Jon Stephens

Jsteph52@uncc.edu
11/8/2015
URWT 1103
Ms. Ingram
Multi-Genre Reflection
The purpose of my multi-genre project was to show people that the rap industry has not gotten
worse. Although it is popular belief that the industry has gone in a downward spiral over the last couple of
years, this is simply not true. In fact, some may say it has gotten better recently. When I say people, I
more mean those who either currently listen to rap or formally listened to rap. I chose this as my
audience, because I believe those are the people who will truly understand and give my argument a
chance. There will always be people who say rap is crap, so I see no need to target them in the slightest.
The two genres I choose in my project were a timeline and an informational flyer. The reason I
chose a timeline was to display the progression of number one tracks since 1999. By doing this it shows
that the number one songs from around 1999 to mid-late 2000s, also known as the golden age for being
the best rap, sound very similar to the songs we say are terrible now. Those years are considered some of
the best years of rap, so by providing evidence that the majority of the top selling songs those years
werent exactly the most lyrically impressive songs. Meanwhile, the best songs in 2010 to 2015 for the
most part had deeper meaning or were more lyrically advanced than songs from the golden age. This is
interesting, because nowadays people say rap is at an all-time worst, yet if you look at number one tracks,
the more current music stayed at the top longer and, in my opinion, were better songs. One of the reasons
for this was saying that good music has always existed, but has always been overshadowed by big name
groups/club music [7].
Naturally, this will happen in music, books, even life, but in the rap industry this is ever so
evident. Rap has always been about having a big name, almost more than producing big music. Even

when Drake, a popular artist, got into a fight with Meek Mill, a semi-popular artist, despite Drake
releasing two terrible diss tracks, songs were you insult whoever the track is aimed at, people would say
Drake was the best and Team Drake became a thing. Understanding this allows for you to realize why
being a popular rapper can be better than being a talented rapper. The second genre, the informational
flyer, showed the bad and good of todays current rap and the good and the bad in raps history. I chose to
make an informational flyer, because by comparing the past and present I hoped to show the similarities
between the two. Its interesting that songs that would be deemed bad in past are often praised. This case
is very evident with the song Who let the Dogs Out by Baha Men. The majority of the U.S. has either
heard the song from somewhere, as it was very widely used in commercials and movies, and for the most
part endorse the song. If you actually listen to the lyrics its just as bad as any bad song thats out
nowadays. Also when people say rappers now are trying to live lives that arent similar to how they truly
are, this was the case back then as well! The artist Shaggy is the perfect example of this, as he pretended
to have a British accent for the majority of his career. Also to get onto most major record labels you had
to portray the image they wanted you to portray, making you create music you may not whole-heartedly
agree with [6].
Of course, these two informational pieces are pointless if they cant reach the public. Both would
more than likely be available on the internet if I were to make them public; providing the timeline to
forums or even posting the flyer anywhere would be sure to raise some eyebrows. The one difference is
the timeline wouldnt be able to be displayed in the non-digital world. Yes, I could print it out and not
have the music playing, but whos going to remember exactly how songs from the early 2000s truly
sounded. For the most part, while creating both of these pieces I focused more on appealing to the
authors sense of logos. Although music as a whole usually appeals to emotions, I chose to be more
factual with my approach. Since musics level of intricacy/ an artists talent cant be measured so to
speak, I elected to compare each one to show that similarities between the two time periods. Otherwise,
you wouldnt be able to show what songs are statically better [9], because music is opinionated people

could say that unknown artists or bad artists music is the best, but showing the statistics about it you
simply cant argue.
For conveying this message, my mode of communications were both MOSTLY visual. My
timeline did have components of being aural, considering you could play the music videos for the songs,
but it could be understood without the music. For this reason I would categorize it as visual instead of
aural, although it does depend slightly on its aural factors. In my information flyer, I included colorcoding to emphasize the good the bad of rap. Hopefully, by doing this the reader puts together that items
in red text are bad, items in white text are good, etc. and doesnt misinterpret the message. As stated
before, I mostly used logos to show the logical side of why music back in the day wasnt as hot as we
seem to remember it as. Ethos was also used to some degree. By showing that older top hip hop songs
werent necessarily the deepest meaning songs, meanwhile displaying that some of the top current songs
do have some sort of deeper meaning appeals to the readers sense of ethics. Lastly, I also appealed to the
readers sense of pathos in the same way I appealed to their sense of ethos. Most listeners of music will
have an emotional connection to deeper music, so by saying deeper music is ultimately better I appeal to
the reader emotionally.
Ultimately, Id like to think that my genre pieces would be decently impactful, more so for my
timeline than my informational flyer. I only say this because my timeline looks a lot more professional
than my flyer, if I changed around font and maybe got better pictures then it would be on the same level
of my timeline. Either way, both of these pieces get across the message they were meant to portray, the
only difference is that one just looks a bit better visually. I feel my message is especially important now to
stop the portrayal of bad rap in attempts to keep it pure. If people think that terrible music with bad
messages will pass, then more and more artists will produce just that. Rap also is more than just music, it
can portray the way people think, the way they act, and even the clothes they buy [5]. It is for these
reasons that we cant allow the name of rap to be tarnished. If we allow bad rap to be introduced as a
social norm than it can affect kids ways of behaving and ultimately change future generations.