Rap Lyrics as Evidence

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 330-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Stoia ◽  
Kyle Adams ◽  
Kevin Drakulich
Keyword(s):  
Rap Music ◽  
American Music ◽  
Rock And Roll ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
African American Music ◽  
Past Behavior ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Rap Lyrics

Recent scholarship has shed light on the troubling use of rap lyrics in criminal trials. Prosecutors have interpreted defendants’ rap lyrics as accurate descriptions of past behavior or in some cases as real threats of violence. There are at least two problems with this practice: One concerns the interpretation of art in a legalistic context and the second involves the targeting of rap over other genres and the role of racism therein. The goal of the present work is translational, to demonstrate the relevance of music scholarship on this topic to criminologists and legal experts. We highlight the usage of lyric formulas, stock lyrical topics understood by musicians and their audiences, many of which make sense only in the context of a given genre. The popularity of particular lyric formulas at particular times appears connected to contemporaneous social conditions. In African American music, these formulas have a long history, from blues, through rock and roll, to contemporary rap music. The work illustrates this through textual analyses of lyrics identifying common formulas and connecting them to relevant social factors, in order to demonstrate that fictionalized accounts of violence form the stock-in-trade of rap and should not be interpreted literally.

Tear down the walls: Jefferson Airplane, race, and revolutionary rhetoric in 1960s rock

Popular Music ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Burke
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American Music ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Black Music ◽  
Musical Form ◽  
African American Music ◽  
Racial Issues ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Blackface Performance ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractWhile the notion of the ‘rock revolution’ of the 1960s has by now become commonplace, scholars have rarely addressed the racial implications of this purported revolution. This article examines a notorious 1968 blackface performance by Grace Slick, lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, to shed light on a significant tendency in 1960s rock: white musicians casting themselves as political revolutionaries by enacting an idealised vision of African American identity. Rock, a form dominated by white musicians and audiences but pervasively influenced by black music and style, conveyed deeply felt but inconsistent notions of black identity in which African Americans were simultaneously subjected to insensitive stereotypes and upheld as examples of moral authority and revolutionary authenticity. Jefferson Airplane's references to black culture and politics were multifaceted and involved both condescending or naïve radical posturing and sincere respect for African American music. The Airplane appear to have been engaged in a complex if imperfect attempt to create a contemporary musical form that reflected African American influences without asserting dominance over those influences. Their example suggests that closer attention to racial issues allows us to address the revolutionary ambitions of 1960s rock without romanticising or trivialising them.

Embodied Mind, Situated Cognition, and Expressive Microtiming in African-American Music

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijay Iyer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Situated Cognition ◽  
American Music ◽  
The Body ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Embodied Mind ◽  
African American Music ◽  
Cultural Specificity

The dual theories of embodied mind and situated cognition, in which physical/temporal embodiment and physical/social/cultural environment contribute crucially to the structure of mind, are brought to bear on issues in music perception. It is argued that cognitive universals grounded in human bodily experience are tempered by the cultural specificity that constructs the role of the body in musical performance. Special focus is given to microrhythmic techniques in specific forms of African-American music, using audio examples created by the author or sampled from well-known jazz recordings.

scholarly journals Old Cups Die Hard: The Appropriation of Athenian Pottery in the Iberian Peninsula

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Rodríguez Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Social Affiliations ◽  
Elite Status ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The Iberian archaeological record is particularly rich in asynchronous (i.e. chronologically mixed) assemblages including Athenian pots that predate the other items by a couple of decades or even a few centuries. Recent scholarship on keimëlia, or ‘curated objects’ in modern parlance, has shown the potential of such objects to investigate questions of identity, agency and history-making among the receiving communities, but also to shed light on the role of Athenian pottery among them. This article analyses this phenomenon within the Iberian peninsula, focusing on drinking cups, both black-gloss with inset lip (Cástulo cups) and red-figure type B cups. Using case studies from necropoleis and settlements of the southeast and east of the peninsula, the article explores the reasons and meaning of this consumption practice. It is argued that the occurrence of ‘heirloom’ vases in Iberian tombs and their extraordinary survival in some settlements is the result of a conscious and deliberate choice indicating the existence of mechanisms of social distinction based on a diacritical use of material culture. It is further argued that different motivations might lie behind their delayed deposition: when the chronological gap between production and disposal dates is small, one or two human generations, curated Athenian vases worked similarly to non-curated ones, being emblematic of economic success, social affiliations and political rank. But when the interval is longer, Athenian pots became symbols of ancestry and elite status, possibly acquiring the same legitimizing role earlier bestowed upon Orientalizing artefacts. Supplementary material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426921000094) and comprises a catalogue of case-study objects.

