Textual Analysis of Music Video J Cole Lost Ones

The History of Rap

History of Rap

More than a century before rap exploded o­nto the American music scene, West African musicians were telling stories rhythmically, with just the beat of a drum for accompaniment. Meanwhile, folk artists from the Caribbean Islands were also telling stories in rhyme. Indeed, these singing poets from Africa and the Caribbean lay the foundation for modern-day American rap music.

Rapping essentially involves the speaking or chanting of rhyming lyrics, often set to a beat. The rhyming created by rappers is considered by many to be o­ne of the most sophisticated styles of poetry. What’s more, these rhymes often address provocative subjects such as sex, violence and socio-political issues.

Rapping first gained popularity in the U.S. in the 1970s as a kind of street art, especially among African American teenagers. But it wasn’t until 1979, when the Sugarhill Gang released their breakaway hit, ‘Rapper’s Delight, that record producers took notice of this emerging musical genre. o­nce they did, numerous rap acts, including Run-DMC and N.W.A., surfaced, and rap’s audience began to swell. It wasn’t just African American male rappers getting in o­n the act, either: By the 1980s, white rap bands such as the Beastie Boys and female rap bands such as Salt-n-Pepa were reaching the top of the charts.

By the 1990s, rap matured from an old-school-style – which was based o­n relatively simple lyrics – to a new-school-style, which was louder and included more complex lyrics. Artists such as The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg and Tupac ruled the charts during this time, as did Eminem – o­ne of the most popular white rappers of all time.

Rap has stood the test of time and its popularity rages o­n with today’s artists such as 50 Cent, Ludacris and Jay-Z churning out hit after thought-provoking hit. The beat truly does go o­n. (http://www.plasticlittleraps.com/history-of-rap-music.html)

Jay Z, French Montana, Nicki Minaj and J Cole: all successful modern day rappers.

A Tribe Called Quest, Ice cube, Flava Flav, Warren G and Tubac: all rappers who have influenced rapping of today.








 Rap  evolves from story telling; to becoming a weapon of revolution to gloating about riches.

irrelevant scene

Decision to take out irrelevant scene

At this period of time we were going to film the middle scene and we changed some things because instead of having two characters we made a decision that we didn't have enough footage to show the contrasting characters of a good relationship and the other one being bad.

we had only some footage of Louise and Abdradi so we decided to stick with the main character and his relationship with the girl so that the whole story and the narrative doesn't get lost in the mean time.it was a group choice that we discussed and felt that some footage of abdradi sitting on the rock and louise singing the chorus wasn't at all relevant to what we wanted to do which was to show that pregnancy is a big issues but some people decide to make wrong choices.it was also a choice of not knowing were to out these scenes as it will just cause a loop to happen and the main story will be lost. Its also down to the fact that we want our target audience to understand the negative relationship and there is also some positive instead of having a whole different character.