Piece One Commentary - Kony 2012

I chose to write a rap in order to employ the purposes ‘to inform’ and ‘to entertain’. The rap is based on my own personal opinion on the well-known topic of Kony. I researched the topic in order to develop my understanding and knowledge, and used what I learnt to achieve the purposes and appeal to my target audience.

 

In the opening line of the rap, I straight away introduce the topic of “Kony 2012”, which illustrates to the audience the subject of the rap. The rap is written in the first person and uses many pronouns: “I”, “my”, which highlights that I have emphasised my opinion on the topic.I use various different conventions of a stereotypical rap including Rhyme in order to make mine fit in with the medium, such as “pressed to play” and “impressed to say”. This is found catchy and links with a certain flow/beat which is more like to be remembered by the target audience.

 

I also use colloquial language in order to make my rap sound more urban and street-like such as “aint” and “Cause”. This is used because rap is more targeted at teenagers and younger generations and they are more likely to understand/relate to this language.

 

I also use rhetorical questions in my rap as it allows the target audience to think about the question that I have asked while it also allows for a brief pause for the rapper to catch his breath back. For example, “What better way to start than having you backing a cause so that if troops are in their country they all clap and applause?” This adds a new meaning to the whole Kony 2012 situation as the video seemed to have brainwashed a lot of people to believe whatever “Invisible Children” said. When doing my research I found out that the company have been known for manipulating the truth to try to persuade more people to donate to them. I state my concern about the company’s integrity in the lines “See the charity that’s causing this spectacle, has a shady past that aint to respectable, accused of bending the truth to make you more susceptible.”

 

Anaphora (repetition) is also used throughout my rap. This links in with using Rhymes as it makes it more memorable and catchy. For example, my last three lines all finish off with hyphens between the last two words. “Dam-shame”, “can-change” and “dam-train”. This makes the last three lines sign off quickly but without feeling like the rap is half finished. The anaphora of the word “dam” shows how passionate I am about trying to prove the other side of the argument while also still trying to sound cool and Hip/Hop like.

 

David Campbell