Marble Floors and Missed Calls : A Close Reading of Narratives of Success in 2010s U.S. Rap Lyrics

Abstract

In this study I examine narratives of success found in the lyrics of American mainstream rappers in the 2010s using close reading as my method. This study consists of a series of eleven lyric analyses divided into five smaller groups based on the themes present in the lyrics of the songs. The term “success” is defined in this study as the combination of wealth and fame. The concept “mainstream rapper” is defined in this study as referring to a rapper who has at one point in the 2010s (2010-2019) released an album which has charted in the top 100 albums of the Billboard 200 record chart. In this study songs by the following artists are examined: Drake, JAY-Z, Rick Ross, G-Eazy, Big Sean, ScHoolboy Q, Childish Gambino, Logic and Big K.R.I.T. The lyric analyses are divided into five thematic groups, which deal with portrayals of work in rap lyrics, what it feels like to achieve success and how that success is celebrated, portrayals of reminiscence, the isolating effects of stardom and how financial success can be made to last. The key findings of the study were that the narratives of success that could be discovered from the lyrics of 2010s mainstream rappers quite diverse. The financial boon that a successful rap career could bestow upon an artist was not flaunted only through typical rap clichés such as by namedropping hypercar marques and expensive champagne brands, but instead also through mentions of the ability to support loved ones financially. In addition, some rappers defined success more broadly than as just a combination of wealth and fame, viewing achieving some form of self-actualization as a significant form of success as well. It also became apparent that digitalization and the proliferation of the internet and of smart phones had turned fame into something almost completely inescapable and had practically evaporated the concept of privacy for some rappers. Then, perhaps partly because the rappers’ expectation of privacy was already diminished either way, rappers in the 2010s would rap about highly introspective and personal topics, almost using their music as a form of therapy. Emotional vulnerability seems to be a noticeable trend in the mainstream hip-hop of the 2010s and it is a significant aspect that separates the rap music of the 2010s from the rap music of earlier decades. Similar future research should be conducted into the perspectives that mainstream rappers of the 1990s and the 2000s had on success, and the proliferation of introspective lyricism into hip-hop music should be observed further to see whether the trend keeps going into the 2020s.