Author: ibcoonteh

Posted in Student Projects, Zimbabwe

The Love for music Boxed Up

Posted on by ibcoonteh

The song I selected for this assignment was Studio in the Cemetery by UG Boyko. Boyko music was unique and well put together. The music had some sort of techno beat along with a trap feel to it. Throughout the song, he talks about not being put inside of a studio. Boyko is saying that if he enters the studio he will drop incredible lyrics. He has a great amount of confidence in his music, and one can notice that from his lyrics. He does not care about anything in the world if he has his microphone and studio. Boyko claims that he can teach other artist a couple of things. According to this track, Boyko cares about the studio more than he did attending school. One can tell after listening to the studio in the Cemetery, that Boyko has several women and haters. He describes one of the women that he is dating to have a butt that is as a big as Hippopotamus. He was very descriptive through his lyrics, painting a picture of events for anyone that was not there to witness the events themselves. He also explains through his lyrics that the studio is down in the cemetery. Boyko is at great distress, and smokes to help deal with all issues he has faced in the past with his father. His dad caused him a great amount of pain as a child. In Boyko’s younger years he was timid, and did not make clear life decisions. He has also had to deal with the death of people close to him, which caused him to gain a great amount of pain. Overall, one can really enjoy the song, because it has a great amount of life lessons that are expressed throughout it.

 

Posted in South Africa, Student Projects

We Must Hustle as a Society!!!

Posted on by ibcoonteh

 

The song I selected for this assignment was Hustle by Justeez Leauge of Riches. He is a South African artist. I enjoyed how the song started off with the long instrumental in the beginning, just to gain the attention of the audience. One must respect the message of the song which is hustle. This song can fall in the motivational category, with the way he advocates his music throughout the song. He questions why individuals would not want to hustle to achieve their goals. He talks about how people must hustle every second of the day, to achieve things such money, cars, and houses. Justeez says you must hustle if you want to eat and truly be successful. Through Justeez’s track one can learn they may not want to hustle but they must understand it. He also goes in to them talking about why people would want to hustle all their life, then to be controlled. He ties this in with individuals going to college who still must follow certain imaginary rules after they earn their bachelor’s degree. This can relate to a job not hiring someone because they have tattoos or dreads, when they are clearly qualified for the job. An event like this happened to my football coach because he had his whole neck and arm covered in tattoos. This resulted in him losing out on a 400,00 thousand-dollar coaching job, just because he had tattoos. We should be able to hustle and achieve anything we want if we truly deserve it. Justeez desires to work for himself, so he can make his money. From listening to Justeez song, one can see that he is educated and knows what to do when it comes to being successful.

Posted in Diaspora, Female Emcees, Ghana, South Africa, Student Projects

Gender Roles of Women Around the Globe

Posted on by ibcoonteh

The two videos I selected for my fourth blog was Kisses by Fifi Cooper and Skwod by Nadia Rose. Fifi Cooper was born in South Africa and Nadia Rose was born in London, England. I selected these two artists for very specific reasons. They were chosen as the focus of my post because of the ways differences in the ways in which they express their womanhood. Fifi Cooper upholds the roles of what many would expect from women throughout the world.  Cooper constantly sings about love. However, Nadia Rose, on the other hand, in the song Skwod displays a very hardened and masculine image, often frowned upon in many societies. In the videography, Rose wears a jump suit, as she raps about her crew. In her lyrics she states that she has the capacity to kill anyone with her flows, and that her rap verses are like punch lines. Rose was not afraid to tell people that she was their worst nightmare.

Society often forces people into particular boxes. Those who do not agree with or are unable to fit within these categories can become ostracized and judged for their decisions. Women all around the globe often find themselves considering the impact of their decisions on their friends, family, and society.  This same pressure is often not placed on men, who are frequently encouraged to act on their impulses and enjoy the wonders of life. Rose strays very far from traditional ideologies of womanhood, but comfortable in her aggression and independence. The artist, Cooper, differed entirely from Nadia. as deemed for women. Even her style differs from Rose, she spends time to ensure she appears beautiful and even wears clothing to show her body; this differed significantly from Rose who style of choice was loose clothing and sneakers. Even in Rose’s musical lyrics she discusses hanging with her crew and getting into fights, this is behavior Cooper would never agree with. On the alternative, Cooper discusses love and kisses,  throughout her entire song.. In the opening seen of Cooper song Kisses, she is applying lip stick and constantly looking at herself in the mirror. They even emphasize her vanity by showing her with a telephone shapes as a pair of lips. When comparing the two women, Cooper seems to comply to societies typical gender norms, which describe women as being emotional creatures, unable to separate their emotions from their normal day to day activities.   These two videos were both very interesting to compare, as they showed differences in gender roles within society.

