Writing Project 2 - Essay Example

?Ill Mind of Hopsin 5 The rap song Ill Mind of Hopsin 5 is by the self-made hip hop artist Hopsin 5. The text of the song is the rhyming poetry called rap. The song starts with Hopsin cursing rap music and calling himself a freak and then ends with the line that “I just need you to be willing to journey into my Ill Mind” (Hopsin 5, 2012). The text is written in a way to criticize one’s self. Before anyone could call him an idiot or sick he calls himself ill-minded. The context of the song is the over popular rap image of hip hop artists. In today’s world, TV and media has made the youngsters believe that good life is about making money and doing drugs because that is what the superstars do. It is called the celebrity lifestyle. And everyone seem to join that club. It is just a smoke screen and people are wasting their lives, dreaming about that dream that someday they will have lots of money like those superstars they see on TV and then they will have ‘fun’. Hopsin 5 addresses this ‘fun’ in this song and trues to make a mockery of the vision it generates in people’s minds. Asking “Is that all you think life really is?” (Hopsin 5, 2012). It is very hard to find the subtext in this song. Rap songs are generally very explicit and there are usually not many hidden meanings. The general idea behind a rap song is ‘being real’ and not hypocritical; saying what you mean exactly how you mean it. Hopsin 5 does exactly that. He is trying to wake up his generation who in his opinion are like zombies. Their brain cells are rotting because of drugs and pop culture. At the start of the song Hopsin says this addressing the ‘kids’ he sees on the street. He says he has become a freak for those kids who stare at them. But in fact Hopsin 5 is observing them when they talk about cursing school and dropping out of school. Later in the song he addresses the same issue of dropping out and says that many kids are in school because their parents send them there, it is not their choice. Referring to a gift they have but they don’t appreciate. Hopsin 5 was not as famous as some of the rap superstars like Snoop Dog, Eminem or Jay Z. He starts his song by saying that he doesn’t like rap and shows his disgust. But he raps only because it works, it delivers the message and more importantly he can “if the shoe fits, wear it". It is very hard to say that Hopsin was a credible figure at the time he released this song and that his image and his personality would have ‘sold’. He calls himself a freak that the kids stare at him, only to make him more difficult to agree with. Pathos of Hopsin 5’s argument is very strong. In fact it is the single most powerful aspect that actually convinces the listeners that what he has to say is the truth. It is the pathos (the emotional appeal) that has got him over 32 million views for his song on YouTube (Hopsin 5, 2012). He puts his heart in the song and its shows. Other than the context, subtext and intertextuality, the video shows him persuasively and even aggressively talking or even ‘rap lecturing’ some ‘kids’ (kids is a just a slang for youngsters, the age group can range from 13-30) who are doing drugs and acting ‘cool’. The song is filled with second person narrative. The word ‘you’ has been used extensively, for each and every listener of the song. And that makes the emotional exorcism even stronger. The listener immediately starts to analyze himself. The target is the kids that are hooked to hip hop and ‘you’ is used to give them the rap lecture. This ‘you’ is the main weapon of the pathos as Hopsin 5 delves into what ‘your’ image of a fantastic life is. He shows ‘you’ the mirror and rephrases the dreams these kids cook up; to sell drugs so they can make them lots of money, and showing their bullet scars as trophies and that it is fun to live life like that. In the song he talks to this girl who is pregnant. He tells him that she is pregnant because it’s her own fault. All that glitters is not gold. If girls go to the club thinking that they’re going to find their prince charming there that makes lots of money than they are only fooling themselves. Such attitude is the reason they are in this state. They go to the clubs, half naked, get drunk their and dance that is supposed to attract attention. It is a perfect recipe for getting pregnant when they don’t really want to. It is almost as if the girls are looking for a guy who has lots of cash than they will only get pregnant by junkies and then later they wish they’d die. This is pure emotional onslaught. This is pathos at its best. Girls who are going through such experience in their lives will immediately be drawn to the message of the rapper and they have no choice but to agree with Hopsin 5, he makes his point by scratching out the sorrow and regret that these girls are hiding. More so the parents who would be listening to this song will agree because they are concerned about their daughters. No parent wants their girls to get pregnant when they are 15 because they got drunk or under the influence of drugs. The beautiful thing about the song is it also incorporates logos in it. The rapper logically puts forward his argument and it makes sense. He says that majority of the hip hop fans are hooked on to this genre of music. They see these rap superstars with their big house and cars and larger than life lifestyle. They see them rolling in cash and think that someday that is exactly what will happen to them, the huge piles of cash will magically appear somehow. When the truth is, they are too lazy to do the labor. They start something (business, idea, work, etc.) and two minutes later they’re tired and they get rid of it. It is as if their mind is constantly seeking distractions. And Hopsin 5 takes some part of that blame on him. He admits that he has been the culprit himself feeding kids their fantasies. In short he has also lived some part of his life just like the kids he is lecturing and now he feels regretful. He says he is embarrassed and ashamed because he took a part in the ‘devilish game’ himself. He refers to acting ‘cool’, cursing and dropping out of school. But there is a difference between him and the other kids; they never had strict parents. Hopsin 5 doesn’t deserve the full blame because if parents had done their part things could have been way better for their kids. Instead for being consumed in their own lives, they could have paid more attention on their kids. And instead of buying them things thinking they have done their job, they could have invested their money in their kids by teaching them discipline and educating them about the ways of the world. This critique of parents is later connected with how the kids live their lives today. They just think and dream and don’t actually do anything. They don’t read box, don’t even play properly, or draw, the kids are just living for a ‘whack’ cause that their society and environment has fed them. It’s like a drug, its make them dream and fantasize. And the harsh reality is kids complain for their life’s miseries when there is no one to blame but the kids themselves. And when someone tries to show them the mirror, suddenly he is a ‘hater’. Which Hopsin is most probably referring to himself. The timing or the notion of decorum has been played to the fullest. The song has been released at a time when the kids wake up to television who feeds them celebrity dreams and they go to sleep dreaming about that ‘big house 5 cars live large’ fantasy. Among all these popular media drugs such a song that shakes up people’s reality is deemed to get attention. Most of the people are aware subconsciously that what they are hopelessly and endlessly pursuing only in their minds is nothing but an endless loop. So when they hear this song it is showing them the mirror when their minds are filled with media fantasy. The imagery used in the song is almost the same that is the essence of successful hip hop music videos. They show clubs with attractive girls and men who are puffing smoke. And the audience does what they see on TV. They start doing drugs, going to the club and make it their lifestyle. The audience idolizes these rappers and when someone tells them they are only ruining their lives, they start hating the person. Hopsin 5 does a wonderful job of making his song and video a success. He didn’t get signed to a record label, he didn’t have to. His message was powerful and he is successful in persuading people. At least that is what is evident from the ‘likes’ on his YouTube video. References Hopsin 5. "Hopsin - ILL MIND OF HOPSIN 5." YouTube. HopsinTV, 18 July 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. . Read More