Xxxtentacion

Fresh Blog

Xxxtentacion, born in Plantation, Florida in 1998 on 23 January, was a famous rapper.
He died on 18 June 2018.
His real name was Jahsen Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy.
Xxx was raised by his grandmother at the age of six; he had almost killed a man because he abused his mom.
His carreer began on Twitter and Sound Cloud (he had about 300k followers).
He lived his life breaking the law, and this behavior gave him an unmistakable air of authenticity.
In 2014 he published his first video but received only negative comments, he didn't give up and began to publish many songs, until in 2015 he published Look At Me and he got a great success.
His music style is a mixture of hip pop and emo.
But on 18 june 2018, at the exit of a bike shop, he got hit by gunshots of weapon fire, he moved to the hospital and a few hours later they announced his death.
We have decided to tell his story because in recent times all media have talked a lot about his death and we have been really impressed about his life's story beacuse it is very difficult an troubled, his story fully represents what rap is and many stories of famous rappers resemble his story, which we would also like to try.

Glossary
RAPPER: a person who performs a rap music.
UNMISTAKBLE: not able to be mistaken for anything else, very distinctive.
PUBLISH: prepare and issue (a book, journal or a piece of music) for public sale.
HOSPITAL: an istitution providing medical and surgical treatment and nursing care for sick or injured people.
SOUND CLOUD: it is a website that allows musician to collaborate, promote and distribute their music.
GUN SHOT: a shot fired from a gun, pistol or a rifle.
HIP POP: a style of popular music of American black and hispanic origin, featuring rap with an electronic backing.

THE COIN OF LIFE

Why not?

Curtis Jackson, known as 50 Cent, is a hip hop artist and businessman who became famous for his streetwise raps and rag-to-riches life story.

Curtis James Jackson III was born on the 6th July in 1975 in South Jamaica in New York.  He was raised by a single mother in a broken home family. His mom worked as a drug dealer and she was shot died by an unknown suspect when Jackson was only 8 years old; after the death of his mom he moved to his grandmother’s.  He had a boyhood aspiration to be a boxer, and fought at junior level, but began selling drugs when he was 12 years old. At the age of 19 an undercover police officer arrested Jackson for selling four vials of cocaine; three weeks later the apartment was raided by police where they found crack and heroin. At first he was sentenced to three-to-nine years, but he went to a bootcamp and got his G.E.D. in prison. When he got out of prison 

he stopped selling drug thanks to a friend and he started to write his own songs.

He got his first important contact with the New York hip hop scene when he met Jam Master Jay from the group Run DMC. Jay was impressed by Jackson’s rapping ability and produced and album for him, but it never came out. Jackson also made a false start with the Columbia label, recording an album that was shelved before its release. That album was “Power of the Dollar”.

In 2000 Jackson was victim of a severe shooting incident that left him with multiple injuries. He returned to music after his recovery and made several low-budget recordings with his friends

Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo, as a crew called G-unit. In 2003 he became famous thanks to his first song with Eminem and another one whose title is “Get Rich Or Die Tryin”.

We chose to write about 50 cent's life because he is a model for all teenagers around the world today, who deal drugs to earn their living. 50 cent's life, instead, teach us to follow our dream to become someone important and to be successful.

GLOSSARY

Broken home: a family in which the parents are divorced or separated.

Drug Dealer: a person who sells illegal drugs.

Boyhood: it is a period of a male person's life during which he is a boy.

Undercover: a work that involves getting confidential or secret information

Raided: past participle of “to raid”; if the police raid a building they enter it suddenly and by force in order to look for dangerous criminals or for evidence of something illegal, such as drugs or weapons.

Sentence: it is a punishment that people receive after they have been found guilty of a crime.

Shelved: put aside; it’s when they decide not to continue a Plan or project, either for a while or permanently.

Bootcamp: a centre for young offenders, run in military lines.

G.E.D.: General Educational Development, the G.E.D. is an educational certificate awarded in the United States and Canada which certifies that the recipient has met the minimum requirements necessary to graduate high school.

Green Day

I.B.C.

The Green Day are a U.S. rock band founded in 1986. The band is composed by: Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar and voice), Mike Dirnt (bass and secondary voice) and Tré Cool (drum).
The Green Day are among the top-selling groups in the history having sold more than 85 millions discs all around the world. Also the Rolling Stone magazine has put them in the “new immortals” list; “new immortal” is a list of artists defined as the legend of the music history . The historical newsweekly “Billboard” has ranked them at the 4th place in the chart of the best alternative artists of all time. In addition the band has won 6 grammy awards so far and on 18 april 2015 they were introduced in the rock and roll Hall of Fame.
One of their most famous albums is “American idiot” published on 21 September 2004; this album was put in the 500 best albums by Rolling Stone magazine, at the 225 place. Till 2012 it sold 14 milions of copy. The main topic of the album is the attack addressed to the “american idiot”: the band criticizes the american paranoic life-style where everything passes through the media and they brodcast what they want you to believe.