 

Posted in Diaspora, Ghana, Student Projects

M.anifest’s Coming to America

Posted on by ibcoonteh

The artist I selected to represent their country and the African diaspora was M. Anifest. He made a video titled Coming to America which one can find to do a pretty effective of representing not only M. Anifest’s country, but also the diaspora. Now the song Coming to America is very catchy and lyricle. The artist Anifest is able to use the song to paint a picture for what an individual has to go through when travelling outside of the country has to go through. M. Anifest is viewed and labeled as the King of Ghana Hip-Hop in 2017, also winning best Hip Hop and rapper song of the year for Ghanaian music. M. Anifest music is so popular, it did a great job of helping Ghana become a more popular country. His popular music bring respect to the country. Anifest music also does a great job of bringing tourist to the country. His music is played in America, so individuals now want travel to the country to see what of music or even events the country has offer. M. Anifest did a great job showing what an individual goes through when traveling to America. Things such as not being able to contact your loved ones back in Ghana or not being understood because of your accent all relates to the African diaspora. These are the experiences that individuals undergo when leaving their country such as Ghana and traveling to America or a foreign place. M. Anifest constantly expresses this idea of not knowing, meaning what is coming. To one he seems to be referring to opportunities that may or may not occur. America has painted to this picture that there will be more opportunities for individuals if they leave their current country. So, M. Anifest really emphasizes how he does not know what opportunity is coming next. Overall, his music helps brings great recognition to the country he is from which is Ghana and also displays experiences that individuals face with the African diaspora.

Posted in Diaspora, Student Projects

Erykah Badu

Posted on by ibcoonteh

The song I selected for this blog was Window Seat by Erykah Badu. This song was produced in 2010, exactly two years The Healer. In this video she starts off as a woman who has several levels of layers on, asking for a window seat. She is longing for this lover, and begins to strip nude. Erykah wants some sort of relief in regards to her love life. She starts off wearing a trench coat and hoody. She takes her clothing of piece by piece out in the broad daylight. There are several individuals around her that range from all ages. At the end of the video she gets shot down, after being shot down she then states people reject what they do not understand. Individuals refuse to accept change, and will do anything to make sure things are not effective. Erykah explains that a woman does not need a man to love her, and that no women should long for love. Often times throughout the women and men seek love, when they need to have confidence in themselves. Erykah Badu does a great job of revealing how confident she is with in herself by how she strips her clothes off one by one. She showed great confidence, when she stripped her clothes off in front of random people on the street. Another thing one can notice is the fact that she had hair wrapped. Not many women want to viewed by others, especially men when there is not wrapped. Having her hair wrapped was like her signature, which to me can really show confidence. Most women use their hair as their signature, but not her. Erykah was one who seemed as if she was a fan of natural beauty. I like her boldness so much to the point that I would even date her. I find her boldness and confidence extremely attractive.

Posted in Diaspora, South Africa, Student Projects

Video on South Africa and from the U.S

Posted on by ibcoonteh

This was a very interesting assignment, because it allowed me to compare to different cultures. The two cultures that were focused on were South Africa and the American hip hop culture. The South African video I choose was what he means by Just Jinjer. The American music video I choose was love by lil wayne. One of the first things I noticed between these songs were the different sceneries they both had. The south African music video was conducted in the dessert, while one could tell they also spent money on the American music video. The video with lil wayne had several different beautiful models, and a luxurious bed that was floating in the water next to a bunch of jewelry. The American culture is prided in buying the finer things, so its important to have these luxurious things in music videos. The video emphasized being okay as long as all of his women were taken care of and still loved him. The music video what he means simply has the white artist playing the guitar in a very deserted place. Behind him are other instruments such as the piano and drums. They created a more natural look with than instruments, compared to lil Wayne’s music video. The music video what he means talks about seeing if there is a grace of him on this earth. How if there is a grace of light on the earth let it be seen. So, the themes of these two songs were not very common. It nice to see how different each song was, especially coming from two areas. Also, how South African musicians can be just as effective as an American artist, by using a more natural look. This assignment really shined the light on these two different cultures that individuals may not have a bunch of facts on.

Posted in Ghana, Student Projects

Home w/Sarkodie – Adonai fr. Castro

Posted on by ibcoonteh

One can really enjoy this song, because of the way it has a good mixture of singing and rapping. Throughout the video, they are screaming hallelujah throughout the entire video. They are rapping and singing in some west African language. I am from Sierra Leone a country in west Africa, so I could pick up on some of the phrases throughout the song. The main message of the song was that they wanted to ultimately praise God for everything he had done for them. The rapper Castro is even dressed up as if he is a priest throughout certain scenes of the music video. Both artist are completely satisfied with the gifts that God has blessed them with. The music video actually takes place inside of a church. They show that their faith is to Christianity and the Lord. One of the key words throughout the song is Hallelujah. This is done to give all the praise to God, and truly glorify his name. I liked how they did not use the rap versus for a negative connotation, and they actually made it positive rap. This song was created by a Ghanaian artist. There were several prosperous messages passed out throughout this song. The artist is trying to say when you give everything to God, he will take care of everything else. Also, that one should not worry if they truly believe in God. This is something that we talk about even in my church, so I enjoyed the video. I will definitely add this song to my personal playlist, as motivation to help me get through the daily battles I face throughout life.