Select ONE VERSE from one of the following songs and find examples of alliteration, assonance, and rhyme. After doing so, determine the tone of the verse and try to anticipate how this piece might sound aloud and to music. After doing so, listen to the song and compare your prediction with the actual song. What is this experience like? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Songs
Keep Ya Head up - 2Pac
The Light - Common
Can't Live Without My Radio - LL Cool J
Hey Mama - Kanye West
One, Two - The Cool Kids
I Can - Nas
Jurassic 5 - What's Golden
I chose the song "I Can" by Nas. The fourth verse in the song displays a lot of alliteration and rhyme. For example, there's alliteration in "Be B-Boys", "Grown looking girls", "As cute as can", "meet a man", "age and", "turn to", "whatever they wish", and "then say it like this". There is rhyming in "again" and "ten". There is also rhyming in "see", "ID", "HIV", "TV", "Winfrey", and "be". Rhyming occurs again in "grow", "so", and "know". There's rhyming in "ice", "right", and "night". Finally, there is rhyming in "believe" and "achieve". I think the the tone of the verse is sort of a warning to all the young people to not follow in his example. I also anticipate the singer to be very confident in what he is saying because he knows what he has been through and it seems that he is giving advice. When I actually heard the song, I felt like the rapper's words are brought to life by his voice. He sounded sad when he was rapping about the riches being robbed from Africa and he sounded very confidant in the chorus of "I know I can be what I wanna be". I also felt that the repetition of the chorus emphasized the message even more.
ReplyDeleteExamples I found of alliteration, assonance, and rhyme are here as follows:
ReplyDeletealliteration: "like it loud," "by the beat, bust out a rhyme"
assonance: rough/tough; rock/crowd; leader/keepin'; citizens/kick
rhyme: crowd/loud; beat/concrete; understand/hand; rough/tough; show/radio; bass/face; Boulevard/Todd; everyday/subway/away; go/radio
Before listening to song: Based on the lyrics, I think that the song would sound very upbeat with an emphasis on the last word of every line. There would be drums in the back tapping to the rhythm and a young rapper would be rapping this. I think it would sound like something you would blast out of a car as you drive down the road.
After listening to song: I think that my prediction of what the song would sound like was pretty close. It did sound like a fun song with the rapper sounding content and you could hear his adoration for his radio. The beat was catchy and the symbols on the drums added to the effect of an enjoyable rap. I could imagine myself listening to this on a nice afternoon.
"Can't Live Without My Radio" - LL Cool J
Delete1st Verse
The song I chose was "The Light" by Common.
ReplyDeleteExamples of alliteration: signed sealed, spend [it] slow,
Examples of assonance: like/write, most/close, recognize [the] light, shirts/work
Examples of rhyme: grow together/slow forever, you/too, care/glare, high/rely,
The tone of the work was soulful, but with a touch of insouciance and swagger. The speaker says he knows that she's had her heart broken, and that he wants to be the one to make her happy, a soulful and emotional and sincere statement. Even so, he also says that he's not going to beat up the ones who broke her heart "cause I probably did it too" a cavalier attitude to take. I predict that the song will sound like an emotional, intense song, spoken at a moderate to fast rate rhythmically, perhaps with a drum or metronome-type sound in the background, but strong emphasis on emotional words. Now that I have listened to it, it was much like my expectation except there was less effort on sounding sincere or emotional and it was more monotone and rhythmic. The experience wasn't very moving, but definitely catchy.
The song I chose was "Can't Live Without My Radio" by LL Cool J.
ReplyDeleteThe second verse had many examples of assonance, rhyme, and alliteration. Some of these were closed-clothes, beast-decrease, scream-mean. The rhythm of the song is really energetic and upbeat, it really makes you rock your head. His voice and tone fit with the rhythm (bum bum ts bum bum ts) and he is really confident/egotistic, his lyrics constantly talks about his stereo, how loud his bass is, and how the "level of his power meter (makes the) suckas get mad, the girlies scream" I was expecting the energy in the song before listening because hip-hop generally has the same tone, rhythm and beat.
In "Hey Mama" by Kanye West, the first verse featured examples of figurative language. For example, several lines had the last word rhyming such as "mine, shine", " me, see", "floor, more" and "unbreakable, capable." There is alliteration in "little light", "living legend", "late lights", and "homemade, have" as well as "unbreakable, unmistakable". There is assonance show in "cheating, telling", "love, older, more", and "send, heaven." I think the tone of this poem is appreciative. He is showing appreciation to his mother and explaining the fact that he understands all the struggles she has been through. It is a loving, warm tone. However, near the end of the verse, his voice might get harsher and have edge to it because his words show the hatred for the people that have hurt his mother. When I listened to the song, the tone was almost the same except there was no change in tone at where I first thought it would be, near" caught cheating on you" but instead getting louder when he talks about how he will make her proud. I think the song doesn't show a lot of emotion and is kind of monotonous compared to what the lyrics say.
