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    Sid Mccafferty
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    The second part in a four part series called how to tap. This part deals with creating metaphors n wordplay, techniques n guides to help teach you how to use these tool in your writing practices

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    The second part in a four part series called how to tap. This part deals with creating metaphors n wordplay, techniques n guides to help teach you how to use these tool in your writing practices

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    74 views17 pages

    Book of Rhymes Wordplay

    Uploaded by

    Sid Mccafferty
    The second part in a four part series called how to tap. This part deals with creating metaphors n wordplay, techniques n guides to help teach you how to use these tool in your writing practices

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 17
    EARS ABD A friend of mine asked me to defend rp. We were diving back to campus after a basketball game, and I was playing a new disc for her, Ready to Die, from an emerging Brooklyn rapper named the Novorious BLLG. I was jst be- Binning to dawn on me, as it was on many hip-hop heads, that we were wimessing lyrical greamess with Biggie. By lace 1994 he was a star, by 1995 he was an icon, and by his un- timely death in 1997 he was a legend. Some sil consider him the most skilled Irieist of alltime. Almos everyone ranks ‘him among the most influential MCs in hip-hop history. In that moment, however, I was dealing with something more tangible: the capaciey of words—epecfie words—to do harm. “Why do you like chis, Adam! I expect more from you,” imy friend said, as we idled ata stoplight listening to the BNEHHLL AD 6 o BOOK oF nuvMes percussive assault of "Machine Gun Funk.” Her eyes de- smanded a respons Fora moment | was silent. [knew she was talking Digg’ almost manic repeiion of “ig” and “bitch,” not to mention his offhanded use of garden-variety curse words sit” "damn," “muthafucka” Biggie wasn't helping my case very much, either, rhyming this profane but indel- ble simile just as Iwas about to speak: "That's why I pack a nina, fuck a misdemeanor / beating muthafuckas like Ike heat Tina.” When I finally responded, I hada hard time even con incing nyse "snot what he saying, i's how he saying i.” I said “And, besides, they're just word!” Jue words. I is raps perennial problem. Most hip-hop fans find themselves atone time or another inthe psiion of defending the indefensible, of making the case to excuse the coarse language and the misogynistic messages behind sone of ap’ best-known lyrics. Such instances of offense present a parcicular problem for a book thar advocates reading rap lysles om the page as poetry. Things that might escape aten- tion in performance hecome all the more explicit when Keandewhite in an MC's hook of rhymes. $9 im some ways I ind myself today inthe same position | found myself in more than a decade ago while listening to Biggie. How do you explain without apologising? How do you resist without rejecting? To understand hip hop as a cul viewed in bla tural movement we must explore the roots and the reasons forts explicit nature. Rap often specifically interes to offend polite sensibilities. Afterall i i an ar form born on the street comet, speaking 2 language ofthe comer aswell. Iehas evolved, to borrow hip-hop historian William Jelani Cobb's Wordpay phase fom the “shunned expresions of disposable peep.” Tn that way, {sno different fom a hos of earlier expressive traditions that came from the bottom of the social spectrum, Each poet creates his own language from that which he finds around him,” Ralph Ellison explained tan interviewer in 1958, speaking about the distinctive language of black ‘American poets. "Thus if these [vernacular] poets find the language of Shakespeare or Racine inadequate to reach their ‘own peoples, then the other choice isto re-create their orig nal language tothe point where they may express their com- plex emotions” Hip hops fist generation did exactly this, forging language responsive tothe need ofits creator, => Acting their own complex emotions Rep's revolutionary sir les in the force of necessity be hind 20 much ofits expression. “When I was young,” recalls the pioneering female rapper MC Lyte,“ was lke, hw else can a young black giel of my age be heard all around the ‘world? I gotta rap.” The rapper Common echoes Lyte’ asser- tion of raps necessity. “Hip hop has so much powes,” he ex- plains. "The government cant stop it. The devil ean’ stop it. Tes musi, is ar, the voice of the people. And is being spoken all atound the world and the world i appreciating ‘And it is helping to change things... le’ definicly wplife {ng the ghetto.and giving the ghetto a chance for its voice to be head. Rap’ profanity at lest in pare responds to this unmet need. Harsh words are sometimes required to describe harsh realities. Again, Elson is instructive. “The great body of Ne 70 slang—that unorthodox language—exiss precisely be- cause Negroes need words which will communicate, which ‘will designate the objects, proceses, manners and subdletes " ‘BOOK OF RRYMES ‘oftheir urban experience wit the lest amount of distortion ‘oor the outside," Ellison wrote. He was describing school- children in 1950s Harlem, bue he might as well have been writing about rappers. The origins of rp at an aristicpeoest partly explain raps continuing peony, Equally importane is raps identicy as an outlaw expres: sion, a form that doesn't mind using the words that people actully say, word char describe the sometimes unseemly re ality of our modern life.“ language comes into existence by ‘means of brutal necessity, and the ales of the language ate clictated by what the language must convey." James Bevin, weote in an editorial forthe New York Times entitled “If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What I” published in 1979, just around the time of rap's public emer- sence. Baldwin saw in black English in general what he ‘might have seen in rap in partculs, the workings ofa vital new form of linguistic expression. Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan suggests Baldwin’ un- derstanding of language’ birth in brutal necessity when of- fering this profound—and profane—reflection upon rap's explicit, poetic language. “People may look at it like, ‘Some of them talk about violence, whatever—but fist say the nigel a poet,” he sys. “To flow-—that shi ie not easy. You can never get it no fresher, comin’ up out ofthe project, ‘wenty yeas old, and you start rhymin’, and that’s how you ‘make your money—by speaking your lingo. Rap, to me is slang poetry. Ie answers your questions: why young kids is doin’ bad, why they tur to drugs to get away from tele ‘misery This isthe shit we elk about—and how to ecape it.” Any language with sch slvific pomer must not be ignored. ova ‘There is no defense for the sexism, homophobia and vi- ‘lence found in certain rap lyrics. These elements remain a troubling reality of raps expression, and a part—one must unfortunately add—of a larger culure that sanctions such belief in ways boch big and sal ‘But rap ats best retains meaning that extends well be yond is sometimes ofersve surfice. eis a complex linguistic art where words are constantly in flux, changing meanings and intentions, texture and sound. The Romantic poet Petey Bysshe Shelley argued thatthe primary fanction of figurative language was t0 render the familie unfamiliar. In other words smiles and metaphors have the capacity to reshape fur vision of the woeld. More than any other contemporary form of linguistic expression, rap plays with words in ways that jar us fom our settled sense of reality, opening up new ‘ways of seeing and even feling This, to, makes ie poetry Our culture, however, usually treats rap as i it were ‘transparent, as if its poetry were nothing more than the cleat callophane weapper around is “icra” meaning. Both rap’ sreatest advocates and its lowest detractors cach rend to in- terpret rap a dicect speech, For many of is fans, rp i the word from the treet, or as Chuck D is said to have remarked, itis CNN for black people For is cits, rap sa megaphone spewing hace speech a purveyor of violence, sexism, and ho- ‘mophobia. These opposing extremes each contain a certain ‘ruth: cap has undoubtedly given voice to those who might rot otherwise have been heard; at the same time, it has helped popularize the flagrant denigration of women and ays in the broader culture. These tensions remain umre- solved in rap culture ‘BOOK OF RRYMES (One might be tempted to ask, 2s CNN did in a 2007 spe- cial report: "Hip-Hop: Are or Polson? But