becoming a successful rapper. He knew he has his chance and he blew it, but he never gave up. A few months later he gets another opportunity to rap in front of a crowd. He knew he had to seize the chance, and to prove everyone wrong. The song comes on, and it describes how he’s feeling before he goes on stage. He uses sentences like, “his palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs…” He is telling himself that if he blows this, his dream is over, and that “you only get one shot so do not miss your chance to blow, because this opportunity once in a lifetime”. When he finally goes on stage, he’s feeling nervous, but he’s so ambitious to get what he wants, that he starts to rap like no one has ever heard. The crowd was astonished, and knew that his rap was the best they’ve ever listened to, which kick started his career as a rapper. The song starts out with a piano playing, and then the piano stops, and very fast music comes in, and the rap starts right away. The rapping is intense, because when you’re hungry to achieve something you have to act intense about it.

Beyonce uses pathos, the first of the three appeals in her song by using very descriptive phrases. When she states, “I’d listen to her, `cause I know how it hurts,” Beyonce is telling her audience that she understands what it is like to be hurt, and that if she were a boy, she would treat her women better because she could understand where she was coming from. This tugs at the listener’s heart because you can see that she has been emotionally hurt from a past relationship. Also, many people can relate to what she is disclosing. It is human nature for people to get emotionally damaged in a relationship and therefore her feelings are empathized. She also uses syntax by the way she orders her words by telling a story. If the song was not in story form, it would not produce the great impact that it does.

The song implements on the hardships a mother will face for the growth of their son because love is what keeps them going. The love a mother will have for her son means that even though they don’t have a father figure around to show them how to grow up, they will always have their mothers to teach them the way of life through a woman’s perspective. In the song, “Dear Mama”, Tupac mentions, “For a woman it ain’t easy trying to raise a man, you always was committed” and he is able to foreshadow the hardships his mother had to face while Tupac was growing up without a father. At the age of seventeen Tupac, was always caught up in drama with his mom. Since Tupac was young he got involved into the hustle and was left in the streets where he basically had to risk he life every day. He never realized that being pushed into the streets would make him think about his mother or even worry about her. Tupac reflects upon the behavior he had during the time and how much stress he would add on his mother’s shoulders, but little did he know that his mother would be there for him regardless. Tupac Shakur’s mom was committed to his son and no matter the troubles he caused and faced she would be there for him to either help him out or at least hear him when he was not feeling good. She was a single mother on welfare, but she always tried