“Runaway Love”
Ludacris does a remarkable job of portraying his message about the struggles that some adolescents are faced with. “Runaway Love”, by Ludacris, featuring Mary J. Blige (2007), represents the theme of struggle through hip-hop and rap music. It is about little girls who are “stuck up in the world on their own.” They have to take care of themselves because the people they are around do not care about them. They range from nine to eleven years in age, and their goal in life, at such a young age, is to run away from home. Ludacris is trying to get the listener to realize the struggles that even children have to face because adults are not the only ones who have problems, like most people believe. He is very successful in …show more content…

Another poetic device that he uses is rhyme. Rhyming is often used in hip-hop and rap songs to make the lyrics flow together. The last word in every line rhymes with the word in the previous line, but only during the verses. The only parts that do not rhyme in “Runaway Love” are the hook and the outro. [I attached a copy of the lyrics so you would be able to refer to the song throughout reading this analysis.]
Ludacris also uses imagery to make his song feel more powerful. Imagery helps the listener to relate with the characters in the song because they can see in their mind what is taking place. “Mama is on drugs getting high up in the kitchen” is an example of the imagery that is being used because the listener can picture the little girl sitting alone in her room, while her mom is doing drugs in their kitchen. This makes the listener sympathize for the little girl, Lisa, because she is only nine years old and her mother is too busy getting high to take care of her. Ludacris is able to make his listeners grasp how important it is to pay attention to signs of abuse so that adolescents do not have to feel like “hell is a place called home.”
Ludacris makes his listeners feel like they are in the same position as the girls who are in his song, which in return, makes them aware of child abuse. He not only makes his listeners aware of child abuse through his songs, but I learned that he also has a program called “The Ludacris Foundation.”