You Talkin' to Me? by E.J. White

You Talkin' to Me? by E.J. White

Author:E.J. White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00


Witty Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game

Wit and cleverness, twists and knowing allusions, inform hip-hop as they do other New York varieties of art. One part of wit, surprise, may appear in the rhythmic performance of a song. Wit can also present itself through wordplay. In rap lyrics, wordplay might parody nursery rhymes, advertising messages, or political catchphrases in order to suggest new dimensions of those commonplaces. It might recontextualize low language in order to suggest a mastery of low worlds (“Skip the bull ’cause we matadors”).73 It might extend the tradition of the ritual boast (“I’m more amazing than Grace is when I say shit / You should say ‘Amen’ after my name, kid”).74 It might simply play and tease (“Don’t you know how you do the voodoo that you do so well”).75 Wordplay refreshes language; it also enables writers to frame their subjects in new ways. “It’s one thing to say, ‘I sell bricks, I sell bricks,’ ” the New York–born rapper Pusha T, using slang from the drug trade, once told an interviewer. “But when you saying ‘Trunk like Aspen / Looking like a million muthafuckin’ crushed aspirins,’ dog, we getting back to the colors.”76

But the language of rap is not merely startling as a form of wit. Often, it is startling in the sense that profane language (which abounds in rap lyrics) is startling, aiming to speak straightforwardly; to grab the attention; to offend; to use every part of language; to communicate anger, alienation, and revolt. Rap music references crime, drugs, poverty, sex, violence, and weapons more than most other musical forms do, and writers often draw on informal idioms from these domains (dirty, dough, feel on, gear, heat, hot, paper, pop, and so forth). Writers may also use calculatedly aggressive slang (bomb or burn for graffiti tagging; rope for a necklace; spitting for writing or rapping; slay for “impress”; and, as compliments, bad, ill, sick, and sometimes motherfucker). These idioms serve, in part, as deliberate provocations, what Umberto Eco calls (in another context) “semiotic guerilla warfare.”77 They reinforce the idea of power from below through the performance of speech from below. The New York rapper Jay-Z, who used to sell drugs, uses slang, wordplay, and a mixture of “high” and “low” subjects to describe his criminal past as an extension of American domestic and foreign policy agendas:

Can’t you tell that I came from the dope game

Blame Reagan for making me into a monster

Blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra

I ran contraband that they sponsored

Before this rhyming stuff we was in concert.78



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.