Category: Community Problems/ Community Solutions
Unit 4
New York College Of Technology
Haider Mahmood
May 14, 2019
Dr.Carrie Hall
NBA YOUNGBOY
Coming home after one of the worst days in your life. You experienced disloyalty for the first time from someone who you did everything for. You’re in so much shock that you feel like you’re about to break but you keep your composure. You feel like you can’t trust anyone anymore so you don’t even want to talk to anyone. You do the one thing that is in your comfort zone and that is listening to music. You grab your headphones and turn on the radio, the song playing talks about the exact way you are feeling right now. you look at your phone and see your favorite artist NBA YOUNGBOY and his new song Genie. NBA Youngboy’s real name is Kentrell Gaulden but his rap name stands for NEVER BROKE AGAIN YOUNGBOY, he was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The reason why I listen to his songs a lot is because it describes certain pain that most rappers don’t show
Kentrell starts of the song by saying “Too many problems (yeah) Thinking how I’m gone solve it (yeah)” and just this one line has gotten me already hooked. While listening to this song I was at a very rough point of my life. I had multiple problems where I addicted to a drug, couldn’t really trust any of my friends, lost a lot of money into repairing car that I accidently crashed. Its situations like these you never expect yourself to be in. Everyone is there through the good times when you have the drugs they’ll take it with you and tell you it’s not bad and when you get that new car they’ll be happy to get it as long as it benefits them and they will help you spend that money as long as you spend some on them too. No one is ready to help you with your problems and therefore I was stuck in life not knowing what was the solution. Scared to end this toxic relationship with my friends just because I’ve known these guys for my whole life.
Kentrell continues the song by saying “So much pain in my body (yeah) They selling lies and I bought it (yeah)”. Which has a general meaning which meant that my friends would saying they’re my bro and they have my back through any bad point of life but whenever I was there they were never there. One of the most important lines Kentrell says that is “I been giving all my love, tell me do you feel it”. Which describes my point of view of the friendship. I would do anything to make my friends happy. If I see that they wanted something that would make them happy I would get that thing no matter what I had to do. If I see that they need financial help I would reach into my pocket with no hesitation. Situations like these happened every day and all this love I was showing meant nothing and I was never getting any love but I don’t know why I was fine with that. Part of that is because I was blind to see the fact they were using me, I guess I never really believed people like that existed.
Kentrell continues by saying “They keep begging me to change. Talked to Future the other day and he say I need to change lanes (yeah)”. I remember when I started to talk to people about what happened they told me I need to change my life. Focus more on making legal money and focusing on school more so I can have a career. I need to put all this anger into changing my life and doing something positive and that exactly what I did. I started asking god for a better life from here on because I believe that’s one of the only people who will always want the best for me. Kentrell continues by saying “Said I changed on you, but I feel that you changed on me. I say my prayers and you gon’ sow just what you reap (yeah)”. This is an important line because although I never treated people in a bad way those who treat people in a bad way will get their punishment by karma. Kentrell ends the song by saying “Don’t tell me that you love me, if you ain’t going to die for me (oh). You can stay to fuck from round me.” Which overall means if you don’t value my life then stay away from me.
In conclusion NBA Youngboy (Kentrell) is a hip hop artist who writes songs explaining his pain. His song really described my emotions from a previous situation. Nba youngboy is one of the only rappers who doesn’t rap for money, he does it for his 5 kids .
Unit 3 Redo
Revising
I am revising the artist essay because I feel like that wasn’t the best essay. I decided to rewrite it for the audience of complex, which has a audience of highschool students and college students because those are the people who mostly like to the artist NBA YOUNGBOY. I would change this essay from a written essay to a video one like we watched in class because the video told us a lot about kendrick lamar and the actual meaning of his song videos.  I would want to include the most important parts of his life and the most important accomplishments. Then describe the meaning of things in his songs that stand out.
On My Block
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iaCqUO8SEyGT2VXS0OmJhilEEXjRVH7eVRAhpwf9I3I/edit?usp=sharing
By: Karina, Amani, and Minhaj
Group name: Â Homelessness
class: English 1121
name : Tohuratun Chowdhury, Brandon Ma
We made a flyer for a homeless soup kitchen event. We post it on instagram to promote this event.
