The Finale !

Oh man Oh man. What fun this was.

This last blog post is a closing statement for all of the people that read my posts and followed me. I guess you can say that I've come a long way since my first blog post all the way in September, which was quite a mess if I do say so myself. I remember starting my blog and making it a general music blog, until I realized that it was too difficult to maintain so many different genres in one blog, when my favorite genre is Hip Hop. After that realization, I made many mistakes and made much progress from there. I guess I was confused at what I wanted to write about until I narrowed it down to the one thing that I love the most and after writing so much about it, I began to love the idea of blogging! Even though it was for an English class, I see myself blogging more after the class is over because its a great way to share your ideas and let people know what your thinking. I absolutely love having discussions with my classmates and friends too and this was a great way to enforce it. However, although I liked blogger, Im going to try something new and make my transition onto Tumblr. So if you guys are interested, find me there :]

So, this is my farewell to you guys ! Have an awesome winter break <3
much love.

Marshall Mathers

Up until now, I think I've exhausted blogger with all those posts on Kanye. So I will take a break and write about another rapper that I love.

Im sure all of you know who this man is... incase you didn't, he's Marshall Mathers, also known as, Eminem.

He's definitely one of those rappers that fit the description... thug status, grew up in a bad neighborhood, made it from the bottom to the top etc. I mean none of that mattered to me when I first started listening to him which was at about age 12. At that time, I think every kid that was entering their teenage years was in their confused stage, and I was definitely one of those kids. I had some bad times that year... and my friends weren't the best either so I resorted to music. I remember watching 8 Mile, and for some odd reason, I found myself relating to Rabbit(Eminems Character) and his problems. He was the white boy, living in a trailer park, everyone doubted him and he was just a mess. I felt the same exact way, minus the trailer park so when I heard "Lose Yourself" I fell in love.

He was that hard core rapper that let out all of his feelings in his songs, and when I had my bad days I knew that if I couldnt talk to anyone, I could listen to him and know that I wasn't alone. But I wasn't 12 forever. When I finally got out of that awkward, I hate everyone phase, I found my love for music especially rap.

Something about the rawness of it all captivated me. I mean I'm a girl and for some, its weird that I listened to Eminem, Nas, Jay, 50 etc. especially at that age because of all the profanity in their music BUT I didn't care.

Now that I'm 18 and my music taste has grown, especially my selection of rappers, I learned a lot more about Eminem than I did when I was 12.

His life was basically a struggle, all his life he had problems with either his wife, his friends, his drug problem, his crazy persona. All of these things made him who he is today. If you ever paid attention to the albums he put out... he went from Infinite to Slim Shady LP to Marshall Mathers LP to The Eminem Show to Encore to Relapse and finally, Recovery. I remember reading his book "The Way I Am" and he said how at first he'd talk about doing drugs in his songs, without even knowing what it was like, and then when he actually started it all went downhill from there. He had a constant battle with drugs and it got to a point where his album Relapse, was one of the worst albums I've ever heard in my life and he agreed too. In his song "Not Afraid" he says

& to the fans, I'll never let you down again, I'm back. I promise to never go back on that promise, in fact, let's be honest, that last Relapse CD was "ehhhh"

So I guess, we're gonna have to take him up on that promise and believe that he wont go back to drugs again... Which is a step. I also remember in his book, he said that he hated all of attention the media gave him, all he wanted to do was make music come home and be away from the negativity and the flashing lights. He also didnt want his daughters to grow up and be afraid of leaving the house because of paparazzi. He just wanted a normal life and to hear that from a celebrity is pretty cool. Usually, everyone that wants to be famous, does it partially for the spotlight. But Em only wants to make music because thats what hes good at and now that hes got his life back in order, its gonna be better than EVER :]

FEEDBACK!! :D

Often times we have big musical groups split up and spawn artists who like to do things solo and leave the rest of them in the dust. For example Wu-tang clan when M and Redman decided to create the masterpiece known as Tical. Beyonce leaving Destiny's Child to do her own thing. Busta Rhymes leaving Leaders of the New School to do his own solo. Q-tip working on his own projects. Why do u guys think this is? Maybe because they have all this money and there fellow artists no longer care for it. Could it be an inflated Ego? Discuss below. I'd like to hear what you guys think. And fill me in if I missed a few groups, I def I did.

