Chantel Johnson April 13th 2013 SPCM 100-17 Death to Mr. Rose The media and its relation to the American culture can become a slippery slope into a world of unrealistic exceptionalities. Beside magazines and movies, music videos and video games hold a very large influence over the youth of the American society. Which in other words, is the future of the American society. In his first most popular music video “Rack City”, Tyga takes the focus off of his contumelious lyrics to act out a criminal/love story.
This essay will be analyzing Tygas first “Rack City” video, centering in on its storytelling and gender & sexuality methods, as well as analyzing the significant source of the overall theme. The video begins telling us that it is difficult to stay alive in Rack City, but Tyga has managed to do so for 22 years. Next, we learn that Tyga is a young gangster in Rack City and Mr. Rose is a “big boss”. The story starts when Tyga and his gang steal a bag of gold from Mr. Roses warehouse. Afterwards he goes to, Redrum Midnight, a club that Mr. Rose owns and falls for a dancer named Chyna. The following day, Mr.
Rose kidnaps Tygas new love interest and sets a meeting with Tyga to let him know the situation, and how they would be able to make a trade. As the video ends, Tyga returns to the bag of gold back to Mr. Rose, for Chyna. But, he plants an active bomb in it and before the club blows to pieces, himself and Chyna run for their lives, making it out in the knick of time. Before the death of Mr. Rose, he tells Tyga to be careful; Rack City is a dangerous place. This story could be giving off more messages than intended and expected. The use of the storytelling method helps identify different ideas used to enhance the message.
The video is significant, because without it, one would never imagine this kind of story behind the lyrics. It is a narrative video based on characters and a story line. This video is using romance, action and crime as the genre. The subject is love, because Tyga saves his love from Mr. Rose, and kills him. The message is love prevails, even in the dangers of Rack City; companionship survives and is most important. The conflict is primarily character vs. society, because of the emphasis on stealing money, gun use and prostitution. But within that, character vs. character is developed between Tyga and Mr. Rose about who is running Rack City.
The master plot is shared between rescue and love because without the newly discovered love, Tyga wouldn’t be returning any gold. Tyga has different tones when concerning the song lyrics and the actual video. The tone of the lyrics alone can seem callous and haughty. But when analyzing the video there is a didactic and matter-of-fact tone, educating the audience and accepting the conditions he is in. When combining those, one can understand how there are a variety of messages that can be interpreted. While watching this video, the audience would most likely encounter reactions of shock, suspense and romance.
And since this is a story told from Tyga himself, this is a first person narrative. The characters in the story all have significant roles as well. By now I am sure it is obvious that Tyga is the protagonist, Mr. Rose is the antagonist and Chyna is the foil. The characters are apparent and limited in this video, any minor characters would have to be Tygas crew, and another silent character only in the video, who gives Tyga some useful information to get Chyna back. Conclusively, Tyga is the chosen one, the hero, his girlfriend Chyna is the love interest, an object being used between two men at war, and Mr.
Rose is the evil big shot, well known in the city. The use of intertextuality is a valuable method in this video. A direct inference in this video would be the RockStar logo found in video game Grand Theft Auto. An indirect reference is the white masks and black clothing while robbing Mr. Rose, taken from the movie Dead Presidents. Tyga said in a backstage making of this video, that he wants the video to look like a movie. He captures that by involving popular crime movie and video game ideas, which is very useful. Symbols are very important when conveying meaning. One symbol that holds excruciating value is the bag of gold.
The gold is the main objective in the beginning, middle, and end of the video; it is the only reason why Tyga was able to rescue his newly found girlfriend. The intensity, prominence and repetition of this symbol cannot be avoided. The gold may also represent the “racks” and “money” that run the “city”. Thinking of rack city in a literal sense can mean Vegas, where chips can be traded for racks of money. Gold has always been seen as a symbol that represents wealth, money, and power. Women are a great group to look at in this video with the gender & sexuality method, because it analyzes how they are represented and expected behavior.
