“Life, Loyalty, Resistance, and Trends”- mixtape

Mixtape Formatting Option “AAVE Through Life, Loyalty, Resistance, and Trends” Unit Focus Music / Performance Primary Text The Hip Hop Wars Tracklist Freestyle - Meek Mill You & The 6 - Drake Ghetto Angels - NoCap THE ATL EXPERIENCE - 2 Chainz, Ronald Isley, & The Isley Brothers Talks about real life struggles and storytelling. Mortal Man - Kendrick Lamar brosfallout - Iayze ball w/o you - 21 Savage Talks about loyalty within each other. Carter Son - YoungBoy Never Broke Again All On Me - Lil Baby & G Herbo F*ck The Police - N.W.A. Talks about resistance living as a black individual, dealing with society and police Pushing P - Gunna Don't Think They Know - Chris Brown & Aaliyah Wavy [unreleased version] - SZA Talks about performance and trendsetting among communities This mixtape, “Life, Loyalty, Resistance, and Trends”, highlights black life being told through different types of music, while also strongly supporting African American Vernacular English. Rather than existing only as spoken language, African American Vernacular English thrives throughout musical performances, where artists from all different types of places in the world, use different rhythm, tone, and creativity of lyrical writings to communicate many things; about who they are, struggles they’ve been through, what they think about, and just making music for enjoyment. “The Hip Hop Wars”, by Tricia Rose strongly supports these artists and their music as well. “The Hip Hop Wars” is a source that hip-hop mirrors real-life experiences in black communities, primarily focusing on inequality with the community, surviving from police and other races, and identifying who they are. Songs like Meek Mill’s Freestyle as a younger boy, “You & The 6” by Drake, “Ghetto Angels” by NoCap, and “THE ATL EXPERIENCE” by 2 Chainz featuring Ronald Isley & The Isley Brothers highlight African American Vernacular English as storytelling device. The tracks focus on telling the struggles, living a tough environment, and loss. “The Hip Hop Wars” talks about this, as Rose argues, “Hip-hop serves as a form of storytelling that documents the realities of life in marginalized communities.” A great example is “You & The 6” by Drake, as he talks about his life, primarily focused on family situations. “Ghetto Angels” by NoCap is another good one, as the use of AAVE in his song primarily focuses on his pain from the loss of a close member to him. There are also songs that speak heavily on loyalty throughout the black community - “Mortal Man” by Kendrick Lamar, “brosfallout” by Iayze, and “ball w/o you” by 21 Savage - speaking on how important loyalty is to have and about controversy between the media and artists. Rose argues, “Hip-hop often highlights the importance of community and interpersonal relationships within environments shaped by struggle.” It tells how hip-hop is often viewed as violent music, but it is commonly misunderstood for its real reflections of systemic oppression. Kendrick Lamar’s “Mortal Man” utilizes AAVE while asking the community questions about where their loyalty is when things start to go down for an artist, as he repeatedly asks in the song, “When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?” His song was made not only to question loyalty, but to speak on societal inequality, like when Michael Jackson was accused of being a pedophile. He supports this by saying, “That man gave us Billie Jean, you say he touched those kids?!” This lyric was to support Michael Jackson’s name and tell how the community switched on the artists over an accusation that was said about him. While story telling and loyalty is commonly made in music, do not forget the songs that were made to speak about resistance towards society and police. Songs such as “Carter Son” by YoungBoy Never Broke Again, “All On Me” by Lil Baby and G Hebro, and “Fuck The Police” by N.W.A. are all perfect examples of resistance. Rose states “Hip-hop’s portrayal of violence and conflict is often a reflection of systemic oppression rather than a promotion of it.” Lil Baby gives great support for this statement, as he says, “I’m a young black man, so to society, I got three strikes.” This sentence alone can tell you what it means to be black in the modern day's world. Lil Baby uses AAVE to put power into his sentence, telling listeners that society looks at the black community differently just because of skin color. Another example is YoungBoy’s “Carter Son”, as he says, “They don’t want us totin’ guns but they let the fuckin’ killers tote it” YoungBoy’s use of AAVE express his seriousness about how the police are killing black people but dont want them to be able to carry weapons to protect themselves. Though lots of music tells a lot of stories and sends out messages to the public, a lot of trends are made from music as well. Rose says, “Hip-hop influences mainstream culture, particularly through language and style” Songs such as “Pushin P” by Gunna, “Don’t Think They Know” by Chris Brown and Aaliyah, and “Wavy [unreleased version]” by SZA heavily support this. These three songs alone created trends that blew up across Tiktok. Gunna’s use of AAVE created a slang across numerous applications - Snapchat, Instagram, Tiktok, etc…- that used the song lyric “Pushin P”. People used it as a term to mean to keep things moving. Not only was slang created, but performance too, as entertainment was made from the other songs as well. “Don’t Think They Know” by Chris Brown and Aaliyah was used as a song to do a viral dance on Tiktok, and “Wavy [unreleased version]” by SZA was used by people to post their friends on Tiktok as well. It all goes to show how powerful of an impact this kind of music can be, as it brings together community. Overall, this mixtape goes to show that African American Vernacular English is a cultural system of speech that's embedded in music and performance. All of the songs and artists contribute to themes of storytelling, loyalty, resistance, and influence amongst trends, proving that AAVE plays a central role in creating communication and identity throughout music.