Introduce Your Genre
1. Identify your tentative “underappreciated” genre (or subgenre)
Evolution of Hip Hop and how drugs, guns, and woman are used in a song
2. What is interesting to you about this genre? Or, why might it be significant or otherwise worth paying attention to?
Hip Hop is my favorite genre of music, but I can’t help but notice that every rapper includes drugs that they do (weed, lean, molly etc.), guns that they carry and then tie it in to their songs, or they describe that they have a lot of money and use it to buy different things (Gucci belts, Versace etc.)
3. Tentatively, define/describe your corpus (collection of texts/examples)
??
4. Provide links (and/or titles) of five samples. (Try to gather samples from more than one “place” [or type] in order to obtain a diverse and accurate representation of the genre. For now, choose samples without significant deviations).
Crushed up-Future Hit’Em Up-2Pac (Ft. Outlawz) No LOL’z- LPB Poody
223’s- GlokkNine & YNW Melly Can’t leave without it- 21 Savage
Describe the Context
1. Setting: Where (in what context or medium) does the genre appear? How and when is it used? With what other genres does this genre interact? How?
This genre appears on most hip hop and rap songs which can be found on numerous sites or apps such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal etc. Depending on the song, it can be used frequently or very little or sometimes not at all. Not sure what other genres it interacts with but I’m sure they’re some others.
2. Subject: What topics, issues, ideas, etc. are common to this genre? When people use this genre, what are they communicating about?
There’re numerous things associated with this genre. To name a few: Cop shooting, different drugs, alcohol in some cases, women, current issues in the world etc. They can communicate literally anything. Any issue currently in the world can be talked about in a hip-hop/rap song and somewhere in the song drugs and woman etc. will appear in some manner.
3. Writers: Who writes the texts in this genre? Are multiple writers possible? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must writers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do writers write the genre (e.g., in teams, on a computer, in a rush, for their profession? for fun?)?
The song artist can write the texts or someone else can write the music for them. Yes, multiple writers are possible. The songwriter must be able to write song lyrics that go with the flow of the beat. If they go off beat it must at least sound good. they’re some rappers who sing off beat on purpose and that’s considered their “flow”. Usually, there’s a group who sit in the studio and write out some songs but that’s not always the case. The artist sometimes writes song lyrics by themselves first and then find a beat.
4. Readers: Who reads the texts in this genre? Is there more than one type of reader for this genre? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must readers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do readers read the genre (e.g., at their leisure, on the run, in waiting rooms)?
No one really reads the texts, but I guess reading song lyrics can be associated with this. I would say a lot of people read or listen to song lyrics for hidden meanings.
5. Exigency/Purpose(s): Why do writers write this genre, and why do readers read it? What purposes does the genre fulfill for the people who use it?
I would say they do it for pure enjoyment. People who write or read rap/ Hip-hop music must have some enjoyment of the genre. I think the fulfillment changes for each person. Not everyone is going to like the same artist or the same songs