PB#1

           The textual genre that I’ve chosen is rap music, more specifically “Colt 45” by Afroman. The intended audience of this song would most likely be young adults who partake in smoking and drinking. The purpose of this song is to convey the lifestyle of the rapper Afroman as he recounts several sexual endeavors as well as smoking weed and drinking alcohol. The style and tone of the rap song is extremely informal and casual in that the artist often uses slang, swear words, and sentences that are grammatically incorrect. What makes this song a rap song is the fact that it conforms to a lot of the conventions that characterize rap music. Some of these conventions of rap songs in general are: mention of a girl or female, mention of sex, any mention of drugs and/or alcohol, mention of a car (usually one that’s considered ‘cool’ at whatever time the song was written), rhyming in almost every sentence, swearing (often an unnecessary amount of times), mention of another famous person (whether it be an actor, other rapper or singer, model, etc.), mention of a town or city where the rapper grew up, poverty or social class, demeaning references to women (slut, whore, hoe), references to money, references of race, references to illegal activities, lifestyle, fame, a story is being told.

I chose to analyze the chorus and part of the first verse of the song:

[CHORUS]

Said colt 45 and two zigzags baby thats all we need

We can go to the park, after dark

Smoke that tumbleweed

As the marijuana burn we can take our turn

Singin' them dirty rap songs

Stop and hit the bong like cheech and chong

And sell tapes from here to Hong Kong

So roll, roll, roll my joint, pick out the seeds and stems

Feeling high as hell flyin' through Palmdale

Skatin' on dayton rims

So roll, roll, the '83 Cadillac coupe Deville

If my tapes and my CDs just don't sell, I bet my caddy will

Well it was just sundown in small white town

They call it east side Palmdale

When the Afroman walked through the white land

Houses went up for sale

Well I was standing on the corner sellin' rap CDs

When I met a little girl named Jan

I let her ride in my caddy

Because I didn't know her daddy was the leader of the Ku Klux Klan

We fucked on the bed

Fucked on the floor

Fucked so long I grew a fuckin' afro

Then I fucked to the left (left)

Fucked to the right (right)

She sucked my dick 'til the shit turned white

Although there is no mention of girls or women in the chorus the first verse is expressed in a story like form in which he talks about a woman he meets as well as their sexual encounter (in an extremely crass way). The laid back tone and style of the song is already apparent within the first sentence as the artist makes a reference to smoking weed and drinking Colt 45 a malt liquor that is considered to be the “cheap way to get drunk”, which alludes to the rapper’s social class or relative poverty. His social class is also brought up again when he refers to his ‘83 coupe Deville. The song “Colt 45” was released in 2001 and his mention of driving around in an old Cadillac indicates he probably isn’t very economically stable/he’s struggling. Illegal activity is referenced when he talks about smoking “tumbleweed” as well as hitting “the bong”.  Although there is not rhyming in every single line, there is a considerable amount of rhyming throughout the two versus beginning with rhyming “need” with “tumbleweed” and “park” and “dark”. The chorus references two famous people, Cheech and Chong, who were a comedy duo in the 1970s and were known to represent hippies as well as drugs and especially their love for marijuana. Afroman writes “stop and hit the bong like Cheech and Chong” which serves as a way to idolize what the duo stood for and their love for weed.  Afroman alludes a lot to racial struggles beginning with his comment about “when the Afroman walked through the white land

houses went up for sale” signifying the way in which his race as a African American man puts him under extreme scrutiny and judgment (people put their houses up for sale seeing an African American walking through the neighborhood). He further presses on racial issues when he refers to the young girl Jan’s father as being a member of the Klu Klux Klan. Although he was most likely exaggerating the underlying message was that the father of the girl was not happy with the idea of her daughter being with a man of color. He does not use a lot of swearing or profanity throughout the versus until he reaches his description of his sexual encounter with the woman named Jan. In order to describe their encounter, he uses crass language and details which create a demeaning form of characterizing his brief encounter with her. Though he never directly refers to her as a whore or slut the way in which he describes his encounter with her implies such ideas. Though he does not mention the town he was born in/grew up in he does continuously mention Palmdale what he considers a “small white town” that isn’t far off from where he was born in East Los Angeles. The entire song seems to be a description of the lifestyle he lives however, he never eludes to fame in his song, instead it seems he’s describing the complete opposite as he refers to the fact that if his CDs don’t sell than at least his car will.