Big K.R.I.T.: Using RAP Visuals Positively
In my Composition II class, I showed Big K.R.I.T.’s “Keep the Devil Off” to show that Hip Hop can be a positive influence. His videos are good visual analysis demonstrations.
First of all, thank God that Big K.R.I.T added to the “My Sub” series. “Ballad of the Bass” is Part V and hard knocking. Thank you, K.R.I.T., because I was truly mad when I open TDT and K.R.I.T. Iz Here and didn’t find a sub installment! I know that you don’t read my humble little blog, but if someone close to you should, please tell my homeboy, right from Meridian, that this South Sippi girl thanks him.
Now, let me put my professor hat back on and come out of fandom. In my Composition 102 class, I do a quick survey of how the students feel about contemporary popular culture. Most of them hate RAP, because they are tired of mumbling and tired of hearing trap music in general. Most of them hate country, because they say it sounds like pop music. Most of them hate pop music, because they claim that it is vain and empty. Most them hate rock because they say that it is depressing. By the end of the segment, I ask the students, what in the world do they like? The students usually laugh at my lack of patience and/or exasperation with their discriminating tastes.
Through the course of discussion, I also learn that students have internalized some of the negative things that their Baby Boomer grandparents have to say about their culture. They do not feel good about anything that they produce, and I feel that’s sad. On the one hand, I explain to them that people have ALWAYS hated the production of the youth. At one point in time, their grandparents were also young and their parents hated their music. As a matter of fact, we listen to some of their grandparents’ dirty music, and that’s always fun. I’ve more than a few phone calls to my office from angry grandparents.
On the other hand, not everything that is popular culture today is horrible. In fact, one hip hop artist is using his artistry as a force for good. I use Big K.R.I.T’s “Keep the Devil Off” as an example of someone using hip hop for good. Since that unit is a visual analysis, I perform a visual analysis real time in class. I will try to do it here:
First of all, the video is shot in grainy black and white. The black and white color scheme ensures that the viewers’ eyes will pay attention to the action in the foreground of the scene and not be distracted by colors, patterns, and visual effects. Next, it opens with a medium shot of the setting. The setting is obviously a low-income apartment complex. With the addition of the mature palm trees, it could be any project in New Orleans or Los Angeles. A young man is walking into the complex. He is an average teenager with his hat on to the back walking casually.
After the young man is introduced, the camera cuts to K.R.I.T. in a different location with his hands up and clasped into a prayer position. Then it shoots back to a tree. The palm tree is a steady tree with long roots and tops strong enough to withstand hurricane force winds. After the tree, we see the young man again. The camera links K.R.I.T. in the prayer position. Intercepted with the tree, the shots tell us that K.R.I.T. and the young man are linked. It will be prayer that sustains this young man and keeps him grounded. After the metaphorical linking of these two souls with the camera shots, the viewer’s attention is directed to the surrounding. There are the vestiges of criminal activity there, complete with someone holding pitbulls on a tight leash.
After our attention is drawn to the environment, the camera focuses the audience back to the young man. He is walking through all of these terrible things, but starts to do a hip hop dance. The camera cuts to a group of young men on some stairs, but the dance directs the protagonist away from them. In his redirection, he must pass those vicious dogs. Once again, he begins a dance, almost involuntarily. He glides by the dogs with no problem. The camera cuts to K.R.I.T., who has now begun to dance jubilantly to his words and music.
Once the camera is focused on the protagonist again, we see a close-up of his eyes. He is witnessing a drug transaction. Again, we see K.R.I.T., and again, we see the young man begin to dance. He dances past the drug deal and dealers, using similar hand movements to those of K.R.I.T., who is in a metaphorical pulpit. We next see a shot of the protagonist through a series of bars. This time, he witnesses two of his peers rob someone and run. The bars, which are part of the porch, foreshadow where these two young men will spend their adult years. The protagonist once again begins to dance. His feet leave the ground briefly, and he continues walking once his feet return. At 2:04 in the video, the young protagonist passes by four older men. They look at him menacingly. The young man lifts his arms, then the camera cuts over to K.R.I.T., whose arms are also lifted. When the camera cuts back to the young man, he begins the hip hop dance again. This time, he levitates even longer than the before. Meanwhile, the camera cuts to K.R.I.T. enthralled in the polyrhythm and improvised dancing of Black preacher. As the young man levitates, the older men look at him. When he is back on the ground, the protagonist looks back at them.
Immediately after the miraculous levitation, the protagonist witnesses the arrest of a young, Black man who looks to be around his same age. As the young man is placed in the police car, the protagonist begins to dance and levitates past the arrest. The white policemen do not seem to notice the supernatural ability of this young man to rise above the ground that he walks on.
Nevertheless, the music of the arrest is no longer that of a RAP song, but one of a praise break in church. And K.R.I.T. is no longer preaching, but spinning around in rapture. Once the camera returns back to the young protagonist, we see that it is now night in the projects. The street and outside lights are on, and the young man has presumably made it home without incident. That was the miracle brought to the audience via hip hop dance and music. The testimony is that this young man makes it home, does not go to jail, is not a criminal, and otherwise refuses to be a statistic.
Now, many of my students do not know what praise break music is, so I have to provide it for them.
Listen carefully to the song, and we hear that K.R.I.T. has most definitely incorporated the organ and the drums in a similar fashion throughout the song. As night approaches and the young man levitates toward home, he gives the hip hop audience an all-out praise break moment, though not this rapidly.
With this demonstration in class, students learn that yes, even RAP music can be a holy testimony! It does not have to be all horrible. They also learn that true artists put real creativity into their crafts and leave us talking about pieces for an entire 50-minute class!
As always, if you like this piece, clap back (press the hands). If you know K.R.I.T., tell him that this English professor is his ultimate fan! And, if you want more, see you in class.
