IN
DEFENSE OF RAP MUSIC
Sometimes,
people ask me why I love rap music, insinuating,
perhaps, that I am either too old or too educated – or too
something else – to remain infatuated with the genre.
Over
the years, I have responded in many
different ways – one of which being the following:
Say
you are a fat man, determined, at all costs, to leave your son a
sizable inheritance – even to the point that you are willing to
shoot anyone who tries to interfere.
Say
then that you perceive someone trying to thwart your plans and wish
to communicate your own dangerous determination to said person.
There
are, as I see it, a few ways for you to proceed.
One,
you can be blunt and say things outright:
“Listen,
I’m gonna leave my son a lot of money when I die, and if you try to
get in my way – I’m gonna shoot you!”
Two,
you can employ your wit to demonstrate that you are not only
a dogged man, hellbent on success at all costs, but also a
thinking man:
“Listen, I know that I may not be in the
best physical condition myself – but you can bet your ass that my
gun is! If you try to get in my way of bequeathing my son a small
fortune – I will shoot you!”
Three, you can take your
thinking a step further by confining it within the
knotty boundaries of rhyme, thereby
demonstrating that you are, at once, determined, witty and also – a
person of artistic style:
“I’m
just trynna make sure that my son’s wealthy
/
Out of shape – but I make sure that my gun’s healthy /”
And,
finally, you can recite those rhymes persuasively and vigorously to
the sound of germane music – in much the same way that Jadakiss did
in the context of Nas’s Made You Look (Remix), where the above
couplet is to be found.
This
is, of course, a silly example but one that, nonetheless, illustrates
my point:
The
reason why I love rap music is because William Shakespeare, John
Keats, Emily Dickinson and Charles Baudelaire all wrote beautiful
poetry – but none of them were constrained by the subtle shackles
of beats and music.
(I am not implying that any rapper has
thus far ascended to their
lyrical heights, but saying, merely, that given their era and their constraints, many
rappers have, at least, made valiant efforts.)
What
we ask of rappers is this:
1. That they acquire a beat.
2.
That they formulate a theme that accords with that beat.
3. That
they put their thoughts into words and then organize those words into
lines possessing corresponding terminal
endings (rhymes) – in such a way that also squares with that
beat.
4. That they recite those rhymes rhythmically and
persuasively to that same beat.
This
is a big ask –
And also, perhaps, the reason why bad rap music is so offensive:
A
non-athletic person running the 100
meter-dash looks twice as ridiculous if he
or she attempts to pole vault –
and likewise, inarticulate amateurs trying their
hands at poetry sound twice as foolish if they attempt to
recite their rhymes to a beat.
What
I am trying to say is that creating quality rap music is
difficult; when a truly good rap song is released
there is a sense of the fortuitous and
unlikely coming together of
diverse phenomena:
The
right producer must create the right beat and then offer that beat to
the right rapper who must then choose the right theme and pen the
right lyrics and perform them in the right manner, etc. etc. etc.
This
being the case, I love rap music, and remain convinced that it STILL has a lot of
potential.
Furthermore,
I think that the reason why so many people experience
such a strong and visceral reaction against
rap music is because they too
intuit that potential and are subsequently frustrated by the
unsatisfying attempts that rappers make at
at realizing it.
Is there not some part of them that wishes that the emotion of Tupac be translated into words by an eloquent Dickinson, before being delivered over a Kanye beat with Biggie’s jazzy sense of rhythm, on a song that boasts a Drakean chorus?
Maybe.
To sum up:
My
love for rap music – aside from my enthusiasm
for its culture of sampling and beats and rebelliousness, etc.
– lies, in some sense, in its complexity. And owing to that
complexity I am hopeful of its continued
evolution as an art form (that is, if our species survives).
Somewhere,
huddled within the radiant haze of the future, a school of young
poets gather, plotting to marry the style
and eloquence of great writers past with the vibrant
kick of rap music du jour, penning
verses worthy of literary canonization – before
reciting those verses to a
beat.
Words: RTH