Author: suhm

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21 Savage’s Deportation Being Discussed with New Released Track ‘A Lot’

21 Savage’s music video ‘A Lot’ sparked immense attention from the public with excellency of music & lyrics & video altogether, but also his arrestment on immigration status. His Album I Am > I Was, was in the top chart for two consecutive weeks after its releases, earning him Grammy Award nomination, with over 3.3 billion on-demand streams in the US. In his ‘A Lot’ music video, visual is unfolded as if telling a story and it dramatically augments the meaning of lyrics. In his track ‘A Lot’, he raps about brings his personal life story to the music – about his friend who was shot during a drug dealing, reality that money ineffective in solving personal plights, gang violence, trauma, and his fear. Rap is a sublimation of a speech/thoughts/novel transformed into an art form that often becomes a mirror of an individual’s personal stories. However, it sometimes becomes an issue where the boundaries to be set up that reveals how much of personal stories one opens up with the world. It is the question of how comfortably enough a person could open oneself that does not detriment their public images. 21 Savage spoked,

“People will be going through a lot of stuff, but you’ll never know what they’re hiding behind their smiles. Like, nobody would ever know that I wasn’t born here.”

The immigration issue has been one of the hottest topics in the US with the presidency of Donald Trump. It is a predicament to many people who don’t get publicly mentioned nor being much cared from society.

21 Savage was arrested on Super Bowl Sunday in Atlanta by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ironically less than a week after performing his track “A Lot” at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

https://youtu.be/opKizJadkzA

He performed with substituted lyrics where he shows compassion for immigrants and people who struggle to immigrate to the US. “Been through some things so I can’t imagine my kids stuck at the border / Flint still need water / People was innocent, couldn’t get lawyers,” (January 28). According to ICE, 21 Savage is originally from the UK and has been illegally staying in the US with his expired visa. Bryan Cox, the ICE spokesperson, iterated that the arrest was on a “targeted operation with federal and local law enforcement”. 21 Savage’s legal team stated that he was originally born in the UK, however, legally arrived in the US at the age of 7 (in 1999). He has been ongoingly present in the US for almost 20 years, but visited the UK in 2005 due to his uncle’s death, and returned to the US with H-4 Visa. H-4 Visa is “granted to spouses or children under the age of 21”. The visa was expired a year later it was granted in 2006. In 2017, he applied for a U visa, which is “a visa for victims of certain crimes” and his status is still under review. He has been acclaiming that he is from Georgia, Atlanta, and 3 of his children are all lawful US citizens.

All of these Youtube comments are mentioning about his visa status and his revealed UK citizenships:

21 Savage’s lawyer appeared on Good Morning America on February 15th, publicly acclaiming that he was targeted because of his music, fame, and ICE allegedly manipulating the incident to convey the message to non-US citizens. He spent nine days behind bars and was released on February 13th, with a granted bond. According to the most recent news, his hearings on deportation that was scheduled on April 9th has been postponed to no specific dates to come. He has expressed his fear of deportation – “The worst thing was sitting in there not knowing what was going to happen, or when it’s going to happen. Whenever I went to jail before, it was, ‘You’re being charged with this and going to court on this date.’ But immigration ain’t like that. You’re just being held.” Additionally, a fear of losing the home that he identifies with –

“the possibility of me not being able to live in this country no more than I’ve been living in my whole life.”

When an artist publicly brings their voices up, they automatically become the target of governments, organizations, and people. However, they sometimes bring hope to the other groups of people. The big voices become an incentive to one individual, bringing the confidence to fight back to the unjust, biased, prejudiced world of overflowing problems. Artists’ lives depended on what they put on to the markets is daunting and frightening. However, intrepid voices are also the ones that constantly transform our society to be a better place for us all.

‘A Lot’ by 21 Savage – Official Music Video

Additional articles worth reading ->>

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Thomas Adès’ ‘Asyla’

Thomas Adès

Artists express their political view by inheriting a political connotation to their artwork. It is either to express a personal political viewpoint, or it is to contribute, commemorate, and celebrate political events, protests, or a certain group of minority people by inviting attention. Thomas Adès’s ‘Asyla’ written in 1997 is a four-movement piece for a large orchestra that includes six timpani, roto-toms, tuned cowbells, water gong, washboard, and two pianos with one tuned quarter-tone flat. It is one of his most widely performed pieces and was premiered by the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Simon Rattle conducting. ‘Asyla’ is the plural of Asylum and is sort of a wordplay that represents a double-edged meaning of the word.

Album release

Asylum refers to both a madhouse where people are sent for protection and a sanctuary for refugees (who have been forced to leave their country) as in political asylum. The word itself is contradicting as people in a madhouse are trapped in a facility, whereas asylum seekers are people who stepped outside of their origins and are seeking a new shelter.


Performance of ‘Asyla’

In Thomas Adès’ interview, he explains that the symphony orchestra is no longer a mainstream medium. He argues that composers have evolved, however, the medium – an orchestra, is stagnant in a pre-First World War state. The piece ‘Asyla’ expands the perception of “what an orchestra is”. The wordplay of the title seems to fit the concept of the piece. An asylum seeker is associated with his use of unconventional instrumentations and innovative sound creation, and the trapped people in a madhouse are associated with the piece sticking to a strict four-movement scheme that has succeeded from Haydn (also, the third movement is a dance movement).

Syrian Refugees by Claire Felter and James McBride

Refugees and asylums are huge underground political issues around the world. Not until the day of complete world of peace, there will be refugees and asylums. Around the world, there are 68.5 million people who were ‘forcibly displaced’. The majority of them remained around their home countries, however, 25.4 million of them had to seek asylums and fled to other countries, with more than half being children. The number of immigrants skyrocketed after World War II and 1997 in the UK (when ‘Asyla’ was premiered), there was an increase of immigrants in the UK from the abolition of a law that restricted entrants of people who were married to UK citizens.

