Case Study and Song Analysis | JDorsett Lvl3 Music

Case Study & Song Analysis

This is the page where I will be writing about two artists and a song from each of their discographies. I've chosen to write about Drake and his song 'Under Ground Kings' and Jay Z accompanied by an analysis of his song 'Can't Knock The Hustle' - the genre I've chosen is rap. The reason I've chosen these two artists is because they are both two of the most influential people in the rap industry and have been for many years, but the songs I've chosen have a 15 year gap between their releases.

Drake

Full name: Aubrey Drake Graham

Birthday: October 24th, 1986

Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Studio albums: 6

Popular songs: God's Plan, One Dance, Hotline Bling, Marvin's Room, Best I Ever Had

Career Evolution

Aubrey Graham is a Canadian musician who goes by the stage-name 'Drake'. He was born in Toronto, Canada on October the 24th, 1986. His parents divorced when he was only five, leaving him to be raised by only his mother.

Aubrey started his career as an actor on a Canadian show called 'Degrassi'. He played the character 'Jimmy Brookes', who was seen as the schools basketball star only for him to be paralysed and have to use a wheelchair due to being shot in school. He starred in the teen drama for a total of 7 years, from 2001 to 2008. Unfortunately things didn't work out as he didn't like the fact his character was in a wheelchair, and his schedule started to become hectic, so he left the show in 2008 to pursue music.

As well as acting on Degrassi, he started writing lyrics; "17, 18, is when I was really getting into that hip hop phase, you know, and really studying the things that I needed to study as far as learning about flows and learning about lyrics," he told GQ. While his father was in prison, he shared a cell with someone who "didn't have anyone to talk to", so he shared his phone time with him, and he would start rapping down the phone to Drake, "at the time I was probably 16 or 17, this dude was like 20 to 22, and he would always rap to me over the phone." After a while, when he decided to start writing his own music, they would rap to each other.

He released 3 mixtapes between the years 2006 and 2009, but his real breakthrough came with the release of his first studio album 'Take Care'. He had been trying to develop his own unique music style, with long time producer Noah '40' Shebib, with those 3 mixtapes but Take Care is where he had established that style.

Ever since then he has become one of the most successful artists ever, broken multiple records and won multiple records. As well as this, instead of sticking to his dark, braggadocios music style, he has branched out into many different genres across the years.

Jay-Z

Full name: Shawn Corey Carter

Birthday: December 4th, 1969

Birthplace: New York, USA

Studio Albums: 13

Popular songs: 99 Problems, No Church In The Wild, N*ggas in Paris, Hard Knock Life, Empire State of Mind

Shawn Carter grew up in the Brooklyn borough of New York with only his mother and 3 siblings. His father had abandoned the family when Shawn was young, although he did, later on in his life, catch up with him before passing away in 2003.

Shawn attended the same school as rappers such as The Notorious B.I.G and Busta Rhymes, and also went to 2 other schools, but did not graduate. According to his lyrics; when he was 12, he shot his brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewellery. He also sold crack cocaine for a while and got shot at 3 times during this period. It's evident that Shawn's life didn't have the most promising starts but, instead of letting it tie him down, he used it as a subject throughout his music - like many, many other artists do when going through hard times.

The star in the making was interested in music from a young age. According to his mother he would often wake up his family by banging drum patterns on the kitchen table, which enticed her to buy young Shawn a boombox which furthered his interest in music. He began to freestyle and write lyrics with the hopes of escaping the hood, like many other rappers. Throughout his neighbourhood he was known as 'Jazzy', which he later, with a minor tweak, adopted into his stage-name; 'Jay-Z', giving homage to his mentor Jaz-O. Jay can be heard on a few of Jaz-O's songs from the late 80s and early 90s.