this is a false choice. To focus solely on rap perceived ends, whether ben ficial or cove, i wo exisundertand dhe central roe fits ex- pressive means. Rap cannot be distilled into pute meaning. "No matter how profound or offensive of funny rappers mes- sages may be, their words ate inextricably bound up in the way that MCs deliver them: through rhythm, thyme, im- ‘gery, tone of voice. "Rather than being ebout experience, ‘ink of poem as an experlence—sometimes with memo” ‘able insights, sometimes nor." So explains the poet Frances “Mayes in words tha seem particularly relevant ro ap, To de- fine rap as poetry is not necessarily to defend it as always ood for us. Bur a mature audience can understand rap in context and measure its value not simply in the quantity of fits curse word, bur in the variety and sophistication of is Poet forms Like al poetry, apis necessarily communication Ie eles ‘upon repetition and ardul departures from that repetition, both in its percussive instrumentals and in is shytha- and shymetich lytic, It fashions itself as a etualized language, Iheightening sound, establishing patterns of expectation and Tnnovation, and crafting images that engage the audience in an implicic but powerful process of communication “It's just vehicle," explains the West Coast rhymer Ras Kats, “At its purest form, that’s what hip hop i. I’ communication.” “The way rp communicate e what makes it sucha pow erful poetic form. Rap does what the post Edward Hirsch claims the Tyrie poom dost: it “familiares words, it wrenches chem fom fant o habieul contest, i puts @ spell on them.” Ie does all ofthis with rhythm, shyme, and Wordly wordplay. As we have seen, snythm establishes aural rela- tions among words that one does not find in conventional speech and rhyme compels the MC to conceive connections ‘between previously disconnected words and ideas Forall the controversy about raps use of profanity, a simple truth re ‘mains: Rap is finally les about those words whove meanings are obvious and more about chose words whose meanings are rot realy apparent. "That the part of hip-hop dha msn,” sys Pasha T; ‘one-half the Clipse, bemoaning what he sees asthe dimin. ishing importance of wordply in todays hiphop. Fora group known for their gritty tales ofthe drug game, wordplay might scem the furthest ching from their minds. In fact, the oppo- sites the case. Wordplay maces to them because it enables them to create are that transcends their subject matey, the so-alled cocaine rap for which they're known. “Its one thing to say ‘sell bricks, I sel bricks,” he continues, “But when you saying Trunk like Aspen / Looking ike a million rrthafuckin’ crated agpiving dog, wn getting back tothe colors. A lot of dudes is working with the eight crayons in the box. They done have the sixty-four box, yo. They don't got ‘Burne Sienna’ They got red, yellow, blue...” Wonl- play gives color and texture to raps poetry, allowing (MCs to craft subtle shades of meaning and fling instead cof paine-by-nurmbers ines. Wordplay creates possibilty out of Limieation. ‘Wordplay may be dhe most revolutionary way that ap refash- tons the language. Rap's wordplay creates surprising figures of speech and thoughe that bind words and ideas in unexpected ways Few would ever listen to someone talking over a beat, 2 ‘BOOK OF RHYMES and yet millions listen to MCs rapping ever one. Under- standing this difference has Important implications fr rp, both aa poetic form and asa cultural phenomenon. Worl play is the common term to describe the array of techniques (MCs have developed over the years to do things with words “These include everything ffom common figures like simile and metaphor to more obscure figures lke chiasmus and an- tanaclasis. Whether transferring, exchanging, or transform Jing meaning from one word to another, the figures and forms of rap wordplay comprise the most varied element of raps poetics. Raps wordplay comes in docens of varieties each with an explicit function in Tangasge and thought. Together they serve an esential purpose for the rap poet, empowering chem to fashion new connections between familiar words and \deas. “All poetry implies the destruction ofthe relationship between things that seems obvious co us in favor of particular relationships imposed by the poet.” writes André Malraux. (MCs da precisely this by rendering the