“LAND OF THE FREE”, Joey Bada$$

“Blood//Water”, grandson

 

I had first heard LAND OF THE FREE in a class I had taken here at SJU. We had to analyze it in that class but I don’t think I ever paid much attention to it even then. I did make sure to add it to one of my playlists because I knew it was a song worth going back to. The song has a solid beat that captures your attention as well as a catchy tune, but the lyrics are full of emotion. He speaks about being a black man in America while also seeming to be striving for some hope.  I am honestly surprised this song wasn’t on anyone’s list, unless I just didn’t look hard enough. It discusses all the topics that these classes seem to beat us over the head with. 

I think from here I could really delve deeper into protest songs in the hip-hop or rap genre. Of the songs I listen to, those genres are probably the least represented in my playlists so I would be interested in adding more songs. This song also could be written about any time in history because the challenges of being a black person have not gotten any better. However, he does mention Obama so it does give us a clear time period. 

Obviously, I am a very white person so I do not truly understand everything in this song and maybe I will find myself disagreeing with some of it. I am willing to take that chance and learn all that I can from the song and the artist. 

 

Blood//water was introduced to me by an ex boyfriend who pretty much only listens to music genres from rock to metal. I could never get into full out metal but this was one of the harder rock songs that he thought I would like. I immediately liked it, it just sounded so angry. There is a lot of graphic imagery that I think would be really interesting to delve into. A lot of rock and metal songs actually talk about rather deep topics and I think it would be worthwhile to analyze a song from a genre that has a negative connotation, even though a lot is protest songs we could all relate to. I can’t specifically connect this song to a moment in time right now, but a lyric that I think could have some great information is “But the system is done for”. Seems like we are all fighting against some sort of system and I wonder which one grandson is specifically talking about. The lyrics in this song aren’t as clear as the first one and the artist isn’t as well known so I could face some challenges. The artist is definitely angry about something and I want to find out what it is.

 

Overall, I can’t say I have many concerns about completing the project. I have experience in podcasting and audio editing so I think I could do well. I guess I just hope that I pick a good song and have enough material to work with.