A Few Important People In My Life...

Music: an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner.

That's Google's definition of music for ya, sounds boring doesn't it. Well, a few years ago I thought the same thing. For me, music was just something to pass the time, it sounded good, it was there, whatever.

Up until I met a few people that changed my perspective on the music I listen to and completely changed MY definition of music. Being in a high school with a very talented music program, I've come to learn that music comes in all different types of forms, and every single one has a meaning behind it.

I met a girl in high school, her name is Yoon its actually Na Eun but i call her by her last name :]
I thought she was a super cute little asian chick and of course I brought the stereotype in and thought she was a super nerd that was trying to make it into an ivy league lol. But I was completely off. After sitting next to her in english class for a whole 10 months, I've come to learn that there's sooo much more to her than meets the eye. She was someone I looked up to because she was smart, and musically gifted and artistic and funny and little does she know, she taught me that music can change how someone feels and thinks. She'd write poetry, and was a part of the jazz band and make her own music, and rap and make videos and they were always SO good! She taught me about expressing myself in more ways than one, and thanks to her, I can't go a day without listening to music, or finding some new music to listen to. I guess music to her is a form of expression and individualism, a way for people to understand where she's coming from and what she wants, who she is, where shes going etc. & its true when they say that the music you listen to describes who you are because after meeting Yoon, I realized that shes more than just a girl who's trying to make it into a good college and graduate with all A's, Shes an eminem loving, poetry writing, video making, jazz loving, dancer rapper and amazing friend :] So check out her youtube page and subscribe because shes awesome.

Another person did this was my friend Sam, she sat next to me in english as well. She'd write poetry and her poetry wasn't your average every other line rhymes poem, she wrote spoken word poetry. A type of rhythmic poetry that originated in the 1990's in NYC. Her words we're like weapons on a paper, she'd write about everything from problems to people to things, basically everything. However, her words would flow like a song and the metaphors in her poetry were incomparable to anything I've ever seen before. I remember going to a Poetry Slam where she competed against 100+ other teens. Getting up on stage and spilling your soul out to a bunch of faces you don't even know is a challenge to any average teenager out there, and I remember the nervous look on her face, but as soon as she opened her mouth, her poetry filled the room. It was like a story and a song and poetry intertwined it one. There is only one word to describe it and that is INCREDIBLE. The format of Spoken word poetry became one of my favorite ways of expressing myself, although I'm not as good as Sam, I love the idea of being able to write things in such a free and open manner. Although poetry isn't music, to me spoken word poetry is music because a song without the beat is poetry. This is one of the main reasons why I love rap so much because even without the music, the words still sound like they belong.


With that being said, for all those people that think that music is just there, keep in mind that to some people its a passion and so much more <3

Homemade Video by Yours Truly :D

There was a Slick Rick Concert at BB Kings in Times Square on Friday & I got to go! It was an awesome experience because I got to hear some real old school rap and I made this video to show how music has changed over the past 3 decades. I hope you enjoy it, dont forget feedback !

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem, or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams.

As you already know my 3 favorite rappers at the moment are KiD CuDi, Lupe Fiasco, & Kanye West. With all the things that Kanye is putting out at the moment I'm going crazy with excitement, because most of it is free :D. One of my favorite things that he did recently is his short film, Runaway, which I posted about a few days ago. In case no one saw it and has trouble with the link i provided earlier, you can watch it in this post! :]