familiar unfamilis and thas defining aettdes and emotions in ways that more iret speech cannot: Whether they explain or obscure, pat tern or disrupt, the best MCs play with language t create ‘unexpected moments of insight and feeling. Common put it bese when he rhymed, “My imagery talks, metaphors and similes alk” Rap defines itself as something other, something more, than conventional speech Like other art forms it tallors the world to fit its own conception. Asa result, rp relies upon adomment, with figurative language being ip hops Isical Inaute couture. As Kool G Rap once thymed, using an ex- tended metaphor, “Lyrics are fabrics, beat isthe lining / My Worday passion fr shying i hin designing.” Consider the sme ie the most accesible and versatile way that MCs can dress up their wor A simile is direct comparison between two distinctly Uiferene things, usally using lke or as to connect thee. In thee simplest form, sil ofer direc comparisons for the purpose of revealing the unexpected similarity of disparate things. William Shakespeare's sonnet 60 begins with this simile "Like asthe waves make toward the pebbled shore so 4 our minutes hasten to their end” In these two lines he asks us 0 imagine cme as something other than a clock on ‘the wal; chrough simile time instead becomes the continu ‘ou sequence of waves that break aginst the shore. Big Bot boasting that he's “cooler than a polar bea’ renal” tums the simile to yet another purpose, using 2 completely unex pected comparison to define his state of being. Both show the power of figurative language to remake the erdinary into the extraordinary Similes, cough they are often confused with metaphors, are the most common figure of speech in rap. By contrast, a ‘metapor is when one thing is sid to be another without the tse of lite oF cs. Shakespeare composed a famous one when the wrote these lines in As You Like I: “All the worlds stage J And all the men and women merely players” By making Positive assertions of identity (he word i stage, not lke a stage), metaphors ask us to make a ditect connection be- ‘ween two distinct things: Both metaphor and simile work ‘on the same principle: They transfer meaning from one thing ‘oanother The only difference isthe means of tha ransfer— the vehicle, iyou wil Think of the metaphor asthe express train on the subway Ie gets you between to points fst using a ‘94 BOOK OF RHYMES the most direce route. The simile can be thought of asthe bus: Ie eakes is sweet time geting you from one place to an ‘cher, and leaves you fee to lock out the window to see ex- ‘actly how you got where you're going. ‘The difference between simile and metaphor is not merely technical. Afer all there has tobe some reason why similes so outnumber metaphors in rap. My hypothesis is this: Metaphor is a more implicie form, thus leaving itself ‘open to misunderstanding and potentially detracting from its subject—which is usualy the "I" of the MC. When Nat boasts that “I'm lke whole lotta Toot, I'm like new mone},” the simile underscores his greamess. If he'd thymed instead, “Tm a whole lot of loot, I'm new money” ou fist response would likely be, “What does that mean” The last thing an [MC wants todo with wordplay is cause confsion. Smiles shine the spotlight on theie subject more direcly than do ‘metaphors. They announce their arc from the beginning, leaving little room for confusion. On a more pactcal note, smiles are more inimmediately comprehensible to listener, & vieue in rap rapide rc, [Not all smiles, however, are created equal. Rap offers a varity unrivaled in contemporary literature. The two rap simile I quote on the next page demonstrate the range of potential diference. The fist is a classic old-chool example fom Rakim. The second comes from Souls of Mischief Ta- Ji, recorded during aps golden age in the eatly 1990s. OF ‘course, this comparison is no reflection on the relative skill of these two MCs—this isn'ta bartle—bur it will, I hope, demonstrate just how rap simile are made and how they can lifer from one another. Fist, here are a few lines from Rakims classic “I Ain't No Joke” (the simile i in bold, and [ve provided a few extra lines for context): Werhay '/GOT A QUESTION, 1s SERIOUS AS CANCER: Wo can kept trope rap cancor hyper a heart etc, natody eg, ‘aus yeute egressng he rhyme tht fm sing Every simile contains one thing that is being