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Daniel Alejandre

English 103

Professor Granillo

May 7 2019

The Need for Assembly

To many rap is a genre of delinquents and young obnoxious kids who do as they

desire,promoting messages of violence, ignorance and rebellion but that narrow minded view of

the genre as a whole is just not always true; rap is more meaningful than that. Although rap has

it’s fair share of “ignorant music”, there's a lot of rappers who have incredible meaning in their

songs, not all rap music is ignorant and not all rappers promote negative messages. A member of

this group of new age conscious rappers and Brooklyn native, Joey Bada$$, promotes

meaningful messages in his music. Born Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, Joey Bada$$ is a native from

Brooklyn, New York and began rapping as a child at the tender age of eleven. As of now Joey

Bada$$ is a successful Brooklyn rapper with a loyal fanbase, diverse discography and boasts a

number of successful hits. One of Joey Bada$$’s most popular songs is called

“Temptation”,which to many hip hop fans is a classic nineties throwback hip hop song that

features a smooth boombap drumbeat and a nostalgic Tupac reminiscent bassline topped off with

a laid back flow but to some the song feels unamerican in it’s message in the opinion of patriotic

Americans. Although the song seems un-american to patriotic citizens, the song itself is positive

because it’s empowering to African Americans who face issues such as poverty and

marginalization. Through Marxist concepts such as Classism, Repressive ideologies and

proletariat revolution, Joey Bada$$ exemplifies the troubles minorities face in American society

and with this song he hopes to inspire unity and a push for change in those communities.
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Joey Bada$$’s song “Temptation” is a nineties-esque hip hop song made up of boombap

style drum production and a funky bassline, as well as synths that give off a warm upbeat sound

yet also being serious in it’s message through the lyrics rapped. This song has garnered millions

of listens on all forms of music streaming services and is aimed specifically at all people of color

but specifically African Americans, one of the biggest minority groups in America making up

about one tenth of the population. This song is Joey Bada$$ relating his story of growing up

African American in America to other African Americans and by using Marxist concepts such

as classism, Repressive ideologies, and revolution to catch the attention of the African American

population as well as to inspire change. Although this song is rap, a genre with many negative

connotations and stereotypes,where no one would expect there to be a meaningful commentary

on society; in contrary, Joey Bada$$ actually does push an important message through marxist

concepts which serve to show rap is more than an ignorant genre of ignorant music.

Joey Bada$$’s song is far from a generic rap song, it highlights the realities of life that

African Americans face as well as an aim to inspire unity in the community and change through

by implementing Marxists concepts like repressive ideologies in the song, specifically religion.

Repressive ideologies is the manipulation of people’s consciousness through ideological

principles such as religion, government education or the media that manipulate the working class

to accept the authority of the ruling class. An instance of where Joey Bada$$ speaks on religion

in in the song is when he states, “If you wanna make change, it's gonna take commitment,Some

people enslaved by they religion, Can’t emancipate the fundamental prisons,When I see through

optics, transform the wisdom,Watch me use my powers, get em all to listen,I've been on a

mission, ah!(00:01:40-00 - 00:01:52-00 Joey Bada$$ “Temptation”). In this verse Joey directly
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addresses religion upfront and how it represses people in the African American community in

relation to the marxist theory of repressive ideology.

Karl Marx, the philosopher who created Marxism once famously stated in a manuscript, “

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of

soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”(Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right). To

Marx, specifically when he says, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed people” he means that

religion is a repressive ideology because it holds oppressed people back from actually doing

anything to change that oppression. Rather than people actually fighting their oppression,

religion or the “opium of the people”numb them from doing anything hence the word “opium”,

since the effects of it are numbing; people are numbed to oppression by religion because religion

promises them a better life after they die.So therefore, if people are to believe that a better life

awaits for them after they, die then dealing with the oppression in their life when they’re alive

doesn’t seem like a big deal; instead they just have to deal with it until they get their promised

afterlife. In the song Joey compares the effect of religion on people to “fundamental prisons”

because they structure their whole lives around religion and are “prisoners” to it which inhibit

their ability to do more than just be a pawn of society. Lastly when Joey states, “When I see

through optics, transform the wisdom,watch me use my powers, get em all to listen, I've been on

a mission, ah!” he means that wants to inspire change in his community through his lyrics; Joey

wants people to break free from their complacency to rule as a result of religion and inspire unity

in the community to actually change the problems they face, rather than submitting the problems

affecting them in the present. As a result of using the Marxist concept of religion as a repressive

ideology in the song, Joey is trying to inform people about this problem and hopefully wants to
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use this informations to push for unity of African Americans and a desire for them to strive

towards a tangible change rather than sit idly by and live with the cards they’ve been dealt.

