I Used to Love H.E.R.

Metaphor Criticism

"I Used to Love H.E.R."

Common Sense

The popular song "I Used to Love H.E.R."by rapper Common Sense first debuted in 1994. It made major waves in the hip-hop community as a revolutionary song that placed a everlasting stamp on the history of hip-hop and redefined the word "metaphor" in rap. In this song, Common paints a beautiful portrait of words that describes the love of his life. The song shows her progressing from a girl to a woman. Common illustrates all of the obstacles that she has faced and how she has changed based on these circumstances. Although it seems as if he is talking about this woman that he loves throughout the entire song, at the end he reveals that he is indeed talking about the love of his life but that love is hip-hop. Once this is revealed the audience can further understand the metaphors used throughout the song that are describing the evolution of hip-hop and the changes it has made over the years.

I would like to use this artifact for my Essay #2 and analyze it using the metaphor method of criticism. I want to use this method because of the many metaphors in this song that builds up to the ultimate metaphor that is not revealed until the last line of the song. I feel that this will be a very effective way to analyze this song.