Rhetorical anaylsis PDF

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Rhetorical analysis of a song, ...

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Michael Jackson February 2nd Rhetorical first Draft Professor Fu As of December 29, 2017, Police in the U.S. killed 1,129 people and a quarter of those killed were black Americans, even though the black population in the United States is comprised of just thirteen percent according to a news report. The stealing of black bodies via police brutality has increased in recent years causing an uproar among the black community. The infamous Twitter “#blacklivesmatter” is widely known in the United States as a constant reminder that not only black lives matter but as a nation, we have failed to ensure this to be true. If black lives really mattered in America, then #blacklivesmatter would have no need to exist. The black community, in an uproar, finds different ways to not only vent their struggles living in black skin in “white” America but also promote awareness. Black rappers rap about police brutality effectively spreading awareness while stirring strong emotional responses from their audience to not take this issue lightly by strongly appealing to emotions. One particular black artist by the name of Kenneth Whalum used his platform as a songwriter and transformed his poem to a rap song featuring another black artist, Big K.R.I.T., called “ Might Not be Okay”. This track provides a soul food that resonates in a time of persistent police brutality. The track’s conversion from a poem to a lyrical song capturing the essence of hurt enabling a wider audience to tune in that feeling in a click of a button as opposed to just reading the lyrics as a poem. The track starts with the chorus of Kenneth singing in a melancholic voice that he is scared and is going through the struggles that every person of color faces. Four of the five lines in the

chorus has “I” to portray Kenneth as an audience member rather than the lone star on stage, “ And I can’t see the sun through all the darkened rays I don’t claim to have the answer, it’s more than some can say.” Kenneth is directly speaking to people of color when he repeats, “I won’t tell you that its gon’ be ok”. The line repeating itself is an attempt of him dispelling any misconception that he has an answer to anything. Normally, people repeat when they want to be understood and Kenneth does just that. He needs people of color to understand that he, like us, cannot see the “sun”, hope, through “darkened rays”, police brutality. In the first eight lines, Big K.R.I.T. appeals to reasoning by taking jabs at the government and our world as we know it. Big K.R.I.T. manipulating verbs with the “-in” ending provides consistency in each insult carrying more weight. He starts with “Mommas been cryin’ and they gon keep cryin’” and ends his verb play with “The government been lyin and they gon’ keep lyin’”, providing a clear roadmap to the conclusion that our government is notorious for turning the blind eye against police brutality. Big K.R.I.T. calls out news channels “propaganda” because they’re only here for entertaining purposes now; and the deeper underlying problem with cell phone footages. Once a black body hits the pavement from an unwarranted police gun firing, video phones come out, news channels that have been bought by the government cover the story, and now the world is desensitized to a murder because eyewitnesses are not enough and “camera phone videos is like all we know.” In the next set of lines, Big K.R.I.T utilizes a rhetoric to shed light on desensitization of police brutality and murder. He switches point of view to “them”, the cops, in “According to them your eyes can’t adjust to the violence you aint used to see.” The use of this rhetoric is effective because it gives the black community a chance to know non-black community feel that “Police

brutality is all in your mind”. The pronouns Big K.R.I.T. uses don’t refer to any particular person or people but listeners can get a feel for when he uses “you” or “they”. In usage this way, he is able to point out the pure absurdity of desensitization of black bodies dying as if it's just going through the motions and that death is something natural and daily in life. K.R.I.T laughs at the absurdity cops can still claim “you shootin” when hands are behind backs and faces are down. Big K.R.I.T. embodies all the qualities of a hateful, crooked cop and exploits them in a theoretical encounter from the cops point of view to express the malice of cops and rile up animosity towards police brutality. He takes his listeners inside the mental psyche of a despicable cop appealing to our emotions by placing his listeners at the end of those hard-hitting questions and statements, “Someone I fear, I need to kill it.” “It” refers to the black man or woman that's being held by the cop; however, cops don’t see black bodies as humans. Cops see black bodies as something to fear and any slightest movement warrants to be killed. The same usage of verb contraction is seen here with the addition of nouns contracting the same manner, “F**** yo’ feelin’s.” His constant contraction enables listeners to follow the series of questions effortlessly while his use of sibilant slows down his words in order to really echo and resonate with listeners. Big K.R.I.T. wants what he is saying to be easily understood and slowed in order to really transfer his anger and rage to the black community, his listeners. The black community is able to immediately empathize with him on a personal level when he raps about several notions such as cop’s point of view, racially profiling, or “fit[ing] the description”. In the last three lines, K.R.I.T returns to rapping from his point of view and use choppy words and short sentences to reflect the short lifespan of black bodies in America and their memories. K.R.I.T manipulates the word “another” to “‘Nother” several times in order to express raw anger

and emotions. The jerky nature coincides with the content or meaning of the words. Another body is dead, another t-shirt with names and another rap lyric, it seems to K.R.I.T. that the black community is all too familiar with this. K.R.I.T is expressing his frustration that as a community we cannot have a code of some sort similar to a school’s fire drill, “I can’t forgive it.” “Might not be Ok” was originally a poem written by Kenneth Whalum. The conversion from poem to a song was a means to achieve the goal of a greater audience appeal in the black community. The difference between a poem and a song is music. Music plays a role a huge role in modern society. Almost everyone we know today listens to music on a daily basis. By converting to a popular medium, Kenneth successfully appealed to a wider audience. He also asks Big K.R.I.T, who has a prominent role in the rap culture, to join him on the track providing appeal to fans of his. I wish theese perepole were rreally gone aj fi ej jdnv dnvidnv eineia ianinaionai awinawionaioneneejejejenf

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