Results for “urban violence and its roots”

Songs

Sex, Drugs and Violence

Public Enemy

Public Enemy uses three loosely connected vignettes of unsolved shootings tied to hip-hop culture to indict the industry and…

media complicity violence in hip-hop culture commercialization of black death

What They Do

The Roots

A mid-90s Roots track built around a single defiant refrain, positioning the group's artistic integrity against a hip-hop…

authenticity vs. commercialism artistic integrity hip-hop lineage and craft

The Seed (2.0)

The Roots

The Roots' reworking of Cody ChesnuTT's song blends literal talk of casual sex and impregnation with a metaphor for musical…

legacy and lineage sex as creative metaphor authenticity vs. commercialism

The Fire

The Roots

An anthem of self-motivation built around a simple metaphor: inner drive as flame. John Legend's hook frames perseverance as an…

perseverance self-belief legacy and destiny

Champion

The Roots

A motivational anthem built around the word "champion," stacking boasts about relentless work ethic against a chant-like hook…

perseverance self-mythologizing competition

The Believer

Common

Common builds a hymn out of hip-hop's contradictions, weaving together images of urban violence, spiritual conviction, and Black…

faith and endurance urban violence and its roots Black historical legacy

Shadowplay

Joy Division

A tense, dreamlike monologue in which the speaker searches an urban and psychic landscape for someone he seems to have already…

guilt and complicity urban alienation performance of identity

Repeater

Fugazi

Repeater sketches a first-person portrait of someone reduced by drug dependency and social judgment to a statistic, then widens…

addiction and criminalization dehumanization media detachment

When It Rain

Danny Brown

A relentless portrait of Detroit street violence set to a hyper-fast, footwork-inspired beat, where the manic tempo and…

urban poverty and survival violence and fatalism addiction as coping mechanism

Atlantic City

The Band

A small-time narrator in a decaying Atlantic City weighs a desperate, half-criminal solution to his debts against a fragile…

economic desperation organized crime and violence romantic loyalty amid ruin

Bring Da Ruckus

Wu‐Tang Clan

The opening track of Enter the Wu-Tang stages hip-hop as martial arts combat, with each MC treating the microphone like a weapon…

martial arts mythology as metaphor for lyrical combat collective identity vs individual bravado urban violence and street survival

Devil's Pie

D'Angelo

D'Angelo indicts the entire economy of vice, greed, and hustle that people line up for, while implicating himself as complicit…

greed and materialism complicity and self-implication spiritual/moral corruption

Pacifics (From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack “N.Y. Is Red Hot")

Digable Planets

Digable Planets turn a Sunday in New York into an extended meditation on rest, community, and creative replenishment, moving…

urban leisure and rest Black cultural inheritance (jazz, literature, hip-hop lineage) community and belonging

In the City

The Jam

A debut single that doubles as a manifesto, announcing a generational voice against the backdrop of late-70s urban Britain. It's…

generational conflict youth identity urban alienation

This City Never Sleeps

Eurythmics

A hypnotic, almost droning meditation on urban anonymity, built from a handful of repeated fragments rather than a conventional…

urban alienation anonymity insomnia/restlessness

Baltimore

Nina Simone

A song-portrait of urban decay, written not by Simone but performed on her 1978 record of the same name, in which a wounded city…

urban decay poverty escape and displacement

In the Sun

Blondie

A breezy, almost novelty-pop daydream in which the singer imagines escaping gray urban New York for a sunlit, surf-and-luau…

escapism urban alienation fantasy vs. reality

Stackolee

Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt's version of the Stagolee legend strips the story down to its bare bones: a hat, a gun, a killing, and an…

violence and its casualness justice and law folk mythology

Terra Nova

James Taylor

A restless meditation on procrastinated homecoming, built around the image of a ship (the Terra Nova) as both literal and…

longing for home inertia versus motion family obligation

Gimme Shelter

The Rolling Stones

A song built from apocalyptic weather and violence, treating storm, fire, flood, war, and rape as a single continuous threat…

