Monday, October 1, 2018

Artist profile 50 Cent


50 Cent - Ya Lifes On The Line 


Ya Life's on the Line is included on 50 Cent's first two studio albums it also appeared  as track 5 on his unofficially released 2000 debut album Power of the Dollar and, as a bonus track, as track 19 on his 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It was the first diss track dropped by 50 to counter "Murda 4 Life" in the infamous Ja Rule vs 50 Cent feud. 

The feud began because Ja rule had been robbed in Queens,Jamaica and 50 cent says Ja rule saw him weeks later in a club with the culprit. This sparked the feud leading to Ja rule dropping his diss track called "Murda 4 life". The song didn't name Ja Rule directly but 50's mockery of his label's signature "Murda"chant throughout the song was enough to give a clue of the intended targets. The diss peaked at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart. In the video he's seen near Ja Rules hood which could be perceived as a threat to the artist. 

At the time of the feud 50 Cent wasn't a famous rapper. This diss track and another song entitled "How to rob" helped to make people in New york aware of him. He dissed a lot of rappers on both tracks which led to him becoming more known. This was a early stage of his career.

The music video starts with a statement explaining how the footage went missing, but was later found, then proceeds with scenes of 50 Cent rapping in various areas of New York City, getting arrested, and rapping while in the police car. The video features cameos from rappers Tony Yayo, Bang 'Em Smurf and Two Five.

At the beginning of the video graphics appear on the screen stating " In 1998, rappers 50 Cent disappeared in the belly of NYC while shooting a music video." The background is black and the text is displayed in white. 

The video starts of with 50 cent addressing the camera rapping "Nobody likes me". 50 is staring directly at the camera as he is talking to us and its a close shot. Its as if 50 is trying to warn Ja Rule not to mess with him. The video being black and white helps to emphasise how serious 50 is. 50 shows various pictures of richer ares of new york city and then after a few white flashes it goes back to 50 cent directly rapping to the camera. This could represent 50s ambitions/dreams to one day live on a better side of new york but hen awakes from his dream to return to the dark room which may represent queens and how bad it is due to the crime rate. The transition is done using a cut to beat because when the beat drops it wakes 50 back to his back reality which is queens Jamaica.



He also says "Even B*tches who don't know me, they wanna blow me". 50 is telling the listener that he is able to attract women without them even knowing who he is. After a few more clips of new York and the people who are believed to be in Manhattern due to their suits, the video goes to colour showing 50 cent at marcy av station wearing full black. There also Hip Hop rap iconography in the video as 50 wears a chain and is arrested by the police. 

The camera movement is very rough, as if 50 is forcefully moving it to catcher him at different angles. There's a mixture of pan and tilt movements. Theres one part where 50 wags his finger at the camera and then it is lowered to create a high angled shot. The fact 50 wagged his fingered show him "putting someone in there place"as a parent would to a child, 50 could be warning Ja rule again. The high angle also makes 50 look superior. Throughout the whole video 50 uses various hand gestures and quite a serious and angry expression on his face.


The next shots show 50 being arrested and handcuffed by the police. We see 50 in the back of the car aggressively rapping at the camera which is still at the high angle.
By 50 cent and his gang taking the police officers out the car it shows his power and how its even bigger than the power of law enforcement and shows his status as the head.















when 50 says the line "get out of line i'll get you hit up" the screen turns grey to show that although he clowns around in the song he's serious.



50 Cent - I'm The Man













product - vitamin water/clothes
Tv - power/50central
film- get rich or die tryin
game - blood in the sand
radio- 
magazine -
boxing - TMT (The money team)













POWER

Power is a TV show which was debuted on the on the 7th of june 2014 starring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as Kanan Stark. Kanan is a manipulative drug dealer who is the main antagonist. 50 Cent is also the executive producer. 50 Cent is able to show his gangster persona of in this role. Throughout the show Kanan commits various crimes such as: murdering 18 people on screen, torturing people, burglary, assault, attempted murder, drug trafficking and corpse mutilation.  

RIP Kanan Video

As you can tell from the video kanan is a very manipulative person as he trys to turn his son against Ghost St Patrick who is played by omari hardwick. Kanan dresses exactly how 50 cent does to show they are the same person but kanan is just one extreme.




In the final episode when Kanan is shot 





Blood On The Sand




Radio Interview: 50 Cent Talks Beef And Killing From 8:00+

50 Cent featured on the American TV Show Power 99 FM in 2010 and was interviewed by Radio Host DJ Cosmic Kev. The interview was a discussion where they talked about life in the streets of New York. As the interview progresses they begin to talk about the price of life and 50 Cent asks DJ cosmic on how much he thinks it costs to kill someone. 50 Cent later hints that it would cost around $5000 to have someone killed. The interview was just a general conversation and shows how normal it is for 50 Cent to talk about hiring someone to kill, this amplifies 50 Cents star persona as it flaunts his power and the type of connections he has. For people viewing the interview regardless of their opinion on 50 Cent they can easily recognise how powerful he is and the fact that he should not be messed with.


Interview: Sleep Is For Broke People


50 Cent appeared on Cocaine City TV which was created by French Montana and his close friend CamsCCTV was a series of DVDs that featured different rappers that shows a inside into life. 50 Cent when asked how he became so successful replied with the words "Sleep is for broke people" this phrase became popular due to the meaning of it. 50 Cent is referring to how he became wealthy by working hard and not relying on other peoples help which is why the words "sleep is for broke people" were used as he is describing how when others are sleeping he himself would be out hustling and has no time for sleep and being lazy. 50 Cent is showing off his success not visually but verbally by talking words of wisdom.