Anywho, I'm a fan of this short film. I find it interesting, artistic and different. At first, before even watching this movie, I expected it to be a movie/ interview about the song and his new album etc. Basically a bunch of boring stuff. But once I actually watched it, it kind of opened my mind to other things and made me realize that music can also be art. In the movie, Kanye used symbolism, metaphors and color schemes that all brought his song to life, I mean that's what a movie is, however, there were some points where he left you wondering, which added on to the curiosity. For example, when he shows the phoenix the fireworks and there's a marching band and men walking in red KKK looking outfits, in my mind I said "what the hell is he doing? and why is this important?" I was so confused, I didn't get it. But later on you realize that using his songs from the new album, he was trying to show his viewers that he's doing something different and that its okay to be different, because sticking to the norm makes things dull. The use of the phoenix added on to that when she says "The one thing that I hate about your world is that everything that is different they try to change." That line is really important since there isn't much dialogue in the movie and it cleared things up for the viewers. The art behind this movie are the colors, the vibrant colors he uses with the whites and teals, everything makes sense but its also mixed. Not only the colors but the music too, the whole movie is based on the music in his new album. Not only did the music make sense with what was going on, but it also transitioned well with the scenes. In the end, you can see that he lost his phoenix girlfriend because she was afraid to live in his world mainly because she was different. This sums up his movie and brings some of his life into the picture. Within the past few years he's lost countless of important people. One was his mother, Donda West, who lived to do everything she could to help Kanye live his dreams. She was an important person in his life as he states in his song "Hey Mama" and her death severely affected his life and work (even actions if you guys remember the 2009 VMA's). With his film and his new album he's showing the world that hes back and hes ready to work and make his fans happy.

MMM Whatcha Say?

Being someone that appreciates music on all different types of levels, I was curious as to how others might feel about music, whether its music as a whole or their own particular favorite genre. I asked a few of my friends the following questions, hoping to understand their background on the topic and hear how they feel about music:
1. How is music important to you?
2. What kind of music are you interested in and why?
3. Do you feel that music is changing over time, if yes, is it a good thing or a bad thing & why?
4. How does music affect you, and how do you think its affecting people as a whole?

The majority of responses I received were the same. 1 out of 4 people however, had a completely different mind set on the topic.

For the most part, people felt that music is an important aspect of their lives. For example, one person said that "music is definitely my best friend" because although one can speak to someone about how they feel it'll never sound as good as it does in a song. Most music is like poetry, at least good music. It has the ability to flow and it triggers an emotion in the mind and the body and makes you feel at home and accepted. For everyone else, music is an escape from daily troubles and life in general. I can say the same thing because as much as I like a good beat, I appreciate a song more if it relates to how I feel, and that can either be a good feeling or a bad feeling but whats important is that I have a song that can define my feeling.

Although there are tons of genres out there, the people I interviewed liked hip hop and rap the most, even hip hop that's just a good beat without witty lyrics. Music is music, it's available in all kinds of languages and genres but of course everyone has a story behind how they came across to love a specific genre. Here's an example from someone I interviewed :

I have always been interested in rap. I never clearly knew why, all I know is I heard my first rap song in the 3rd grade and have been hooked ever since. When I first heard “they shooting, aww made you look, you a slave to a page in my rhyme book,” i was so excited. I had never heard something like it. Then as I grew some of the songs became relatable but I can’t say that’s why. I like rap because some songs that have nothing to do with me still capture my attention. Maybe it’s the way the words flow or the ideas behind, but a good rap song always seems to capture my attention.

As you can see, some people form a liking towards a genre at a young age however, that might change once you get older, it all depends on the person. It might also depend on if music changes over time, and if that change appeals to you. The idea that music changes is true, because the music that was around in the 80's is not the same at it is now. This is because "the things we can do with music now are a lot more in depth than what we could have done decades ago. Music production has changed with technology. The sounds as well." Most changes are due to the fact that with newer technology it is possible to do so much more, however, a drum is still a drum and that was an instrument that was around even when the Native Americans lived in North America. Although now there are new drum sets that are made with better equipment and materials the idea of a drum still remains the same. As far as, if change is a good thing or not, if music didn't change over time it would get boring and die out fast. In order for music to continue it needs to change, just like fashion, it always changes but it often takes trends from older days and modifies it to make it modern. This is the same for music, the basics stay the same, the details of it change over time.

For everyone, music affects them differently, it can be something that's said, the beat, the emotion, etc. However, regardless of how it affects them most people find music as a necessity. In this era, music is available EVERYWHERE. Literally. Its in the radio, on tv, on the computer, in an ipod, on the phone, even on the train. This makes it so much easier for people to accept music and have it affect them in a certain way. I remember, in my english class, sophomore year of hs, my teacher used music as a means of teaching us the historical background of the book we were reading in class. Not only does music provide lyrics, emotion and beats, it also provides us with some information on the time period that the song was written. It's a part of history. This is why music is important.