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Final Reflection of the Class

My object in my zine is about the beat of “It was a Good Day” by Ice Cube. The two songs that share this beat are LeeSsang’s “Fly High” and “It was a Good Day” by Ice Cube. Both of LeeSsang and Ice Cube are first generation rappers of respecting countries, and both of the songs are well know pieces that represent the each rapper. At first this assignment was started light-hearted. As the course went on, I slowly found how each topic that was discussed in the course could apply it to the zine. For example there is idea of property and circulation of Blackness that I used in my zine.

           For the topics of resistance discussed in the section, my zine could apply to survivance and key figures. Survivance is one for South Korean Hip Hop music is because late 1900s to early 2000’s, Hip Hop was considered music for delinquents. The Hip Hop music was rough and raw, and in South Korea, ballad more electronic music was popular during those years, making Hip Hop’s debut in Korea more rough. However, it survived on as there were hardcore fans and handful of artists that persevered through.  For key figure, there were couple key figures that made Hip Hop in South Korea popular. The one mentioned in my Zine, LeeSsang, is one. These first generation rappers imitated the rough rapping styles of America, but not on all their tracks. There were songs that were mixed with jazz and some even ballad to make Hip Hop songs softer for the audience. LeeSsang is one of them but there are more groups, for example: Dynamic Duo and Supreme Team, that made the Hip Hop more appealing to general audience.

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Final Zine

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Zine gif

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Notebook 4

Note Book 4

Monday 3:00-3:50 P.M.

Boke Saisi

Partner: Dana Chung (d5chung.tumblr.com)

Notebook 4

Summary: Dana Chung’s zine is about Studio Glibli’s movies. Some examples given are Princess Mononoke and Pom Poko. She goes over the intersectionality in the those movies. Princess Mononoke has intersectionality of gender, race, class, and illness. Pom Poko covers the intersectionality of  racial formation, as some types of animals were characterized differently compared to the others.

Quotes: “Pom Poko demonstrates racial formation through its animal characters; the foxes are viewed as a more elite, upper class race, while the racoons are seen as more lazy, lower class. This “racial” formation separates the two groups. The foxes, a clever yet more sinister group of animals, create a stigma around the idea of being wealthy. The racoons, a kinder and humorous species, form connections between being poorer and nicer.”

Anecdote: Princess Mononoke is a story about fight between two species, between the animals and the humans. Story of how the humans are chasing out the animals alludes to colonialism, as the human are harvesting from the forest and bringing back resources for the human village.

Image: The image of a woman in red firing a gun from the shoulder and the giant white wolf with the girl standing next to it with blood around her mouth.

Reword Analysis:

Princess Mononoke covers intersectionality of race, gender, illness, and idea. The characters and the group of characters depict different intersectionality. For example, Lady Eboshi, the leading figure and the main antagonist of the movie, is a woman yet holds authority of the village. In Pon Poko, the foxes are characterized as elite class, while the raccoons are characterized as lazy and lower class. The characterization in Pon Poko is parallel to the racial formation in U.S.

Some of the intersectionality theme are clear and contemporary, like the foxes and the raccoons. Also covers the conflict between Japan and U.S., or the idea of East vs. West.

Narrow down the selection of movies, considering that Studio Ghibli has tens of movies.  

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Title page

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First Page?

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Notebook 3f

Minhyeok Yoon

Monday 3:00 to 3:50

Boke Saisi

Notebook 3

1.      Focus:

The research will focus on the rappers of the songs, Ice Cube and Gary. The focus will start with the breakdown of the lyrics. Then, the research will focus on the styles and the flow of the rapper.

