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Jonathan DeMik

Professor Granillo

English 103

8 April 2019

Music is everywhere, and has different meanings to everyone that listens to it. Some

people listen to escape reality and get lost in the lyrics, others listen for the feelings that certain

music can give you like boosts in energy or giving you a positive mindset when they are feeling

down. This is the reason that there are so many different genres, allowing people to listen to slow

tracks when they want to mellow out, or ubeat tracks when they want to get pumped up before a

workout. No matter the reason that they listen, music is a great unifier among people, and the

artists know that. Artists, many times, have deep meaning in the lyrics that they sing in order to

convey a message to the audience, which in many cases, can be hundreds of thousands of people.

This gives the artist a great amount of power to shift the audiences views on real world issues. A

perfect example of a song that draws attention to a real world issue is “Fly” by Hopsin, a rap

artist. Despite rap music being frowned upon by many people for being vulgar and meaningless,

Hopsin creates tracks with deep meaning. “Fly” draws the audience’s attention to a capitalist

society that has everything to gain from the listener being too blind to see the marketing

techniques being used to draw them in. By viewing the song through a Marxist lense, the

listener can see that Hopsin addresses the Marxist concepts of commodification and classism

heavily to create a strong argument against the idea of capitalism. While Hopsin does not directly

state that Marxism is the answer to the problem, it is strongly implied throughout the song, which
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is a significant implication coming from a music artist who makes most of his money through

capitalist means.

Marxism is a somewhat complex subject due to the nature of the system. It sounds

wonderful on paper, however, it generally never works in a positive way on society. The political

ideology can be summed up in Marx’s quote ​“​Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic

revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

(Marx). Marxism claims to have an answer to the “problem” of capitalism by focusing entirely

on equality. It aims to topple large corporations and let the lower class take control, which is

communism, and then after the dust settles the new rules relinquish power and there is no

government, only coexistence.

There are many people who would state that there is no way that a rap song could

possibly have any deep meaning to it due to the nature of the majority of rap songs. With artists

on the rise like Lil Pump, rap music is widely considered a bunch of disrespectful jargon made

for the youth. While in many cases this claim is true, it is not always the case. Many rap artists

sing about the struggles they went through and their rise to the top and often, it is an amazing

tale. Others, like Hopsin, rap about the current status of the country and real life issues that he is

going through. By taking this approach, Hopsin is able to stand out among the less creative rap

artists, and develop a unique style that he demonstrates clearly in the song “Fly”. Hopsin’s target

audience in this song, is evidently rap music fans who tend to only like hearing about how great

money is and hearing about the “thug life”. Hopsin wants them to hear this track due to the fact

that he wants to open their eyes to the real issues with our corrupt system, and all of the things
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that many people are blinded to, or look the other way towards. The most prominent Marxist

concept Hopsin discusses is the idea of commodification.

Commodification, is the act of turning something into a commodity, which is often done

in a capitalist society. Capitalism thrives off this concept, because capitalism is all about making

the money move throughout the economy. If a capitalist society can make money off of

something, they commodify it. Capitalism is the reason that many of us “...have succumbed to

worldly temptations, and enjoy our Porsches and half-million dollar homes…” (Thompson 3). In

“Fly”, Hopsin explains how through commodification, corporations are able to made ludicrous

amounts of money through tricking you into buying into their products. Hopsin explains in the

song how good marketing works when he states “​First of all, the best type of marketing is

marketing that doesn't feel like marketing, It makes the people feel like they a part of it” (Fly).

This statement is quite accurate if you look at how modern day marketing works. Ad companies

frequently create advertisements that make the viewer feel like they are being personally targeted

by the advertisement itself. By doing this, the ad companies are commodifying the viewer and

treating them as if they are a commodity to the corporations. The people just become a means to

more money for the CEO’s.

Another example of commodification that Hopsin points out is in the verse “See when

this happens we take our health, wealth, lives and just hand them off, Thinking that we did this

from organic thoughts” (Fly). In this line, Hopsin is pointing out how due to the way marketing

is achieved in our capitalist ways, that people go as far as commodifying their health, and lives

for products being sold. What Hopsin is referring to is with items like cigarettes, people use their

health as the price they pay on top of the financial costs. It shows that even things that can prove
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detrimental to our health like alcohol and cigarettes can be marketed as good things and

mandatory to fit in. This clearly disturbs Hopsin, because people will throw their lives away just

to gain a little bit of popularity, and it can all be traced back to the corporations that sit back,

watch and gain profit while selling these harmful things.

He continues with his dislike of commodification when he sings “Yo, fuck Hollywood,

fuck all these reality shows, Making us feel lame unless we blowing stacks on new clothes”

(Fly). This verse is yet another prime example of how we commodify things. Although this

concept takes a turn towards conforming. People naturally conform to new styles to “fit in”

among their peers. Whether it's a new clothing line, or the newest Iphone, everyone usually buys

these things just to fit in. The problem Hopsin is addressing is just that. The fact that people will

spend their rent money, or other necessary commodities on unnecessary material items just

because they saw them in a TV show and they became a trend. He is making the point that

Hollywood is even a part of the problem, and Hollywood is a prime example of a capitalist

corporation. They are an entire industry that profits off the commodity of entertainment with no

regard for the frequently bad influences they spread throughout society, just whatever brings in

the most money.

