Why American Wedding by Frank Ocean is one of the greatest songs ever made. - HipHop |
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| Why American Wedding by Frank Ocean is one of the greatest songs ever made. Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:41 PM PDT Every so often, I get into a groove of listening to nothing but American Wedding by Frank Ocean. Outside the controversy with The Eagles with it, I think anyone can admire this homage/cover/sampling/whatever you want to call it of Hotel California because of how wonderful of a singer Frank is and his handling of the subject matters within the song. But the song means a lot more to me now than when it did when Nostalgia, Ultra first came out. As people naturally do, I've grown a lot since then. I'm not old by any means, but I've experienced growth in a lot of ways now compared to even just a few months ago because of adversity, painful, or good things I've come across. This better understanding of yourself, from what I can tell, usually helps people see things for the deeper layers they have, they see more complexity in things whether it's day to day occurrences like what it means to kiss your loved one before you go about the rest of your day, or whether it's analyzing past relationships and seeing where you went wrong and how you could have done better. Along with this kind of growth and maturation a lot of people do, you may have the additional challenge of feeling like an outsider to people around you. Feeling like you cannot relate to people around you as well as others can because of inherent differences between you two. For example, I've always known the gay experiences or black experience is very different than mine, as a young straight brown kid. I know it's different, I hear about it all the time and from the surface it is different. But when I see a film like Moonlight that tackles issues about hyper masculinity and feeling lost in your identity, whether it's your sexual identity or your more literal who the fuck you are as a person identity, I understand more things. I understand how little traction you can feel under your feet when people won't get you. How your identity is solely and uniquely yours and how difficult it can be for others to get that even when they mean well and think they can understand it to some extent. When I see a movie like Moonlight or hear and read about Frank Ocean and his suffering, I understand their positions and life and it gives me more context into my life. I see my position for what I can perceive it as and for what it really is, all of it so much better. My perspectives and experiences as a young Iranian mean what molded me were big events like growing up in the south all my life, 9/11, my parents being religious while I never found it, diaspora, falling in love with a woman who was from here, body dysmorphia, the list goes on. A lot of it defines me, but I'm also just a young kid with some aspirations and dreams of what I want to be someday. I've got things to say and jokes to make like anyone else. As I said, I don't know the black experience or the gay experience. Yet, these feelings of being different is something that I can relate to with Frank about. A lot of people of color can often have this empathy for another because we know what it's like living as an outsider. And these things don't define Frank by any means, but you can't just separate them either. Those things are inherently Frank and affect his life and how he sees things. In Nostalgia, Ultra, Frank sampled a number of songs by just using their instrumentals and adding his own lyrics to them. You can see this as a homage, maybe it quite literally alludes to the title of the mixtape and Frank wanting to pay tribute but add his own understandings of the songs. American Wedding is the peak of this. Take Hotel California for what it is. It's a song about disillusionment of what it means to be American. Underneath the gilded perception we have about American culture and life, we see the sometimes ugly, un-rigid and uncomfortable underbelly. It's not so bad, but it's a lot more grounding to what life really is than these wild ideas of what life was supposed to be like. It's a song anyone can relate to and I've known this since when I was little and would go to this Asian corner store where the owner would sometimes loop the song over and over again. But the Hotel California experience comes from a background that is American and white. Anyone can experience disillusionment and being let down by life, but this song does ultimately come from a man whose experience is vastly different than mine or any given person's. And that's where Frank steps in. American Wedding is about that disillusionment but from the perspective of an "other". Frank's point of view is his own but I'm able to put my feet into the shoes of a young black man in this song because the feelings he describes in this song are applicable to an "other" regardless of what kind you are. While a website like Genius simply can tell you that the song is about America not being