In my essay I will be telling you about the “reel” and real. The term real, as you probably know, means that it is a fact. The term reel means that it’s not real but made for entertainment purposes. The term originated from the movie reel, as it is made for entertainment purposes. The reel started in New York 1970 and was tackling subjects like police brutality, which affected the black community. This soon became popular with in the white community. Small record companies took in the rappers and later in got bought by bigger record companies. In white suburbia they liked the music but didn’t deal with police brutality, so they couldn’t relate to the music. The music companies wanted to change the music so they could sell more records. They changed the music to make it more hyper violent, and all consumers admitted that they liked the music and even more records got sold. The music then becomes the normal and rappers are scared of doing anything else, because they fell like that they wont earn any money. Soon the becomes so popular that people now have no interest in the police brutality, and hyper violent rap becomes the base for all rap. Because of this the record label companies are afraid to let the rappers change the type of music so they tell them that they wont sign them unless they stick to rap music.
Mos Def:
One MC, called Mos Def, criticised the reel in his song called Mathematics. On line said ” I got like 16 to 32 bars to rock it but only 15 percent of profits ever see my pockets” by saying this he is saying that the most that rap about money don’t really have that much money. In deeper meaning this could also mean that the rappers don’t have a say in how much money they get to keep.
Akala:
Another rapper that criticizes the real is Akala. Akala said “Apparently murdering man has become an aspiration”. This is saying that people are being influenced by the rap music to kill people which will give the rating. Akala used the word “aspiration” to show that this is something that young people will want to achieve. Its also something that they look up to, and should be glorified.
Kendrick Lamar:
To me the most influential raper is Kendrick Lamar. In Kendrick Lamar’s song, The Blacker The Berry, he says “You’re fuckin’ evil I want you to recognize that I’m a proud monkey”. This verse really shows how angry he is. He is referring to the white community when he says “your fuckin’ evil…”. This tells us that he sees the white community as an enemy. When he says “…I want you to recognize that I’m a proud monkey” it shows that he doesn’t care about what other people say about him. He embraces the word and turns into a sense of power like the words “Nigga” and “Queer”.
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