Suffering Evoked in Dark and Light Images Everybody, one day or another, will or has been subjected to suffering. It is suffering, the physical and emotional pain, that helps us to understand ourselves and define ourselves as human beings. Baldwin’s story, “Sonny’s Blues,” takes the readers on a journey with two brothers who lived together, but grew up and landed into two different worlds. Sonny, the narrator’s brother, is a man who dropped school, painted himself a corrupted life, and became a drug addict to chase his dream of being a musician. The narrator is a middle-class man who holds an emotional hazard towards his brotherhood with Sonny.
This happens right after he’d been watching Sonny through the window of his Harlem apartment, without the haze of his own ego getting in the way of seeing who Sonny really is. The narrator’s brother is standing at the edge of the crowd of an old-fashioned revival meeting. He sees the faintly smiling Sonny staring at the crowd making music that “seemed to soothe a poison out of them”. He observes Sonny’s walking style – something he had never paid attention to before. This scene is a turning point for the narrator, who becomes taking the observer role in the story, and for the first time of his life, starts to get to know his brother Sonny.
Family Matters “Blood runs thicker than water.” This is a common phrase used to describe the role in family. For some, this phrase is simple to uphold, but for others, such as the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues,” the phrase more difficult to apply. Only in the flashbacks of pain and sorrow that occur throughout the story does the narrator finally discover that he needs to not only aid Sonny, but understand his lifestyle to truly recognize that blood runs thicker than water. Although brothers tend to grow apart from each other as they grow older and begin separate lives, the narrator still finds that he should be his brother’s keeper, no matter what the circumstances. The story begins when the narrator reads about his younger brother, Sonny, being arrested for selling and using heroin.
Actually his love for music came to him when his brother brought home an Art Blakey record. He just needed more after hearing that record and started his own record collection. Then soon he started playing jazz on a bass fiddle. Randy Moore likes to play Modern Bebop. He likes to use AABA and Standard tunes from 20’s, 30’s and 40’s in making his music.
Sonny talks the narrator into seeing him play piano in a nightclub. He finally understood his brother's life through the blues that Sonny played. The narrator states “Sonny's fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others”(Baldwin, 2007). It is through the energy of Sonny's blues music that the narrator's character becomes more dynamic.
With that being said, rap and country are also on the top of the list with similarities. Rap and Country both portray meaning, as they express life stories throughout their lyrics. What I have got out of rap music is a lot of struggle and a lot of fame. When Tupac was alive he always talked about how he and his mother struggled all the times. By him giving the world his life story really toughed the streets of poor black and white people that had witness things he would rap about.
In my opinion lil boosie is the Tupac of his generation. I was drawn to lil boosie’s music because he speaks on real life issues. Not only does he speak on real life issues, but his music is also relatable and motivational. When I first heard Boosie’s music I liked it but at that time he was far from the best rapper in my opinion. As I grew older and really began to listen and understand his lyrics he quickly became my favorite rapper.
He also switched some of the lyrics around, or added a few more notes. So, whenever Bob Dylan would perform a song of his for his audience, the song would never be the same. This gave his fans a little more curiosity for his music and caught a couple more peoples attention. Knowing that you will not listen to the same song everyday, people were more attracted to his music. He always knew how to spice up his concerts and public appearances.
“I was proud to be included in that project, and really appreciated his efforts to bring the world of hip-hop and jazz together,” said pianist Bob James, who appeared on 2007’s Jazzmatazz Vol. 4. (LATimes). Although Gang Starr was producing albums that incorporated jazz elements in their music, it was with the release of his series of Jazzmatazz albums when Guru was credited for creating a fusion between jazz and hip-hop. Guru’s exposure to jazz began when he was a child when both of his grandfathers would play their favorite jazz albums with him and his brother.
This genre of music became very popular in local bars. People used to go just to have the instruments, like saxophone and piano, take them away from reality even if only for a moment. In both stories the men share a common factor, they both sing the blues to release their soul from the things they are currently going through. They feel that the people they love don’t understand them and the blues is the only to get them to realize his truth. The close relation of both stories is easily from the beginning.