Georgia... Bush

Lil' Wayne, native to New Orleans, Louisiana, released the mixtape Dedication 2 in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina. Additional to this mixtape, Lil' Wayne did many guest appearances and other mixtapes from 2006-2008. His support to New Orleans reminds fans that he hasn't moved on past his home town. He performed a tribute to New Orleans at the Grammy Awards in 2009.

His song "Georgia... Bush" released off the Dedication 2 mixtape in 2006 and attacked former president George W. Bush. Throughout his entire first verse, Lil' Wayne attacks the government and Bush, claiming that the people are unaware of the truth and that Bush is telling and showing the people what Bush wants them to view.

Wayne continues to criticize the flood and hurricane protection system in New Orleans and how poor they were in dealing with Hurricane Katrina. The second verse continues on violently attacking Bush and any Bush supporters. The level of intensity portrayed by Lil' Wayne in this song properly displays the effect Hurricane Katrina had on the people of New Orleans, as well as the feelings felt by the people towards the government and President Bush. Many believe that Lil' Wayne was out of line while attacking the President, however President Bush was warned before Hurricane Katrina hit about the possible breaches in the levees and the unpreparedness of the city of New Orleans.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11627394/ns/us_news-katrina_the_long_road_back/t/video-shows-bush-got-explicit-katrina-warning/#.ToIRD0-m2t8

The video above shows how President Bush clearly had prior knowledge about the threats of Hurricane Katrina and did not act in response to these threats.

Reppin' Your City Starts A Revolution

Everyone familiar with rap artist Wiz Khalifa knows how he prides himself in being from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His famous song "Black And Yellow" focuses on "repping" or representing his home town. A Top Hit on the Billboard's Hot 100 list, natives to Pittsburgh drew pride from this song, encouraging them to have extreme satisfaction in their city. 

 The song represents the colors of the city, as all of the sports teams and even the city flag are colored black and yellow.

 Wiz Khalifa's pride in his city continues on with the movement of "repping" your home. The controversial East and West rivalry is a prime example of the movement years before. However, the song Black and Yellow became the "anthem" for the Pittsburgh Steelers during the season in 2010 and continued on to be the anthem during Super Bowl XLV. On the contrary, Lil Wayne release his song "Green And Yellow" representing the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV. The idea of representing a team or city through music had created an ego-boost for the teams and players, as well as the fans. To think that a song could inspire so many people in an area to become more involved in their city pride is unbelievable in my opinion. As well as motivating listeners and fans, Wiz Khalifa's song Black and Yellow resulted in many parody videos with other rappers representing their cities colors. For example, The Game and Snoop Dogg collaborated on a song Purp and Yellow, representing Los Angeles, California and the LA Lakers.

Wiz Khalifa's song Black And Yellow started a movement spreading pride in ones city. As it grew in popularity, it started a revolution of city pride through the people across the United States during a time of depression.

Obama in the Media

I began thinking about this topic while reminiscing over Lil' Wayne's song A Milli

and remembering how there was an Obama Remix right around the time of President Obama's election race in 2008.

The music and media industries have worked with Obama, whether or not he was willingly cooperating, to attract attention to President Obama and the songs. I believe that videos like this helped Obama further grasp the attention of the youth of the nation. Many will agree with the fact that the younger people of the nation brought Obama to the top of the polls. This is evident when the large decrease in young voters in 2010 occurred. Although they are still supporting Obama, many did not bother to vote in 2010 costing Democratic seats in Senate and House. The drop in voters can be partially blamed for Obama's lack to reach out and inform the younger people and tell them they needed to vote. I believe that the publicity from the music industry involving Obama helped grab the youth's attention. The spoof video of Go Hard in the Paint by renowned rapper Waka Flocka Flames

called Head of the State by Baracka Flocka Flames

is another example of Obama's impact in the musical world and rap industry. The media's interest in President Obama may be stemmed from the easy publicity surrounding the power of President Obama combined with the additional publicity from being the first black president.

I feel the media abused President Obama to attract more attention and profit. He is seen everywhere and many are beginning to view him as the "King of all Media." As we near the next Presidential Election, I wonder whether or not we will see more media publicity in the music industry involving Obama and if there is more publicity, will this help him in the race.

Modern Rappers vs Old-School Rappers vs Society

Rappers of today are compared and defined by the rappers in the past. As new rappers emerge, listeners, fans and critics compare them to their old favorites. Aubrey Graham, also known as Drake, has emerged as a new upcoming rapper in the past few years. He has joined Young Money Entertainment, a group created by Lil' Wayne featuring many upcoming rappers.

His success started from his acting career and continued on to his rapping. His first few songs included stories of how he came to his success, troubles he had to overcome and the struggles to reach success. Among this group of "new-school" rappers, many of them rap about how they reach success. Drake, being more renowned presently, has surpassed the stage of dreaming and is living very successful.

Big Sean and Chris Webby for example, have released albums and/or mix-tapes describing their hope for success and power. Although they continue to aim for success, they sometimes meet disapproval. For instance, The Game, one of the "old-school" rappers showed them and many other rappers disapproval in his song Uncle Otis. The Game disses rappers all around in his song Uncle Otis, saying in one line "I'mma eat it up like it's my last, I'mma do it different, she ain't getting no cash. You know why? I'm not a star".

Some say that The Game dissing these "new-school" rappers is an introduction into the rap world, others believe that it is just his way of saying that all the "new-school" rappers won't reach the success that "old-school" rappers achieved. The Game is not the only old-school rapper dissing the rap industry of today, Nas's song Hip Hop is Dead describes how the rap industry has become commercial and is focusing more on business than the actual music.

Fans of rap today, for the most part, continue listening to old-school rap on ipods, cds, and other forms of music. Radio stations of today play the top hits of hip-hop and rap songs, they overplay and butcher songs, leading many people today to not listen to the radio. Those who do listen to the radio are usually followers and just listen to top hits to stay in the loop with their friends. Society today replays the same top hits for a period of time until a new hit is released. Rappers today are told they will not reach the same level as old-school rappers mainly because they are used by the radios once they become famous and receive criticism from listeners of the rap genre. New-school rappers simply cannot reach the same success as old-school rappers as they are abused by society's wants and desires. Once an underground artist gets on the radio, original fans sometimes feel the need to stop following the artist and finding a new underground artist. As a follower of both new-school rap and old-school rap, I am able to say that overplayed songs tend to irritate me, however this does not make me hate or dislike the artist. Although many people do dislike the new-school rap, there are still fans that promote the new upcoming artists. Taylor Gang, fans of artist Wiz Khalifa, is an example of fans dedicated to following Wiz Khalifa and his rise to success.