– Continue the idea of values. What ideas are being presented in these protest songs that echo back to the older works we’ve looked at?

These poems contain values which we saw in older works we have been looking at over the past week. In Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round, we see the black who won't let anyone put him down. He's got an attitude similar to the character Shine in Shine and the Titanic. He's got a dream and he is going to fulfill it, which in this case is 'the freedom land' or the North.

These three poems are filled with hope for a better future. In We Shall Overcome, the idea there is quite simple to understand. They, the black slaves, will overcome their difficult situations and live a better life. They have much hope. They believe that will 'walk hand in hand someday', having equal rights and status with everyone else. This element of overcoming tough situations rivals the ideas present in songs/poems as NY State of Mind and The Message. In both songs the narrator talks about their situations and how they won't let it get to them; however, it is close to pushing them over the edge.

It(NY State of Mind and The Message) also echoes the content contained in Strange Fruit. The author of Strange Fruit gives a detailed explanation of what slavery is like in the South. Lewis Allen went into great detail how the south produces strange fruit. He compared the strange fruit to the hanged bodies of black slaves, and the bloody roots and leaves to all slave blood spilled by the southern whites. This explanation of the slaves' hardships echoes the hardships Nas spoke of in his song NY State of Mind and The Message.

– Look closely at “John Henry.” What values are present in that ballad that may have influenced songs like “The Message-82” or “N.Y. State of Mind-92

At first glimpse, John Henry resembles songs like The Message and NY State of Mind purely in form. The Ballad of John Henry tell the story of a steel- drivin' man who was the best steel- drivin' man there was. The other two songs are songs telling stories about the singer's lives and the hardships they experiences. All three of these tell stories about their lives and the hardships they went through. They tell about the things that they have done. Each of them seems to be oppressed by someone. In John Henry, it was his fate, dying on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad line, which oppressed him. No matter what he did, John's fate was sealed because he was going to work on that railroad line his whole life under the overseeing of the 'Captain.' He was another oppressor in John Henry's life. I'm not completely sure what his role in John's life he played but he kept appearing in the text, so he' got to be important.

The Ballad of John Henry influenced songs like The Message and NY State of Mind in a few ways. One, it told a story of hardships which is reflected in those songs. The ballad also contained a hint of sadness; even though, he wanted to be a steel drivin' man from birth. We were told form the beginning that he was going to die this way, and that's sad. In the other songs, the singers spoke of tough times they had to endure. I think the ballad influenced song writers like Nas to write about the hardships they have gone through so that people are aware of it.