Hi everyone.  Has anyone guessed what I am discussing this week?  It’s music and how it makes us feel.  For our generation, music makes up a huge part of our life.  Did you know that I love music of the nineties and early 2000’s.  Some of my favorite genres of music include Rap and R&B.  I  want to discuss some of the lyrics and show you what motivational messages you can find within the songs.  Check them out and see if you can guess where the lyrics came from.  I am also going to discuss each set and tell you why the verse or verses are so meaningful to me.

1)  “I can’t impress you with the cars and the wealth
‘Cause any woman with will and drive can get it herself”

This verse is meaningful to me because it helped me realize that I didn’t need anyone’s ok to push myself forward in life.  It showed me that there is no one in the world that I should put on a pedestal and idolize, but rather that I needed to push myself to become that person or close to it.  Let me further explain that, I’m not trying to be cocky, but I was a nobody.  I had a job that paid minimum wage when I was nineteen and I lived in my mother-in-laws apartment and worried about what I was going to eat for dinner, because we were poor.  In spite of being poor, I tried to make the best of it and I thought that this was my destiny.  It took hearing this lyric for me to wake up and swallow up my pride, eventually moving back in with my parents in order for me to get a decent job and raise my son in a better lifestyle. 

This verse is something that I’ve always kept in the back of my mind and has been something that has always pushed me to go that extra step because “darn-it” I wanted and still want to be somebody.

2)  “You should love it, way more than you hate it
Oh, you mad, I thought that you’d be happy I made it
I’m that cat by the bar toasting to the good life
Moved out the hood now you trying to pull me back, right?”

Ahem, ok this one, I know you are questioning, but let me ask you something…  When you start to do well, isn’t there always that one person, or maybe a few that don’t like it?  Back in the day there wasn’t really a name for these type of people, but now we refer to them as “haters.”  This lyric, points them out and reminds you that there is always someone that is going to wish you into your past.  The verse reminds you that you have to have hard skin and that you can’t let someone else’s negativity get to you.

3)  “Just cuz you’re in tha ghetto doesn’t mean ya can’t grow”

Believe it or not, I didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood.  In the eighties and nineties, my neighborhood, although on Chicago’s North side was full of crime.  Gangs were all over the place and my high school was positioned in the middle of three major gang territories as well as having numerous other small gangs within it’s vicinity.  There are things that you witness in a neighborhood like this, that no child should.  Sometimes there are things that you witness that no adult should ever witness either.  I could tell you stories that you wouldn’t believe if you didn’t grow up in an urban community, but the fact is that they are real.  How does one cope with inner city violence?   We adapt to it.  Should we?  No, we need to keep growing and become people of purpose.  That’s what this lyric is stating.

Alright, I hope you enjoyed my little piece here.  I’m going to cut it here, because I’m pretty tired.  Here are the answers:

Answers

1)  P.Diddy-  Satisfy You

2)  50 Cent-In Da Club

3)  2Pac-Brenda’s Got a Baby