Mood Board

¡Artist (Dizzy Wright) smoking  illegal marijuana- marijuana is usually associated with reggae music, as the reggae figure head, Bob Marley, was known to  smoke it  and it looked  bad for the genre. Although still  illegal, marijuana has become a lot more socially acceptable and  rap artist would have encountered it  as most came from poorer backgrounds  and cannabis sales would be seen as an easy way to make money.

¡Illmatic cover-  Hip-hop artists will often refer to classic albums or artists to show how much they know of the genre and it will relate to true hip-hop fans. This is one of the most quoted albums, Illmatic by Nas, and is regarded heavily as the greatest hip-hop album of all time. This inclusion to my mood board doesnt represent Illmatic, but the hip-hop of old and how the times of such artists like Nas, A Tribe Called Quest and Big L has evolved and  turned into this massive musical genre.

¡Aritst (Joey Bada$$) graffiti spraying- Similarly to the inclusion of marijuana, graffiti is a huge association with this genre. Graffiti is actually quite a dated association with this genre, in the early 2000’s and late 90’s a type of rap known as ‘gangsta rap ‘ came about and gang  violence (most notably the bloods and cripz of  Los Angeles,  California) was a height and gangs would spray in different area to mark their territory, so graffiti and deviant spelling (e.g. Da Lifestylez Ov Da Poor and Dangerous, Big L) became very commonly associated with rap music.

¡Wad of cash and dollar signs-  As previously outlined, rap music comes derives from Black-American culture in which entailed quite a poor lifestyle, and making money was the only concern for most. Hip-hop quotes money a lot due to this profound adoration of money, as opposed to other genres such as rock and pop who very rarely quote about making money.

¡Sunglasses and  Baseball caps- Jay-Z is pictured here wearing a Baseball cap, otherwise known as a ‘snapback’, which were previously worn by rappers to show  where they are  from and what city they represent, in this case Jay-Z represents his Brooklyn roots by wearing a New York Yankees snapback. Nowadays snapbacks are worn as a fashionable item and  people all around the world will wear Baseball caps which don’t represent a team or place of origin to the wearer. Sunglasses are worn by rappers as they stereotypically look ‘cool’ and make them look good.

¡Beats Headphones- ‘Beats’ are headphones made by world-famous producer/rapper Dr.Dre, these represent marketing. A lot of rappers would make even more money by creating companies and products and use their image to sell them, such as P Diddy with his vodka ‘Ciroc’, Jay-Z and Pharrell with their clothing line ‘Billionaire Boys Club’ and Snoop Dogg with his brand of rolling papers, Rolling Words.

¡Beyonce- Another topic most rappers rap about are hot girls. Beyonce is regarded as the optimum of any woman a man can get in rap and is quoted by many rappers for her beauty. She is also married to famous rapper Jay-Z so her image is quite fitting to my mood board.

¡Lamborghini-  Aside from weed, girls and money, rappers also frequently rap about cars. Fast, expensive cars. The most quoted cars are usually Mercedes Benz, Bugatti, Maybach and Lamborghini. Some rappers have even made songs devoted to cars alone, e.g. Kanye West’s ‘Mercy’ (Lamborghini) and Ace Hood’s ‘I Woke Up In a New Bugatti’.

¡Bottle of  Hennessy whiskey- As rappers do like to party and get into a state in which they are not able to drive their Lamborghinis, they don’t all get high, many quote Hennessy as their choice of drink, most notably Nas. Hennessy is an upmarket whiskey which would appeal to those with decent money, rappers in this case, and would drink it to present their wealth to those around them. You will often see the person consuming it, carry the bottle around with them, can be seen frequently at award shows, only to show what drink they are drinking

¡Gold chain- Rapper J.Cole is seen here in a large gold chain as most rappers are purely because gold is regarded as the most prestigious colour there. Chains like that would have been worn by kings and very royal folk of old, and it represents the artist as a king of his own, and all rappers aspire to be the best, hence forth want to be kings.

¡Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift at the VMAs- This was one of the most extremely controversial moment in music history. Young country artist, Taylor Swift, had won the award for best music video, and Kanye West, heavily influenced on Hennessy bursts on stage in an uproar, claiming his good friend Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. The inclusion of this image on the mood board represents controversy surrounding hip-hop. Hip-hop holds arguably the most controversial artists in the music industry, the actions are somewhat understood by most purely because they hip-hop artist.