so great, it really takes away who and what Frank is to the song. It's not just understanding that America and its dreams are a facade, but understanding that and feeling alone and distant from it because of who you are. No matter how much you want to relate to Hotel California, you're still this "other" that the song didn't address. Your experience is marrying young, falling for someone that didn't come from what you came from, understanding this misconceptions you and others had about other or your cultures. I suppose the simplest way I can say this is that Hotel California will tell you the default game experience of being an American, whereas American Wedding will tell you about the game experience of being an American while having never been able to belong to it because of who you were anyway. What about that makes American Wedding so great? Because it's about that and so much more that pushes it to being more than just a song. Frank is flipping this classic piece of Americana, this idea of what it's like to be American, around on its head in this modern age where people of all walks of life have to experience being American. He's doing this in the face of a band that thinks he's evil because he did this. He does this as a queer black man. He does it to give a voice and more of a venue to people who don't otherwise have one in art. In fact, he did that by taking a song that was about the default American experience and making it into the American experience so many more people go through now compared to when Hotel California came out. Frank talks about the heartbreak, the futility of the idea of forever, and the lack of stability you will face in this life here. The temporariness of it all. It sure didn't feel like this before, back from wherever you came from. And how you are just another person and will have to move on from even the worst of these feelings because ultimately everyone goes through this. Because we're imperfect beings that can't just have circles fit into circles all the time. [link] [comments]  |
| NAV Helped Make Drake's "Back To Back" Before He Was Signed To XO Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:54 AM PDT |
| Good songs for depressed nights? Posted: 14 Mar 2017 07:33 PM PDT As a big fan of hip hop and suffer from depression. I look towards music to connect and think bout everything. What are good songs that are good for when your down? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2017 02:49 PM PDT |
| Snoop show at SXSW with Reddit, Twitch & Merry Jane Posted: 14 Mar 2017 12:59 PM PDT What Up Austin?! I've partnered with Reddit, Twitch and Merry Jane to bring you "The Return of Doggy Style Records" showcase! At Rio on 601 Rio Grande st. - Thurs night 3/16 I'll be screening my new movie "Coolaid" followed by a performance by yours truly. I'll also be screening films by my Artist "The Ladies of Beach City" and "October London" followed by performances from them. Pull up . First 20 people to show this post at the door get in for the VIP performance !! [link] [comments]  |
| Just Blaze AMA tomorrow, Match 15 @ 4:15 PM EDT Posted: 14 Mar 2017 10:19 AM PDT |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:00 AM PDT |
| [FRESH] Lil Pump - Flex Like Ouu Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:51 PM PDT |
| Daily Discussion Thread 03/14/2017 Posted: 14 Mar 2017 02:56 PM PDT Welcome to the /r/hiphopheads daily discussion thread! This thread is for:
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| The Underachievers are dropping a project called "Final Destination" this week Posted: 14 Mar 2017 11:05 AM PDT |
| Watch Dave Chappelle’s New Netflix Trailer, Soundtracked by A Tribe Called Quest Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:00 AM PDT |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2017 07:24 PM PDT |
| Ovosound Radio is now scheduled from 6pm - 8pm on Saturday Posted: 14 Mar 2017 11:51 AM PDT |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:46 PM PDT |
| [FRESH] 2 NEW SAMPHA SONGS (1st song: 53:58 2nd song: 1:13:51) Posted: 14 Mar 2017 04:30 PM PDT |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:26 PM PDT Thoughts? I'll elaborate more later, but I thought it was really good. [link] [comments]  |
| [FRESH VIDEO] Kodak Black - Too Many Years (feat. PNB Rock) Posted: 14 Mar 2017 01:02 PM PDT |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:19 PM PDT Suppose Travis Scott pays Kendrick $200K (or whatever) for a feature. Travis gets the verse back and it is absolutely garbage (obviously not the real scenarios, just hypothetical). Does he still have to pay $200k? What if he doesn't use it? [link] [comments]  |
| Run The Jewels will be on Fallon on Friday Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:45 AM PDT |
| The Making of Chance the Rapper's "No Problem" With Brasstracks Posted: 14 Mar 2017 02:32 PM PDT |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2017 07:47 PM PDT |
| [FRESH] Sampha - Everything Is Recorded Posted: 14 Mar 2017 10:32 PM PDT |
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