Another Marxist ideology present in the song is classism. In society, classism is

discrimination based on social status which puts wealthier and more powerful people as superior

to the middle and lower classes. In the song there is a verse where it says, “I really came up from

the bottom, strugglin', my momma on her last dollar, hustling man I've been putting in these

hours, the government been trying to take away what's ours, it's really all about the money and

the power, I just wanna see my people in power” (00:01:23-00 - 00:01:34-00 Joey Bada$$

“Temptation”). Once again Joey Bada$$ addresses his community by relating own his situation

in life to that of his community. This verse is him reminiscing on times before he was a

successful rapper and just a regular kid in brooklyn trying to go through life. In the part of the

verse where he specifically says, “strugglin', my momma on her last dollar, hustling man I've

been putting in these hours, the government been trying to take away what's ours” he talks about

how he was in the struggle to make enough money to live his life while his mother was

struggling and at the same time they were at the mercy of the government, making their lives

harder through unfair implementations of rules which benefit the rich; like rent and taxes that

favor the rich while burdening the poor. Classism is described as“ those in power or higher social

classes marginalizing and discriminating against those in lower social classes”(Liu 216). This is

what Joey Bada$$ is trying to show, the average people are pawns to the higher classes; he went

through it himself and sees the injustice in it, and wants a change for his community that

warrants a need for unity in order to successfully implement a change to have his people less

vulnerable and instead have his “people in power”.

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Furthermore, in the Communist Manifesto regarding classism it states, “ The bourgeoisie

has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere

money relation”(Marx 16). This means that the government or the ruling power has made society

less about the well being of people and their families but rather the amount of money the

government receives from the families or makes off from them. In relation to Joey’s song, the

government could care less about the personal plight of African Americans or minorities because

they just want money from them because monetary value in society is worth more than the

feelings and lives of people. Joey expresses through the song that the government only truly

cares about the money and power and that the well being of actual people is nothing of concern.

Joey believes this is fundamentally wrong and therefore wants African Americans to unify

together in order to change the conditions of unfair life they’re born into.

Joey Bada$$ also uses the idea of a proletariat revolution throughout the song to inspire a

sense of unity in his community as well as a desire for change. One instance in the song where he

shows that is in the section at the end of the song there is a little girl saying , “Do not stop,we are

black people and we shouldn't have to feel like this, we shouldn't have to protest because you are

treating us wrong, we do this because we need to and we have rights”(00:00:18-00 - 00:00:11-00

Joey Bada$$ “Temptations”). By including this last part in his song Joey exemplifies the point of

his song; the way his community is treated is unfair and they have a right to stand up to the

powers at hand for change. According to the book Critical Theory Today, “the proletariat will

one day spontaneously develop the class consciousness needed to rise up”( Tyson 63). This

belief that, the proletariat, meaning the working class; will perceive the problems in society that

hurt and stand up for change is what Joey Bada$$ wants. In the song he speaks of the troubles he

saw and went through in his community before he became successful, and instead of ignorantly
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enjoying his luxurious life after fame like many do, he remembers his upbringing and he still

realizes that the problems of unfair treatment and poverty are a big issue in African American

communities such as where he is from. In contrary to being an average rapper and making a song

simply for it to be a hit, he makes a song with a message that is controversial, yet true to what he

believes in relation to what he’s seen and experienced in his life. With his song he hopes to

inspire African American people to overcome the adversity of their lives and fight for or protest

for change as a community.

Although Joey Bada$$ didn’t make a generic mindless rap song the release of

“Temptation” can still be seen as an un-American song. A lot of people in the United States have

pride to be an American realizing it’s not perfect but it is a good place to live. People like this

who listen to Joey’s song might feel negatively towards a song talking down on the government

and inspiring people to rise up and change it for themselves. With a message like that people can

see it as a threat to their country. In contrary however, Joey Bada$$’s song isn’t him calling for

the downfall of American society, it is calling for a change and for African American people to

unify to push for that change. The United States is a great country that has accomplished many

incredible things in all aspects of society but it is far from perfect and for some people it is

unfair. Joey Bada$$ in his song “Temptation” highlights this reality, not everyone in the United

States is living good and in fact many people are actually living harder lives than others, and

certain communities like African Americans are more affected than others.

In summary, although many can see this as an un-patriotic song Joey Bada$$ pushes a

message of unity and a for change to African Americans. Through Marxist concepts such as

classism, repressive ideologies and proletariat revolution he hopes to inspire the African

American community to set aside what holds them back and become socially conscious enough
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to see the injustice in society, as well as give them the power through this information to make a

change about it. The message in this song is not only applicable to African Americans but can

also be a lesson to other marginalized communities to fight for their own rights as well and any

injustices which affect them. People should not sit idly by and wait for change to happen they,

need to work together and take it for themselves.

Works Cited

Joey Bada$$ “Temptation” All-Amerikkkan Bada$$, 2017,track 3, Spotify,

https://open.spotify.com/album/6swV0WUnPygRIMgEKn6Ige

Liu, W. M. (2011). Social class and classism in the helping professions: Research, theory, and

practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE

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Marx, K. (1844). Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Paris: Deutsch-Französische

Jahrbücher.

Marx, K & Engels F.(1848). The Communist Manifesto. London ; Chicago, Ill. :Pluto Press,

1996. Print.

Tyson, L. (2015). Critical theory today: A user-friendly guide. London: Routledge