apocalypse and dread violence and its proximity the search for shelter/refuge

Tear-Stained Letter

Richard Thompson

A jaunty, almost comic account of a wrecked relationship, where the narrator recounts being physically and emotionally battered…

toxic romance emotional exhaustion comic violence

N.Y. State of Mind

Nas

A dense, almost stream-of-consciousness portrait of Queensbridge street life, delivered with a density of imagery more…

urban survival mortality and insomnia criminal economy

Forgot About Dre

Dr. Dre

A comeback statement disguised as a diss track: Dr. Dre rebuts claims that he'd gone soft or fallen off, leaning on his…

legacy and reputation industry skepticism loyalty and betrayal

Oh My Darling Don't Cry

Run the Jewels

A two-verse trade-off between El-P and Killer Mike that functions as pure sonic swagger and threat display, dressed up in…

defiance of authority hypermasculine bravado self-mythologizing

West End Girls

Pet Shop Boys

A cold, hypnotic portrait of London's class and consumer divide, delivered in a near-rap monotone over a synth-pop groove. The…

class division urban alienation consumption and desire

KOD

J. Cole

The title track of KOD uses a hypnotic, hook-driven trap structure to embody the very drugs of ego, materialism, and violence it…

addiction and self-medication fame and defensiveness cyclical violence

Beat It

Michael Jackson

A pulsing anti-violence anthem disguised as a street-fight taunt: the title's double meaning lets the song urge retreat from…

peer pressure toxic masculinity violence and its futility

Friday

Ice Cube

This is Ice Cube's contribution to the 'Friday' soundtrack lineage, a loosely structured verse-by-verse tour of a South Central…

neighborhood pride and territoriality hedonism as escape normalized violence

Hymn 43

Jethro Tull

A caustic broadside against the American co-option of Christianity, pairing frontier violence and cowboy mythology with the…

religious hypocrisy American mythology and violence colonialism

Hold Ya Head

The Notorious B.I.G.

This is Biggie's bleakest first-person confession, a suicidal monologue framed by a mournful sample of a mother grieving her…

suicidal ideation self-loathing street violence and its aftermath

Dollar Bill Blues

Townes Van Zandt

A ramshackle blues about a broke, drink-craving gambler whose fantasies of easy money and easy love curdle into a confession of…

poverty and want drink and gambling as fate violence disguised as bravado

That's the Way the World Goes Round

John Prine

A shaggy-dog folk tune that shrugs at life's absurdity and cruelty in the same breath, moving from a domestic-violence vignette…

cyclical dysfunction absurdism resignation and acceptance

Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (Black Girl)

Lead Belly

An old Southern folk ballad, filtered through Lead Belly's version, that turns a simple question about infidelity into something…

betrayal and suspicion death and unexplained violence isolation/exile

Nas Is Like

Nas

Built on a DJ Premier loop and a simile-driven hook, this track is Nas's attempt to define his own mythology by analogy,…

self-mythology survival amid violence fame and mortality

KILL DEM

Jamie xx

KILL DEM is less a song with a plot than a piece of dancehall-derived sound sculpture, built from a stuttering patois vocal…

violence as ritual/rhythm paranoia and evasion dancehall/soundsystem lineage

All of the Lights

Kanye West Tribute Band

A maximalist anthem that fuses celebration with confession, using the image of light in all its forms—stage lights, police…

fame and surveillance guilt and self-justification fatherhood and estrangement

Party and Bulls**t

The Notorious B.I.G.

Biggie's debut single is a snapshot of Brooklyn nightlife rendered with documentary precision: the party is inseparable from the…

street life as routine violence normalized within leisure masculinity and reputation

He War

Cat Power

A driving, chant-like track built from fragments rather than a linear story, pairing an apology for causing harm with a…

complicity and guilt violence done in the name of loyalty or love self-assertion against being underestimated

Underneath the Radar

Underworld

This early, pre-techno Underworld track is a nervy pop-funk song about living small and invisible under the threat of…

Cold War anxiety surveillance and invisibility smallness/powerlessness

Green Light

Lorde

A breakup song built around the gap between wanting to move on and actually being able to. The verses sketch the disorientation…

emotional limbo self-deception vs. clarity urban restlessness