ReplyDeleteLol
ReplyDeleteCan’t Live Without My Radio-LL Cool J
ReplyDeleteBefore Listening to Song:
End Rhyme: “loud, crowd”, “beat, concrete”, “understand, hand”, “tough, rough”, “subway, away”, “go, radio”
Internal Rhyme: “street, beat”, “rough, tough”, “everyday, subway”, “show, go”
Repetition: “But I…” and “radio”
Assonance: “radio, believe me”, “need a radio inside”, “live without my radio”, “leader…keepin’”
Alliteration: “Walkin’, while”, “by the beat, bust, batteries”, “hip hop”
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFGHIJKLMNOPPQQ
In my perspective, I feel that the tone of the poem encompasses an energetic and perhaps a wildness aspect. Based upon analyzing the lyrics of the song and reading out loud, I noticed the rhythmic beats through the use of internal and external/end rhymes as well as alliteration, repetition, assonance which helps create this catchy tone. Some lines in the lyrics imply the more reckless nature as several state “I’m a hip hop gangster”, “terrorizing my neighbours”, “keep suckas in fear”, and “play everyday, even on the subway”.
After Listening to Song:
The tune and the beat of the song was similar to the rhythmic pattern that I envisioned for the song to be; however, there are some differences in which the song placed more emphasis on certain words, in which I had previously ignored. For instance, LL Cool J stressed on the word “JVC” and made/manipulated the words “citizens, 10” and “tough, crush” (end rhymes) sound alike and thus, giving the song a more upbeat tone and tune.
This experience had been surprising for the most part, considering the fact one could envision a tune for the lyrics presented and the tune of the song could have matched so similarly. Considering Dristi’s comment in which the tone of sincerity and compassion to be lost in the actual song (which was bland and monotone) and the poem by Langston Hughes in class (which many stated to have a passionate fiery/Bowen’s concept of “tough love” to be lost also in the monotonous atmosphere), I am glad that my initial perception of the song to haven’t changed much as both are much similar.
"Hey Mama" -Kanye West
ReplyDeleteI noticed several examples of alliteration, assonance and rhyme in the chorus of this song.
Alliteration: "scream, so", "appreciate, allowed"
Assonance: "for, you", "to, do" "proud, about"
Rhyme: "loud, proud", "you, do", "you, school", "allowed, proud"
The tone of this verse seems to be that he is proud of his mother for raising him, shame because he has dropped out of school, and a promise that he will be better.
I predict that the rapper will have a very strong voice, like he is coming back from something bad and ready to face the world.
After listening to the song, I noticed that the rapper had a very soft, placating voice, like he was sorry for everything he had done.
In the song "I Can" by Nas
ReplyDeleteThere are some examples of:
Alliteration:"What I wanna", "Cause they came"
Assonance:"version" & "person", "wish" & "this"
Rhyme:"know""grow"&"so", "see" "ID" & "HIV"
He also has a special way of using alliteration, assonance and rhyme. Instead of using just one type of repetition techniques in two consecutive lines, Nas chose to repeat the sound of the vowel in any part of the word. For example, "up" & "trust", "actress" & "practice" etc.
I think the tone of this song when sang by Nas would be strong and determined, since he's talking about all the bad things out there, and how we can make out choice and not be part of them. Lines
like these "I know I can, Be what I wanna be. If I work hard at it, I'll be where I wanna be." would make the song seem to sound like in the tone of being determined.
I predicted the lyrics to be rapped as fast for the most part of each line other than the last 3-4 syllables, in the line "You can be anything in the world, in God we trust", the "In God we trust" part would be a bit slower than the other part. But when i listened to the actual song, the last part of each line is almost connected to the next line as if there were no commas or lines. He also did rap in a pretty determined tone.
Keep Ya Head Up- 2Pac
ReplyDelete"And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot
When you come around the block brothas clown a lot
But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up
Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up
And when he tells you you ain't nuttin don't believe him
And if he can't learn to love you you should leave him
Cause sista you don't need him"
Some examples of assonance are:
down and clown
cry, dry, eyes
forget, head
believe, leave, need
Alliteration:
forget and forget
block brothas
There is also a lot of repetition at the end of the sentences like 'a lot', 'up', and 'him'
The tone is like a happy tone. Like, 2Pac wants you to be happy even though you are going through a lot of bad things. He tells us to keep our head up, but do not forgive and forget.
I predicted the song to be not so fast because this song is a sort of motivational song so I didn't expect the song to be like those raps that had all the words tied together with no breaks. And I was right. When I listened to the song, he breaks each sentence like how I read it and each line had a rhythm of it's own that still connected with the other beats. I was slo able to understand what he was saying at all times.