Rap Music in Turkey

2017 ◽  
pp. 204-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Didem Buhari-Gulmez
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Contributions ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Shed Light

Benefiting from the theoretical debate between grobalization and glocalization, this chapter aims to shed light on the emerging role of rap music as an alternative venue for political communication in a polarized country, Turkey. The chapter will discuss the political contributions of the selected underground Turkish rappers – Norm Ender, Sagopa Kajmer and Rapzan Belagat – on the public debate in the country about identity, human rights, and other socio-political issues that go beyond the traditional “Kemalist versus Kurdish”, “Kemalist versus Islamist”, and “Islamist versus Kurdish” divide. This study suggests that the Turkish rap and its varieties reflect a complex set of interactions between the local and the global in line with the glocalization approach.

The Role of Zinc in Thyroid Hormones Metabolism

2019 ◽  
Vol 89 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 80-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Soares Severo ◽  
Jennifer Beatriz Silva Morais ◽  
Taynáh Emannuelle Coelho de Freitas ◽  
Ana Letícia Pereira Andrade ◽  
Mayara Monte Feitosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thyroid Hormones ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone ◽  
Zinc Transporters ◽  
Serum Concentrations ◽  
Metabolic Adaptations ◽  
Serum T3 ◽  
Regulatory Effects ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract. Thyroid hormones play an important role in body homeostasis by facilitating metabolism of lipids and glucose, regulating metabolic adaptations, responding to changes in energy intake, and controlling thermogenesis. Proper metabolism and action of these hormones requires the participation of various nutrients. Among them is zinc, whose interaction with thyroid hormones is complex. It is known to regulate both the synthesis and mechanism of action of these hormones. In the present review, we aim to shed light on the regulatory effects of zinc on thyroid hormones. Scientific evidence shows that zinc plays a key role in the metabolism of thyroid hormones, specifically by regulating deiodinases enzymes activity, thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) synthesis, as well as by modulating the structures of essential transcription factors involved in the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Serum concentrations of zinc also appear to influence the levels of serum T3, T4 and TSH. In addition, studies have shown that Zinc transporters (ZnTs) are present in the hypothalamus, pituitary and thyroid, but their functions remain unknown. Therefore, it is important to further investigate the roles of zinc in regulation of thyroid hormones metabolism, and their importance in the treatment of several diseases associated with thyroid gland dysfunction.

The Adult as Foe or Friend?: Childism in Guus Kuijer's Criticism and Fiction

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Joosen
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Memorial Award ◽  
Adult Reader ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

Compared to the attention that children's literature scholars have paid to the construction of childhood in children's literature and the role of adults as authors, mediators and readers of children's books, few researchers have made a systematic study of adults as characters in children's books. This article analyses the construction of adulthood in a selection of texts by the Dutch author and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Guus Kuijer and connects them with Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's recent concept of ‘childism’ – a form of prejudice targeted against children. Whereas Kuijer published a severe critique of adulthood in Het geminachte kind [The despised child] (1980), in his literary works he explores a variety of positions that adults can take towards children, with varying degrees of childist features. Such a systematic and comparative analysis of the way grown-ups are characterised in children's texts helps to shed light on a didactic potential that materialises in different adult subject positions. After all, not only literary and artistic aspects of children's literature may be aimed at the adult reader (as well as the child), but also the didactic aspect of children's books can cross over between different age groups.

Tax evasion in the medical profession An Empirical Study in the General Tax Authority in Iraq

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (11) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
Ramyar Rzgar Ahmed ◽  
Hawkar Qasim Birdawod ◽  
S. Rabiyathul Basariya
Keyword(s):  
Tax Evasion ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Tax Law ◽  
Degree Of Confidence ◽  
Medical Professions ◽  
Shed Light

The study dealt with tax evasion in the medical profession, where the problem was the existence of many cases of tax evasion, especially tax evasion in the income tax of medical professions. The aim of the study is to try to shed light on the phenomenon of tax evasion and the role of the tax authority in the development of controls and means that reduce the phenomenon of tax evasion. The most important results of the low level of tax awareness and lack of knowledge of the tax law and the unwillingness to read it and the sense of taxpayers unfairness of the tax all lead to an increase in cases of tax evasion and in suggested tightening control and follow-up on the offices of auditors, through the investigation and auditing The reports of certified accountants and the use of computers for this purpose in order to raise the degree of confidence in these reports and bring them closer to the required truth and coordination and cooperation with the Union of Accountants and Auditors and inform them about each case of violations of the auditors and accountants N because of its great influence in the rejection of the organization of the accounts and not to ratify fake accounts lead to show taxpayers accounts on a non-truth in order to tax evasion.

The Baluch, Sunnism and the State in Iran

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
First Century ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Oasis Area ◽  
Shed Light

Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.

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