I agree one hundred and ten percent with the quote. The main motivation behind their music was their way of life. There lives were not easy at all, in fact many of their lives were the exact opposite. Many of them had to worry about whether or not they were going to get any food that day, they had to worry about how they were going to help pay the bills around the house, and in some even more severe cases they had to worry about whether they were going to make it through the day or not. Groups like N.W.A. channeled these everyday occurrences into their music. This made it not only more meaningful and allowed them to put more emotion into their songs, but it allowed them to tell the truth about their everyday struggles in life.
Groups like N.W.A. were not looking to become famous groups from the start. They started rapping to make a living for themselves, to make something out of their lives. They decided that the easiest things to put in their songs would be their everyday lifestyle. I think that besides wanting to make a living for themselves, they wanted to truly tell people who they were. They wanted to inform the public of what living in the ghetto of Compton really was like. They used rap as a form of freedom of speech to get a message across to the public. It allowed them to say whatever they wanted to say. F*** the Police is a great great example of this. They made this song right after they were wrongfully arrested and forced to go to the ground. This of course was how it happened in the movie. I do not know if it actually happened like that in real life or not, but either way the song allowed them to tell the public what happened to them. It allowed them to express their true feelings about the situations they were put in. They were allowed to tell the public about how badly they were treated. The police and the FBI did not like this very much and they wrote N.W.A. a letter. The letter was warning them that they better not keep singing their song about police brutality. I think that more than anything the police were worried about what kind of outbreak or uproar the songs could bring. Authorities thought that N.W.A's songs, and other rappers songs, were promoting violence and guns too much. I think that one big thing that really scared police and other agencies was the fact that rap was new. Many people had never heard it before. Some did not know how to feel about it. Some like it a lot and they started following it more closely. Still others were completely against rap music. It was new and it was change and many did not like this.
The 80's was a very harsh time in some parts of the country. People were getting beaten for no reason, shot down in the streets, arrested just because the police had the authority to do so. A change had to come sometime, somehow. People couldn't keep living the way that they were. The world was much too brutal of a place and something had to change. N.W.A. and other rappers like them helped to pave the way for change. The media did not want to cover some of the things that were actually happening. They wanted to cover them up so that most of the people in the public did not truly know what was happening. Discrimination was still viewed as a bad thing back then, it's just that many people did not care and they still did it anyways. Rappers had more power back then than anyone else. They had the ability to truly speak their minds without getting in trouble for it. They had the right to sing what they wanted and to say what they wanted. Other people were not allowed this right. The best thing about rap music back then is that they were very good at it. They were able to relay true life experiences into their work, which made it very meaningful. Since their music was very meaningful they believed in every word that they said. They were able to effectively rap and they made very catchy music. People started to hear it and many people started to listen to it. Like anything else, word traveled fast and their music was spread all over the United States and I am sure other parts of the world as well. Their music was very influential to many different types of people. People young and old and anywhere in between were affected in some way or form by their music.
In the beginning I think that they all wanted to start something new. They wanted to be cool and start a new trend. At the beginning they were all friends, They always had each others back and they wanted what was best for the group. This was rare for people growing up where they did and having to deal with what they had to deal with. This is what held them together and made them strong though. They all had problems and things wrong in their life. They used this to put into their music which gave their music a diverse range.
When things were simple and they were just making music and art to tell a story, everything was going great. But as they say nothing good lasts forever. Once people started listening to their music they started to gain momentum. They became more well-known and they started to make more money. They had no idea what they were doing and some people tried to take advantage of them. This created a lot of tension between people outside and inside the group. It tore the group members apart and it made a giant cluster out of everything. After this the group split up. Different members of the group started writing songs dissing the others and it made even more of a mess. Everyone's tempers were flaring. Eventually a change had to be made and they decided to started over new and fresh. They decided to bring the group back together and it was definitely for the better. Their music was all over throughout their career, talking about how and why everything happened.
The things that N.W.A. did were very incredible and ground breaking. They were the first major rap group of their time. What they did changed the game forever. It is pretty incredible to look back at all of the music that they created throughout their career. Starting off they rapped about how they grew up and what life was like, then they moved on to the good times and fame. After that they talked about problems in the world and problems within themselves. In the end they rap about things that happened in their life, and how they world helped to shape their career. Looking back on it their music tells a better story than any person really could. Their music shows how the world they grew up in shaped their lives. They told the brutal truth and they were not afraid to tell you that straight up. Their art portrayed their lives and how reality really was, and it left a lasting impact on the world and everyone in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment