Primary Textual Analysis: French Montana – Don’t Panic

“To what extent does Hip hop artists glorifying violence and misogyny effect audience behaviours?”

Media Language

In the first 30 seconds of French Montana’s music video don’t panic there are a variety of media languages and forms used for example there are ,as stereotypical of a music video, a lot or the lack of facial expressions, props and cinematography that reinforce the genre of Hip Hop in the modern era. In the opening scene there is a close up tracking shot of a male dragging a weapon ‘hammer’ on the floor walking towards an individual triggering non-verbal codes that a violent scene is about to occur. In the second scene there is a medium shot where we can noticeably see a distressed women that is tied to a chair however the framing is so that the identity of the male is unknown creating an enigma code for the audience. The setting is in an isolate area with props such as plastic covers used with low key lighting to make to install fear. Additionally gestures of begging and mercy are used by women with non-diegetic sound used over her voice. The connotation of this is that she is fear of her life, where this is further reinforced in the following scene where there is a close up shot of the women, in her twenties, screaming with contrapuntal sound used which contradicts the scene. In the next 4 seconds of the music there are a number of montage shots where series of short shots are edited into a sequence for instance the is parallel diegetic sound of screaming with a shot of the women then cuts to a group of males wearing masks and carry weapons, then cuts back to the women.

Institutions

French Montana is the founder and CEO of cocaine city records (Coke Boyz). In 2012, he signed a joint venture recording deal with Maybach music group and bad boy’s records. Additionally, Maybach music group albums are distributed by Warner Bros Records, which took over distribution following the expiration of a deal with Def Jam Records. Who controls the institutions above does matter for a number of reasons for instance as he’s CEO of his own record label he can decide when to release songs whereas in a joint venture he has to collaborate with people within the business on when to release songs and albums. Furthermore, because he’s CEO of his record label he gets more money than if he released it with Maybach music group.

The music video is distributed on French Montana’s official vevo YouTube channel where he's other music videos are located. In albums and mix tapes wise warner bros records distributed them and would be available on iTunes and etc.

Genre

The genre that the texts “don’t panic” and artist belongs to is Hip Hop music. Major generic conventions within the text and hip hop: Editing for example collage of different of different settings, Promoting the artist French Montana, Camera shots for example low angle shots, close ups, medium shots etc., Intro and outro .  The generic them in this music video is violence, wealth, power, dominance and control over their environment. Moreover, to a large extent the text does fulfil the expectations of the audience as they would expect it to contain a lot of violence, money, girls and cars which are all in the music video. The music video does conform to the characteristics of the rap and hip pop genre as rappers and singers want to show off their wealth and power.

The music video "Don't panic" does feature stars such as French Montana who is a big name in the rap and hip pop industry and is associated with other big names such as meek mills, lil wayne, rick ross etc. Another star that was feature in the music video was khloe kardashian who is associated with one of the most famous families in the world the kardashian family. She is associated with a lot of big names such as her sisters and also she is dating French Montana. 

Representation

 In the opening scenes of "Don't panic" there are a lot of representations of characters for instance the female at the beginning of the music video is tied up by a male carrying a weapon , make up running and crying reinforces the dominate gender stereotype that women are vulnerable and weaker than males. Another representation that is reinforced is those males are more violent than females as there are predominately males carrying weapons such as knifes and hammers. However, some females as shown with the music video showing signs of power and authority. French Montana is represented as rich and in control which is the typical representation of male rappers which is the image they try to portray to their audiences.

 The music video is explicit which shows the rich and luxuries life of rappers as cars and women are displaced to reinforce the dominated representations that they live a life of fantasy that only the rich and famous are custom to. I believe that the representation shown in the music video is accurate but on the other side I also think that this is not reflective of society as behind all the money and fame they have the same problems as normal people for example they can get addicted to drugs or even go bankrupt. Additionally, the main reason why i believe this is that there are other rappers that don't rap about violence for instance drake sings songs relationship based not violence so i don't think that it’s fair to label every hip pop artist as rapping about and encouraging violence in their lyrics and music video. 

There are a number of opportunities that exist for self-representation by the subject for one because it’s the rappers song and he says the option to base his song on anything but decides to base song on violence where he says "nigga" over 40 times showing that he’s superior and above the law as if a "normal" person says anything remotely similar then they would be in considerable trouble. Moreover, the black people in the music video have had the opportunity to represent them self’s positively but they chose to show the dominated representation of black males as violent and criminals.