One area that has recently adopted Dragon Ball and infused it into the genre is rap and hip-hop. Modern rappers love the characters and like to use them in their lyrics as comparisons.

Setting: The medium for this genre is rap/hip-hop songs

Subject: There are so many subjects covered in rap that you could not name all of them. A few are; cars, money, drugs, guns, women, struggles in their life, specific stories, pop culture references and lots of other things.

Participants: The artist, the people involved with making the song (producer, other song writers, record labels, etc.), the service providing the ability to listen (Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, etc.), the listener. They listen for enjoyment mostly and the songs are made for enjoyment, money, expression and many other reasons.

Exigencies: These songs are created for the artist to express themselves, to make money, and for their enjoyment.

“Who hasn’t grown up on Dragon Ball Z?”

-Denzel Curry in a 2015 interview with 88 Rising

 

This genre is used to express the artist. Content includes telling stories and talking about their life.

These songs play heavily to Pathos in the way that a lot of what is talked about is to trigger an emotional reaction. Artists will sample familiar songs or shows into their order to create a connection to the song and to emotionally invest the listener. They also play to ethos by using stories of killing people or other experiences they’ve (supposedly) had. The artist demands respect by talking about things the listener may not have experience with. Logos is used in rap every once in a while but it is not prevalent enough for me to be able to think of an example.

Text in this genre are the lyrics of the songs and are organized into verses, hooks and sometimes a bridge. An average song is around 3-4 minutes long but can vary a lot.

Rap and hip hop are know for their use of slang and jargon. Another thing that is synonymous with these songs is cursing; while not all songs swear, nearly all of them do. In rap and hip-hop, artists will often leave off a letter or shorten a word for it to fit their rhyme-scheme.

Rap is a very large genre that is very complex and not everyone appreciates. One thing that will largely enhance your listening experience is knowing the history of hip-hop and who inspired the artist you are listening to. This will help you understand the references they make. In this case, knowing the history of Dragon Ball or just having a base knowledge will give you a greater appreciation of the song and will help you feel closer the the artist.

Rap and hip-hop have many different subcategories. For conscious rap to mumble rap, each tend to talk about different things. rappers will talk about their struggles growing up or troubling situations and other will talk about cars and designer clothes. Most focus along those two subjects (not saying they all belong in these two areas); telling a story or talking about their money and how they spend it. Both are great in different scenarios and for their own reasons. Through these categories we find out what each artist values most and their beliefs.