Tonal Analysis

Zachary Freedman

Poetry of Song

Mr. Kefor

10/25/12

Tonal Analysis

Shifting from the relieving experiences of the first verse to the dramatic realization at the end in “Pure Imagination” Richie Cunning uses powerful imagery, prosperous allusion, and struggling tone to portray the tone of struggle in the life of rappers, and people throughout the world.

In “Pure Imagination” Richie cunning uses a dark and defiant tone that radiates his childish and deep lyrics. This tone is immersed with imagery that makes you imagine people with not much but the clothes on their backs and the will to continue. The tone in his voice is very intense, and truly brings out the true emotions in the audience. Richie Cunning does a suburb job of relating to the audience, but that is probably because all the things that he is saying are real conflicts, and issues in his everyday life. One thing I like about this rapper is the way he represents himself, he is the prototypical struggling rapper, yet manages to trump the rest with his lyrically, and emotional domination. Cunning is one of the reasons I continue today to listen to underground rap, because you find rappers that haven’t “made it” but are even better (by a lot) then many that have.

Allusion is a very popular device in many songs, but in this one I feel it is used in such a way that it dramatically adds to the experience. For example “Pure Imagination” the title is an allusion in itself, because it is a direct reference to the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, I know this because I looked it up, aswell as it is quite obvious because of the instrumental, and the context clues in the lyrics. This brings me back to tone, Cunning uses a unique tone that corresponding with the music, and refences to children, and happiness that has been the staple of the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory for years. Much different from most rappers, Cunning uses familiar children, and adult pop culture to enhance and give you the unique feel that “this song was wrote for me”. Without the constant use of abstract allusions, imagery, and tone throughout the song, I don’t think his music would be such as fantastic, and purposeful as it is.

Finallly the theme of this analysis, tone. Tone is the main reason that you can listen to a song and identify immediately the authors intensions, and mood without directly looking at the lyrics. Tone gives us our perseption of the author, and his masterpiece, without straying to other indifferent devices. Richie Cunning uses tone in such a dynamic way, this is shown by the amout of emotion he uses, and the way that he distributes it in such an odd, but pleasureable way. “Taking orders from mother******* I'm older than” is such an important line in the song, that I had to share it. This line is really the definition of the use of tone in lyrics. The way Cunning pronounces this line gives you the immediate feeling that he strongly dislikes this particular job, which shows that, that line represents the underlying attitude of the songwriter.

Tone is probably one of the more simple devices, but the different types, and sounds of tone throughout the world, make it one of the most complex. To wrap up, Richie Cunning is on of the greatest rappers to use in an analysis, especially a tonal analysis, because the way he uses devices and tone is so unique, and correct that it is hard not to find an example. I want to personally thank Richie Cunning for making my life so easy in writing this analysis, because I didn’t need to search far for a song of his that represents many devices, including tone, that is easy, and humbling to talk about.