As no major label would sign him; he decided, with the help of friends Damon 'Dash' Dash and Kareem 'Biggs' Burke, to create an independent record label, named 'Roc-A-Fella Records' in 1995. For a while he sold CD's out of his car, until signing a distribution deal with Priority Records. To kick off his career he released his first studio album 'Reasonable Doubt', which reached number 23 on the billboard 200 and would later be feautured in Rolling Stone's greatest 500 albums of all time.

Ever since then Jay-Z has been established has one of the most influential and successful artists of all time.

Career Evolution

Song Analysis

'Under Ground Kings' is the 8th track from Drake's first studio album 'Take Care' released in 2011. It was recorded at Sterling Road Studios, Toronto and Metalworks Studios, Toronto. The songs tempo is 156 bpm and was produced by T-Minus and 40. T-minus is a frequent collaborator with Drake and has also worked with the likes of J Cole, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber just to name a few. On the other hand is 40, Drake's main producer, who has produced several of Drake's songs, and has also worked with Jamie Foxx, Alicia Keys and Partynextdoor, among others. The song has a common theme of bragging but while telling the story of how Aubrey Graham became Drake.

The song is driven by what sounds like an arpeggiated keyboard, which loops throughout the whole song, along with hard-hitting, computer-programmed drums and a moody 808. Throughout the verses there are a 2 (I think) synths, one which sweeps itself into the mix and one which sounds a bit like something bubbling up. There is also a vocal sample that comes in at the end of every bar as the verse progresses. But the focus point is always the arpeggiated keyboard and drums - everything else is there to compliment them. The second verse is basically the same as the first one, production-wise, although the second verse picks up where the first chorus leads out.

On the chorus, I think the only thing that is taken out is the vocal sample previously used, however another one is added and this one is a lot more noticeable and also sounds like a female's vocals - I believe the vocal sample on the verses is a male's vocals. As well as this, another synth comes in and this one also sounds arpeggiated and is using the same melody as the main keyboard. The only thing that changes in Drake's vocals, in terms of effects, also appears in the chorus - they are pitched lower, which is very common in rap songs. Just like the verses, the first and second chorus are identical, but the second chorus turns into an outro which fades out by automating the volume.

'Can't Knock The Hustle' is the 1st track from Jay-Z's first studio album released in 1996. It was recorded in D&D Studios. The songs tempo is 95 bpm and was produced by The Hitmen and Knobody. In an an interview with NPR Shawn explained the concept of the song by saying: "It sounds like I’m saying, you can’t knock my hustle. But what – who I was talking to was the guys on the street because rap was my hustle and like, at the time, street – the streets was my job." Kareem Burke also said: "He wasn’t talking about hustling, he was talking about the music business [being] the hustle. He was talking to everybody else like, ‘Don’t knock us.’ ‘Cause that’s the new hustle. That’s why it’s so funny — people don’t understand the genesis. It was a representation of us and our life together". The song contains 5 samples in total.

This song begins with an audio track of a heartbeat along with an interpolation of dialogue from the classic movie 'Scarface'. This is a reference to how he seemed to be, in many illegal ways, the king of New York.

As the heartbeat fades out, another 3 samples fade in. One of them was a sample of the bass and synth from the song 'Much Too Much' by Marcus Miller. It sounds EQ'd, and/or filtered, to emphasise the bassline, but also leaves the low end of the synth chords which really gives the track a laid back feel. Accompanying this is a vocal sample of Mary J, Blige's 'My Life' which dips in and out of the instrumental throughout. The third sample is another vocal sample, however this one is from a song called 'I Know You Got Soul' by Eric B. and Rakim and only involves them whispering a few words. As well as all of this; Shawn adds ad-lips throughout and also adds another layer of vocals to some of his lyrics.

The beat stays the same throughout the song, apart from a few minor changes.

Jay-Z only briefly appears in the choruses as he's left room for the 5th and final sample; a vocal sample of Mel'isa Morgan's song 'Fool's Paradise'. This sample creates a smooth transition from the verses into each chorus and also gives the listener a refreshing change in the flow of the song.

The song ends with the volume fading out.