Among the polemic targets of the Green Day there is the usless war in Iraq that caused thousands of deaths. Another theme is about a rebel guy who wants to do whatever he wants and to be free. One day he runs away from home, but at the same time he is very confused and falls into the trap of drugs and alcohol. Then he starts thinking about suicide; finally he is helped by a girl he falls in love with, at this point he tries to understand what to fight for and what he reallly wants for himself.
The song we like the most is “Boulevard of broken dreams” and it talks about the rebel guy and his mood after his last hangover when he realizes that he will always stay alone if he runs away from the problems by taking refuge in alcohol.

Lyrics
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's only me, and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one, and I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk alone
I walk alone and I walk a
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line of the edge
And where I walk alone
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and every thing's all right
Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive
And I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk alone
I walk alone and I walk a
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
I walk alone, I walk a
I walk this empty street
On the boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one, and I walk alone
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone

We chose this song because it sounds great but also for the meaning: it makes you understand that life will always be troubled and, to feel better, you will have to deal with problems instead of avoiding them.

GLOSSARY
Avoid: to keep or stay away from something
Target: aim, goal; a person or thing at which an action or remark is directed
Criticize: to judge or dicuss about the merit of faults of something
Meaning: it’s what the song’s lyrics talks about
Hangover: the aftereffects of drinking alcohol
Broadcast: to transmit programs on radio or tv
Mood: it’s an emotional state in a particular time 
Theme: it’ s a subject of a talk
Newsweekly: it’s a newspaper published every week
Top- selling: something that is extremely popular, usually sold in large quantities

...And hoping for a better life

Lionesses 

The A Team is a single of the singer Ed Sheeran, the first extract from the third studio album published June 12, 2011.

This song is about an eighteen years old girl who lives in the drug world.

Ed Sheeran describes the characteristics of this girl (white lips, pale face and burned lungs) who prostitutes herself to afford drugs before killing herself.

In an interview, the singer explains the song's title this way: "A drug like crack cocaine is called a 'Class A drug'. That's in the same category as heroin. Instead of making it clear and just saying what the problem was, I'd say, 'She's in the 'Class A' team.' It was kind of my way of covering up (a person's addiction), I guess, making it a bit more subtle."

The video tells the life of this girl sleeping on a bench in a park.

During the day she is in the streets to sell newspapers, but no one buys them if not a boy (the singer Ed Sheeran). With little money she earns she buys something to eat and she sits in front of a shop window with all the people walking by and she cries. She decides to freshen her make up, put on a shirt and a miniskirt and go into the street. A car stops and she assumes a sensual attitude, gets in the car and goes into a hotel room.

At the end of her work, she takes the money to buy the drug and in the end she commits suicide.

We chose this song for two reasons: the first reason is for the words. We love the way the singer describes the life of this girl. The second reason is the subject: drugs. We think that drugs are a serious problem nowadays, above all for the consequences that drug may have on you for the rest of your life.

White lips, pale face 

Breathing in snowflakes 

Burnt lungs, sour taste 

Light's gone, day's end 

Struggling to pay rent 

Long nights, strange men 

And they say 

She's in the Class A Team 

Stuck in her daydream 

Been this way since 18 

But lately her face seems 

Slowly sinking, wasting 

Crumbling like pastries 

And they scream 

The worst things in life come free to us 

Cos we're just under the upperhand 

And go mad for a couple of grams 

And she don't want to go outside tonight 

And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland 

Or sells love to another man 

It's too cold outside 

For angels to fly 

Angels to fly 

Ripped gloves, raincoat 

Tried to swim and stay afloat 

Dry house, wet clothes 

Loose change, bank notes 

Weary-eyed, dry throat 

Call girl, no phone 

An angel will die 

Covered in white 

Closed eye 

And hoping for a better life 

This time, we'll fade out tonight 

Straight down the line 

And they say 

She's in the Class A Team 

Stuck in her daydream 

Been this way since 18 

But lately her face seems 

Slowly sinking, wasting 

Crumbling like pastries 

They scream 

The worst things in life come free to us 

And we're all under the upperhand 

Go mad for a couple of grams 

And we don't want to go outside tonight 

And in a pipe we fly to the Motherland 

Or sell love to another man 

It's too cold 

For angels to fly 

Angels to fly 

To fly, fly 

Or angels to die.

Glossary

Struggling: to struggle in a difficult situation. 

Upperhand: vantage point of superiority, over an opponent. 

Day dream: dreaming with a open eyes, fantasying. 

Sinking: a person with a shock, upset. 

Crumbly: object that quickly crumbles. 

Mad: person with a mental disorder, mentally ill. 

Motherland: country, nation in which someone was born. 

Stuck: a person locked in a situation. 

Afloat: an object that floats, which remains on the water surface. 

Raincoat: a piece of clothes that protects from water. 

Freshen: to remake a make up