compared to another: The item being compared, in this case Rakim’ “question,” is known as the tenor. The item to which the tenor is compared (her its “cancer is known asthe wehice because i delivers meaning to the tenor—it the "bus" 10 ‘use my previous analogy. Normally, simile are comparisons between the same parts of speech (nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs). In this example, we have wo nours, and the vehicle is loaded with the adjective “serious.” Here, then, is how Rakim’ simile works in our minds: Cancer is a serious allment—it a leading cause of death in the United Stater— 40 Rakim’s question must be serious to, because it bortows its gravity from the disease. Notably, Rakim chooses not to ‘ue the more commonplace—and cliché—"erious asa heart attack’; by wing a new and unfamiliar comparzon, he makes his simile chat much more powerful. ‘Sometimes rap similes compare not what something is like but how something is done, as with Taal’ simile fom ‘Diseshowedo" Inbetes rip tend it ets esi ater {UP THE SCRIPT UME A DYSLERIC ACTOR ‘ure mo tetr ‘The tenor is “I and the vehicle is “dyslexic actor” The vehicle i loaded with a verb—really a verbal phrase—"fip the script.” This is 2 slightly more ambitious simile than bane, BOOK OF RHYMES Rokin’s because i Functions with a double meaning: Fiping ‘he seit sa popular phrase chat can mean “changing up the subject matter” and one need not explain how an actor with slyslexia might jumble up his lines. The meaning communi ‘ated here is as much about the clevemes of the wordplay ie about the force of the simile ise. The simile expres sive function stops when it has communicate its meanings {inthis instance, when it communicates that Tsai flips the script inthe sense that a dyslexic actor would. But the real richness of the wordplay is mostly conveyed in the unex- pected wit of Tan's punning comparison, Conventionally understood, the most effective similes are those that ask us to conceive connections between words that seem far removed from one anather. The simile at once reveals hidden similarities even as it afians obvious difer- 1h elements ar esential for the simile to work. Moxt rap similes fllow the model of Tajai, where not only is one thing “like” another, but the thing to which something is compared also has @ double meaning, This i ‘commonly achieved by combining similes with puns. Pans thrive in dhe ambiguity of meaning chat similes cteae. They play on the diferent senses of the seme word an the simi senses of different ones. Puns often serve a coded forms of ‘communication, speaking to a select group of initiates with a shared set of cultural knowledge and assumptions. At their ‘most obscure, they can acts inside jokes intended for arela- "ive few; these are invisible ro the average reader oe listener Actheir broadest, they are immediatly discernable to neatly everyone, in which case chey demand little of the audience and offer little in returm. But there is a middle ground bee tween the obscure and the obvious in which the pun has the wesc capacity to do someting to language and demand some thing of che audience. In poetey where a premium is put ‘upon verbal econony, any technique that has the capacity of expanding the meaning of a single word is valuable. When artfully rendered, puns do jus that: opening 2 range of aso- scons that the poet/MC can exploit for the purposes of cgi expression, In the literary tradition, puns have often been derided as an inferior species of expression, good fr litle woce than & cheap laugh, And yer the worlds greatest literature employs them fora host of purposes from the comic to the tragic and even to the sacred. The Bible itself is not above the pun. “Matthew 16:18 reads, “Thou ar Peter, and upon this rock I vill build my church.” This isa pun in the Greek source ‘pon “Petes” (Petros) and "rock" (petra), homonyms for sone, To the initiate, puns have a sophisticated range of ‘se, well beyond the limits of humor uns have an important place inthe Western poetic her itage as well Shakespeare wed puns throughout his pays and sonnets, often forthe purpose of blunt sexual humor. The very tele of his great comedy Much Ado About Nothing turns ‘pu om its last word, which was sang im Elizabethan times for vagina, One of Shakespeare's contemporaries, the post John Donne ali explored the expressive capacity of