The song I chose that relates to “Vietgone” by Qui Nguyen is called “Hit em up” from Tupac, on page 11 Quang starts rapping his freestyle he entitles “Blow em up”. When I first read the title it automatically brought me back to one of my favorite diss tracks of all time called “hit em up”. The resemblance between the two names are uncanny, especially when you start to listen to what the two songs are about. It was hard not to choose “hit em up” as the song that reminds me of this part of the book. In Tupac’s, “hit em up” he starts to rap and diss Biggie Smalls and the whole east coast. Tupac held a grudge against Biggie because of a shooting that Tupac believes Biggie was behind, so he goes after him in the best way he possibly could by expressing himself through music. Quang also talks about going to his adversaries with death in mind, for example, Quang expresses his patriotism in this passage “.. Shot up by the Viet Cong they stole my peeps freedom so I’m coming to kill them call me their arch-villain can’t stop me I’m willin to die for this vision..”, he describes his feeling towards his enemies and also gives insight into why he hates them, very similar to how Tupac speaks about his. Tupac speaks about bringing drama to the city of New York and he does not care who stands in his way as does Quang. In Quang ‘Blow em up’ freestyle, he does not hold back in admitting that he wishes to bring harm to his enemies including shooting them up. Quang has his sidekick as Tupac had his outlaw posse. The Viet Cong is Tupac “Biggie Smalls/Bad boys”. Both “Hit em up” by Tupac and “Blow em up” by Quang part from the book have too many similarities and there couldn’t be a better song that fits with Quang’s description from his freestyle in my opinion.

I chose “In the air tonight” by Phil Collins as the song of choice for this assignment. This song is one of the most heard of songs worldwide. The reason why this song is so famous isn’t because of the lyrics, but because of the sow beat that introduces the song before any lyric can be heard. When I first heard this song, I remember automatically knowing what kind of song this was going to be based solely on the rhythm of the song. When I mentioned earlier that the beat introduces the song before any lyric is heard is because the beat is slow, you just understand that this is going to be a sentimental song. Those were my initials thoughts on the song. The lyrics to the song match the rhythm of the song perfectly with his monotone voice and the slow rhythm of beat. Throughout the song however, the drums are introduced when he goes off from his monotone voice to a higher pitch voice while he sings the chorus of the song. This is what makes it so memorable.

The songs most popular and catchy lyric is the actual chorus. The chorus is what most people think about when they think of Phil Collins himself in fact, I would say this is the most known piece of music made by Phil Collins. The song has reached “urban legend” status because the lyrics in his song weren’t at all true; for example, the most famous line he says” if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand” which describes an event that never happened to him in his life. An interesting fact I learned about when Phil Collins was in an interview and he was asked about the lyrics and what it really meant. Collins said “I don’t recognize what this music is about” until he mentioned he wrote this song when he was going through a divorce with his wife, it was an angry and sad time in his life. The drumbeat rhythm in the middle of the song came into his mind out of the blue at a time he was bored. The music video also goes with the rhythm and the lyrics of the song with the white and black colors in the background and only his face showing up in white and black also for most of the video. What else makes “In the air tonight” a great song is because of awesome it made my childhood. I remember being a child, air drumming this song and making a mess with pots and pans just to act like I was part of a concert. For music to help imbed memories and reenact certain parts of your life is an amazing thing. That shows you the power of music, especially if you really find a love for the song itself.