Comparing Grandmaster Flash And The Message And Jay Z's Empire State Of Mind

According to Jeff Chang, “By the beginning of 2005, hip-hop music, in particular, had become a weapon of mass distraction— abused by corporate media monopolies with their deployments of blockbuster-minded execs, reactionary programmers, and vernacular shock jocks, incurring a grassroots clapback from hip-hop activists dismayed at the pimping of their culture” (Chang, xi). In other words, the author points out that the new age of hip hop has lost the true meaning of the genre and is too focused on making a big hit that will take the world by storm. The society that people are living in today are among a commercial era of hip hop, so it is appropriate to compare the sounds and visuals of what millennials have been raving over since 2005, to the original sound that started a movement that has evolved over
By using Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s video for “the Message” and Jay Z’s video for “Empire State of Mind” one can notice comparisons and contrasts in setting, lyrical content, and representation of women.
Music videos revolve around location and where the artist is at, during different moments throughout the video. The setting is a crucial element that enables the viewer to have a better understanding of what places and environments the musician was thinking of when writing the song. In Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s music video “The Message”, the setting showcases an urban, rough part of town, but in Jay Z’s music video “Empire State of Mind” the setting mainly displays famous and well known parts of New York City. This difference is significant because the audience can get an idea of what growing up or living in this city is really like. In “The Message” there is litter and broken glass on the street, homeless people sitting in forsaken areas, and unkempt