Member-only story
Act Too (The Love Of My Life): The Culture.
“As of late I realized, that this is H.E.R. fate
Or destiny that brin’s the best of me
It’s like God is testin’ me
In retrospect I see she brought life and death to me
Peace to us collectively, live and direct when we perform
It’s just coffee shop chicks and white dudes. Over H.E.R. I got into it with that nigga Ice Cube” — Act Too (The Love of My Life) by the Roots vocals by Common
For the past year, I have used rap songs to create the infrastructure and start the discussion of the problems that I wanted to confront in American society. I used the soundtrack of my adolescence to ask questions I desired answered, even if I knew those answers were elusive and ephemeral. Hip Hop is an American art form. It is a derivative of blues, R&B, funk, disco, rock & roll, and gospel music, creating an amalgamation called rap. All these music genres are uniquely American and quintessentially black.
I used the titles of hip-hop songs and the lyrics as a reference point to discuss issues that were uniquely American and quintessentially black.
