Rose Xu

Prof. Rodriguez

ENGL 1010

4.22.2020

Global effects of hip-hop

The reason why music becomes the most common way for people to share

different ideas with each other because it can be combined with technology, art and

social trending. If one song is created by a Spanish singer, it will not be affected the

audience because it still has its own tempo and music video. One successful musical

work cannot be beaten by its language use so it can be expanded much more quickly

than other entertainment. Hip-hop is also free and open for both singers and audience

to find their favorite hip-hop music globally because the music has unlimited potential

for people to explore. The song ‘Nothing Great About Britain’ by Slowthai is about

the description of Britain which is his motherland and it makes me impressed a lot. As

the song is still written in English, it is easy for me to understand the lyrics. The

beginning of the song is along with a quick and strong tempo and the lyric of

‘Nothing great about Britain’ shows the intro to Slowthai’s work. The cover of the

album also makes me concern – Frampton naked, I think he not only want to share his

love to Britain, but also the thought of what his motherland should be like.

Slowthai wants the record to speak candidly about his upbringing on

Northampton, and for it to advocate for community in a country increasingly mired in

fear. As some research stated, the song served up a succession of candid snapshots of

modern British life, lyrics are still mentioned depression, drugs and the threat of

violence all happened in Slowthai’s verses. However, it also contains hope, love and

defiance to better explain his thoughts. I think the reason why he used music to share

his hometown is he used his favorite and most wanted ways to share his best place. In

the bridge of the song, ‘it breaks and you can’t fix it without me.’ has showed the

moral rectitude of Britain has never been anything more than a myth, there must be a

true son to lead the country and realize there’s nothing great about the country.

Through the lyrics, I can find Slowthai still mentions some negative aspects of

Britain, but he used the negative side to stress he still love his country. The sensitive

lyric like ‘Only if you respect me a little bit, Elizabeth, you cunt.’ it has mentioned

Elizabeth II a cunt in the song can make me find he is angry about something political

in Britain.

The work used a unique way to explain his thoughts to his motherland, it makes

me have the respect to his description. The straight lyrics and tempo makes me realize

hip-hop becomes more and more international as the boundaries of hip-hop has

become wider than people thought. The globalization of hip-hop can make people

addicted to the background and everything related to the work, it is no matter with the

language and where you are from.