puns. A Hy to Go the Father puns on Denn’ lot name, a well as the last nae of his wife, An More: “When Thou has done, “Thou hast not done, Fr I have more.” Similaty, in A Val- diction: Forbidding Mourning Donne crafts an extended pun that plays upon sex fora second level of meaning. These are ‘meanings above and beyond the functional meanings of the lines a read on the surface 800K OF RHYMES Pans clicic an equal range of responses in ap. When well executed, they announce the MC's Ica viuosity and cog- nitive ingenuity. When combined with simile, puns become 8 powerful expressive tol for the rap poet. Conventional simile, a cscused eat, rely upon the transfer of meaning from one thing to another, IFT say, "I'm cold as ice," the essence of ices cones is tanaferred to me. When rappers ald puns to their smiles, the posible numberof transferable ‘meanings increases exponentially, So instead of saying, “tim cold a ice Lil Wayne says something like this: “And tm 0 col like Keisha’ family.” Read asa conventional simile, the samen is nonsensical. Read a siile-pun hybrid, comes alive, The simile awakens our comprehension of the un, and visa vers. This figute relies upon the fact that Lil ‘Wayne pronounces “col” like “coal,” or rather, lke "Cole; the surname of the R&B singer Keisha Cole For the simile ‘o function, we mus first earch the pu on the family name, then reflect the strength of the comparison (Cole equals Keishas family) back upon Lil Wayne himwelf (his style is jst as cold as Ketha’s family is Cole). This is a poetic fee- sJom rappers didn inherit; they create it for themuelves out cof the need for expressive range and the desire for verbal Panning smiles are now the norm in rap, displaying a ‘etsatity of tone and intention fom the comic to the se fous. When Juels Santana drops this line on “I Am the no cracking a joke, he’ flexing his mic skills: "'m more amazing than Grace is when I say shit / You should say “Amen after my name, kid” Kanye West, however, delivers "this punning simile from “The Good Life” wich a wink and a ck, smile: "The good life, so keep it comin’ with the bots / "BL she feel booze like she bombed at Apollo.” This bit of word play relies upon the pun on “boose/boos” the kind you drink tnd the kind cha lets you know when i ime to leave the stage: The smile only makes sense afer we've made the mene tal adjustment ro the double meaning, and i s complete only after we renwerpret the frst par of the smile in light of the second. Those crowels at Hatlem’s Apollo Theatre are notorious for hooing poor performes of stage (chey even booed a young Luther Vandross), so we know through the sin ie chat Kanye's female companion isin for quite a hangover Most rappers use similes to convey meaning from one thing to another. This i simple enough thing todo. Raps recognized masters of wordplay distinguish themselves by crafting inventive comparisons and surprising turns of phrase. Some are comedians, using smiles to deliver punch lines. Others are more self-consciously dramatic, undercoe ing meaning with similes tht force us to conser two un- likey subjects in the same terms. In other word, while all slmiles follow the same basic structure, the meanings they create can range from the witty tothe whimsical, che sorow- fal tothe subline (One MC wo has earned a reputation for his highly crafted similes and metaphors is Immortal Technique. His thymes are densely layered with figurative language, paricu- larly punning similes. They serve both 2s weapons and as wake-up calls to jars listeners to attention. One ofthe best ‘examples of hi wordplay in ation isthe opening eight bare of “Industrial Revolution.” His Iyrcs offer a series of exam pls that display a muhipliciy of effective smiles in action, 100 BOOK OF RHYMES The binging ee wes ue buts abo to be dre, ese you fps th ne nan bate an My meaphors are ory ie nrpes bt harer to cath, Ute an escape ture psa, start Fe serateh Ad no these parestas want ace of my ASCAP, tying wo centro especie es ai acer butares a qt or eer sng eord ene (Get your uk tac out my pee, ngs. he Racin x ‘These lines include five smiles, each structured i ferent way fom the next: The fis,“ eave yu full of clips like the moon blockin' the sun,” relies on oral expression— when he rps the line “fll of clipe” i also sounds Like "fall

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