Picture of Vatican

In Adès’ interview, he mentions that the original title for the second movement is ‘Vatican’. The Vatican is the smallest country that exists, having a monarchy ruled by the pope (who also carries the role of a king). Citizens of the Vatican are specially picked members who are technically refugees that are given citizenships in order to work for the pope. The Vatican is a source of refuge and hope for immigrants and refugees who have had to flee their homes. However, Adès took away the title after he realized that “it was just too specific to many people”. This made me wonder whether Adès intended to advocate his support of ‘asylums’ for refugees. Nevertheless, his association of artwork to the political concept brought attention and awareness to the public eye, thus bringing significance to both politics and music worlds.

Edward Venn’s Thomas Adès: Asyla

“We write symphonies,” Donald Trump said on July 6th, 2017, during a speech in Warsaw. Article by Anthony Tommasini argues that classical music is often portrayed as the ‘greatest art form’ precedent from Beethoven’s era – “a heroic visionary with a rare link to transcendent realms, creating symphonic works for the ages.” ‘Asyla’ by Thomas Adès is written with a completely different approach (180-degrees to be exact) as the piece deviates from the greatness and highness of the symphonic format. The piece is the opposite from greatness that is full of self-conceit – it is a piece that reflects the greatness of our human nature that looks out for people needing help in times of trouble.

To Listen to full version of the interview (World Premiere):

https://youtu.be/28v6oBv37K0

Another Performance of Asyla:

Interesting Blog Entry: http://themusicsalon.blogspot.com/2014/08/thomas-ades-on-his-asyla.html

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Napster: The Start of Music Streaming Services

Now in 2019, how many people have not used Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, or any music streaming services yet? There is simply too much music that we are exposed to listen to with just a press of a button.

However, did you know that history of the music streaming services first derived from Napster, Inc., which uses a mechanism of Peer to Peer (P2P) service? This unprecedented application on the internet began in the fall of 1998 by Shawn Fanning, brought both cheerful acclamation and troublesome disputes (lawsuits from major records) at the same time. The songs were stored in central servers that provided a real-time directory with specifications of stored file names and locations. Users uploaded music to the server from their vinyl, tapes, and CD recordings, in returns, downloading over billions of other songs in MP3 format. “MP3 technology was developed by a German engineering firm in 1987 as a way of compressing digital audio files by removing inaudible space and squeezing the rest.” (Honigsberg, 474)

P2P Mechanism by David R. Cheriton
Napster running under Mac OS 9 in March 2001
Screenshot by Njahnke

On December 6th, 1999, A & M Records and seventeen other record companies filed a complaint about Napster off copyright infringement. The image of Napster was rapidly waning and on February 12th, 2001, the court ordered Napster to install filters to halt the use of any copyrighted materials, thus “blocking over ninety-nine percent of copyrighted material.” On July 2nd, 2001, Napster eventually had to close their online service.

Nevertheless, during the span of court hearings, Napster was preparing for their transformation. BMG record company, which was one of the five major companies who sued Napster, turned their side and partnered with Napster for a “fee-based membership service.” Napster and BMG together, they planned on creating a new online service that provides a digital version of the music, books, and magazines with the utilization of P2P mechanism. Hank Barry, who is the former CEO of BMG record announced to offer the users with $4.95/month and about seventy to eighty percent avenues shared to record companies. Unfortunately, the offer did not appeal to any other major records as their calculation suggested that the deal was not profitable enough. With Konrad Hilbers’ replacement of Hank Barry, Napster previewed their new subscription model In January 2002 with a limitation in a diversity of music selections.

[News Article] Napster Unloads Interim CEO Hank Barry, Brings BMG Insider on Board

Soon after, Napster sadly had to announce their bankruptcy and Roxio, a CD-burning software maker, purchased Napster’s brand and logo with his bid that was worth about $5.3 million. After he successfully brought back Sean Fanning to the company, they planned on launching a fully legalized version of Napster. Roxio acquired PressPlay for $12.5 million in cash and made reborn of PressPlay possible with the name of Napster 2.0. After five years, Best Buy purchased Napster with $121 million but resold ‘Napster’s customers and intellectual property’ in 2011 to Rhapsody with returns of a minority stake. Rhapsody has been growing ever since, especially big in Europe, and In 2016, Rhapsody rebranded itself with the name of Napster. Now Napster is competing against major music streaming services, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Beats Music, and many more.

[Article] Roxio Buys Napster Assets

[Article] Roxio Hires Napster Founder, Will Re-Launch Service In 2003

[Article] ROXIO BUYS PRESSPLAY, NAPSTER LIVES

[Article] Napster Is Back as Rhapsody Rebrands Its Streaming Service

[Article] The History of Napster

This is the brief history of Napster, the pioneer incorporate that brought the music streaming services to us. Watch some of the documentaries about Napster.

Napster Documentary: Culture of Free
Napster Documentary ‘Downloaded’ Part One

Sources:

  1. U.S.C. A&M Records. Inc. v. Napster. Inc. 114 F. Supp. 2d 896 (N. D. Cal. 2000)
  2. Peter Jan Honigsberg, The Evolution and Revolution of Napster, 36 U.S.F. L. Rev. 473 (2002)
  3. https://www.businessinsider.com/napster-is-finally-dead-heres-a-look-back-at-what-happened-2011-10
  4. H. Michael Drumm, Life after Napster: Will Its Successors Share Its Fate, 5 Tex. Rev. Ent. & Sports L. 157 (2003)