Textual Analysis Of - Hate It Or Love It - The Game ft 50 Cent

Released- March 15, 2005
Song - Hate it or love it ft 50 Cent
Signed to - Aftermath/G-Unit
Name - Jayceon Terrell Taylor and Curtis Jackson

The Games Hate it or love it song has one real distinctive narrative which we can draw upon from the video itself and the images which it is showing the audience. The clear narrative from the video is that The Game and 50 Cent are rapping about there childhood and where they grew up trying to give the audience an insight into how there life was before they became rappers and what they had to do in order to survive. We can also tell they are rapping about there childhood by when 50cent says 'lets take em back' showing that he wants us to see his lifestyle before we know him as the rapper that he is today.We also get an idea that the rappers are talking about there past for the fact that in some of the shots the video is in black and white and these combined with the lyrics give a real insight to the lifestyle which they used to live and the areas they used to live in The Game(Compton) 50 (Queens).

The video Hate it or love it uses many stereotypical conventions of a rap video. For example the mise en scene throughout the video we see the consistent appearance of gang symbols and colours (red bandanna's) being worn especially by The Game. This is in order to show the audience where he came from and also it projects a dangerous image in order to show he isnt the sort of person to mess about with. Also the fact The Game has alot of tattoos on show also helps to reinforce this stereotype of being a proper rapper. Another stereotypical feature or a rap video which we see is the use of jewellery. On various diffrent occasions we see 50cent wearing a diamond encrusted cross which would suggest his fame also we see 50 and the Game both wearing expensive watches again the video is contrasting from the childhood to when they've grown up and how there lifestyles have changed from what they used to be. Also we see alot of transport being shown for example the private jet and the mercedes benz these are again typical features of a rap video as it allows the rappers to show there wealth which is what alot of rap videos are about showing the audience the lifestyle that they are living and what they came from.

However the video does also have some go against some of the stereotypes of a typical rap video aswell. For example in most rap videos you wouldnt see the rappers mum being shown in the video and also the use of little kids to show the story of how they grew up makes it seem more like a short video than an actual music video because it shows diffrent stages of their lives which you dont usually see in a music video however it creates the effect which makes you sympathise with their lifestyle before they became rappers. However these feautres allow the music video to be sucessful as it allows the audience to be able to use the video to compare to a hard time they've had in their life before therefore it captures the audiences attention which is the main aim of a music video.