Film: Get Rich Or Die Tryin
 

Get Rich or Die Tryin' is a 2005 American biopic crime film starring 50 Cent, in his feature film acting debut. It was released on November 9, 2005, and was known as Locked and Loaded during production. Similar to the 2002 Eminem film 8 Mile, which it used as a template, the film is loosely based on Cent's own life and was directed by Jim Sheridan. The name of the film is shared with 50 Cent's 2003 debut album of the same name which was a way for 50 Cent to promote his album. In doing so he was successful as the album Get Rich or Die Tryin' debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 872,000 copies in its first week. In its second week, the album sold an additional 822,000 copies. It was the best-selling album of 2003, selling 12 million copies worldwide by the end of the year. The film had a lot to do with the large number of sales as it was his debut album and he was not known as much before. The film was also loosely based around incidents that had occured during 50 Cents life time. These incidents were easily recognisable as they were based on him being shot 9 times. The film therefore showed a slightly exaggerated insight into 50s life which showed how gangsta he is.

TV - My Mom Is Dating 50 Cent

Published on Oct 19 2017 on the BET channel 50 Cent pulls a prank on teenagers into thinking he’s dating their mom’s and they met in the club. 50 Central is an American sketch comedy television series hosted by 50 Cent. He usually appears on the show himself and makes funny skits and pulls pranks on people. In this episode 50 Cent whereby he and a single mom trick the teenage child into thinking that 50 Cent is their new step dad. 

Artist Presentation

50 CENT - HEAT - STREET VERSION

50 Cent heat was released in the year 2003 and was featured on the album get rich or die trying. There were 2 videos produced for the single one being official produced for MTV and the other being a street version which was unofficial. The song was produced by Dr Dre and the music video featured other rappers affiliated with 50 Cent at the time such as Bang Em Smurf,  MOP and Lloyd Banks.


Representation - The video was produced at a time where 50 Cent was promoting a street gangsta image and this helped host his image. The narrative of the video is that of 50 Cent and his goons kidnapping a rival and assaulting him. The video title has "Street Version" and has a maximum quality of 480p this shows how raw and uncut the video is. This further amplifies 50 Cents gangsta image as it shows his authenticity. 

The video is set in the streets specifically in 50 Cents old neighbourhood in Southside Jamaica Queens this shows that even after all of his success he is still true to his roots and stays in the hood with his goons. A form of iconography that appears in the video is when the people in the video who are mostly affiliates of 50 Cent can only be seen wearing white and black which could suggest that they are not associated with any gang. This is as a lot of gangs in New York are identified by colours such as bloods and crips. By wearing white proves there loyalty to 50 Cent as they work with him rather than others. This gives 50 Cent a powerful status as he has the loyalty of these people.

In the later half of the video 50 Cent and his goons enter a deserted location with their rival the colours they wear also change from white to black. This could show the seriousness of whats happening and sets the tone for this part of the video. The artist as well as a few goons are seen wearing bulletproof vests which highlights the danger they could possibly be in due to their criminal activity.

Most of the shots are from low angles and from the point of view of the person that was kidnapped this is a smart use of camera angles as it makes the viewer feel as if they are the one being attacked. 50 Cent aggressively raps towards the camera below him which shows his anger towards the victim and once again signifies that he is serious and not to be fooled with.

This video was the first of its kind and 50 Cent is arguably the creator of drill music. He inspired rappers such as Chief Keef, Fredo Santana, RondoNumba9 etc. Drill is a sub genre of rap music and is a big part of it. 50 Cent is praised for his involvement of drill music due to this video.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Key terms

Music video analysis key words

purpose

new single/artist/album - The reason why they would release a music video advertising there new release of their single/album/artist is to build up "Hype". This will make there first week sales high as everyone has been anticipating it.

Style

performance - They are dancing or playing an instrument/performing
narrative - Theres a story being told. Theres s message.
thematic

Representative

gender/ethnicity 
national identity - Where you are from
age

moving image codes

camera

shots
(close/mid/ long)
angles.   - These are the distance of the camera from a person or thing. A close up is a face shot or a shot of and eye etc. A mid shot is a shot including the body which is not close like a close shot but not to far away. A long shot is shot which is far away to usual show something happening in the background. Usually used to show off a scenery or a lot of people.                  
(High/low). - A high shot is when someone films from low to the ground facing upwards to make them person being filmed be shown as superior/in charge. A low angle is the opposite where its filmed from high up to show the person/people as inferior.       
movement
(pan/tilt/zoom) - Zoom is when the camera either zooms into something close (could be a detail or a logo) or zoom out to show (a bigger picture)
editing
cut fade -
pace
cut to beat - 

Nines - i see you shinning
uses high/mid  angles, zoom, pan and fade cut 

Uses a variety of close/mid endlong shots. a few high angles and a lot of Ariel angles

visual codes

expression + gestures
costume+props
iconography
lighting + colour
graphics

key terms

genre
star persona
motif
anchorage
binary opposites
intertextuality 

audio 

lyrics
dialogue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dcVOmEQzKA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHU6ZRQJ50Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43gm3CJePn0

Monday, September 17, 2018

Induction Task


Representation of Genders in the media




Cobie Smulders Women's health


This magazine cover shows Cobie Smulders without a top hugging herself. She's shown as a sexual object as she is wearing nothing but short shorts and is  standing side on smiling at the camera. This is used to attract the male gaze.







YG'S True magazine cover









The male gender is presented as "thuggish" and intimidating due to the iconography used in the pictures, such as the jewellery and by the males throwing up gang symbols. YG wears red while lil wayne forms his hand in a p shape. These are both references to the blood gang in which they are both members of. In the last picture we see soldier boy(On the left) accompanied by 50 cent (on the right). 50 is wearing a t-shirt mask which added to his muscular built makes him look menacing. Soldier boy on the other hand is not wearing a mask but is covered in jewellery and tattoos. They are both wearing expensive watches.