Lil Wayne Identifies As Roman Catholic

[Guest]

Well, this is a good example. I'll rewrite the post for you:

What grammar problems? lol! Yeah, they had an official music play list a while back and Tupac's song 'Changes' made it on the list. I doubt Tupac will be in the liturgical music anytime soon. lol

There is a lot of missing punctuation and a tendency toward a run-on feel in your sentences. "lol" is very common and easy to understand, but taking it out helps the sentences be more understandable (that's a nit-pick). A couple of times I've seen strange spaces before your question marks, including here, which is somewhat distracting. The quotation marks around the song title probably aren't necessary, but they do help separate it as a song title. I had to remove the extra "the" in my mind before I could make sense of that sentence. Then there's the misuse of the word "awhile", which you can read about here: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/while-versus-awhile

Sorry - I'm not trying to be a jerk about it - it's just much easier to understand someone when they express themselves clearly in written form. And you asked.

hahaha that was awesome and I did ask. I don't think you're being a jerk. Thanks.

[fides' Jack]

The late rapper Tupac Shakur has been included as part of the Vatican's official MySpace Music playlist.

The seat of the Catholic Church released a list of 12 songs onto the social networking Web site's streaming music service this week when the site launched in the United Kingdom.

Among selections from Mozart, Muse and Dame Shirley Bassey is the slain rapper's song "Changes," which was released two years after his shooting death on a greatest hits album in 1998.

"The genres are very different from each other, but all these artists share the aim to reach the heart of good minded people," the Vatican wrote on its official MySpace Music page.

As of Thursday night, "Changes" had been played more than 4.6 million times on the Web site.

The list was compiled by Father Giulio Neroni, artistic director of church publisher St Paul's Multimedia. He was also responsible for compiling the Vatican's recent Alma Mater album, which combined Gregorian chants and prayers with classical music and the voice of Pope Benedict XVI speaking in five languages.

Shakur, who spent time in prison for sexual assault, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Nevada in 1996.

The lyrics of "Changes" describe Shakur's desire to change a grim life of drugs, crime and violence on the streets.

Lyrics of the song, which is labeled as "explicit," include 'Is life worth living, should I blast myself?" "Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares, one less hungry mouth on the welfare," and "My stomach hurts, so I'm looking for a purse to snatch."

At another point, Tupac sings: "Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight."

In contrast, the playlist also contains selections from the album "Music of the Vatican" such as "Advocata Nostra" and "Causa Nostrae Laetitiae."

Other contemporary tracks on the mix include Muse's "Uprising" from their new album "The Resistance" and "He Doesn't Know Why" by the folk group Fleet Foxes.

 

Interesting...

 

Thanks for the copy/paste.

[Nihil Obstat]

Well, try singing something in your normal voice, on the same note.  Maybe this post.  Then, try saying it.  You'll notice there is a difference, though I'm not sure I could easily put it into words.  

 

Maybe something about how when you're singing you're carrying your voice between syllables, while speaking each syllable starts and ends itself somehow??  

 

Of course, when you speak you can also change tone & pitch (& certainly volume) to express emotion, etc..., but there's still a definite difference between singing and speaking.

But rap, even the most 'spoken sounding' of styles, still produces clear pitches and I think if you were to check it would also clearly fit into a definitive key signature. It is clearly possible to change the key in a rap song. It is certainly eminently possible to hit a 'wrong note' in a rap. Yet, it is not music? Why not? The two biggest differences, when we ignore lyrical content, between chant and rap that I can perceive is that rap has an infinitely stricter set of conventions regarding rhythm, and rap is tonally closer to a regular speaking voice. I simply cannot see how this disqualifies it as music.

It has rhythm, it has melody, and it can have harmony. It is just that the melody and possibly harmonies are rather strange and foreign to a musical palette that is accustomed to more historic forms of western music.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Nihil Obstat

[Anastasia13]

 

I always thought there was something attractive about Mark Wahlberg. Now it finally makes sense.

