Poetry Break: "Big Bad Wolf Rap"
Here's one for the fans of rap music, especially those connoisseurs of hip-hop, Dennis Mangan and the Lost Nomad:
Big Bad Wuff RapSeriously, what do you guys have against rap music? The subject matter of some of it, or the genre itself?
I'm rough, tough,
full of hard gruff--
yuh best not bluff
if yuh test my stuff!
I'm rough, tough,
don' take no guff--
yuh gon' get 'nuff
if I make big huff!
I'm rough, tough,
no mean cream puff--
yuh haft' go snuff
from my hard sharp cuff!
I'm rough, tough,
the big bad wuff--
yuh call's song "fluff,"
well, off it I slough!
Horace Jeffery 'Bad Wolf' Hodges
Copyright 1995
In my opinion, rap's enormous popularity has contributed to the notable rise of interest in poetry among younger people. At the open mike poetry performances that I used to attend and occasionally participate in at Café Babar in San Francisco's Mission District back in the eighties, rap techniques supplied new energy.
But maybe you guys wouldn't have liked it.
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 4:28 AM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Hey, pretty good, Jeffery. In my opinion, rap has contributed to the notable rise of interest in car theft among younger people.
Car theft! You mean poetry in motion?
Talk about taking the 'vehicle' of the metaphor too literally. Those folks need to re-read their I. A. Richards.
But at least they're trying . . . very, very trying.
Rap is proof of the evolution of music - it is the modern genre for the new youth to develop a poetic voice. It's a shame to isolate yourself from it. Pitty dennis mangan and friends for lost youth and narrow mindedness.
If they have to criticise, why not criticise Wagner - composer inspiring the likes of Hitler perhaps. Gee I thought I was a pacifist and I like Rap, Punk and Wagner.....
Steph, de gustibus non est disputandum: "There is no arguing tastes."
I was having a bit of fun at the expense of Mangan and the Lost Nomad.
The three of us all have our lost youth to lament. Perhaps they do it by grousing about rap. I grouse about other things, I suppose.
Thanks for visiting.
Oh I'm no fleeting visitor - I know you grumble frequently and eloquently and I enjoy it which is why I visit.....and I did recognise your jest and it's all fun - but I just couldn't resist defending the defendable ... and anyway I don't like rap so I was lying....(I do like the Sex Pistols and Wagner though)
Well, you asked seriously what I have against rap. Both subject matter, and the genre. I have heard occasional "clean" rap that I thought amusing, maybe even fun, and likewise I've heard the occasional "real" rap piece which I've liked in spite of itself. But for the most part the lyrics are either asinine, vulgar, or both, and the music rarely rises above the neolithic level. To me, the genre represents a primitive, low class, in-your-face attitude which the world could do without.
Steph, it's good to hear that in you, I have a regular visitor lurking behind the scenes.
Despite my blog having its own site meter, I have no idea how many people actually read these musings. Most visits clock up 0:00 time.
I suppose that these visitors could be really fast readers.
On musical tastes . . .
I rarely listen to rap but confess to enjoying what I've heard (and have, thankfully, missed the vulgar raps).
I used to listen to a lot of country music, and the stuff still plays in my head. So do childhood hymns from the old Broadman Baptist Hymnal.
I listen more these days to classical, jazz, and gospel or whatever Korean stuff that my wife has on the radio.
Hi Gypsy Jeffery: I'm familiar with your name from one or two of the e-lists and I connect to you from Mark's blog. Generally I go off the internet when I arrive at a blog (so your meter may not notice me) as I pay my server per minute - and I check blogs daily.
I'm eclectic in my music tastes. I grew up learning music and studied music as an undergraduate so I'm interested in all aspects of all music. Right now I'm listening to the birds outside - I'm a PhD student and I live in Napier, New Zealand.
Dennis, you wrote about rap that:
"the music rarely rises above the neolithic level."
Well, that's because poetry is neolithic. Where do you think epic poetry originates?
Okay, maybe epic is iron age, but I'll bet there were neolithic poets telling their stories to a poetic beat.
The original beat poets, rapping away, in competition with all those old, paleolithic rock musicians . . .
Hey, Steph, I rather like being called "Gypsy Jeffery" -- though I'm no part Gypsy (so far as I know). I am part Cherokee, but one ethnicity doesn't translate into another, of course.
Thanks for the details, which only make you more mysteriously present in your absence.
Well thanks Gypsy Jeffery, that was an enlightening tangent - I googled 'Cherokee' - and now I know you really are on a wagon hitched to a star!
nice rhyme
i am experimenting along the intersection of rap and poetry. be obliged if you take a look and post a comment if you feel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwie9X-ycsM
Thanks. That was an interesting intersection of poetry, rap, jazz, and imagery.
By the way, I've made it easy to link to websites -- just look at "Leave your comment."
Jeffery Hodges
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