Student Sample, Rhetorical Analysis 2 Nas Message: One Chance As a result of being raised in different places, belonging to a certain economic class, religion and culture, we all have different ways to interpret certain things. However, through the use of rhetoric, we can have an equal playing field where we are able to communicate effectively. Rhetoric is a skill where one uses his or her language in order to change and or persuade a person s perspective and/or ideas. Through the application of the Rhetoric Appeals of pathos, logos, and ethos along with the Rhetorical Situation, readers may understand the encrypted meaning. In the song One Mic by rap artist Nas, rhetorical structure is used a great deal throughout the entire song to lead listeners to Nas message. While listening to One Mic on repeat, I interpreted some words differently every time the song was played. It is the job of the artist or writer to stimulate the brain and keep the audience thinking. If it was blatantly in front of our faces it wouldn t be original and it would be very boring. The purpose of this song by the artist is that Nas realized people from the inner city only need one source of motivation. This object doesn t have to be obtainable; it can be a selfderived goal. For example, it can be anything from playing a sport to being the first to graduate out of high school in your family. This is the encrypted meaning behind the song. All he or she needs is one chance. As a result of this motivation and inner drive to succeed, it would stop stereotypes and oppression. Nas main audience is the people from the inner city that can relate to his story and all of his experiences of being from the streets. However, as a good artist, his general audience can be anybody that is going through a rough time and needs a little bit of ambition to get them through. Nas didn t just direct this entire song to the people who can identify with him through skin color
but more importantly through his struggles. As a result, anybody who needs motivation from music can listen to this song. For this reason, the pathos that we see applied is very effective. Nas shows a great deal of emotion throughout the entire song, whether it was from the stance in his voice to the pictures he painted in our heads as his audience. In the beginning of the song he is whispering, when certain topics come about he gets loud and later, starts screaming. This shows that he is expressing his rage toward the police. He depicts this picture to us by saying: Bus stop glass bursts, a fiend drops his Heineken / Ricocheting between the spots that I m hiding in / Blacking out as I shoot back, fuck getting hit / This is my hood I ma rep to the death of it (Jones). We feel a sense of a great deal of pride and emotion within these words. As an artist, one needs to perform in front a large audience. Nas stance plays an important role through the conviction and emotion in his voice. An artist needs to be able to make their audience believe in what he or she is saying. This can be done through emphasizing certain words. When Nas raps This is my hood he is screaming, however, this shows us how much he cares about the place he has grown up in. This is an effective tool because it shows the audience that the artist really believes and cares about what he or she is talking about. Nas ethos within hip-hop culture is respected. Not only can people relate to him and all of his endeavors but also in the sense that he is actually a product of the streets. He uses lyrics to convey everything he saw. People may also see Nas as a role model because most of the music he has produced is very inspiring and uplifting. The listeners need something to look forward to or believe in. They need to know that the people who live ghetto don t have to be oppressed all the time; there are ways out of the inner city. Nas is the guy who has made it out of the inner city and succeeded. His main argument throughout the entire song is that all we need is one chance.
For Nas, his opportunity was introduced as a microphone, which is why the title of the song is One Mic. His microphone was his escape from the inner city. I believe Nas did a phenomenal job in persuading the readers by applying logos to this piece. Everything that was spoken about in the entire song is factual, Mad violence, who I m gon body / This hood politics / Acknowledge it, leave bodies chopped up in garbages / Seeds watch us, grow up and try to follow us / Police watch is, roll up and try knockin us. By Nas portraying everything so vividly, so truthfully, to his audience, more people would appreciate him and his music more. His narratives are logical, truthful inner city stories that reason a response from the crime and poverty that exists there. I am from the inner city and I have witnessed most of the things that Nas spoke about in the song. I personally am a big fan of Nas not only because of his lyrics but also because his approach and stance is very different from other artists that are famous right now. At the last couple of lines of the song we see the realization that life is bigger than the streets. Nas sings, This is crazy, I m on the right track I m finally found / You need some soulsearching, and the time is now. Nas concludes by saying all I need is one mic to spread my voice to the whole world. This is Nas call to action; after all the struggles he has faced he understands that he has to be different. By not encouraging the next generation to continue to sell drugs and cut school but to use one source of motivation that will guide them to success. We can see rhetoric is not an easy formula to understand. One can get very confused while reading certain texts. One can think the writer or artist is saying one thing but another person may have a different understanding or interpretation. Rhetoric is supposed to make the language easy to interpret through the methods of logos, pathos, and ethos. Nas song One Mic
shows us how rhetoric can be used. Nas shows how his motivation and devotion made him successful as an artist through one microphone.
Work Cited Jones, Nasir and Chucky Thompson, One Mic. Stillmatic. Columbia, 2002.