"Our Art is a Reflection of our Reality"

Our Art is a Reflection of our Reality

I believe in this statement very highly. It is so true and as a writer I know what he means. When I come up with a new story to write, one of the most important things is coming up with characters. Usually, authors base their characters on people they know and the setting of the story is based on their past or present. The traits of the characters could even be based on the lifestyle of the author. When I write I usually do these very same things, basing my story on what is going on in the world or what has already happened and not in a non-fictional way. I use fake settings and characters to reflect my reality and it is very easy to do that.

With the movie and the history it is based on, the reality is very dark, unwelcome, and violent and so the songs that are written are dark, unwelcome, and violent. Also, they used it as a way to describe their reality, they didn’t create fake names and places, and they used the real things to get their statement out there. They used a mirror, reflection, to get people to see what was going on but then the fame started to get to their heads and they started to turn on each other and again they reflected this in their songs.

So, they went from writing music to pay the bills to writing music to spread a statement then to roast each other. Using these song lyrics you can see their lives and what they had to go through with each other and then without each other.

Also, the way they use the tone of their voice in the songs also reflects what they were going through. It was anger and frustration when they sang about the police and government. When they first started out their songs were about dreams of owning a cool car and house and it evolved into hatred for the police and the tone of their voices really showed that. Then when they started to roast each other you could tell how much more anger was in their voices because what is worst then being betrayed by your brothers. That is probably a huge factor in their songs. If people just read the lyrics it probably wouldn’t have had a huge effect on the public but with words they were able to just bash down obstacles and rile up crowds.

With books I can’t say the words for people to hear instead I have to get people invested into characters so that they feel what the characters are feeling and they can come up with their own voices for the characters in their heads. Also, not everybody reads but I can guarantee everybody listens to music, unless you’re deaf. It probably didn’t even start out as a political statement when they were all getting together. They were probably just trying to pay the bills and live the dream of life in the U.S.A.

They call their work art and you see, in the movie, many of the authorities saying that rap is not art. So the statement Ice Cube makes, not only let’s people know that their songs reflect their lives but that they also consider their songs a form of art and it is. Art is everywhere around you and you probably don’t notice it. The books you read, the flag you pledge to, and even the technology you use are all forms of art. So, who were to authorities to say that the NWA’s art was not art at all? It just shows how much the world has changed in just the past two decades. The actual definition for art is just the expression of human creativity and they for sure expressed themselves with every song they wrote and if that is not art than I don’t know what is. I don’t listen to that kind of music but the movie really shows how much of an impact the music had on not only the audience and authorities but also the performers themselves. The songs they created were all that they had. They knew that if they failed that they would have nothing which is probably the craziest thing about this story is that they went for it anyways.

Now if everybody worked as hard as they did at whatever goals they wanted to accomplish, they would probably accomplish them. Everybody has a goal and it is accomplish-able, you just have to work for it no matter what happens. They achieved their goals and went above and beyond but they started to go too far and started to get caught up in their fame and this lead the ultimate breaking up of their group. First you had Ice Cube leave because they were starting to leave him out of things, then you have Dr. Dre leaving because he saw how much they lost sight of their end goal. Now today you see just how far that got them with the death of Eazy-E. Ice Cube is an actor in movies and the rest are just spread out. Now you have people such as Snoop Dog taking the reins on what the NWA started.

To get back on track, their lives are very much so reflected in their songs. The movie shows this by them getting harassed by the police and then they wrote a song saying to eff the police. This is also probably their biggest breakthrough as it gave them the attention they needed when the F.B.I. gave them that notice and even the police speaking to them backstage meant that their statement was definitely getting out there. I am not really a fan of the movie but I do like history and even though this deals with music, it brings attention to how terrible life could be, even in the United States of America. Their art reflected their lives.