Sounding Race in Rap Songs by Kajikawa Loren

Author:Kajikawa, Loren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press

THE “MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION” CONNECTION

Describing the Grammy Award–winning single in a 2010 retrospective, music critic Josh Tyrangiel mused, “‘Let Me Ride’ feels like dusk on a wide-open L.A. boulevard, full of possibility and menace.”50 Tyrangiel’s car metaphor is no accident. Like “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang,” the imagery of the video for “Let Me Ride,” and the style in which it is edited, amplify these themes, emphasizing a relaxed and fluid experience of city life. Instead of stuck on the streets battling it out with police, as in the video for “Straight Outta Compton,” Dr. Dre spends the video for “Let Me Ride” cruising around the city in his vintage lowrider, a convertible 1964 Chevrolet Impala. The video opens with Dr. Dre cruising in his car. Close-up shots of the spinning wheels gleaming with chrome emphasize Dr. Dre’s ability to move throughout the city with style (fig. 20). Dre shows off the hydraulic system that makes his car bounce and rise up on three wheels (fig. 21).

These images are juxtaposed with others of Dr. Dre rapping amongst a co-ed crowd of dancing partygoers. The imagery of “Straight Outta Compton,” which cast the urban environment as a site of violent contestation, is replaced by a portrayal of a Los Angeles that offers ample opportunity for pleasure and celebration. For example, the interchange of the I-10 and I-110 freeways (a built feature that helps mark the northwestern boundary of South Central Los Angeles) is pictured in the video for “Let Me Ride” from high above (fig. 22). Rather than evoking the surveillance of police helicopters as one might expect from the gangsta genre, the image of the freeway intersection cross-fades to another shot of Dr. Dre cruising in his car. Such effects emphasize the mobility of the gangsta within the quintessential Los Angeles experience of automobile travel.

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