Essay 1 Hip Hop - Grade: B+ PDF

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Saturnina Lee 12 February 2018 Professor Loper ENGL 1102 Normalization of Drugs in Hip Hop During my elementary school years, I always listened to hip hop music, but I never understood the real meaning behind some of the songs I were listening to in that time. I grew up in a Christian household, so a lot of the “street terms” used in hip hop I did not understand. The first hip hop song that I actually understood the real meaning was “Novacane” by Frank Ocean. My first time hearing “Novacane,” I was sitting on the passenger side of my mom’s car on a brisk,cool October afternoon. My mom usually has her radio on the local gospel station, so when she would get out of the car, I would turn the radio to the local hip hop station. The song was at the very beginning and from the start of the beat, I was in love with the song. I remember closing my eyes taking in every upbeat and downbeat and listening to Frank Ocean say,”What are we smoking anyway? She said don’t let the high go to waste, but can you taste a little taste of novacane.” I knew he was talking about smoking, but the entire time in my mind I’m thinking,”What are they smoking? Why are they smoking? Is this feeling making them feel good inside?” I was curious to find out and this is where my research started. As soon as I got home, I opened my laptop and started looking up the lyrics. I searched each lyric in urban dictionary and Merriam Webster just to compare the meanings of the words and to get an in depth understanding. I finally discovered the song was discussing drugs and sex. The drugs made Frank Ocean and this particular female “not feel anything” when they were having sexual relations. Many hip hop artist have wrote and rapped about drugs and the sense of them “not feeling anything” when they are high. Artist like Future, Lil Uzi Vert, and Lil Peep (who died from an overdose of Xanax) have rapped about using drugs just to “not feel anything” when they are dealing with issues like depression. Drugs has become a very prominent topic for rappers to discuss in rap music. In “Novacane” Frank Ocean proceeds to repeat the word novacane and then repeats afterwards to numb the pain. Then he says,”novacane novacane, for the pain, for the pain.” “Frank Ocean’s “Novacane” is an unlikely hit about feeling spiritually numb by excess and normalization of drugs.” 1 In recent years, many artists have made drugs seem “cool” to take and artist are always using them to cover up other things. Many hip hop artist have stated in multiple songs that they use the drugs to hide their depression, or life issues that they are dealing with. “The unexpected radio crossover jam “Novacane” is a love song of sorts, but it is a love song 1

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about a girl so gone on drugs that Ocean, wanting to be close to her, has no choice but to get gone on the same drugs.” Many artist have rapped and rhymed about using drugs to “numb the pain” of what they are really going through. One artist that does this very much is Future. “I took 56 bars all in one month nigga and I’m still drinking.”(“56 Nights”) Future consumed 56 bars of Xanax within a month along with drinking codeine. Future’s drug addiction was a way for him to deal with his personal pain and struggles. 2 “Codeine Crazy” is a record by future in which he, of course, talks about codeine and why he uses it. “The track highlights Future’s regular cathartic method: drowning out problems with exuberance and excess.” “When we’re cuddling, yeah I’m covered in/I was dug in it, I was just loving it.” This particular line references how Future loves both women and lean, but he used the lean to fog over his true emotions. 3 “Wash the molly down with champagne, wash the xanny down with syrup, hope it take all this damn pain away,” a depressed Future raps about in “Hardly.” Future wrote this song in remembrance of a close friend that he lost and in order to cope with the empty void he is feeling from that friend not being there, he uses drugs to try to ease the pain. Lil Uzi Vert and the late Lil Peep have been one of the most recent artist known to rap about drugs being used to “numb the pain” Lil Uzi’s “XO Tour Lli3” talks about his breakup with his ex Brittany and how he is using xanny to “numb the pain” and “make it go away.” He also talks about how he’s committed to consuming this pill and he’s so high he can not feel the pain anymore and the medicine is slowing him down. The late Lil Peep most infamous song called “Drugz” opens up with ,”Yeah, I do them drugz, don’t give a fuck what you think. Only do it for the pain, it be fuckin’ up my brain.” 4 These artist are not the only artist, but they are some of the most prevalent ones who raps about drugs and using them cope with depression. There are many unfortunate consequences with rap culture and drugs 5. All music tends to share the artist truth. Their music may be a cry for help. Instead of glorifying and just singing along to the songs, maybe we should try to help these artist out. Or maybe, this is just a new era of hip hop. Glorifying drugs and making them seem normal and apart of everyday life.

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h  ttps://www.highsnobiety.com/2017/02/17/emotional-future/ h  ttps://genius.com/Lil-peep-drugz-lyrics 5 https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/11/23/why-glorify-drugs-in-hip-hop/ 4...