New Slaves - Kanye West: Kanye's song tackles the topic of racism and how he specifically has dealt with it. He talks about his mother and the generation she lived in, and how her race affected her life. The line, "Unless I picked the cotton myself," alludes to slavery, which fits with the song title. This line is very important and powerful, because although the institution of slavery no longer exists, Kanye still sees aspects of it that are relevant to his life in modern day.
99 Problems - Jay Z: The beginning of this song captures the life that black people lead in prejudiced communities. "Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hats real low," shows how Jay Z believes society does not give black people the justice they deserve. The police officer is pulling him over not for his driving, but for his race. Likewise, the line,"Are you carrying a weapon? I know a lot of you are," has the same effect by stereotyping a race in a negative way.
Black Rage - Lauryn Hill: Hill repeatedly uses the term "black rage," which I think means literally black people's anger at society and culture. Hill lists problems in society that contribute to this "black rage," including rape and beatings, social control, "threatening your freedom to stop your complaining," bad economy, etc. These lines would have an impact on a minority community by relating to those suffering from these issues and calling attention to the problems that exist within these people's lives.
Hell - Talib Kweli: Unlike the first three songs, the major theme of this poem is religion and religious prejudice." He discusses God a lot and the many different religions, at time addressing the conflicts between conflicting religious practices. I think he is questioning the importance of faith, especially when it does not help when life even with belief is not good. This is exemplified in the line, "I found that heaven and hell exist right here on earth." However, he also addresses racial and socio-economic issues by talking about the ghetto and comparing it to Hell. He combines the two themes in the line, "Faith is blind like justice when you facing time," which means that both justice and faith are unattainable for him.
True Blues - The Last Poets: The line "I sang the blues..." is repeated throughout the song, which I think is similar to the way Lauryn Hill repeats "black rage." Both phrases convey the negative feelings that black people have against society and the way they are treated. The song then lists several different instances after the phrase, including, "in the hull of the ship," "on the slavemaster's plantation," and "when the sun went down, cursing the master when he wasn't around." Like Kanye's song, "True Blues" uses slavery and slave conditions throughout the song as a strong comparison between past and present day America, showing that they are not all that different. The last line, "I sang bout my sho nuff blue blackness!" is very powerful because he calls his race something that makes him "blue," or sad.
Mathematics - Mos Def: Mos Def uses the theme of justice throughout the song, discussing jail and police and punishments for the black people. He also mentions unemployment, life after jail, and drugs. "Young teens and prison greens facin life numbers. Crack mothers, crack babies, and AIDS patients." An important line, I think, is, "Hip-Hop past all your tall social hurdles like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex," especially because we have learned a lot so far about how this genre of music helped black people in impoverished communities. This line shows just how important Hip-Hop is.
I Can - Nas: This song could have a major impact on a minority community because it specifically addressed to young boys and girls in poor communities. Nas gives the children advice, saying they can be whatever they want to be if they life a good life in the ghetto. He advises them to watch the company the keep, to stay away from drugs, young girls to act their age and be careful of rapists, young boys to stay away from drugs and be respectable men, etc. He refers to the children as "king" and "young princess" in an endearing and comforting way.
I think that your analyses were very accurate, and you thought about the songs/lyrics very thoroughly. I agreed with your analysis of Nas's "I Can," but I also thought that perhaps the song was also intended to show the privileged the obstacles that kids living in the ghetto have to overcome to live a good life just as much as it was intended to encourage underprivileged kids to stay away from drugs etc. in order to make sure they live a good life.
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