Dear Mayor De Blasio,
First and foremost, we would like to say thank you for taking time off from your schedule to listen to what we have to say. As concerned citizens of New York City, one of the many issues and I can’t stress this enough is HIGH RENT. As citizens of New York City, rent prices are extremely ridiculous. We can’t get a decent apartment for an affordable price and the apartments that are affordable are not sanitary or big enough for families. A lot of these buildings are heavy populated with rodents such as rats, mice and roaches. Not to mention that the ceiling is broken, there’s no heat or any hot water. All of these factors included, and we still have to pay close to $2000 in rent and that’s just Queens, which is the cheaper price. In other boroughs like Brooklyn and Manhattan the same apartment goes for $2500 which is the Brooklyn and the Manhattan which is completely a different story: rent is already over $3000. This is Ludicrous. For a one-bedroom apartment it’s $2100 and for a two bedroom it’s $2500. The reason why this is an issue is because citizens aren’t paid enough to keep up with the rapid increase each year. I earn $15 an hour and after my check 25% goes to taxes. Also, did you know that depending on your lease your rent increases by a certain percent. For one year leases your rent will increase by 1.5% while two year leases increase by 2.5%, that means that each year or two that rent goes up more and more and moving is a hassle because it’s nearly impossible to find a much more affordable apartment with enough space to hold our families. When my parents first came here from Haiti, the rent in our apartment was $500. Now it’s 2100. Some families double up in a small apartment, meaning that there’s 3-4 people sleeping on one bed. Some families work more than one job just so that they can pay rent and not to mention have enough money to pay bills. Statistics show that rent rates are increasing twice as fast as the income of workers. In other words, the rent rates are increasing so fast that citizens aren’t able to keep up with it since their income isn’t increasing as a fast which could result in homelessness or moving to another state. Another issue that affects the rent rates is gentrification. There are areas that used to be majority African American but due to high construction costs which apparently affects the amount of Rent you pay in New York are causing them to move out the high-class citizens to move in and take over and make changes within the neighborhood. Gentrification brings a lot of social problems and discomfort to communities. Residents move into populated areas without knowing the community and then begin to make changes that other do not agree with. That is not the only problem with gentrification; it has been a constant issue which builds a lot of financial conflict within urban communities. One example is the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. According to other citizens it’s is dramatically gentrified. Residents shouldn’t have to leave their neighborhood just because the government feel they can “recycle” the neighborhood. Currently we are at the point where rent is almost tripled compared to the old days and it is only impacting all the communities in a negative way. We do not know what can be done to resolve this issue, but we do hope that you are able to come up with something to lessen the burden on the citizens of New York.
Thank you,
Sincerely the citizens of New York City.
Essay Orchestrated By Jay and Stanley
College Rape Prevention By Michael Vignoles and Haider
Noise Pollution Effects on Health Final Draft
Latrell Greene
ENG 1121
Dr. Hall
4/4/2019
Noise Pollution Effects on Health
Dear Mayor de Blasio,
Noise pollution being ever-present in big cities, like NYC, can lead to health effects that range from levels of both physical health effects, to psychological. Â A multitude of studies have been conducted on the negative effects of noise pollution on the human mind and body, which goes to show how prominent the problem is. As a result, the purpose of this letter is to persuade you to consider solutions to get New York City, one of the most noise polluted cities in the nation, to achieve a more considerate and moderate noise level, especially regarding our subway system.
New York City is home to a subway system that can expose “commuters to noise as loud as a jet engine”. In an article by The Guardian, author Olga Oksman stated that in Time Square’s busy subway station, the noise levels clocked in at 80 decibels to 96 decibels when express trains pass through the station, and up to a level of 101.9 decibels at Manhattan’s Upper West Side station. A study 2011 study from the German Department of Environmental Health also stated the fact that “Noise from transportation is by far the most widespread source of noise exposure, causing most annoyance and public health concerns.” It can become very clear after analyzing this problem by taking a step back and observing just how loud the subway can get, as well as how so many people who commute to work and to school everyday by subway can be, and are affected by this.
Though the subway is arguably the loudest source of noise, it isn’t the only notable source of noise pollution. Noise pollution is also prevalent in busy streets, and there is often a lot of construction around the city, thus the noise is very spread out in the city.  Although the noise wouldn’t be exactly ear-splitting, it can still have an effect internally, on a psychological level, which could connect to problems with blood pressure and heart rate. A study from 1995 by Journal of Hypertension featured conducted research on the effects of urban noise pollution on blood pressure and heart rate in preschool children, and concluded that “the group mean blood pressure and heart rate values of preschool children from quiet areas contrasted with readings for those from noisy environments. This indicates a positive association between the level of traffic noise and a possibly increased role of sympathetic cardiovascular regulatory influence.”
The effects that noise pollution can have on people according to a 2000 study, which conducted research on the effects of noise pollution on humans, has a range including: “Noise Induced Hearing Impairment”, “Stress Related Health Effects”, “Sleep Disturbance” and “Effects on [Cognitive] Performance”.
A possible solution to the subway noise level problem could be an effort to update the subway system, and the practicality as well as the need for it is evident by a comparison between our subway system and others, like the bullet train in Japan. Even by taking steps toward it over a period of years would the outcome be significant.
