Monday, April 27, 2009

I love music, any kind of music...




It's Monday, which means it's Music Monday time! Remember, if you've missed any of the other Music Monday offerings, you can click the little label at the end of this post and that will bring up all the previous videos.

This weeks selection is My Life by The Game featuring Lil Wayne. As my faithful readers know, I chose another song by The Game a couple of weeks ago. I really want us to compare and contrast the two songs, so if you haven't heard the other one, or you need a refresher, you can click here.

The lyrics to my life can be found here.

And the video is below. Be ready for profanity, references to violence and drug use.



So, what do you notice?




A couple of things that I notice:

In all the lyrics that I've found on the internet they say, "I need meditation so I can leave my people." I always thought it said, "I need meditation so I can lead my people. Those two words give the line very different meanings, so I wonder which one is right.

We learn more about his father, who was apparently an IV drug user. This reminds me of the line in the other song when 50 cent says, "Daddy a'int around, prolly out commitin' felonies..."
There are still references to violence, but the context has changed.
In both songs he talks about getting the female caretakers in his life expensive cars.
There are a lot more references to white artists (Kurt Cobain, John Lennon) in this song than his previous one. This reminds me of last week's music monday selection. I wonder if this is just a trend, or something that will continue long into the future.

When he says, "F*ck Jesse Jackson, cause it a'int about race now" what do you think he means? If it's not about race now, what is it about?

I don't think I need to tell you that I want you to leave me comments, do I?
Ok, I want you to leave me comments.
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Posted by myblackfriendsays at 10:59 AM
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3 comments:

  1. I can't listen to the music now, and my itouch is being weird about posting here (can't see what I typed). Anyway, I think the Jackson reference says it's not just about race... It's about class too. Not very post-colonial... Or maybe it is. Though I suspect Jackson would agree with that, so maybe not!
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  2. Ok, now I've had a chance to listen to this week's song (and a bit of the one you wanted to compare it to.)

    Here's my question back to you. (Aren't the best questions answered with more questions?) I feel like you've got this unspoken agenda lingering. The question I sense just by the choice of songs and some of your comments is this. "What makes life so terrible for these people (the characters in the songs--whoever that is)? Who are we to blame for this injustice?"

    I feel like you're looking for a label to put on it (thus my post earlier about what I think the Jackson reference was about). I guess I see it as a bit of everything--race, gender, class. All the biggies that get their own discipline. My question, though, is does it matter what we call it? MUST we call it something other than a vicious cycle? Must we label it to find solutions? Does this create more problems and conflicting agendas?

    I guess the other unspoken question I sense is "what's the way out?" To that I have no answer. The teacher in me says education, but the realist in me knows that in America not everybody has a chance to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and it's so much more complicated than such a simplistic idea.

    I grew up with a lot of kids who live/d lives similar to the characters in those songs, and I've often wondered what made us take such different paths? Why was Angel pregnant at 13 while I ended up with an MA and full scholarships to my schools of choice? I think the biggest thing was my parents, and I don't know how to teach people to be good parents. Well, I have some ideas, but nothing foolproof :)

    I've just discovered your blog, and it has reminded me of being back in all those fun humanities classes I loved so much in college--just shooting the shit about stuff that matters in the world. I'll be coming back for more! You sometimes irritate me on the nest b/c I see you out there playing devil's advocate so much and I just want to know what you REALLY think, so this has been an interesting insight into your brain. (This is schoolsout, btw)

    So tell me if the unspoken questions were really hanging there or if I just projected onto you with what I've been thinking about ...
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