May 29, 2013

  • I remember there was one moment my brother, eager about music as he often is, was mentioning a line from a rap song he had heard recently that he really liked. Unsurprisingly, this sparked a comment from my mother about how much she hated rap. My father chimed in as well, noting that what he particularly couldn't stand was the arrogance and bragging. My mother notes that there's "just too much cursing".

    In regards to the bragging, my brother gives the argument that's been given before: they strove so much to get where they are and came from so little; they've earned, to quote Kanye, the "right to be a little bit snobbish".

    I ask whether Catcher In the Rye would be the same novel without Holden's candid expletives.

    My father says he feels that's different.

     

    I'd have to agree.

    Granted, I think the notion has weight in the context of a well-put-together album such as Reasonable Doubt or the like. And I think there is something interesting and worth studying in seeing a genre – that is largely produced and put out by a group of people consistently kept economically deficient – should find a study of wealth to literally be a past-time. Kanye, in particular (or at least I'm most familiar with him), is rather good at illuminating the source of such consistent and, arguably, negative habits within rap.

    However, – much as the sexism and misogyny in rap often tries to be explained away – I don't think all bravado can be so cleanly explained away. Some of it's irritating; and some of it really isn't healthy (within the culture of hip hop and for human beings in general, though I wouldn't say all of it is). And, in general, I don't think most of the bragging and trash talk can be explained with simply "You deserve to be able to do this".

     

    I just don't care.

    Granted, I grew up as a kid off of Detroit rap (largely because my introduction into rap was Eminem). So I have a particular affinity for rap battling. Add to that that Midwestern rap does have an appreciation punchlines and wordplay and that my second area of interest was East Coast rap, I have a large appreciation for clever wordplay and creative raps.

    I really like trash talk, so long as the trash talker can back it up. Other than working on sentence structures in writing (in part because I'm more of a nerd than I know what to do with), there's a great rush from hearing someone talking about how great they are and then proving it. I dunno, I imagine it's the same rush most rap listeners (or, given the influence rap has had on pop music, any music listener of the 21st century) have to listening to someone brag. I guess it's some vicariousness we've got going on. I dunno.

    But, for an example that makes more sense, there's also this real rush to hearing a really clever punchline or witty bit, particular those that make you have to think about it for a moment so that you laugh more than you really should once you get it.

    I like the juvenile wordplay of Da Ruckus:

    I told you once, but you forget so here's a flashback
    "You couldn't be shit, if you came out my asscrack"

    Or Beastie Boys':

    So put a quarter in your ass 'cause you played yourself

    Or Juice's pun:

    I haven't even started my reign: I'm only drizzling

    Or even corny ones from Jay-Z that I still enjoy just because I somehow managed to miss it the first time around:

    Flyer that a piece of paper bearing my name

    Or other ones which I just can't seem to think of at the moment because I'm blanking.

    Sometimes, you just want to hear good, old-fashioned, clever trash talk.

    The vibe is unsettling: as soon as the verse cuts,
    I kill 'em with the medley and then ready the hearse up
    Overflowin' on the levy and it's ready to burst up:
    Those that wanna get me, wanna sweat me, get burned up
    I make 'em feel like they flows is in the amazon,
    On the land being stampeded, gettin' trampled on
    They can't beat it: so damn heated, they can't respond
    And I'm so damn weeded, I can't see 'em – so carry on…

    Yerp, that'd be the stuff.