Rap expresses true feelings

by Vondee Langehennig, staff writer  

            Music is the one thing that I believe commonly unites people.

            Music tells a story, expresses moments, feelings and can evoke emotions deep within anyone.  Everyone has his or her own cup of tea when it comes to the genre of their choice, but the one that can really get me is rap or hip hop.

            I know what you’re thinking, “a white girl writing on rap?” But bear with me,

music is therapy. It is the one thing that can I can think of to change my mood or give me a sense of calmness or a relation to my current life trauma. 

            Don’t get me wrong; I am still an eclectic chick who is open to a lot of different things. But sometimes (or most times) my mood calls for something a little grittier, more real. Because hey, that’s life. Right?  It’s hard and so imperfect in so many ways that I need something to help release that deep-rooted anger.  And rap does it for me.

            This genre is not for everyone, the way that country is only for some people.  I guess the best way to put it is in the words of Ice T, “ Rap is a lot like country in that both only talk about things that that specific group goes through and understands.”

            Basically, you can’t understand it if you haven’t been through it, and rap has a tendency to be very situational form, with lyrics on subjects such as addiction, reminiscing about the “good times,” living a life of less, understanding the bad in life, and coping and overcoming.  Not to say that these are the only ideas that can be expressed through this type of music, but this is the subject matter that hits home the most for me.

            Before any one tries to get on to me about that, yes, I know and understand that there are songs that revolve around money, women, and a flashy lifestyle.  They are fun songs, crunk songs, songs that get you pumped up.  There is nothing wrong with having fun with your music. Something profound or genius does not have to be said in every line to have a good song.

            But more than just talking about ghetto lifestyle tendencies (I guess you could say), rap talks about the real-life problems that the average person doesn’t have to face.  Regardless if that life is chosen or bestowed on you, it doesn’t matter, and it isn’t a black, white, or brown thing.  It creates a world of it’s own, one in which survival is the number one goal. 

            It talks about life of having guns pointed at you over dope, friends dying on the streets from addiction, and even dying in rehab from the “therapy.”  There’s also being so paranoid over thoughts that “I might be next if I don’t change my ways.”  No one should have to have these feelings or thoughts, but it is a covered-up reality.

            That is when the therapy of rap comes in.  It isn’t always hopeless speaking about the extreme.  Rap can take responsibility to offer hope and the correct mindset for success, not to mention guidance about the reality of where an uncontrolled life could lead. 

            If it wasn’t for one particular song, I would not be in school right now.  It was a song by Devin the Dude, called “Anything.”  The song was straight to the point, “there really ain’t no need for self pity, crying when there’s no one else around, get up off you’re ___ and just solve it, you still gotta chance to try to change, try to shed tha game.” 

            The appeal of that hook to me was what got me going.  The song talks about being at the bottom, and feeling the rocks, sleeping from house to house not knowing where you’re going to sleep the next day.  But the song basically sends the message that if you’re sleeping in a box, you could be sleeping on the side walk. No matter what time it is, you can always change.  I thought I was at a point where I was unable to change. Things were too bad, and there was never going to be a way for me to rise above it. 

            But that song and the context in which it was expressed was able to reach me.  There was even a chance for me.  My ugly, dangerous, gritty, dirty, illegal life that I lived was able to change. 

            Listening to rap has also opened my eyes to what a real problem is, and it has helped me to let less significant (but annoying) situations to just roll off my shoulders like water.  When I go to school, I hear people complaining and crying over issues such as “my roommates don’t include me in any thing they do,” or “it’s just so hard to work and go to school.”  

            Every day that I go to school I feel an intense sense of relief and calm.  Yeah, I have deadlines, and maybe I didn’t do my homework correctly, but I don’t have to worry about watching out for the people I know stealing from me and trying to con me in some way.

            School is an escape. But on that 30-minute drive back to reality, I listen to the Dude, UGK, Fat Pat, and anything else that gives me my release. It is the only thing I can turn to that makes my life feel a little normal and keep me sane.

            Life isn’t always as bad as it is frustrating at times.  A good, angry, aggressive, song has helped me many a time to not go out and whoop someone’s, umm tail. Being able to live vicariously through a song for a few minutes has given my anger and aggression a chance to subside without actually having that anger build up and explode.  I can’t afford to go out and do a little dirt.  My life has no time for it. 

            But those old tendencies can resurface and the desire to just go wild is the hardest thing to suppress.  It’s a mindset. Not one that can’t be changed, but one that is sort of imbedded and has to be subdued. 

            Have you every heard the saying “you can take me out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of me?”  It’s true.  An experience never goes away. A way of thinking is hard to change, and sometimes I have the selfish need to go back to that. 

            But if a song can express that true feeling that I have, I can get it off my chest.  Many a person’s left arm has been spared because I was able to calm myself down.

            One thing that I want to make crystal clear is that I am not romanticizing or glorifying the “thug” lifestyle.  These are things that happen to people. They are not pleasant experiences and shouldn’t be purposely pursued.

            But that should not be what silences the rap community.  I want to know why Jim Bo can write a song about little Jimmy riding in his 4x4 to the lake, but when my friends want to rap about “I hope I don’t go back to slangin’ yayo,” it is too touchy or not something to be talked about.  It’s real. It’s art, and it has every right to be expressed in its raw format.

            Rap is lyrical genius.  It’s a quick wit, and has a flare of humor.  So much can be said in those 16 bars, the same amount of bars in a jail cell.