2.      Relational Analysis

The national contexts of this research will be the spreading of Blackness and idea of property. Hip Hop artists have shared their struggles, sometimes the struggles of their race. Like so, South Korean rappers have shared their struggles through their music. Although there are some shared struggles between both countries, there are some major differences. To list some examples, artist in the U.S explains the police brutality, racism, poverty, gang wars, or drug abuse. Comparatively, South Korea has low gun usage, drug uses, or racism. South Korean artist would usually write about poverty, relationship issue, family issue, or self problems. When put side by side, the Korean artists’ struggles are less serious compared to those of U.S artist. However, the lyrics of South Korean artists are still relatable to South Koreans. Matters of fact, lyrics of U.S. artists are outlandish for South Korean. To put it in to perspective of this project, Ice Cube “It Was a Good Day,” mentions about no one dying from gang war or no police stopping him on the street. In LeeSsang’s “Fly High,” the rapper, Gary talks about the times when he had no money, so he would blame his parents and how he ignored everyone else because of his relationship. In U.S where gang activity can affect someone and where there is a mix of races that can cause trouble because of the mix of that race, people can relate to Ice Cube’s lyrics. However, it is not relatable for South Koreans because there are not a lot of gang activities that are prevalent in streets, even in the ghettos. Also, in South Korean, 90% percent of the population is South Korean, so there is are close to none racism that happens in South Korea. This also goes into property aspect of national context. How the property, in this project, the beat for Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day,”  has translated and changed to fit the audience of different country.

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Notebook 2

Notebook 2

               Object: Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day” and Leessang’s “Fly High”

1.       Focus

Leessang, a hip hop duo prominent in South Korea, sampled the beat from the “It Was A Good Day.” Ice Cubes “It Was A Good Day” was released 1992 in his album “The Predator.” Leessang’s “Fly High” was released 2003 in their album “Jae Gyebal,” translating to reconstruction. Both Ice Cube and Leessang are considered the first generation rappers of their respective countries. “It Was A Good Day” describes Ice Cube’s day and how everything went well. The song has a peaceful laid back pace. Comparatively, in “Fly High” describes the regrets of the members of Leessang. The meaning of the song is to fly above the past mistakes and move on. Leessang featured Jung In and Ha Rim in the song. Both singers are well known for their soulful voice. “Fly High” managed to keep the original relaxed mood but the sincere tone of the lyrics. During the description of his day in his song, Ice Cube scratches the surface of Black struggles. He mentions gang fights and police harassing African American. It was not directly mentioned or prominent in the song, but the fact that these events are seemed as a daily event is what is troubling. “Fly High” is more of a personal story told through the rap, so it does not have much social implications. The rapping styles are very different in the songs.  

2.       Details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4UqMyldS7Q (Ice Cube “It Was A Good Day”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1h054JjZsY (Leessang “Fly High”)

3.       National Binds

Falls under property. Hip Hop has started in U.S. and has spread to other countries. “It Was A Good Day” and “Fly High” is a perfect example because they show how other countries have put a spin on hip hop. Leessang is well known for featuring Jung In in most of their songs and their lyrics from personal experience. So it questions if hip hop is really a property of U.S. and how easily it can spread.

4.       Intersectional Analysis

The musical aspect of Hip Hop always had a strong link with African-Americans. Even in South Korea, most people knew that Hip Hop was music of the African-American, and it is one of the reasons why it did not become popular until just recently. But with the softer hip hop has melted the bias against Hip Hop and more people have started enjoying Hip Hop. Now did the spread of hip hop in South Korea ease the bias against African- Americans? To a level it has. Hip Hop has created a bridge between the two races.

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Hip Hop in 2 nations

Notebook 1

Object: Musical Aspect of hip hop

Theme: Circulation of blackness

Place: U.S. and South Korea

Time: Present

Events that are happening: The stylistic between two nation’s musical aspect of hip hop. For example: rhymes, flow, rhythm, beat, and the morals and the ideologies of the rappers.

Meaning:

U.S.: A music originating from African Americans. Art movement formed during early 1970s. Rhythms from Salsa and Afro conga and bonga drums. Originated from Bronx house parties. Now widely popular culture loved by the general.

South Korea: A recent growing popularity of hip hop through main media. Began as rebellion against the main stream ballad. Started from Hong Dae, a popular place among youngsters, in early 2000s. Recent increase of fans and rap artists.

Hyper Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop