Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Not many "real" poets can hold up to Walt Whitman, so why would you do that of rappers? You're missing the point here. Rap is not the poetry Whitman was concerned with. What would you say if I told you that Homer pwns Whitman? What is the point of that?
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I'd have to agree. My point, though, is that most rap is about the level of poetry one would expect from an emo guy with black fingernails who plays his guitar outside the band room back in high school, if that. The youtube video in the OP illustrates that point pretty damn well. My point is that rap would do well with people who were concerned with art, not marketing. It's the same issue I have with pop, only pop is actually music.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
If anything, rappers are doing what was pioneered by William Wordsworth: "Speaking in the language of common man." People in inner-city Detroit don't speak like Whitman did; why should they rap like him? Besides, Whitman was mainly free verse, rap needs a strong 4X4 beat, often with rhymes.
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Life imitates art more than not in this case though, not the other way around. No one really said 'hrr' instead of 'here' before Nelly. That aside, I doubt that Whitman spoke the way he wrote. If he did, it'd be really crazy to talk to him.
Me: Hey, Walt. How was your weekend?
Walt Whitman: YOU who celebrate bygones!
Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races—the life that has exhibited itself...
Me: What?