Friday, July 10, 2009

Goals, Dreams & Inspirational Rap

Here's the progress of my Passion Flower painting as of this morning!

As I was painting this morning, I had on some Snoop Dogg and while taking in his lyrics, I thought about how his music has been inspiring to me.

It seems that, in general, hip hop music isn't thought of as being a positive influence. However, regarding art and my goals related to it, some of the most positive and inspirational music I listen to comes from Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z.
Of course, I had "Doggystyle" and "The Chronic," on tape back when I was in high school. I defaulted to hip-hop in college (after exhausting my classic rock catalogue) when, for the most part, the new rock scene was downright pukeworthy. If you think about it, it's pretty awesome that these rappers are still around, making new music that I still enjoy after all these years.... which is more than I can say for the majority of rock bands I listened to back then. And that is beyond depressing. :(

So what on earth do I have in common with hip-hop artists? Well there is an inherent similarity of being artists. But for anyone who has personal dreams and goals, no matter what they may be, following your dreams, working hard, and never giving up are common themes throughout a lot of rap music.

If you want to listen to some yourself, check these out:

Jay Z featuring Chris Martin- "Beach Chair"
"Some said HOV, how'd you get so fly?
I said 'from not being afraid to fall out the sky' "
Jay Z- "I made it"
Snoop Dogg- "Beat Up On Your Pads" a song for his football league kids
Eminem- Lose Yourself
Eminem- Til I Collapse
Young Jeezy- "Dreamin' "


What are some songs that you've found to be the most inspiring?


2 comments:

Doris Sturm said...

Oh, I can't wait to see that one, Samantha. I love passion flowers. I had a vine growing in my back yard when I lived in So. Cal.

Problem was that the Monarch butterfly caterpillars loved eating the leaves and I had to keep picking them off and tossing them over the fence. I didn't want to kill them as I love Monarchs, but my Passion Vine was starting to lose all her leaves and I had to do something.

Angela Finney said...

Cool post! I didn't know it about rap lyrics. Those ideas ring so true!