Women are defined by their sexuality, and that goes for both the lyrics and video. The role women hold in society is strippers, dancers, prostitutes sexual objects, but also possible lovers, that men throw money at. They are very attractive, wearing skintight clothing to no clothing at all. In the video they are surrounded with money, liquor, masks and poles to dance on. Expected behavior for women displayed through this video is to be sexualized, or chosen by men through that reason, and they should enjoy it. They value men with money, liquor and power in this video.
The portrayal of this group is commonly represented in other types of medias. It is seen everywhere and is beginning to spread into the territory of men and demean them. Similar representations would be other songs by Tyga, such as Dancin’ 4 Dollas, or the movie Video Girl starring Meghan Good. Opposing portrayals are rare but exist in songs like If I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars. The depiction of women with this behavior is so popular across the board of media. It is a hard representation for women to escape because they confide in the role, making it something that is seen as okay to be used in a wide range of music, videos and life.
The relationship women have with men in this video is unfair and unjust, but accepted. Men have a kind of power that makes women feel important for only one thing, their bodies, their sexuality. The women are passive, accepting men’s offensive commands. And the men are active, telling the women what to do, how to do it and when to do it. The dominant characters with the most screen time in the video are men. Sexism is in full effect with the lyrics provided making the message of sexism inevitable throughout the video.
A small piece of the offensive language in this song is, “tell that bitch hop out, walk the boulevard, I need my money pronto”, which implies women being hos. There is also a seen in the video when Mr. Rose has a woman wearing combat boots and a bikini, golfing directly in front of him for the sole purpose to be stared at, indicating objectification. Evidence of sexism is oozing in almost every scene and every bar of this song. Because women are the sexual objects of this work, it would be expected for the men to make jokes about them, and Tyga does in this line, “if you ain’t got no ass bitch wear a poncho”. He is aying that if you’re a woman who doesn’t have a curvaceous, appealing behind, you need to cover your body, because a small behind is unattractive. This objectifying stereotype is common for women. It has made it acceptable to agree that women with better curvier bodies are more widely wanted by men, giving young girls ideas on what men prefer. The audience would identify with Tyga, having a team behind you and going after big money is an idea that both men and women can relate too. The audience would disregard this detrimental representation of women, because there are other surpassing events that are more important for the video.
The person to root for in this video is Tyga; hopefully he gets his girlfriend back, and doesn’t get himself killed. This video doesn’t provide a positive portrayal of this group. We can assume that with women comes sexual objectification, with male dominance over them created through sexual pleasure. Every woman or young girl watching can be greatly influenced that this is a role women are meant to play in today’s society. This song and video hurts the social standing of women, it puts them in a box that disrespects them and degrades them.
The most relevant and critical source for my analysis was the video game Grand Theft Auto that this entire video was based off of. I chose this as my source because the video stays true to the conditions and environment that GTA requires. This is critical because throughout the video there are plenty of references relating to GTA. Screen shots, font types, deserted warehouses, missions to steal from “big bosses”, waiting for the attack, strip clubs to throw money at strippers, all taken out of the storyline of GTA (A2 Advanced Portfolio).
There are many other references regarding GTA but these are the most explicit. On the whole of Tygas “Rack City” video, there are a variety of interpretations one can make. What the video explicitly portrays, the story it tells, the sexism that is alive and the theme coming straight from GTA, holds significant value in the media and pop culture. And it is on that slippery slope of how one greatly influences the youth. To act as if this song or video doesn’t degrade women would be unrealistic.
But because most are numb to this depiction of women, deeper messages can be seen past the surface. Mr. Roses’ final words before his death; Rack City is a dangerous place, could be speaking louder volumes than expected. Whether “Rack City” means Vegas for gambling money, a strip club for throwing away money, or a fantasy city born from a corrupt and demeaning video game, it’s a dangerous place. And Tyga has helped amplify that message as well. Works Cited Page Amber, A2 Advanced Portfolio, July 2012, Blogspot. com Barili Knick, HardKnock TV, November 2011, Season 2 Episode 17, Youtube,