 

I loved that movie, and how his character learned ballet and harp "ironically". 

[fides' Jack]

But rap, even the most 'spoken sounding' of styles, still produces clear pitches and I think if you were to check it would also clearly fit into a definitive key signature. It is clearly possible to change the key in a rap song. It is certainly eminently possible to hit a 'wrong note' in a rap. Yet, it is not music? Why not? The two biggest differences, when we ignore lyrical content, between chant and rap that I can perceive is that rap has an infinitely stricter set of conventions regarding rhythm, and rap is tonally closer to a regular speaking voice. I simply cannot see how this disqualifies it as music.

It has rhythm, it has melody, and it can have harmony. It is just that the melody and possibly harmonies are rather strange and foreign to a musical palette that is accustomed to more historic forms of western music.

 

I can agree with most of this.

 

Maybe there is some rap that does inch toward crossing the line between speaking and singing.  But I think if it did cross that line, it would cease being 'rap'.  I think that's the quality that makes it 'rap'.  

[Nihil Obstat]

I can agree with most of this.

 

Maybe there is some rap that does inch toward crossing the line between speaking and singing.  But I think if it did cross that line, it would cease being 'rap'.  I think that's the quality that makes it 'rap'.  

I would be fine with not calling rapping "singing" in a traditional sense of the word.

So, music or not music after all?

[Credo in Deum]

It's music!

http://youtu.be/v1PBptSDIh8

[fides' Jack]

I would be fine with not calling rapping "singing" in a traditional sense of the word.

So, music or not music after all?

 

I think it's speaking, often to a musical background.  

 

Call my cynical.  :)

[KnightofChrist]

Yea I agree with all of this. How do you feel about someone like Mark Wahlberg who practices and speaks out about his Faith but yet still produces and acts in movies with blasphemy, nudity, ect ?

Outside of using an example of blasphemy to teach that it is wrong, blasphemy is never acceptable. While I agree that some forms of art can use nudity in a non-perverse manner, I cannot recall ever seeing it used in a artful manner in movies. Edited July 8, 2014 by KnightofChrist

[Nihil Obstat]

I think it's speaking, often to a musical background.  

 

Call my cynical.   :)

 

Outside of using an example of blasphemy to teach that it is wrong, blasphemy is never acceptable. While I agree that some forms of art can use nudity in a non-perverse manner, I cannot recall ever seeing it selected in a artful manner in movies.

That is why I have minor reservations about The Exorcist. I think it is rather a good example in popular media of the Catholic understanding of possession - with some qualifications - but I think it may have been technically blasphemous to film a couple of the more 'intense' scenes of possession. I have not yet decided what the implications of this might be.

[Semper Catholic]

I always thought there was something attractive about [font='Open Sans']Mark Wahlberg. Now it finally makes sense.[/font]

Yeah being a violent racist drug addict is so attractive. This is the same guy who blinded a man by beating him with a baseball bat.

[Guest]

People grow and change for the better. It's why we're here.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Guest

[Anastasia13]

I was going to post the Avenue Q song Everyone's a Little Bit Racist, but I think I will go with:

 

 

People grow and change for the better. It's why we're here.

 

 

I am out of props for the day. But QFT and Amen, brother.

 

Edited July 9, 2014 by Light and Truth

[Selah]

Yeah being a violent racist drug addict is so attractive. This is the same guy who blinded a man by beating him with a baseball bat.

 

Pray for him

[Selah]

As with all forms of music it is not how it sounds that makes it bad or good, but what is said or sung in the song.

 

Based upon his lyrics I would not know Lil Wayne was Catholic, or identified as Catholic. Most of his music glorifies murder, violence, and perversities against women. Which many of his fans emulate and copy. 

 

Catholicism is a way of life, you don't put it away until it's time for Last Rites. Catholics must be Catholics in word and in deed.

 

He needs help. And prayer.

 

While his lyrics do not tell me he is a Catholic, his seeking out churches and reading his Bible tells me he is searching.

 

So let's pray for him.