All of these verses show Hopsins dislike for the idea of commodification, which is a

capitalist concept, and make the listener believe that Hopsin is leaning towards supporting a

Marxist system. Hopsin sings “You have not witnessed the world 'cause you're stuck in the

Matrix” (Fly), which implies that he has witnessed the world and is no longer stuck in the

so-called “matrix” any longer. This gives Hopsin a form of credibility to the listener, by placing

himself at an elevated position above the rest of people. He is no longer blind to the manipulative
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system, and can educate us all on how to open our eyes to it, and avoid the commodification of

things. Stating this verse the way he does naturally makes the audience want to believe

everything he is saying and listen to the deeper message behind his lyrics. The next most

prevalent Marxist concept Hopsin discusses is the idea of classism.

Classism does not exist in a Marxist society, because there are no classes. In Marxism

everyone is equal, and the system relies on the idea that humans can coexist without a governing

body, or institutions. Once you implement a government and a set economy run by the

government, you get classes, naturally. Classes are socially constructed through either rank in the

community or in most cases, like the United States, through your wealth and income. Classes

create a prejudice or bias towards any class lower than the one you reside in. For example, the

upper class will generally look down on the middle class, and the middle class will generally

look down on the lower class. It is a constant and neverending cycle of prejudice that really only

has one solution and that is Marxism, which Hopsin is continually hinting for in the song.

Classism is yet another problem with capitalism that Hopsin addresses in “Fly”.

Hopsin’s verse “Your whole life has been part of a whole plot, To keep you at the bottom

while they on top, stay quiet, then they won't stop” (Fly) refers to the CEO’s of large companies

that sit comfortably in the middle and upper classes and want to keep everyone else lower than

them. They often succeed in our society too, because they market their items perfectly to make

people buy them and waste their money on unnecessary things to fit in. Hopsin is correct when

he says it is a “plot” since the companies create the ads based on the audience they want to reach.

Without knowing anything about you, the ad companies can create an ad that will appeal to you

in some way through use of many rhetorical strategies all in one ad. This guarantees that no
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matter who is watching the advertisement, it will connect to them in some way. Meanwhile, by

falling into this trap that large corporations set, the poor stay poor and the rich get richer. Hopsin

tries to shed light on this problem to help open the eyes of the lower classes in order to turn the

tables on the upper class, and let everyone get on an even playing field. The only way to

effectively do this would be to incorporate a Marxist system, further leading the listener to

believe it is what Hopsin wants.

He continues in the next verse by stating “They always tryna show us what we don't got,

They do it to all of us 'til we finally break and go cop a gold watch, Knowing we need the cash

for rent” (Fly). This is continuation on Hopsin’s analysis of the classism crises in the United

States. Corporations make people believe the only way to climb the class system is through

material objects like a “gold watch”. They market it as if, without this item, you will not fit in, or

make it to the upper class in society. Companies know that people always want things they do

not have, and what they have is never enough. Advertisements play off this human greed, and

develop a strategy that guarantees them huge profit. Since many people know what class they are

in, and want to climb higher, they fall into these traps and feed the companies all of their money

and health in hopes to attain higher status among peers.

Finally, Hopsin starts to conclude his track with the verse “The system created the

stereotype for the Black image, That's why my people are scared to be different, why don't you

get it?” (Fly). He brings this idea in tying it to the idea of reality shows and other corporations

playing off the black stereotype and making people believe it constantly. In many shows you see

criminals or drug dealers depicted as black males or there are references implying such. There

are rarely shows that have black people as the main characters, especially in sitcoms. This
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example is perhaps the most disgusting form of classism, by almost forcing African Americans

into a lower class through television shows and music. Marxism may seem appealing to Hopsin

due to the fact that “...there is a powerful Marxist body of thought that is explicitly against

racism…” (Satgar 2). This idea of going against racism may seem desirable to Hopsin

considering he is a man of color and explicitly states how he wants change.

Overall, Hopsin creates a strong argument against capitalism, and despite him not stating

that Marxism is the answer to all of these problems, it is heavily implied all throughout the track

“Fly”. Hopsin continuously and ruthlessly attacks capitalism and the techniques it employs

leading the listener to believe the only answer is Marxism. This is because everything Hopsin

addresses that is a problem with capitalism, could in theory, be solved through Marxism. These

issues of commodification and classism do not exist in a Marxist society. Capitalism is about

separation and individualism, while Marxism is about the greater good for everyone and equality

for all people. No one will ever know if Hopsin actually supports Marxism, but he makes a good

case for it.

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Works Cited

Hopsin. “Fly”, Pound Syndrome, Funk Volume 2015, Track 13, Spotify

Satgar, Vishwas. “The Anti-Racism of Marxism: Past and Present”. ​Jstor Database​, 2019

“Karl Marx Quotes (Author of The Communist Manifesto).” ​Goodreads,​ Goodreads,

www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7084.Karl_Marx​.

Thompson, James. “What's Left of the Left?”. The Eighteenth Century Vol 32 No. 3, ​Jstor

Database